Mi madre abrió el botiquín, me puso una tirita y empezó a curar la herida.

They are in the preterite because the sentence tells a sequence of completed actions in the past:

• abrió = she opened
• puso = she put
• empezó = she started

This is very common in storytelling: one action happened, then another, then another.

If you used the imperfect instead, it would sound more like background information or an ongoing situation, not a clear series of events.

Here, me is an indirect object pronoun. It means to me or on me, depending on how natural English expresses it.

So:

• me puso una tirita = she put a plaster/bandage on me

In Spanish, when someone does something to a person with an object, the person is often shown with an indirect object pronoun:

• me = to me
• te = to you
• le = to him/her
• nos = to us

You could think of it as: She put me a bandage structurally, even though natural English says She put a bandage on me.

Because that is not the natural way to express this idea in Spanish.

Spanish usually prefers the indirect object pronoun with verbs like poner when something is applied to a person:

• Me puso una tirita. = natural
• Puso una tirita en mí. = unnatural in this context

The pronoun me is the normal way to show who was affected by the action.

In Spain, tirita usually means a small adhesive bandage, like a Band-Aid or plaster.

A few notes:

• In Spain, tirita is very common.
• In some parts of Latin America, learners may hear curita instead.
• Tirita is often used for small cuts or minor wounds.

So this is a very everyday, natural word in Peninsular Spanish.

Botiquín usually means a first-aid kit or a medicine cabinet / box of basic medical supplies, depending on context.

In this sentence, it suggests the place or container where the mother keeps things like:

• bandages
• antiseptic
• medicine
• gauze

So abrió el botiquín could be understood as she opened the medicine cabinet / first-aid kit.

Because empezar normally needs the preposition a before another verb in the infinitive:

• empezó a curar
• empezó a hablar
• empezó a correr

So the pattern is:

empezar + a + infinitive

Without a, it is incorrect here.

Both are possible.

• empezó a curar la herida = she started treating the wound
• empezó a curarla = she started treating it

The version with la herida is just more explicit. It names the wound directly instead of replacing it with a pronoun.

Spanish often allows both options:

• Voy a leer el libro / Voy a leerlo
• Empezó a curar la herida / Empezó a curarla

Spanish often uses the definite article (el, la, los, las) where English would use a possessive like my or his, especially when the owner is already clear from context.

Here, we already know the wound belongs to the speaker because of me puso. So la herida sounds natural:

• me puso una tirita y empezó a curar la herida

This is similar to how Spanish often talks about body parts:

• Me duele la cabeza = My head hurts
• Se lavó las manos = He washed his hands

So la herida is not strange; it is very normal Spanish.

There is an important difference:

• empezó a curar la herida = she started treating the wound
• curó la herida = she treated / healed the wound

The first one focuses on the beginning of the action. It does not necessarily say the action was completed.

So this sentence paints the scene step by step:

1. she opened the medicine cabinet
2. she put a bandage on me
3. she began treating the wound

The accents show stress and, in some cases, help distinguish the correct written form.

• botiquín: the stress falls on the last syllable, so the accent is needed
• abrió: the accent marks the correct stress in the preterite form
• empezó: same idea; it is the él/ella/usted preterite form of empezar

These accents are part of the standard spelling and should always be written.

In Spanish, family words often use a possessive when identifying the person:

• mi madre = my mother
• mi padre = my father

La mi madre is not standard in normal modern Spanish.

Could you say just madre? Only in special contexts, such as direct address or certain fixed expressions, but not normally here. In a normal sentence like this, Mi madre is the natural choice.

Yes. That is also completely natural.

Spanish word order is flexible, especially with pronouns:

• Mi madre me puso una tirita
• Mi madre puso una tirita y empezó a curar la herida
• Mi madre abrió el botiquín, me puso una tirita...

In your sentence, me puso comes right after the comma because it continues the sequence of actions smoothly. The meaning stays the same.

In this context, to treat is usually the better idea.

• curar una herida can mean to treat a wound
• In some contexts, curar can also mean to heal or to cure

But in this sentence, because the mother has just opened the medicine cabinet and put on a tirita, it sounds like she is cleaning and treating the wound, not magically making it fully healed at once.