The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-08-16
MARIA TERESA UREA.


Remarkable Mexican Girl Who is
Now With tho Yauqui Indians.
Chicago Record: The young Mexi-
can girl. Maria Teresa Urea, who is
devoutly believed by the Mexican CATH
ollcs to be endowed with divine power.
is now somewhere among the Yaqui In
dams In Sonora, Mexico, and, although
they are the hercest tribe In that repub-
lie, and Irreconcilable In their hostility
to the whites, they revere her as a
pTleBtess, and obey her as II she were
their queen. There Is something
strange about Santa Teresa" as they
call her. She is a modest, unassuming
Mexican girl, the daughter Of a small
farmer In Sonora, with very little edu-
cation, but at an early age she develop
ed remarkable hypnotic or mesmeric
powers which caused the ignorant peas
ants to look upon her MS more than hu-
man. A touch Of her hand is believed
to be cure for every mortal evil. and
one OF her prayers Of lntercesalon
passport to Paradise. She does not
claim divine power, but confesses that
she does not understand the source OF
her influence. Her family were Catho-
lies, 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. plain
looking girl OF twenty-one or twenty
two years, in q 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 really was. She
was then living under the care OF
gentleman named Aguirre, the editor OF
the Mexican paper at FL Paso, having
been compelled to leave Mexico by the
authorities, who accused her OF trying
to inclte a revolution. A band Of IA
natics somehow got q notion that she
was to be the mother Of MonteZuma, the
long looked for Mexican Messiah, who
is to iberate the poems from servitude,
and restore the splendor OF the empire
that CorteZ plundered and overthrow.
Restless and dissatisfied politicians
took advantage OF the mania. and. in
the name CT Saint Teresa, organized
revolution in Sonora, and attacked the
custom-house and barracks at No
gales.
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 intellect, but possessed Of myster-
ious power like that Of the magnetic
girl who came out Of Georgia a few
years ago. and seemed to have the
strength OF locomotive In her slender
fingers. Santa Teresa has some such
physical popularity. which gives her
mesmeric influence over people to whom
It may be applied, and she has cured
hundreds OF sick and lame and hind.
The Mexicans hang her portrait over
their little shrines 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
redeemer Of the Aztec race. She is now
living among the YaQui Indians In an
obscure mountain village in Sonora,
which is constantly visited by pilgrims
and sick people in search Of her heal
ing power.