About Us
OUR STORY
The California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism officially opened its doors in January of 1998 in the San Francisco East Bay city of Richmond, California, to teach and preserve the healing traditions of the Hispanic curanderos and curanderas (folk healers) of California.
The School:
The school teaches herbalism, and emphasizes Curanderismo, or California Native-Hispanic healing techniques and philosophy. California Curanderismo is a unique and powerful therapeutic tradition due to the cross-cultural influences of European and Asian medicines, as well as the utilization of native flora. Intuitive diagnosing skills, psychoactive plants, ritual, and magic are all examples of these techniques.
Charles Garcia and Lori Pino also perform ritual healings based on the folklore rites of Curanderismo for those unfortunates who feel their illness is of a spiritual nature. They also investigate some paranormal activities, and may attempt a “limpia” (cleansing) of a person or place if absolutely necessary. We do not video tape our rituals or limpias for the privacy of our clients and their family. We do not use psychics or mediums in our cases again for reasons of privacy. We do use scientific equipment to help us determine if any paranormal activity is present.
For over a decade life coach and author Lori Pino has been an integral part of the school, having studied with founder and director of the school Charles Garcia and assisted him on many herbal adventures and conferences.
Neither Charles or Lori charge for their services, maintaining a tradition that goes back centuries. Any monetary gains from classes are used to treat the homeless and poor. It also provides money for herbs they cannot grow or harvest in the wild.
820
PEOPLE TRAINED
23
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
SECTION OVERLINE
My services
Seasonal Classes
coming soon
Jam, Jelly, and Canning
coming soon
Herb Walks
coming soon