The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-08-13
MARIA TERESA UREA.
The Remarkable Mexican Girl Who Is
Now with the YaQui Indians.

From ns Chicago Record.
The young Mexican girl. Maria Teresa
Urea, who Is devoutly believed by the
Mexican Catholics to be endowed with divine
power, is now somewhere among the Yaqui
Indians in Sonora. Mexico. and. although
they are the fiercest tribe in that republic.
and irreconcilahle in their hostility to the
whites. they revere her as a priestess, and
obey her as II she were their queen. There
is something strange about Santa Teresa"
as they call her. She is a modest. unassum
ing Mexican girl. the daughter of small
farmer In Sonora, with very little education,
but at an early age she developed remarka-
BILE hypnotic or mesmerio powers. which
caused the ignorant peasants to look upon her
as more than human. A touch OF her hand
is believed to be cure for every mortal
evil. and one Of her prayers Of intercession
a passport to Paradise. She does not claim
divine power but confesses that she does not
understand the source OF her influence. Her
family were Catholics. but she has never
been strict in her observance of her religious
duties. At the same time she recognizes
that there Is something within her that gives
her the unusual influence that she enjoys.
In 1896 saw her at Ell Paso. a plain look
Ing girl OF twenty-one or twenty-five years,
In a speckled calico dress and coarse shoes,
with a black shawl thrown over her head
Her hair fell In two braids to her waist
and she looked much younger than she real
ly was. She was then living under the care
OF a gentleman named Aguirre, the editor OF
the Mexican paper Ell Pdso, having been COM
PEELED to leave Mexico by the authorities
who accused her OF trying to incite a revo-
luton A band Of fanatics somehow got
notion that she was to be the mother of
Montezuma. the long-looked-for Mexican
Messiah who is to liberate the poems from
servitude, and restore the splendor OF the
empire that Cortez plundered and over
threw. Restless and dissatisfied politicians
took advantage OF the mania, and in the
name Of Saint Teresa, organized a revolution
In Sonora, and attacked the custom house
and barracks at Nogales.
Mr.. Aguirre may have given the movement
some encouragement, for he Is an exile
and is wanted" by the Mexican police. But
l was assured that Teresa was not involved
in any way. Trustworthy people told me
that she was Just an ordinary sort of girl,
without any special force OF character or in
tellect. but possessed OF mysterious power
like that OF the magnetic girl who came out
OF Georgia a few years ago, and seemed to
have the strength OF a locomotive in her
slender fingers Santa Teresa has some such
physical popularity, which gives her a mes
meric influence over people to whom 1t may
be applied. and she has cured hundreds of
sick and lame and blind The Mexirans hang
her portrait over their little shrnes beside
that Of the Virgin Mary, but when we talked
with her she laughed at the suggestion of
her divinity, and Indignantly denied that she
was to be the mother OF the rcdcemer OF the
Aztec race. She is now living among the
Yaqui Indians in an obscure mountain vii
lage In Sonora. which is constantly visited
by pilgrims and sick people In search of her
healing power.