Partera - Linda Allen

It is her hands that they remember

Gentle hands upon a belly

Hands that reached to feel a heart beat

In the soft head of a baby

She is partera, she is midwife

Like her grandmothers before her

Her hands are now the living tools

Of an ancient line of healers

And when the time comes, she is ready

And the door between the worlds swings wide

She is there to give a welcome

Jesusita Aragon

When a woman has no husband, The midwife holds her in her heart

For she was once alone and frightened, Shamed, and forced to live a part

So she chopped and carried timbers, With the baby in her womb

And she built herself a fine house, Life and hope filled every room CHO

It is her hands that they remember, Ancient hands upon a belly

And her wrinkled face above them, As she hands to them their baby

She has stood upon this threshold, Twelve thousand times and maybe more

Her eyes reflect the light she sees, Gazing through that open door OHO

Jesusita Aragon is 91 years old, and carries on a 400 year old lineage of

healers in northern New Mexico.

She’s been a mid-wife for 77 years — since she

was 14. She’s delivered more than 12,000 babies.