Traditional Chinese Medicine in Today’s Cuban Health Care
By John Voigt
In Cuba, the legends abound about outstanding Chinese doctors of the nineteenth century who helped create a foundation for the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in twenty-first century Cuba. (See “Not Even the Chinese Doctor Can Save Him” in the May issue.) Nevertheless, TCM’s acceptance and use by the Cuban medical establishment did not happen overnight. Historically and during the beginnings of the Revolution, TCM along with most other Alternative Medicine was rejected by the Cuban government and by a majority of its western trained doctors. As in the past century, the Establishment considered such healing modalities “antiquated occult quackery.” Such things were an anathema to Marxist Communist beliefs.
Photo by Alexander Kunze on Unsplash
The Political and Economic Situation.
With the US Embargo beginning in 1960, and the withdrawal of USSR support in 1991, along with the internal problems of their socialist-communist economy, Cuba was and remains economically devastated. There were and still are massive shortages in pharmaceutical drugs and medical supplies for the doctors, clinics, and hospitals that service the Cuban people. (Things are much different for tourists. See Modern Health Care for Tourists below.) Today in 2018 hospitals and clinics for the common people of Cuba all too often have little or no drugs, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, bed sheets or pillowcases—not even aspirin! Often there are no hypodermic needles, or used ones are washed in bleach and reused. Relatives living in Florida smuggle in prescription drugs.
Amazingly even with these horrid conditions, the World Health Organization’s latest report in 2016 has Cuba with an average healthcare expenditure of $2,475 per person; Cubans have approximately the same life expectancy (males 77/females 81) as Americans (males 76/females 81) who average a healthcare expenditure of $9,403 per person. Source: http://www.who.int/countries/cub/en/ and http://www.who.int/countries/usa/en/
Cubans even have a lower rate of infant mortality than that of the USA. Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
These figures — $2,475 and $9,403 are not typos — they represent among other things Cuba’s extensive use of alternative medicines and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); as well as governmental enforced implementations of beliefs and lifestyles somewhat similar to Chinese and Asian ways of life, such as the paradigm that preventing an illness is easier than curing one, or the importance of daily socially required group gymnastics such as taijiquan or qigong. Or of small teams of doctors and nurses going throughout the entire country rigorously enforcing mandated medical examinations, or actively having people reduce or end smoking. Both Cubans and traditional Chinese health practitioners believe health is not just the absence of illness, instead, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. For both Cuban leaders and Confucius, the health of the human body and mind is an integral necessity for the very important health of the society. In Cuba, revolutionary health practices are a part of a continuing revolución. For Cuban lawmakers, if for no other reason, healthy people are important because they make healthy workers, soldiers, and government officials. The political reality is clear: no health means no revolution. Admittedly Cuba is a totalitarian government, something that Americans understandably will not accept, but at least in a theoretical — yet highly practical sense — there is much for us in America to learn from Cuba.
Returning to past historical realities, since the 1960s until the present the enormous difficulties presented by the American Embargo, and especially the subsequent lack of medicines and supplies, the Cuban medical establishment was forced to search for new approaches. Health officials began to incorporate techniques outside the scope of what doctors had previously been taught in the universities. After all, for a century Chinese doctors in Cuba had shown that TCM affected cures for certain illnesses that western medicine had not. Some skeptical doctors even started planting medicinal herbs in their backyards; at least they would have something to give to their sick patients.
Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash
TCM Becomes Official.
Beginning in the late 1980s medical students in Cuban universities began to be trained in alternative techniques. An executive report, “The Analysis of The Health Sector in Cuba” issued in 1996 by the Ministry of Public Health (Ministerio de Salud Pública) outlined this new approach:
The strategic objective of the National Health System is to give priority to the development of natural and traditional medicine. The “Program of Development” initiated in 1991, includes the search for active medicinal principals of plants, their clinical testing, and the subsequent generalization of the results so that they can be progressively incorporated into the techniques and procedures of the East Asian medical tradition.
By 2009 the Ministry moved to a full acceptance and legally enforced implementation of these radical methodologies as befitting a revolutionary culture. These changes were made official in August 20, 2009, with the publication of Resolución Ministerial No 261/2009. Below are key excerpts from this document along with several annotations made by the author. TCM is only a part of the Resolution no. 261, nevertheless it is hoped the reader will find the document interesting. With it, Cuba is probably pursuing Alternative Medicine more than any other country in the world. The original text in Spanish may be found at “Resolución Ministerial No 261/2009” at http://legislacion.sld.cu/index.php?P=FullRecord&ID=210
Photo by MINISTERIAL RESOLUTION NO. 261/2009 Republic of Cuba
RESOLVE - FIRST: To approve for medical care, teaching, and scientific research in health services throughout the country national, [with] the following types of Natural Traditional Medicine.
1- Phytotherapy. [Medical treatment based on the use of plants and plant substances.]
2- Apiterapia. [Therapeutic use of bee venom, and other bee products such as honey, pollen, and royal jelly.]
3- Traditional Asian Medicine:
- a) Acupuncture. b) Catgut sutures sewn into acupoints.
- c) Stimulation of acupuncture points: [by use of]
- Drugs
- Light
- Temperature
- Mechanical [devices].
- Ultrasonic [devices].
- Electricity
- Magnetism
- Microsystems of the Asian Traditional Medicine [such as ear acupuncture].
4- Ozone therapy.
5- Homeopathy.
6- Flower Therapy:
- a) Bach Flower Remedies, [solutions of brandy and weak dilutions of flower material in water.]
7- Hydrotherapy: mineral springs, mineral baths, Peloids [clay or mud baths], thermal baths.
- Helium Therapy – (Heliotalasoterapia). [Heliox is a breathing gas composed of a mixture of helium (He) and oxygen (O2). It is a medical treatment for patients who have difficulty breathing, For example, croup, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.]
- Traditional Therapeutic Exercises: [The Pan American Health Organization spelled out these exercises as: Taijiquan (usually Yang Style). Lian Gong Shi Ba Fa (created by Dr. Zhuang Yuan Ming; see Lian Gong Shi Ba Fa 18 Terapias Anterior on YouTube). Wushu (commonly called “Kung Fu.”) Qi Gong, and Hatha Yoga.] “Each movement is to be chosen with a modifiable therapeutic purpose according to the traditional medical diagnosis of the subject or patient.”] Ejercicios Terapéuticos Tradicionales.
- Naturist Nutritional counseling. [“In addition to meeting established nutritional requirements. Can include a vegetarian or macrobiotic diet, and traditional practices as used in Traditional Asian diagnosis. You should be aware of existing products in Cuba.”] Ministerio de Salud Pública, 2011. http://files.sld.cu/mednat/files/2014/08/prog-nac-mtn-2012.pdf ].
THIRD: The Deputy Minister attending Medical Assistance is authorized to issue the instructions considered necessary for the implementation and enforcement of this resolution.
Starting in 2016 all medical graduates in Cuba, including nurses and dentists, are required to learn Medicina Tradicional y Natural (MTN) which includes various Cuban versions of TCM. Almost all local clinics and hospitals of Cuba now offer Traditional Chinese Medicine, where acupuncture, reflexology, massage, heat treatments and liniments are the order of the day. Also, 30% of Cuban legally approved medicines are herbal. [Source: author interview with a Cuban physician in Havana, June 2016.]
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE IN THE CUBAN STYLE.
[Note: If you have any medical problem see a health professional. This article uses information derived from Cuban sources and is to be used only for educational purposes.]
Acupuncture and Acupressure are used in a majority of hospitals and health clinics, however often with variations such as Auriculoterapia or Ear Acupuncture which is based on the theory that the auricle, the outer portion of the ear, is a microsystem which reflects the entire body. Auriculoterapia is said to cure many conditions such as headaches, sciatica, lumbago, joint pain, depression, melancholy, insomnia, liver and digestive problems. In Cuba, it is also used to control obesity, addiction to cigars and cigarettes, and as an anesthetic in surgery.
Cubans have extended this concept to using acupoints on the face, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet to function as mirror images of the acupoints throughout the entire body. Patients may be prescribed a do-it-yourself continuous treatment where a tiny seed is taped to the body part and the patient is instructed to press the seed during the day.
Taping a seed to an auriculotherapy point.
An aspect of Herbal medicine is added to this by using the seeds of the Mexican Thisel, also called the Mexican poppy, which the Spanish found the natives in Mexico used for healing. This plant can be poisonous; nevertheless the colonial Spanish added this plant to their pharmacopeia and called it cardosanto. It was used to relieve kidney pain, to help expel a torn placenta, and in general to help cleanse the body after childbirth. It has also been used to treat malaria [see Argemone Mexicana, Wikipedia.]
Electro-acupuncture – (Electropuntura) combines the use of needles with electrical stimulation by sending a small electrical current through the needle after insertion into an acupuncture point. Instruments used usually consist of two parts: a needle and an electric current stimulator. There are different types of stimulators, some use AC or DC electricity, high or low frequency, continual or intermittent electrical pulsations. It is primarily used as an analgesic for all types of pain. It is also applied to alleviate the pain during childbirth, as well as anesthetic for some operations, including caesarean sections.
Source: Wikipedia Commons
Diet Therapy is used in relation to healing a specific illness; often it is used with pharmaceutical drugs if they are available.
Tuina or therapeutic massage is used to promote a more harmonious balanced flow of qi (bio-electrical energy) to cure diseases and promote health. In Cuba, as elsewhere, the practitioner’s hands are used to massage muscles and tendons. Acupressure techniques to affect the qi flow, and manipulation techniques to restructure musculoskeletal and ligament relationships may be added. Liniments, poultices and herbal balms, often from plants native to Cuba, may be used to increase the benefits of the treatment.
Moxibustion - (Moxibustión) is a method that treats and prevents diseases and corrects energy imbalances by applying heat through cones or moxa cigars burning on certain points of the human body. The raw material most commonly used for this technique is the dried leaves of the mugwort plant ground to a fine powder. In Cuba incense, and the wicks of oil lamps also are used.
Indirect Moxibustion – (Moxibustión Indirecta) is a method Cubans use that combines acupuncture with moxibustion. It is indicated for the treatment of joint pain due to cold and moisture. A little burning moxa is carefully applied to the handle of the inserted needle.
Another technique also called indirect moxibustion has an insulating ingredient placed between the slowly burning moxa cone and the skin of the client. The healing properties of the substance are considered added to the healing properties of the moxibustion. For example, one slice of ginger approximately 0.2 cm thick is recommended for a weak spleen and stomach, joint or abdominal pain and other symptoms of yang deficiency.
Garlic is used in the same manner as ginger. It is indicated for scrofula, skin infections and poisonous insect bites in their early stages.
Salt: the navel is filled with salt and a large moxa cone is placed over it. This is indicated for cases of cold limbs, weak and imperceptible pulse, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Phytotherapy (Fitoterapia – or “Plant Therapy”). This refers to the use of medicinal plants and vegetables and their derivatives to prevent, alleviate or cure diseases. Given Cuban history there is a heavy influence of Afro-Cuban practices. Currently various governmental health agencies are investigating methods and techniques to streamline and modernize Phytotherapy in line with the basic requirements of “safety, quality and efficacy.” American and African techniques are being actively studied and used along with traditional Chinese and native Cuban methodologies.
[The species most frequently used in Phytotherapy are Cocos nucifera L. (Arecaceae), Bidens pilosa L. (Asteraceae), Cissus sicyoides L. (Vitaceae), Erythroxylum havanense Jacq. (Erythroxylaceae) and Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (L.) Vahl. (Verbenaceae).] Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15013195].
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Modern Health Care for Tourists. Today hospitals for tourists are in much better condition than those for native Cubans. These hospitals can be world-class 21st century facilities, and they are expensive. Generally speaking they are closed to regular Cubans, who have their own Government controlled free healthcare. The turismo de salud [“Health Tourism”] programs are understood to be a method to raise money for the impoverished country. Tourists and foreign diplomats combine vacations with state of the art health care which often includes Traditional Chinese Medicine and other more exotic health care alternatives.
Hydrotherapy at a turismo de salud [“Tourism of Health”] clinic.
Source: https://cubanosporelmundo.com/2015/09/28/turismo-de-salud/
Children Learn Plant Medicine
Children begin studying the multiple uses of medicinal plants in primary school, learning to grow and tend their own plots of faloe, chamomile, and mint, and later they conduct scientific studies about their uses. Radio and Television programs instruct people on how to relieve common stomach upset and headaches by pressing key points. Acupuncture is offered at all three levels of health care [primary care physician, clinic, hospital]. Cuban biochemists have produced a number of new alternative medicines, including PPG (policosanol), a natural product derived from sugarcane wax that is effective at reducing total cholesterol and LDL levels, and Vimang, a natural product derived from the bark of mango trees. [source: Healthcare in Cuba. Wikipedia.]
In Cuba since 2006 no cases of acute hepatitis B reported in children under 15 years of age.
Source: http://www.radio26.cu/2016/05/11/cuba-sin-hepatitis-b-aguda-en-menores-de-cinco-anos/
A short coda as a conclusion. ¡A Ese No lo Salva, Ni el Medico Chino! —“Not Even The Chinese Doctor Can Save Him!” is a popular slang expression that first appeared in mid-19th century Cuba. This article ends with the thought that in 2018 whoever that “Chinese Doctor” was, he or she might now actually be able to “Save Him!” and bring “Him,” (their patient), back to a state of health. Or better yet, with the use of TCM and other alternative medicine preventative techniques, the patient never would have gotten sick in the first place.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This article originally appeared as part of “Traditional Chinese Medicine in Cuba” in Qi Journal, vol. 26/3; autumn 2016. It is used with the permission of the author, who may be contacted at john.voigt@comcast.net
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Sean Brotherton. Revolutionary Medicine: Health and the Body in Post-Soviet Cuba. Duke University, 2012.
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“Cuban Characters.” http://www.thecubanhistory.com/2015/02/cuban-characters-not-even-the-chinese-doctor-can-save-you-personajes-de-cuba-no-te-salva-ni-el-medico-chino/
EcuRed: Medicina tradicional asiática. http://www.ecured.cu/Medicina_tradicional_asiática
Carlos García. Cham-Bom-Biá: el médico chino. http://www.canarizame.com/2014/12/23/cham-bom-bia-el-medico-chino/
Enrique Jorge Hernández González. La Medicina Bioenergética y Natural: su aplicación en la Isla de la Juventud (página 2).
http://www.monografias.com/trabajos72/ natural/medicina-bioenergetica-natural2.shtml
Enrique Jorge Hernández González. Perfeccionamiento del desempeño profesional en la aplicación de la medicina natural y tradicional. http://www.monografias.com/trabajos-pdf2/desempeno-profesional-medicina-natural-tradicional/desempeno-profesional-medicina-natural-tradicional.shtml
- Jácome. No Te Salva ni el Médico Chino. https://www.facebook.com/CubaEnLaMemoria/posts/1209701712375197:0
Junior Vega Jiménez. “Juan Cham-Bom-Bian: itinerary of the"Chinese Doctor" from the Havana to ward Cárdenas. Brief historical notes. http://scielo.sld.cu/pdf/rhcm/v14n5/rhcm03515.pdf
Paul Kadetz and Johann Perdomo Delgado.
“Slaves, Revolutions, Embargoes, and Needles: The Political Economy of Acupuncture in Cuba.” Asian Medicine 6 (2010–11), 95–122. [also at]
Yovanny Ferrer Lozano. Chang Pon Piang: Un médico chino. http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1684-18242014000600010
La medicina china y su presencia en Cuba.
http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/his/his%2095/hist0595.htm
Medicina tradicional asiática. http://www.ecured.cu/Medicina_tradicional_asi%C3%A1tica#Fuente
Ministerio de Salud Pública. Programa Para el Desarrollo y la Generalizacion de la Medicina Tradicional y Natural, 2011. [Ministry of Public Health. Program for Development and Generalization of Traditional and Natural Medicine, 2011.] http://files.sld.cu/mednat/files/2014/08/prog-nac-mtn-2012.pdf
Moral R. Peñalver. “Juan Chambombián; el médico chino. Averiguaciones en torno a un popular personaje.” Revista Bohemia 1981; 5(16), 7-10.
La pluma del Tocororo: El Médico Chino. https://almejeiras.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/el-medico-chino/
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**Beautiful featured image photo by Ellen Carlson Hanse on Unsplash
Not Even The Chinese Doctor Can Save Him! The History of Chinese Medicine in Cuba
by John Voigt
The History of Chinese Medicine in Cuba
Throughout Cuba there is a common slang expression people use when someone is thought to be incurably sick: ¡A Ese No lo Salva, Ni el Medico Chino! - Not Even The Chinese Doctor Can Save Him!
Not many know the origins of this phrase, or the man behind it. But that phrase and that man helped lay the foundation for an alternative healthcare revolution within a revolutionary country. In China he was born Chang Pon Piang. Having trouble pronouncing it, Cubans called him Cham Bom Biam. Then to give himself a Spanish sounding name he called himself Juan Chambombián. We begin with a summary of the adventures of his life:
His Early History
Chang Pon Piang was born as one of the Hakka people, an ethnic group found in the Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau areas of southeastern China. In the mid-nineteenth century these areas, along with most the rest of China, were in chaos: the last of the Opium Wars with Great Britain still raged; technological changes to the farming system put many out of work; there was a dramatic increase in the size of population. All that along with widespread political discontentment, natural disasters, banditry, and ethnic strife led many young people to look for work overseas.
Chang grew fascinated with the advertisements he saw that promised a better life by working in Cuba. All that was needed was to sign an eight year contract. (Only men could sign. Chinese women were not allowed to enter Cuba.)
What was not mentioned on the posters was that this was no more than a scheme to trap unsuspecting young men into an eight year long indentured servitude at the pay of four pesos a month. Once in Cuba the émigré was usually sent to large sugar plantations and once there was treated like a indentured slave, (or “coolie” - 苦力; pinyin: kǔlì) meaning "bitter work" or "bitter use of force.”
The situation was so severe that in 1873 the imperial Chinese government sent investigators to Cuba to investigate the large number of suicides by Chinese laborers, as well as allegations of abuse and breach of contract by plantation owners. Shortly after, the Chinese labor trade was prohibited and the last ship carrying Chinese laborers reached Cuba in 1874. By 1877 a treaty was signed between China and Spain completely banning the contracting system. [Source]
In 1854 Chang Pon Piang entered Cuba with a contract for agricultural work in the province of Guamacaro, in the western province of Matanzas. Chang as many other Chinese of the time was familiar with herbal medicines. He had a working knowledge of the healing properties of certain herbs, roots, bark, leaves, grasses, fruits, even shells. Legend has it that as a field worker he was able to prepare medicines made from the roots of shrubs and tubers that saved many lives.
In 1858, four years before the contract was supposed to be over, somehow he escaped his servitude and began practicing medicine in Havana. His knowledge of botanical medicine served him well for the preparation of herbal teas, poultices, ointments, powders, soaps, and healing incenses.
He also knew about arsenic, mercury, and opium. This knowledge may have lead to his eventual downfall.
He grew successful in Havana; not only Chinese, but now Spanish, Afro-Cubans and people of mixed blood came to him for help. Other doctors began losing patients and because of that, along with a jealousy triggered by Chambombián’s successes, they began a series of law suits against him. In 1863 Juan Chambombián was accused of the illegal practice of medicine. It was claimed that he was practicing medicine without a license (which was probably true), and that he had just received a consignment of medicinal drugs from Chinese suppliers in San Francisco, California. To his accusers the techniques of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) seemed bizarre, no more than unbelievable occult garbage. (“Imagine making medicine out of weeds, such utter nonsense.”) But what really made it unacceptable for the other doctors is that these “bogus” methods all too often worked better than their own!
in 1864 he was placed on trial. The judge and jury agreed with the doctors and Juan Chambombián was found guilty. He lost his home and was forced to stay with Chinese friends. He soon he relocated fifty-six miles away to Matanzas and undaunted again began practicing Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM). There he lived on 11 Calle Mercaderes (11 Merchants Street) in the Chinese district of that city. Again the allegations of practicing illegal medicine were raised; to his enemies he was no more than a charlatan, a mountebank, an unscrupulous foreigner cheating other people. With new court trials pending against him—and because of his having few patients—in either 1871 or 1872 (accounts differ) he moved to Cárdenas, which had a large Chinese population. There he continued to develop his own medicines. He is said to have used rhubarb, aconite, sulfur, arsenic, and opium— along with folk medicines native to Cuba, and especially to its Afro-Cuban population—in his extensive collections of healing formulations along with the TCM medications he still continued to import from San Francisco. He also worked at and operated a Chinese pharmacy, which gave him a way to make money and to find more patients for his private practice.
It was said he had a number of miraculous cures of clients said to be terminally ill by western doctors: those who had been blind could now see: those with paralyzed arms or legs could now move them. His fame began to spread throughout Cuba. Most likely it was during this time that the expression, Not Even The Chinese Doctor Can Save Him!—(meaning that a person was in such bad shape that not even a miracle worker such as Juan Chambombián could help them)—appeared.
To promote his own medical and business activities he would travel back and forth the ninety-seven miles between the cities of Cárdenas, Matanzas and Havana. In a Matanzas newspaper the following appeared:
CHAMBOMBIAN, this old Chinese doctor, authorized as a botanist by the government, sent a card to a newspaper of Matanzas in which he announced that he had invented a medicine to cure fevers and a patch to treat rheumatism. He also announced that he would next visit Matanzas, a city where he was well known and to whose inhabitants he offered his services, from his home at Calle Dragones 94 in Havana.
A month later in the same newspaper the following appeared (one should not be surprised if the enterprising Juan Chambombián had written both of these notices himself and paid for their publication):
Your enlightened mind and gifts exalt
your knowledge and appliance,
intelligence, and science,
to win applause from the world of thought;
a monument to you well wrought
where your historic fame will rest,
where memories will be the best
the living spirit to preserve;
itself enriched it will observe
with the laurels of your glorious quest.
Signed: Some friends.
Dr. Juan Chambombián was described as a tall statuesque man, with a solemn, if at times, bombastic bearing. He had small penetrating eyes, a slightly drooping mustache and a small skimpy goatee at the end of a long sloping chin. He spoke Spanish and some English with a quirky Chinese accent in a formal but artificial literary style. He dressed professionally in the manner of a western doctor: jacket, top-hat and loose fitting linen frock coat, which he often carried formally draped over his arm. But he never forgot his humble past: when people came to him for medical treatments he would say, “If you have the money you pay. If you have no money you do not pay. I am no more than one simple man giving medicine to someone else.”
His Death: Was He Murdered?
One morning in 1872 (the exact date is unknown) Juan Chambombián was found dead in his home, in Cardenas. He lived alone. He had seemed perfectly healthy the day before, and no cause of death could be determined.
Rumors began to spread. Given the lack of any physical trauma to his body it seemed likely that he had been poisoned—but by whom? There were many possibilities: perhaps an irate local doctor infuriated that Juan Chambombián had taken away his clientele. Or perhaps by the relatives of a patient whom he was not able to save with his herbal medicines. It was possible that the death was accidental, that he was trying one of his newly prepared experimental medicines and it proved deadly. Or perhaps seeking longevity he prepared and drank some exotic version of a Daoist elixir of immortality—but the recipes for such elixirs might contain toxic substances such as lead, arsenic, and mercury, all chemicals which he owned. Or possibly he as many other Chinese in Cardenas became depressed and committed suicide.
And there had been whispered stories of a love affair gone wrong. He had children by eight different concubines. (No one knew the total number of lovers he had throughout his life. There are no extant records of his ever having married. At that time it was illegal for any Chinese person to marry a Caucasian; and back in China having many concubines was a common custom for rich men.) One popular story had it that he was secretly murdered by one of his jilted mulatto concubines by her use of some secret African poison. Rumor also had it that it was she was the same person who had taught him the use of certain medicinal herbs. Others said she had brought about his death by the use of a Santeria curse. (Santeria is a cult like religion, a fusion of Yoruba [Nigerian] gods and goddess with holy figures taken from the Catholic Church.)
Santeria Central Havana / Author Bernardo Capellini / Source - Wikipedia Commons
A recent source says that he is buried in the Chinese Cemetery in the Nuevo Vedado section of Havana (at Calle 26 & Zapata, Calle 26), and that the grave site is often covered with flowers or other offerings left by people hoping to be cured of some incurable disease.
It is no surprise that such a flamboyant and exceptional person as Dr. Juan Chambombián—along with the TCM that he practiced—would have its critics, especially among the privileged upper classes. For example, sixteen years after his death he was mentioned in the lowest of terms as being a faith healer (which he was not) in a speech at the meeting in Havana of the Anthropological Society on March 4, 1888:
Even today among the most civilized nations abound in the lower classes of people, healers who exploit the innate good faith in men to cure diseases with a mixture of empirical remedies, and religious or mystical formulas that are a real medicine imagination; such as examples the treatment of erysipelas [an acute bacterial infection of the skin] saying prayers and making crosses on the diseased part, the various cures of Lourdes, trumpeted in all shades, and among us, not long ago, the supposed wonders of Chinese famous Chambombián.
Source: Revista Cubana: periódico mensual de ciencias, filosofía ... Volumen 7.
NOT EVEN THE CHINESE DOCTOR CAN SAVE HIM! Began to be used to refer to other famous Chinese physicians of the 19th Century, although none ever would gain the legendary status of Juan Chambombián.
Kan Shi Kom lived in at the corner of Rayo and San Jose streets in Havana. He died in 1885. According to historian Antonio Chuffat Latour the great pomp of his funeral made history in the city.
However not all stories about Chinese doctors are favorable. According to one such fanciful tale, an unnamed doctor (some say it was Kan Shi Kom, others that it was Juan Chambombián—actually it is unclear who the doctor was or even if the story is true). In any case, the doctor is said to have made a decoction using the stems of the tronquillos verdes plant, which people called “chopsticks” because of its appearance. He taught the preparation to a colleague, a Spanish doctor who soon after made some, drank it and died. In the story, the inscription on the tomb of the unfortunate dead man read, "Here lies, against his will, Pancho Perez Vitaluga: Good husband, good father, bad drinker. Died by helping the Chinese doctor." When the Chinese doctor, whoever it was, heard about the death, he was nonplused. Without showing any concern for the other man and just being concerned about his own medication all he said was, “Carumba! It seems that stick is poisonous.” (¡Calamba, palece que ese palito son veneno! ). And so was born another popular Cuban slang expression. [Source]
Chang Bu Bian - Don Damián Morales. Some say this man was the Chinese doctor referred to in the saying “Not Even the Chinese Doctor Can Save Him!” Beginning August 20th 1856 a series of Apocalyptic earthquakes accompanied by torrential rain storms struck Santiago de Cuba. To the inhabitants it seemed as if the world was ending. Many others from all over the island came to help, but unknowingly they brought with them cholera. Throughout October the disease quickly spread. November brought new earthquakes and storms and even more occurrences of the disease. (By the end of the epidemic 2,000 people had died.) City Health employees refused to move the corpses to the cemetery. Sometimes the bodies of the victims remained for days crushed under the bricks of fallen buildings. Prisoners had to be brought from Havana to remove the rubble and bury the bodies in mass graves.
Near the peak of the epidemic, and seemingly in answer to the prayers of those still alive, there appeared an apparent miracle worker: an Asian man claiming to be a doctor; but he didn’t give out any pills or powders, he only used a strange kind of massage never seen before. In fact what he was practicing was his version of tuina (massage) techniques he learned from a classic Chinese text of the sixteenth century, the T'uei na pi-kieu, or Treaty of Massage.
His massage was tortuously painful. With his index finger and thumb of his left hand he pressed certain tender points and tendons in the armpits of the patient and forcibly vibrated the flesh. At the same time with his right hand he pulled the skin over the larynx (Adam’s apple) producing a hematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues). He then would vigorously rub the patient’s shoulder blades and spine with his arms, elbows and knees. The patients suffered, but many of them were healed. [Source: “Cuban Characters.” thecubanhistory.com]
Chinese Siam - Juan de Dios Siam Zaldívar. Coming from Beijing in 1840 he originally was known by the names “Sián” or “El Siam”, or “Chinese Siam.” Unlike most other Chinese immigrants, he entered Cuba with 20,000 Spanish gold pesos. Using his version of TCM he brought about many cures, which not surprisingly frightened certain inhabitants of Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe, the city in which he lived. Rumors spread that he was some sort of a black magic wizard in league with strange demonic forces. But all that changed when during a religious procession, El Siam unexpectedly knelt before a statue of the Virgin of Veracruz; after which he was considered a Christian. He made it official by being baptized on April 25, 1850, taking on the name Juan de Dios Siam Zaldívar—but remaining true to ancient customs, he signed his new name with a Chinese calligraphy brush. He had two families, one with his wife, a white woman, and another with a black mistress. Today descendants of both branches are proud of their famous ancestor. Possessing a great fortune, he died in 1885.
[Source]
These legends about the outstanding Chinese doctors of the nineteenth century helped create a foundation for the widespread use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in 21st century Cuba. This is addressed in my next article, Traditional Chinese Medicine in Today’s Cuban Health Care.
This entry originally appeared as part of “Traditional Chinese Medicine in Cuba” in Qi Journal, vol. 26/3; autumn 2016.
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Images
Juan Chambombián in Chinese clothing.
Source: https://www.artsy.net/show/taikang-space-portrait-hot-taikang-photography-collection
Juan Chambombián as a young man of about 20 years old soon after his arrival in Havana in 1854.
The photography was damaged in a hurricane.
Source: http://hojassdeprensa.blogspot.com/2011/09/cham-bom-bia-el-famoso-medico-chino-de.html
Juan Chambombián in his western doctor suit.
October 20, 2010 Opus Habana Magazine.
Santeria Centro Habana / Author Bernardo Capellini
Source: Wikipedia Commons.
Author John Voigt in Havana at a paladar (a small private restaurant in a family home) mulling over
the cause of the death of Dr. Juan Chambombián.
Source: Author.
Chinese cemetery in Havana where Juan Chambombián is buried.
Source: Tripadvisor.
