Column/Give birth literature is similar to the passion of the serial killer
The Mexican writer Patricia Castellanos has a degree in Hispanic letters. She is the winner of the Diana Morán Prize in Narrative. She was a contributor to the “Sábado” supplement of the newspaper UnomásUno directed by Huberto Bátis, and of the newspaper La Jornada in Mexico. She is editor of several herbal magazines such as Naturismo, Culturatura and Herbolaria Universal. She has performed in various anthologies of current literature, such as Látex Azul Cielo (Moho, Second Edition, 2022); Currently, she is dedicated to specialized publications in natural medicine and teaches physiology and pathophysiology classes. She believes that psychiatry is a crime against humanity: “they should be burned with green firewood as they dared to burn wise women centuries ago.”
In an interview, we discussed about Hispanic Literature, Huberto Bátis, Herbalism, Power Plants, Entheogens, Ayahuasca; of his collaboration in the anthology Látex Azul Cielo (Moho, 2022), and obviously, of the writer Guillermo Fadanelli.
Why did you initially decide on a degree in Hispanic Letters?
I liked writing since I was little, and when I had to choose a university degree I thought it would be the most appropriate, although it gave me tools that have been useful, in return my spontaneity to write was diminishing.
Do you believe, like Roland Barthes, that language and invention are absolute brotherly enemies, and that Literature is born from that struggle?
Yes, without a doubt, giving birth to literature is similar to the passion of the serial killer, those who come across you can see a structured person and inside, a horde of demons jumps you that break and tear until they have a voice.
It seems to me that authentic literature shows us harshly and without the slightest euphemism, the horrible fate that weighs on the human being. What is Literature for Patricia Castellanos?
A hell with its nine circles. In effect, authentic literature has the terrestrial stench. In my case, by consuming it, I allow myself to invite myself to the mental twisting of whoever writes it, to distract myself from the gray lives of my neighbors and my own; and when doing it, it gives me the pleasure of being who I wouldn’t dare, it’s like a puddle of mud that I like to get into sometimes and stomp and stomp.
What are your most recent readings?
The most recent always have to do with studies on phytopharmaceuticals. I recently reread Your Name Written in the Water (1995) by Irene González Frei, and its harshness never ceases to amaze me. He hardly bought new books because he expected more from Hurricane Season (2017), by Fernanda Melchor.
What did the Diana Morán Prize in Narrative represent for you?
It was like a sweet that belongs to me to get a girlfriend who had been pretending for months and to whom I wrote that story that won.
What was for you the greatest legacy of Huberto Bátis, who was Editor-in-Chief of the Sábado del Unomásuno supplement, where you published various chronicles and short stories?
His discipline and the enjoyment he had for his work, I have rarely seen a guy so dedicated to his work, but with the joy always ready to chat, to receive, to listen to whoever came to visit him. Sometimes he was paternal, almost always ironic and mean. Sometimes he would give you advice, he had a good didactic streak with the newbies who went to see him to give us a chance to publish. If he saw that you were good at writing, he not only published you but also demanded that you bring him more material.
From that time, what memories do you have of Fernando Nachón?
I suddenly read his collaborations, but I had no contact with him, he had a bad reputation, I would have liked to meet him.
How has your experience been as an editor for magazines such as Naturismo and Herbolaria Universal?
Cute, but sometimes overwhelming. Putting diseases, botanical data sheets in simple language so that readers, who are not specialized people, assimilate and understand the articles without confusing them with phytochemical or medical terms has required patience and years of daily work, but I like it, it is still a satisfaction to have and the printed magazines and smell their still fresh inks.
There are many lessons that can be drawn from the study of plants. If the true spirit of wisdom is sought, the physician and botanist John Balfour (1808-1884) would say, what has he learned from master plants or power plants?
Which are the energetic connection to other dimensions. Some even bring to mind uterine life. They decalcify your pineal gland, making you touch your own God, hence their name entheogens. And that allows you to see and enjoy sensations that are not appreciated in an ordinary way. Colors become brighter, nature moves you. With the naked eye, under the effects of fungi, for example, you can see the tropism of the plants, they dance rhythmically, they do know about life, and you enjoy in a magnified way the song of the birds, the sound of the river or the sea, drinking a simple glass of water tastes like heaven… They are loving teachers who reconnect you with the most beautiful things on this planet, but they require respect from you when drinking them, otherwise the trip can become a Bad experience.
Have you dieted in the Amazon?
Yes, about twenty-five years ago, but I still hadn’t sealed my fate with the plants. I want to return to learn your ethnomedicine. I have been focused on doing research in the mountains, valleys and ranches of Mexico, to learn about the traditional uses of herbal medicine.
How was the creation of the concept and structure of the newspaper Cultunatura?
One day my boss had the nerve to tell me: since you wrote in Unomásuno and La Jornada, why don’t you throw yourself a newspaper that talks about medicinal plants and the advances in natural medicine, and then it was too late, Miguel Martínez and I fancied the design and structure of this tabloid-sized publication, completely in black and white, with novel, attractive, and didactic information for lovers of natural medicine, and which at the end has a voluptuous girl—paying homage to the famous page 3 that had the Ovations- with some healthy living advice.
This publication has been running for 17 uninterrupted years and is the most sought after, well above magazines.
Would you recommend entheogens to suppress issues such as depression, anxiety, burnout, internal or external blockages and mental illnesses, to progressively eliminate psychiatric treatment, and its drugs that are so harmful to health?
Completely. There are multiple studies that support its effectiveness. In fact, in my free time, I give workshops on the manufacture of herbal products and master plants in a studio in the Obrera neighborhood, and we have developed a series of capsules using coconut oil, as a vehicle, with some entheogens such as psilocybin , mescaline and cannabis with overwhelming results in the treatment of anxiety crises, psychosis, insomnia, chronic depression, among others. We have also treated children with severe autism and the results have been excellent.
Isn’t psychiatry a crime against humanity?
shouldn burn them with green wood as centuries ago they dared to burn the wise women. Psychiatric treatments are a method that eventually turns the patient into a kind of zombie. It has been shown that their medicine is highly addictive, disruptive and harmful. In fact, some of the side effects are increased depression and a tendency to to suicide, for me psychiatric drugs are blatantly enslaving and alter the already violated mind of many of those who consume them: I had friends who under the influence of Rohypnol became kleptomaniacs, to say the least,
Tell me about The Voice of the Angel of Your Health, a course taught at the Training and Training Center for Herbalist Advisors.
La Voz del Ángel de tu Salud is a school at a technical level that was born, near the Viaducto metro, to train those who were interested in learning to cure or self-cure in the application of basic and advanced herbal medicine. At first the idea was to have recognition from the Ministry of Labor, but we went further and putting together the didactic package, we managed to get the Ministry of Public Education to give official validity to the graduates, registering as the first herbal school at a technical level. officially recognized in CDMX.
Within the book Mis amigas las plantas (Badiano, 2021) by Rodrigo Mondragón that you helped to structure, which do you consider to be the most important?
My plant friends are a series of eleven books that include a part dedicated to Rodrigo Mondragón’s reflections on herbal medicine and health-related issues, and the other part dedicated to the review, application, and dosage of more than 1,500 medicinal plants that they are found in the markets of the Mexican Republic; I consider that each one has its value, but I would put together a herbal medicine cabinet with mother tinctures of Brazilwood that eliminates the most bitchy cough in a couple of days, San Nicolás that is used for diarrhea and fever, Cedrón to calm altered states and sleep as if I would never have sinned, Hoja santa and zapote blanco to lower blood pressure, Chancarro to lower glucose, Pastor’s bag for hemorrhages, Chuchupaztle to prevent embolisms, “Chingona” or rompepiedras that destroys gallstones and kidney stones and Muicle that nourishes and purifies blood, as well as being a great healing agent.
“Ayahuasca showed me that child-mind and decided to raise it, protect it, feed it, teach it, understand it and love it. Understanding my mind as if it were really the mind of a child helped me a lot to understand myself and, above all, to understand others”, said the Peruvian musician, writer, documentalist and conservationist Alonso del Río. How to interpret the visions of Ayahuasca?
Each experience is unique from your biographical and transpersonal history. Ayahuasca deposits medicine in our energy fields to help us so that emotions can flow freely, harmonizing us, and that feelings of pain and sadness can be expressed without being retained inside, because life is not to survive it but to live it fully , behold the teaching of the master plants.
Tell me about your story in the anthology Látex Azul Cielo (Moho, Second Edition, 2022).
I wrote the story remembering what I saw of a man who produced and later went to sell his own ice creams to the high school I attended. I remember that he was a very lustful and lonely guy, he always saw the girls with his baleful gaze. Sometimes I would take advantage of a few minutes after leaving school to buy him something and talk with him, he would tell me things about his life, and with those fragments and some anecdotes, “The Snowman” was born.
How is your relationship with Guillermo Fadanelli, what does his friendship, narrative and critical thinking represent for you in a meaningless world?
It has been a very fragmented story, it was Juan José Gurrola who once gave me a copy of Moho; I liked it a lot, I felt that he had finally found a choir of voices similar to mine; that she was not the only one damaged in this environment. At that time we both collaborated on “Sábado”, he under the pseudonym Peggy López.
One day we met, if I remember correctly, in the Gandhi cafeteria and I brought him a story. “Tres cuartos de perfil” that he published in the next issue of Moho, followed other collaborations and we would coincide sporadically at some mutual friends’ parties and although we have never been very close, I admire and love him, I have read almost all his production, it is a disciplined guy and I like that he has managed to keep his voice. He works and continues to break stone. I suppose that behind and next to his achievements as a writer, is the loving support of Yolanda Martínez.
Would you give the Nobel to Willy?
No, as a good jury, he will have a stake crossed in the year and a series of interests where Willy’s narrative would not be part of any shortlist for literature.