The National tribune., 1899-08-24
MARIA TERESA UREA.
The Remarkable Mexican Girl Who Is Now with the
Ya9ui Indians.
ChicHlO Record.

Chicago Record
The young Mexican girl. Maria Teresa
Urea, who is devoutly believed by the
Mexican Catholics to be endowed with
Yaqui Indians in Sonora, Mexico. and.
although they are the fiercest tribe in that
Republic, and irreconcilable in their hos
tility to the whites, they revere her as
priestess, and obey her as if she were their
queen. There is something strange about
Santa Teresa" as they call her. She is n
modest, unasSuming Mexican girl, the
daughter OF a small farmer in Sonora. with
very little education; but at an early age
she developed remarkable hypnotic or
meSmeric powers, which caused the ig-
norant 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 n
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 1895 | saw her at Ell Paso, plain
looking girl Of q or % years, in 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 n
gentleman named Aguirre, the editor of
the Mexican paper Ell Pdso, having been
compelled to leave Mexico by the authori-
ties, who accused her of trying to incite
revolution. A band Of fanatics somehow
got notion that she was to be the mother
of MonteZuma, the long-looked-for Mexi-
can Messiah, who is to iberate the poems
from servitude, and restore the splendor
of the Empire that CorteZ plundered and
overthrow. Restless and dissatisfied poll
ticians 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.. AguiTe may have given the move
rent some encouragement, for he is an
exile, and is wanted" by the Mexican
police. But ! was assured that Teresa
was not involved in any way. Trust
worthy people told me that she was Just al
ordinary sort of girl, without any special
force OF character or intellect, but possessed
of mysterious power like that of the mag
netic girl who came out of Georgia a few
years ago. ard 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 lie
applied, and she has cured hundreds Of
sick and lame and blind. The EeXicans
harg her portrait over their little shrines
beside that of the Virgin Mary, but when
we talked with her she laughed at the sug-
gestion of her divinity, and indignantly
denied that she was to be the mother of the
redeemer of the Aztec race. She is nov
living among the Yaqui Indians in ard
obscure mountain village in Sonora, which:
is constantly visited by pilgrims ard sick
people in search of her healing power.