DON JAVIER'S HANDS 08

Don Javier Michel.

He is seventy five years old, and lives in a small dusty town called San Miguel, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Jalisco, Mexico. He owns a small dairy farm just outside the town, and an airy old house near the center of it. There he has lived and worked all his life.

At 4:30 AM, everyday, including Sundays he goes to his cows and begins the process of milking them. From the milk he now sells a small portion of cheese. Around 6:00 AM, after the cows have been milked and all the milk collected he gets home and prepares to start his day as a “natural healer”, his particular technique is known in these parts as “sobar” (massage) and he is called a “sobador” (massager) and “componedor de huesos” (bone fixer). He has been doing this for fifty years and he does not charge a fee for his services. All kinds of people from miles around show up at his door, but it is mostly the poor who travel from far to see Don Javier, who often is their last resort and hope.

He never trained for this job as “sobador” and by his own account seems to have learned his healing techniques as if by osmosis from his father, who “got it” form his grandfather.
As he tells it, his father would forbid him to even watch as he worked on patients, and some how Don Javier found himself able to do this job anyway. It came “naturally” to him. Dozens of people come to his house every week, sometimes waiting for hours for Don Javier to get to them. The majority leave feeling relieve and even healed from what ever ailment brought them to his door after an usually painful “massage” administered by the charming and ever patient Don Javier. He is not without a strong temperament underneath his humble demeanor and has been known to eject a character or two for what he has considered lack of respect towards him. He is by nature communicative and a teller of stories, which comes in handy as he works on many of his patient’s painful conditions. He never seems to tire, even after working none stop on a patient, sometimes for nearly two hours and does this repeatedly all day long. He is a physically imposing man, with strong work worn hands. His hands are in fact a testament to his work.
Stories abound about his healing feats. He will tell you that his most rewarding moment came after a young girl, unable to walk for five years, walked out of his house one day. His first patient was a young girl who fell from a horse and broke both forearm. She was from a poor family, who could not afford a doctor at all and was brought to his house after fourteen hours of looking for help. Her bones sticking out of her skin and in serious pain, no other local healer wanted to work on her, but Don Javier offered to help her. His compassionate side taking over Don Javier felt he could fix her and went to work on her, first cleaning and then putting her bones back into position. Finishing his job with a home plaster cast for each arm. The girl survived and regained use of both arms.

“Sobadores” like Don Javier are not uncommon in rural Mexico, how ever Don Javier stands out among many and his reputation spreads through out the country.
With this documentary series, “Healing Unplugged” we bare witness to the power of being one with nature.