A grew up primarily in New York with an American mother interested in herbal and spiritual based medicines as well as a Brazilian father. As I am moving to New York, I visited her and her father in Manhattan. When we both came back to Los Angeles, I had actually cut my hand on her door frame from a splinter. This prompted her to tell me a story about how since she was small, her father has always taken care of her cuts.

A: Here let me get a piece of garlic.

L: Wait, what?

A: My dad always did this. It’s a Brazilian thing. Whenever I had an open wound like a small cut he would go to the kitchen and chop up a large piece of garlic and rub it on my cut

L: Did it help?

A: I don’t know, but it was his way of showing me he cared while bringing in his Brazilian tradition. I don’t know where he learned if from, but it definitely came from his time in Brazil