Sinahal, Mayan Midwife
(Sinahal, señora de los partos)
Glenny Torres | Documentary
2023 | 77 minutes | Mexico
A portrait of Mayan midwives practicing ancestral, herbal birth care, enshrouded in community trust and resistance to modern medical norms.
Synopsis
Sinahal, Mayan Midwife, directed by Glenny Torres, offers an intimate portrait of Doña Crispina and Doña Rafaela, experienced Mayan midwives whose herbalist knowledge and tactile approaches to prenatal care—likened to “ultrasounds with their hands”—highlight ancestral medical practices deeply embedded in community life.
Operating predominantly in Yucatán towns such as Mérida, Chumbec, Hocabá, Celestún, and Progreso, they serve both local residents and foreigners seeking natural childbirth.
Through observational footage and in-depth interviews, the film examines the cultural significance of Maya midwifery, Indigenous epistemologies, and the intergenerational transmission of healing arts—and how these coexist and resist within a modern medical system. This work is compelling to scholars of ethnomedicine, Indigenous studies, gender, and cultural resilience in Latin American ethnographic cinema.
Reviews
“The work rescues the vision of humanized childbirth, that the woman can decide how to give birth, that she can say 'I want to have it here in my house, with my husband or with my mother holding my hand or with my son' because I have seen births where the older son helps to take out his brother. What we want is for the public to feel the intimacy and purity of this traditional Mayan midwifery, in addition to the fact that ancestral medicine speaks of a great respect for nature” – A Sánchez, La Jornada Maya
Citation
Coming soon.
Cataloging
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Pragda subjects
Anthropology
Culture + Identity
Education
Gender + Sexuality Studies
Health + Aging
Indigenous Peoples
Latin American Studies
North America
Religion + Spirituality
Women
Keywords
Clips
DIRECTOR: Glenny Torres
NATIONALITY: Mexico
YEAR: 2023
GENRE: Documentary
LANGUAGE: Spanish; Maya; Indigenous languages; Other languages
COLOR / B&W: Color
GRADE LEVEL: High School, College, Adult
SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE
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