Ofrenda Magazine Issue 04: Power

L ATI NX SPI RIT UAL IT Y • A N C E STR A L C O N N ECT I O N • E A R T H + JUST I C E • H E A LI NG A R T S

ofrenda M A G A Z I N E

ISSUE 04: POWER

Art Feature: Staying Afloat

Audio Feature: Enraizada

Restorative Heartset and Mindset

Suzy González

Niria Alicia

Marisol Quevedo Rerucha

FROM THE EDITOR

Embracing the power of water, ceremony, and justice.

How does Mother Earth speak in the late summer? Meditating on this question, I saw water. Big water. Powerful water. The ocean and rivers. Swirling, warmwater storms and thundering rains—and human voices to match. I heard cries and chanting in the heat of the climate crisis. I also heard soothing voices, maternal voices of care for all beings, welling up with the waters of emotion and release.

In this issue, we center the images and voices of power as expressed for, through, and alongside water. We center the power of water itself and the power and wisdom of those fighting for the protection of water. We center the wise elders, who, like water, surround us with wisdom and emotional care.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share the works of this issue’s featured contributors, including climate justice advocates Niria Alicia and Dr. Virginia Necochea, who share their testimonios through words, song, and ceremony; beloved elder Cuauhtli Cihuatl (Maestra CC), who shares a water ritual for releasing grief; and artist-activist Suzy González, who reminds us that “art is not neutral.” I’m also grateful to authors Erika Buenaflor and Marisol Quevedo Rerucha, who have shared excerpts from their recent books. Please read, share, and support their work. I express gratitude for every one of the contributors, for their gifts of creativity, and for the wisdom they openly offer. May you find strength in their words, and may you recognize your own power, especially in the care you offer to the earth.

Marcy Carbajal, Editor in Chief

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Contents

ISSUE 04: POWER | AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2021

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE EARTH + JUSTICE / TESTIMONIO

A Xicana’s Reflection on Life, Ceremonial Rootedness, and Environmental Justice | 12 WORDS BY DR. VIRGINIA NECOCHEA EARTH + JUSTICE | WITH AUDIO

Run4Salmon: A 300-Mile Prayer | 20 AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN NIRIA ALICIA + GAVIN VAN HORN MEDITATIONS + VERSE

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WITH AUDIO

Enraizada | 34 CEREMONY AND SONG BY NIRIA ALICIA ARTIVISM

Staying Afloat | 42 WORDS AND ART BY SUZY GONZÁLEZ BODYMINDSPIRIT

Shapeshifting, Kindred Spirits, and Blossoming on Our Path of Destiny | 50 AN INTERVIEW WITH BRENDA SALGADO

PRACTICES / CURANDERISMO

Grief and the Nine-Shower Ritual | 56 WORDS BY CUAUHTLI CIHUATL

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BOOK PREVIEWS

Restorative Heartset and Mindset, An Excerpt from Beyond the Surface of Restorative Practices | 62 WORDS BY MARISOL QUEVEDO RERUCHA ART BY TIANA CRISPINO

Developing Symbolic Communication with Animals, An Excerpt from Animal Medicine | 72 WORDS BY ERIKA BUENAFLOR

TESTIMONIOS

Rage / El Llanto as Medicine | 78 WORDS BY ADRIANA L. MEDRANO ART BY TIANA CRISPINO

Philosophy as Power | 82 WORDS BY SARALIZA ANZALDUA

MEDITATIONS / VERSE

La Llorona and Water Witness | 88 WORDS BY NADINE ANTOINETTE MAESTAS ART BY REBECCA ARTEMISA WITH AUDIO

I Am Here Today | 92 WORDS BY SALEM ISLAS-MADLO

Find audio versions where you see the headphones icon. Click the link to go to Ofrenda Magazine on Simplecast. Issue 04 recordings will be available starting in August 2021.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Adriana L. Medrano

Brenda Salgado

Cuauhtli Cihuatl

ADRIANA L. MEDRANO,

BRENDA SALGADO (Nicaraguan

CUAUHTLI CIHUATL, or

Ph.D., is a Xicana Liberation

American, Latinx) is an

Maestra CC (Indigenous), is

Psychologist. She centers

author, speaker, curandera,

elder and founder of Kalpulli

the healing of BIWOC (Black,

Toltec energy healer, spiritual

Teocalli Ollin in New Mexico.

Indigenous, Womxn of Color),

teacher, and consultant. She

She is a Mexhika Huesteca,

utilizing an anti-oppressive

is the founder of Nepantla

Raramuri, and Lipan Apache

and abolitionist approach. She

Consulting and is in the

ceremonialist. She holds a J.D.,

is also the co-founder of Roots

process of establishing the

a Ph.D. in public health and

of South L.A. Wellness Center.

Nepantla Land Trust, and

community education, and a

She is the daughter of Mexican

a center for healing and

master’s degree in social work.

immigrants and resides on

renewal. Trained by teachers in

Now retired, she spends her

stolen, unceded Tongva land,

Purepecha, Xochimilco Toltec,

energy on her Jardin Patzin.

known also as South-Central

and other lineages, Brenda

Her mission is to share her

Los Angeles, California. Find

draws on relationships with and

Abuelita’s traditions, for “la

her at adrianalmedrano.com.

healing powers of the natural

medicina es para todos.”

world to guide her work.

PHOTO CREDIT:

PHOTO CREDIT: D’SANTI NAVA

ADRIANA L. MEDRANO

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PHOTO CREDIT: BRENDA SALGADO

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Erika Buenaflor

Gavin Van Horn

Marisol Quevedo Rerucha

ERIKA BUENAFLOR, M.A., J.D.,

GAVIN VAN HORN is the

MARISOL QUEVEDO RERUCHA

has over 20 years of practicing

Creative Director and

(Chicana) serves as the Chief

as a curandera, mentoring

Executive Editor for the Center

of Strategy and Partnerships

with curanderx and shamans

for Humans and Nature. He

for the National Parents Union.

in the Maya Yucatecan jungle,

is the author of The Way of

She is a proven leader who

Peru, and Los Angeles. Erika

Coyote: Shared Journeys in the

doesn't just talk about healing,

has a master’s degree in

Urban Wilds, and the co-editor,

equity, social justice, and dis-

religious studies with a focus

with Robin Wall Kimmerer

rupting generational trauma;

on Mesoamerican shaman-

and John Hausdoerffer,

she has both lived experience

ism and has written several

of the five-volume series,

and a proven record of doing

books on curanderismo. As a

Kinship: Belonging in a World

this work while leading change

modern-day curandera, she

of Relations. He is the partner

in education and non-profit

utilizes her knowledge and

of Ofrenda Magazine’s jefa,

systems. As a former teacher,

vast experience to reveal how

Marcy Carbajal.

principal, and district leader,

this sacred wisdom can help her clients heal holistically—

she uses her voice to chalPHOTO CREDIT: GAVIN VAN HORN

lenge systems of oppression

and live their BLISS.

and more importantly ampli-

www.realizeyourbliss.com

fies the voices of others.

PHOTO CREDIT: ERIKA BUENAFLOR

PHOTO CREDIT: PHOTO BY ELSA (PHOTOBYELSA.COM)

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CONTRIBUTORS

Nadine Antoinette Maestas

Niria Alicia

Salem Islas-Madlo

NADINE ANTOINETTE MAESTAS

NIRIA ALICIA is a Xicana

SALEM ISLAS-MADLO (Xicanx)

(Latinx) is a poet’s poet and

Indígena human rights

is a poet, writer, educator,

believes that the empire of

advocate, climate justice

speaker, and holistic energy

the sentence is an extremely

organizer, educator, storyteller,

coach who likes to talk to trees

oppressive totalitarian regime.

and social impact strategist

while delving into zen realms

She prefers the company

dedicated to protecting the

of mindfulness and medita-

of poems so much that she

sacredness of Mother Earth

tion. By day, she works at Deep

would rather read a bad poem

and the dignity of historically

Wild Coaching, and by night

than a good novel, but when

oppressed peoples. Her fight

she takes to her broom to

she is not doing poetry, Nadine

for liberation and justice exists

commune with the sun, moon,

loves mountain biking in

at the intersections of migrant

and stars.

dangerous and remote places

justice, climate justice, and

in the Northwest. Nadine

indigenous rights. Niria Alicia

holds an M.F.A. from the Univ.

believes that true justice can

of Michigan and a Ph.D. from

only exist by rematriating and

the Univ. of Washington. You

indigenizing land, normalizing

can find her poems in several

indigenous values, and

publications and in her book,

honoring the sacredness of

Imperialism as Sweet as Insult.

women and Mother Earth.

PHOTO CREDIT: NADINE MAESTAS

PHOTO CREDIT: LU AYA

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PHOTO CREDIT: CLAUDIA BLAKE

Saraliza Anzaldua

Suzy González

Virginia Necochea

SARALIZA ANZALDUA is an

SUZY GONZÁLEZ is a Xicanx

DR. VIRGINIA NECOCHEA is a

Indigenous Xicana philosopher

artist, curator, and zinester

Xicana, mother, organizer, and

earning a Ph.D. at UCLA.

based in Yanaguana, also

writer. She is the Executive

Ya is an author from Texas

known as San Antonio, Texas.

Director of the New Mexico

who specializes in Nahua

She creates mestiza media

Environmental Law Center, a

philosophy, and writes horror

works combining corn husks

public interest nonprofit law

short stories and poetry.

and paint to consider our

center that works alongside

Ya works in the tradition of

connections to the land and

frontline communities in

the tlamatini, the Mexica

complexities of identity. She

upholding environmental

philosopher, and contributes

publishes Xicana Vegan zine,

justice across the state. Dr.

to the Indigenous community

co-publishes Yes, Ma’am zine,

Necochea’s lifelong path is to

by fighting the ongoing

co-organizes the San Anto

be of service to community

cultural genocide through

Zine Fest, and is half of the

and to be a caretaker of

inclusive, de-colonized

collective Dos Mestizx.

sacred Mother Earth.

PHOTO CREDIT: SUZY GONZÁLEZ

PHOTO CREDIT:

pedagogy in education. You can read Saraliza’s work at ucla.academia.edu/

TLALLI GARCIA NECOCHEA

SaralizaAnzaldua.

PHOTO CREDIT: OWEN WILLIAMS

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ART CONTRIBUTORS

Rebecca Artemisa

ON THE COVER

Tiana Crispino Float

by Suzy González

REBECCA ARTEMISA (Xicana)

TIANA CRISPINO (Latinx/Puerto

makes comics, zines, and

Rican) is a graphic designer,

paintings that are rooted in her

illustrator, and collage artist.

heritage, dedication to queer

Her style is inspired by vintage

happiness and in reclaiming

photography, mid-century

her original spiritualities.

illustration, and abstract art.

Her work has been featured

PHOTO CREDIT:

in and by a number of maga-

REBECCA ARTEMISA

zines, newspapers, sustainability organizations, and large nonprofits. She is currently working as a visual editor for the online publications Brides and Byrdie. Tiana is also accepting freelance editorial illustration opportunities. Find her on IG: @tianac_designs.

PHOTO CREDIT: TIANA CRISPINO

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Read more about Float in González's testimonio, “Staying Afloat,” pgs. 40-47.

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A XICANA’S REFLECTION ON LIFE, CEREMONIAL ROOTEDNESS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Words by Dr. Virginia Necochea

I start this piece by burning sage. As a way to honor this new day, my ancestors, my elders, my community, and you.

S

EVERAL MONTHS AGO, I embarked on a new path—I began a new position in the midst of a pandemic, as the new Executive Director (ED) of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC). As I reflect on my journey so far, I realize that this was not just a new path, but yet another border crossing I’ve been tasked with in this life. As a Xicana, daughter of immigrant parents, and the granddaughter of people who worked the land, border crossings are nothing new.

Although previous border crossings involved paths into higher education, teaching, the nonprofit world, and academics, this one entailed the crossing into yet another predominantly white space—that of the environmental world. This Ph.D.’d Xicana from Maywood, California, predicted to fail out of college by my second year, is now the first woman of color to lead this historically white, nonprofit, public-interest environmental law center in its entire 34-year history.

I take a pause to recognize all of the people who helped me reach this point. We do not achieve these things alone.

Every day that I have the honor and privilege to be at the helm of this successful environmental organization, I think about (and pray for) the frontline communities who, on the daily, have to bear the brunt of a continued toxic legacy of environmental racism—and the opportunity that I’ve been given to make things right.

But right for who and for what?

This is when ceremonial rootedness enters the mind, heart, body, and spirit. This is when Tonantzin Coatlicue, Tunkasila, the great spirit, and universe enter the space, and as a good student, I must stop, listen, reflect, and then act.

It is the ceremonial teachings that must guide me as I embark on this journey to name, disrupt, and dismantle environmental racism. For

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“ It is the ceremonial teachings that must guide me as I embark on this journey to name, disrupt, and dismantle environmental racism.

For those of us in the field understand that we cannot achieve environmental justice unless we disrupt and abolish environmental racism.

those of us in the field understand that we cannot achieve environmental justice unless we disrupt and abolish environmental racism.

Most of those who inhabit my professional space do not realize how ceremony runs through everything for me, and that, as I hold this position that comes with relative power, I must stay grounded and connected to what I’ve been taught: courage, generosity, kindness, and to be a warrior for my community.

A few years ago, as my family and I were at our Sundance ceremony— praying at the tree while the beat of the drum pounded and the rays of the hot, healing sun touched upon our skin—I realized and accepted that I was brought into being at this specific moment of time to be a macehualli and steward of our precious Mother Earth.

Macehualli, although usually translated as “commoner,” means more than that. As I’ve been taught, it is the practice and philosophy of being of service to others, and I have further interpreted it to mean being of service to my community and people.

I will not forget that I am a macehualli as I continue to walk this path, especially when it might take me to places and spaces where I am the only one. Never forget your roots!

I am not an aberration, for being the first woman of color executive director to run NMELC is reflective of a shift that will continue to take place across the nation. This shift that’s been years in the making was only heightened by the racial awakening and reckoning brought about by the world’s witnessing of the murder of George Floyd (Rest in Power!). The violence committed toward Black and Brown bodies at the hands of police (an agent of whiteness) is nothing new, but its worldwide witnessing sparked a moment in history we will not soon forget.

And we cannot let them forget.

The racial uprisings inspire us to continue the much-needed work, and it is up to us to prevent society from creeping back into its slumber.

Here we are suddenly at so many tables; we’re not leaving, and we’re here to demand justice for our people and communities.

Unapologetic.

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Most of those who inhabit my professional space do not realize how ceremony runs through everything for me, and that, as I hold this position that comes with relative power, I must stay grounded and connected to what I’ve been taught: courage, generosity, kindness, and to be a warrior for my community.

Environmental justice—that seems to be one of the trendy words of the day, but the reality is that it has been part of the People’s knowledge and being for so long. Environmentalists and hipsters, suddenly shoved into momentary wokeness, tout its importance across social media and rote statements, but our communities have been rising to defend their families and environments for so much more than a moment.

What does environmental justice mean to me, to us, especially during this crucial moment in time? We agree with the acknowledged definition that “all people and communities are entitled to equal protection of environmental and public health laws and regulations,” as stated by renowned scholar Dr. Robert Bullard; its depth runs in our veins and flows throughout.

It is our desire and our right to environmental justice that keeps us moving forward even when there are so many forces pushing against us

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trying to keep us in toxic places. We are those seeds of consciousness strewn in the soil who have grown roots that now keep us firmly planted in this movement for justice.

As the well-known proverb says,"Quisieron enterrarnos, pero no sabían que éramos semillas." Even if that soil was contaminated with their toxins, we still germinated and took root.

For too long have our people suffered at the dirty hands of polluters, drinking the poisoned water they offered and living upon the contaminated soil they stole. We are the children and grandchildren of a long line of resilient people who, despite it all, will continue to defend, protect, and be the caretakers of our sacred Earth.

At this point in my life, rounding the corner to the sacred bundle of four tlapillis, I reflect on the lessons learned as both a tlamatinime and lifelong student.

Water, Land, Earth, and our People are sacred, so we must tread with respect, honor, and dignity.

We must rise to continue to defend our fundamental right to clean air, land, and water—especially for those who have been fed and exposed to poison and pollutants for much too long.

We must always remember who we are and who we are from. Even if we are far removed from our land and our people, the teachings and memories must be kept strong in the heart and the mind.

Lastly, we will not let them forget that we are here and we are not leaving until we completely topple and dismantle systems that hurt and oppress us.

I close this piece with much love and gratitude. I thank every one of you who works for the Earth because we are part of her. Always remember that in this line of work, there is nothing too small, for everything that is done to protect the place that we are a part of helps to continue the legacy of environmental justice.

Ometeotl.

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LISTEN ONLINE

Run4Salmon A 300-Mile Prayer

Honoring salmon, water, and sacred migration: Xicana Indígena activist Niria Alicia discusses the Run4Salmon prayer journey.

INTERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY GAVIN VAN HORN

Photo of Niria Alicia by Greenpeace. Courtesy of Niria Alicia.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’d like to express deep grat-

itude to Niria Alicia, Xicana Indígena activist, for granting Ofrenda permission to share the following interview with you. The interview was recorded in 2018 by Gavin Van Horn—my partner, who is a writer, scholar of earth-centered spiritual traditions, and, recently, a co-editor of books with Indigenous writer and botanist Robin Kimmerer. He is a person who holds deep respect for Indigenous lifeways and ceremony. The interview is about and was recorded during the Run4Salmon, a prayer journey initiated by Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu, whose ancestral lands are around and currently covered

by Lake Shasta in northern California. As you’ll hear Niria Alicia describe, Caleen tapped her to help organize this important ceremony that calls attention to the sacredness of water, salmon, and Indigenous lifeways.

While the interview took place a few years ago, the words and wisdom Niria Alicia shares

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with Gavin—about water, salmon, Indigenous lifeways, sacred matriarchy and patriarchy—are as relevant as ever, and the Run4Salmon continues as an annual prayer journey during the late-summer months each year.

The first section of this piece is Gavin’s introduction to the context of the interview and the Run4Salmon. The second section is a transcript of the recorded interview.

I encourage you to listen, if possible, to at least some of the recording so that you may hear in the background noise the beautiful energy of all of the people involved in this prayer journey. I also invite you to listen to Niria Alicia’s other contribution to this issue, “Enraizada,” her offering of ceremony through song. (Audio clips are available on ofrendamagazine.com starting in August 2021.)

—Marcy Carbajal, Ed.

Introduction

by Gavin Van Horn

I

N SEPTEMBER 2018, I participated in the Run4Salmon, a 300-mile prayer journey that follows the winter-run Chinook salmon’s former migration route to their ancestral spawning grounds, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (near the San Francisco Bay), through the Sacramento River valley, to what is now Lake Shasta.

I first learned about the Run4Salmon earlier that year, when I heard the chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, Caleen Sisk, speak at an event. (You can watch a video of Sisk’s talk on the Winnemem Wintu’s website.) The Winnemem Wintu are a tribe in northern California with a culture deeply tied to salmon and the waters of the Winnemem Waywacket (McCloud River). When the Shasta Dam was built in the 1930s and 40s, the Winnemem Wintu’s sacred lands were covered by water, and the salmon, whom they know as relatives, have been unable to return to their home waters.

The only living genetic descendants of these salmon are now in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sisk’s powerful message about the daunting obstacles that salmon and her people face grabbed me and would not let go. At the time, proposals for further raising Shasta Dam were being bandied about by the Trump administration, a move that would have submerged additional sacred sites and created yet another setback for the salmon and all who depend upon them. Sisk proposed “singing the salmon home” by

organizing a prayerful journey that mirrored the salmon’s traditional migration route. By following the migration route of the salmon on this annual pilgrimage, Sisk and other Indigenous women leaders are raising awareness about the health of the watershed and reaffirming Indigenous lifeways, ultimately seeking the means to return the salmon to their ancestral river.

I felt compelled to participate in the walking portion of this prayer journey, trekking the first 28 miles of the route over the course of two days. The experience was both educational and soulful, a chance to focus upon the way that healthy people and healthy waters go hand-in-hand. On the walk, two young Indigenous women, Niria Alicia and Desirae Harp, were a notable presence, leading the organizing, offering encouraging reflections, and beautifully singing songs that reminded us that this journey was a ceremony—and is ceremony. I caught up with Niria, a dynamic and articulate Xicana Indígena activist, during one of the early pauses in the walk. While other people milled about, refilled water bottles, played with children, and socialized, I was able to record the moment and ask what this journey meant to her.

You’ll hear in Niria’s words what became evident to me during the walk: Run4Salmon is about the cultural, spiritual, and political importance of salmon to the Winnemem Wintu—but it is also so much more. In a

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follow-up conversation to this interview,* Niria emphasized that we are all connected to the waters of the Sacramento River valley through the food system, since so much of the world’s produce is grown on these lands.

As many of the group’s banners and bumper stickers put it: Water Is Life. How water is or isn’t honored determines whether or not we persist. Turning toward the river and recognizing its beating heart draws attention to the health of the long-abused and colonized waters of central and northern California, as well as waters everywhere. Honoring the migratory route of the salmon also symbolically honors human migration and

the experience of those migrating for health, safety, and life.

Issues about the Sacramento River watershed are fraught and complex—and the healing that needs to occur is magnificently difficult—yet I drew encouragement and inspiration from those with whom I travelled, who sang songs and “laid down prayers” with their feet. As Chief Sisk would frequently say, it’s a journey done “in a good way.” We can keep putting one foot in front of the other. We can keep singing. Until the salmon come home. With committed leaders such as Niria, the song grows stronger. *Follow-up interview between Niria Alicia and Marcy Carbajal, conducted by phone in May 2021.

Interview

Featuring Niria Alicia

The following transcript has been edited slightly for clarity.

Gavin: Which campus?

Niria Alicia: University of Oregon. Some of

Gavin: So how did you first find out about the Run4Salmon?

Niria Alicia: I first came to find out about

the Run4Salmon when Chief Caleen Sisk reached out to me, as soon as this prayer had come in through the smokehouse. I met Caleen when I was an undergraduate student organizer on campus, and I had organized this conference—

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the elders [were people] I grew up with while I was in college. And so they reached out to me, and Caleen invited me to come be a part of this and to support with the organizing of the first prayer run. We didn’t really know what it was. We just knew that there was this really strong prayer that had come in and needed to be set down at this time. And so we began in 2016—that winter, January, February—that whole year, we began orga-

McCloud River flowing through Shasta National Forest (istock.com/Sundry Photography).

Top three images taken during the Run4Salmon, 2018. Credit: Gavin Van Horn. Bottom image: Shasta Lake (istock.com/Kodii Kathleen).

nizing and just spreading the word about this prayer and the importance of coming together to make it happen. It was no small undertaking. I mean, this is 300 miles. It takes us two weeks to do it. But a lot of good people said yes, and they showed up. We didn’t have funding. We don’t have any of that. Now we have a little more financial support, but it was just people coming together, putting together whatever they can.

Gavin: This is your third year doing it.

What has it come to mean to you over this time? I mean, has it changed over the course of that time and doing this?

Niria Alicia: I think this prayer is simple.

The intention of this prayer is to bring people together around what’s truly important.

I think in this time, us as a species, as a human species, we’re forgetting what it means to be human. A lot of us have forgotten. So this prayer is set down to call in those people to remember our sacred responsibility to Mother Earth.

For these 300 miles, we pray for the waters.

We pray for the restoration of salmon runs that are endangered, and we pray for the revitalization of Indigenous lifeways because with everything that we’re facing—with ecological collapse, climate chaos, and all of the bad things that are happening to our communities right now—it’s important for us to remember what’s important and what’s sacred. That’s what this run does.

This run brings a lot of good people together from different organizations, different

tribes, different nationalities, everything. All that aside, we’re here to pray for the same thing that keeps us and gives us life, which is these waters and these waterways.

Gavin: A lot of people think of prayer as something a person does on their knees inside. How is this a different form of prayer? I think that’s a powerful way of framing this journey.

Niria Alicia: This is an invitation for us to

pray with our life and to pray with the way, with every decision that we make, with every step that we make—you know? It’s time for us to bring that medicine back to the world. I think that a lot of times, we do have these ideas that prayer can only happen in the temple. That prayer can only happen when you’re on your knees or on Sundays.

And we can't do that anymore. We have to pray every single day.

I mean, what’s happening right now to Mother Earth and to our communities is really scary. We’re looking at, in 50 years, in 20 years, about 200 million people being displaced as a result of climate change.

So this is an invitation for us to reconnect with our spirits, to pray, and to come and receive that strength, that spiritual nourishment that we need to go back out into the world and push for those changes out there as well. And bring this medicine, this prayer, out to the people who are making the decisions, out to the politicians, out to all the different folks who have political power and grassroots power. We can all come together and protect what gives us life.

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Gavin: Last night in the ceremony, Caleen kind of hinted, I’m getting older and I need the next generation to step up. I look at you and obviously see the next generation. I wonder if you could speak to that? Being a younger person, leading now at the front of this line as we walk—what does that mean to you? What has that meant to you as you think about the trajectory of your own path?

Niria Alicia: I’m in my twenties, you know,

and I really have no other option but to do this work at this time, because I’m looking at not having a future. I’m looking at my nieces and nephews not having a future. Our life is at stake. The existence of the human race is at stake. There’s nothing else I should be doing right now or could be doing right now with my life. Then, following Indigenous women leaders who have been doing this work already and who have so much experience and wisdom—the work that my generation will need to continue once they transition into spirit world.

So it means a lot to me to have the honor and privilege of being in service to these incredible women, and I’m just an elder-in-training, just learning how to be strong from some of the strongest women that I know, because it’s going to require a lot of strength with what our generation is going to experience in the next decades.

You know, Creator’s will be done before mine, if I'm granted a longer life. I’m just in preparation, listening, following orders, and learning what it takes—the spiritual strength, the

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physical, mental, emotional strength that it takes—to gather so many people together around a prayer.

Gavin: You mentioned women, and this has been a women-led walk. What’s the significance of that?

Niria Alicia: I mean, we’ve seen toxic patri-

archy, and I want to say toxic patriarchy and toxic masculinity, because I also understand and know in my heart that there is such a thing as sacred patriarchy and sacred masculinity. Right now, this toxic patriarchal system that has built this colonial capitalistic world, where folks have forgotten what it means to care for one another; they’ve forgotten what it means to gather around sacred things.

It’s important for young Indigenous women to rise up and reclaim our rightful place on this planet and help guide our communities, our children. Help guide some of our men to also step back into their role as our sacred protectors and warriors. It’s time for the sacred feminine to rise up now and heal Mother Earth. And it’s important because, as women, we have a different connection to this world. We are connected through our wombs to the waters. We are connected to the land. I mean, we are the portals of creation through which men come, through which women come. So we are that portal.

Right now, there’s so much desecration that it’s the creatrixes that need to come forward and recreate and heal and support that process in a good way, because we’ve seen toxic masculinity and patriarchy lead us down a re-

“ It’s time for the sacred feminine to rise up now and heal Mother Earth.

And it’s important because, as women, we have a different connection to this world. We are connected through our wombs to the waters. We are connected to the land... We are the portals of creation through which men come, through which women come.

McCloud River (istock.com/Laurens Botha).

ally scary path. We’re trying to steer towards the right direction.

this has been held for three years, and it’s kept a lot of us strong during this two-week journey.

Gavin: So you’re holding a salmon in your hands [referring to the carved wooden salmon that is carried on the entire Run4Salmon journey].

Gavin: What would you say to those who aren’t indigenous to this continent? How can they—

Niria Alicia: This salmon staff has been with

Niria Alicia: We all have a sacred responsi-

us since year one. It’s helped lead us and remind us of why we’re doing this.

bility to Mother Earth, whether you’re native, whether you’re—everything, you know, it doesn’t matter who you are, what you are, or whatever racial category. I mean, that’s a social construct that has caused a lot of pain for other folks who aren’t—who don’t have white skin. We need to remember what it means to be human, what it means to protect that which gives us life.

The salmon has also gone to Aotearoa New Zealand where Chief Caleen and the Winnemem Wintu tribe went this summer to collect DNA samples of their ancestral salmon. We can bring those salmon back to these rivers.

It’s a really sacred, special staff. It knows the waters of the Rakaia River. It knows the salmon that are on that side of the world that we’re trying to bring back here because, as you know, those salmon weren’t native there, they were taken there. And now that they were taken from our rivers here, from these watersheds to the Rakaia River, they put the dam up and now there’s no salmon runs that go up all the way to the Winnemem Wintu’s river.

So it’s really powerful. It’s a big honor to hold it. Everybody hopefully is going to get a chance to hold it. We’re really hoping that the children will get a chance to hold it and just be with it and feel that prayer. You know,

So anyone who isn’t tribal or native: know your ancestors, know your story, know your positionality and your position in this world.

Some folks have a position through systems that have been put in our society—[they] have been positioned to have greater access to power. So know that and be aware of that, and be mindful that it’s time to dissolve those systems so that we can all come together as a human family. Not knowing your indigenous roots is not an excuse to not stand up for others right in this moment. It’s going to take everybody. It’s not just an Indigenous problem, it’s everyone’s problem.

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Series edited by Gavin Van Horn AUTHOR OF WAY OF COYOTE: SHARED JOURNEYS IN THE URBAN WILD

Robin Wall Kimmerer BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF BRAIDING SWEETGRASS and

John Hausdoerffer CO-EDITOR OF WHAT KIND OF ANCESTOR DO YOU WANT TO BE?

Order now through Bookshop.org!

(Click anywhere on this ad to go to Bookshop.)

PUBLISHED BY THE CENTER FOR HUMANS AND NATURE.

www.humansandnature.org

LISTEN ONLINE

Photo credit: Lu Aya. Courtesy of Niria Alicia.

Enraizada CEREMONY AND SONGS BY

Niria Alicia

E

NRAIZADA—“ROOTED”—is a powerful and prayerful audio ofrenda from Niria Alicia, Xicana Indígena climate justice organizer and activist who is deeply rooted in ceremony. Niria recorded these songs—the first two of which she wrote, and the third of which is a traditional Nahuatl song— during the quarantine as ofrendas for meditation and strength. Follow the link to listen; they are her gifts to you. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you also to read and listen to Niria Alicia’s interview (also in this issue), in which she describes her involvement in the Run4Salmon, a prayer journey led by Chief Caleen Sisk of Winnemem Wintu. The second song that Niria Alicia sings in this ceremony came to her and the group during the Run4Salmon journey. —Marcy Carbajal, Ed.

Opening

focusing lastly on your heart, the direction of your heart.

Ometeotl.

I want to start by saying thank you for saying yes to your wellness. Oftentimes, when we are faced with challenges, when anxiety is heavy on our chests and when sadness is weighing heavily on our hearts, the first things that we start to say no to are the very things that bring us wellness. For me, those medicines have always been prayer and song.

And so today I want to share with you music and prayer, and maybe the sound of the birds and the water, all the things that help me return to my center and help me ground into this existence and to be here, in the here and now. It’s so easy, with everything changing so fast, for us to slip into our fear, our sadness, our grief, and to miss the opportunity of being with what is here now.

Welcoming in the sacred energies of the universe. Giving thanks to the direction of the east, el rumbo del Quetzalcoatl. Greeting and giving thanks to the sacred direction of the north, el rumbo sagrado de Tezcatlipoca.

Turning towards the west and giving thanks to el rumbo de Xipe Totec, to the south, offering our gratitude and our love to the sacred direction of el Huitzilin. Looking up into the sky, out into the universe, out into the cosmos, lifting our hands and calling in that precious divine energy, giving things to this beautiful direction. And kneeling down, bowing before our sacred Tonanzin, our Mother Earth. Giving thanks to her for holding us, for loving us, for taking care of us in these times. And then looking deep inside into the direction of our hearts. Maybe you want to feel your heartbeat and put your hand on your heart in this moment and send some love to your precious heart. Give thanks for this gift of life.

Good day to you, my relatives, my name is Niria Alicia. I chose to open up this grounding practice in the same way that my elders have taught me to open up any ceremony and to close any ceremony. This practice is so powerful because it expands our consciousness out in all directions. So as to connect with the greater universe that we are all a part of. I also know that each direction has its own meaning for different people all over the world. So I welcome you, at the end of this, to close off in whatever way feels right to you, in all directions, and just offer your gratitude and your love to each direction,

One beautiful word, or lesson of wisdom, that my mom left me was [when I was] in high school. I struggled with depression and anxiety, and she didn’t really understand how to help me, but she said one thing to me that changed my life. She said, “If you’re suffering, offer your suffering. Don’t suffer in vain.”

And when she said that to me, it just completely changed the way I even viewed my own suffering. She said, “offer your suffering for those who have less than you. For those who are less fortunate.” She couldn’t understand why, even though I had food and shelter and a family, I still had immense grief in my chest. And so, ever since she said that to me, I have tried to ask myself and invite myself back into this practice—into offering my suffering up to the universe, to suffering with intention, and seeing it as an opportunity and as an invitation to connect

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on a deeper level with the greater suffering of our world.

And so I hope that, whatever suffering you have in your heart today, you will put that down, or that you will give it back to the earth, and just offer it right back to Mother Earth. Or offer it to the millions and possibly billions of people in these times who are suffering from lack of access to water, from lack of access to healthy nutritional food, for all our incarcerated relatives, for all our endangered species. Just connect with that. And maybe you also will feel a little lighter and feel a little more connected to the wider web that we are all connected to. So I want to ask for your permission to pray with you and pray for you, as well as sing to you. Whatever you’ve got to do to get comfortable, get in your body—maybe you want to lay down, maybe you want to sit down—whatever it is, feel free to do that in this moment.

So with that, I want to introduce some of the songs that I will be singing for you today.

The first song is called “Ritmo de la Luz,” rhythm of light. The song came to me here, during this quarantine—and you’ll hear the lyrics—I believe that I received the song to sing in the mornings, to help set a vibration and intention and a rhythm that can help me orient the rest of my day, despite whatever comes my way.

The second song that I would like to offer is a song that came to us during the Run4Salmon prayerful journey that Chief Calleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu tribe leads. And this song is a powerful song that helps us reconnect to the celestial mystery

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that these salmon connect to when they are returning home. And you’ll understand more once you hear the lyrics, but it invites us into listening to the stars and flowing like the salmon right back to our homes once we’re done flowing and swimming in the depths of our oceans.

The third song I want to share with you to ground us deeper into our existence and into this moment is a Nahuatl song that we sing a lot in ceremony. And this song, we sing to our Sacred Mother, Tonanzin. It’s a loving song that I hope, when you listen to it, you will let it carry you back into your body, back into your breath, and that you will let the song just melt away any frustration, any sadness, any pain that you are holding in any part of your body, mind, spirit, or heart. I hope that this song can give you that peace of mind and can remind you that our Mother Earth loves us so much, and she’s still ready to provide for us in these times, despite all the harm that we’ve caused her; she’s still our great teacher of compassion and forgiveness.

And lastly, I will close us off with a prayer.

I hope that you can revisit this recording whenever you want to be in that journey, in that invitation of how to transmute our pain and our worries in these times, and melt into these songs that offer us that vibration to return to oneness and to return to peace.

Even if it’s just for one moment. I hope you guys enjoy it. I’m sending you all so much love, whoever you are, wherever you are.

We’ll get through this. It’s just a matter of time. And we must trust in that.

Ritmo de la Luz [Timestamp: 10:30]

El cielo se pinta de colores.

Los campos se visten de flores.

Y nuestros corazones vibran al ritmo de la luz.

Y nuestros corazones vibran al ritmo de la luz.

The sky is filling up with colors.

The mountains are blooming with flowers.

And our hearts dance into the rhythm of eternal light.

And our hearts dance into the rhythm of eternal light.

Salmon Song [Timestamp: 12:27]

If we listen to the stars in the sky, We will walk in harmony with everything that’s alive.

We’ll be rivers running through the sky From the oceans to the mountains till the salmon arrive, From the oceans to the mountains till the salmon arrive.

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Huey Tonanzin [Timestamp: 16:15]

Huey Tonantzin, Tonanzin.

[Our great, venerable Mother Earth*] Huey Tonantzin, Tonanzin.

Huey Tonantzin, Tonanzin.

Huey Tonantzin, Tonanzin.

Ipalnemoani [Giver of life] Noyolotl tatzin [Our hearts vibrate] Tlazocamati, Tonantzin.

[Thank you, venerable Mother Earth] Ipalnemoani Noyolotl tatzin Tlazocamati, Tonantzin.

*Loose translation from Nahuatl. Note that there are a few versions of this song along with variations in spelling.

Closing [Timestamp: 18:00]

Giving thanks to our Great Mother, Tonanzin.

Letting these vibrations, this medicine, this music vibrate deep down into her earth core and ripple outwards into all of creation that exists on her skin, in her soils, in her rivers, deep down in her oceans, blessing our sacred Mother Earth, and those of us who are here living in these times.

I hope that you receive this medicine. I hope that you let these beautiful vibrations ripple inside of your oceans, ripple inside of your hearts, and nourish each and every single one of yourselves. May it wash away any anxiety, any frustration, any worries that may cloud your mind and your soul in these times. May these songs remind us of the power of Mother Earth. May the songs remind us that we are all one, and may the songs remind us of our strength in our unity and how much our Mother Earth loves us and how she will love us through each other. So let us sing these songs in times that are troubled and let us be Mother Earth for one another. Let us be nourishing. Let us be compassionate. Let us be caring with our children, with our elders, with our plants and our animals. Let us be this vibration for the healing and for the joy of all life.

Ometeotl.

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STAYING AFLOAT WORDS AND ART BY SUZY GONZÁLEZ

T

HROUGH XICANX VEGANISM, I find interest in the decolonization of one’s diet, or a desire to reclaim the pre-colonial plant-based nourishment of my ancestors through food and herbal medicine.

Through visual art, curation, and self-publishing, I analyze what it means to decolonize art, art history, and consumption, and to embrace the lessons that the earth has to teach us. And in embodying a neo-Mestiza/Xicana identity, I recognize where my materials originate: acrylic paints have Mexican origins, oil paints have European origins, and corn husks have Indigenous origins.

I see the corn husks as the skin of the figures, speaking to Mesoamerican creation stories that our very beings are created from maiz. I relate each material to a part of my identity, and recognize when they mix or resist one another on the painting surface. This material use speaks to gendered ideas of nature and culture as well as the dichotomy of folk art and fine art. I call these paintings “mestiza media” works, reclaiming the “mestizo”

Float © Suzy González

Triptych: Precipitate (Rain), Evaporate (Sun), and Condense (Cloud). © Suzy González

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ISSUE 04 | POWER 45

colonial caste label, and using it to partly replace the term “mixed media.” I define mestiza media as when an artist uses multiple types of media that originate from the region(s) of their ancestors. Accepting mixedness is also about embracing queerness and the fluid nature of identity. Through these works, I create figures that exist in between socially constructed binaries.

but also to how we are enduring through the impacts of climate change. Water is life, but it can also be death—nothing has just one side to it. What can we do for the earth, for ourselves, and for one another to thrive in the waters of this planet?

FLOAT

The triptych Precipitate (Rain), Evaporate (Sun), and Condense (Cloud) [pages 44-45] personifies the cyclical nature of water and our human relationship to the elements.

It reflects waves of emotions, growth, and change that each person goes through in a day, a year, or a lifetime.

Painting Float [cover and page 43] was a different process for me. I had no idea what image I was going to create, and it sort of just created itself. I really began to see the corn husks as collaborators here rather than just materials I would “use.” I began by adhering purple-dyed corn husks to the canvas and then adding acrylic paint in an abstract manner as it felt necessary.

Since I’ve always been drawn to the human figure, I added a solitary subject. I did this by standing with my back to the painting hung on the wall, and traced my silhouette with paint. The height that the painting was hung at determined that the figure would be on the bottom half of the painting. I felt a sinking feeling from this, and since the palette was blue, water made sense to me. I was thinking a lot about anxieties revolving around politics and our environment. When it came time to title it, I thought about whether this figure was sinking or swimming. I landed on Float as the title, because at times we may feel like we’re drowning or flourishing, but we are often somewhere in the middle, staying afloat. It has to do with optimism and pessimism and how they relate to mental health,

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PRECIPITATE, EVAPORATE, CONDENSE

The sun shines on the earth, evaporating bodies of water, and this might reflect nourishment or renewal. Then the water vapor forms into clouds through condensation, with feelings of fullness— perhaps satisfying or overwhelming. Finally, the water becomes so heavy that rainfall occurs through precipitation, signifying grief, release, or even joy. And then the process repeats. When we look at our climate today, we know that these processes can be elevated to treacherous levels, and that we are in need of balance.

I made this work during COVID-19 quarantine while thinking a great deal about plant medicine, mental health, body awareness, and the continuous violence enacted upon people of color and the planet.

We are not separate from nature. What lessons have we forgotten that she has to teach us?

No Hate, No Fear © Suzy González ISSUE 04 | POWER 47

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MAIZ PROTEST SIGNS Text works like No Hate, No Fear [page 47] from my Maiz Protest Sign series help me to experiment with protest as art. I collect chants that I hear at marches and rallies for my work. They’re a way to bring literal voices together for a common goal, and I see protest chanting as a form of ritual. They bring hope to the idea of people power that we collectively hold. In creating decorative protest signs, I have fused art and activism in order to mark a chapter in time of our contemporary civil rights struggle.

In Close the Camps [page 48], the material usage has ties to power hierarchies, survival, and post-colonial spirituality. With multiple cultural influences, the young figure prays to close the contemporary U.S. concentration camps. In times of suffering, some may find light in the very method of worship that was forced upon our ancestors. I’m interested in these difficult human complexities. The words flow in and out of the cage bars as those of us on the outside work in solidarity for the imprisoned, as we protest

against the administration and the violent dehumanization of courageous people. The husks behind the bars signify the number of Indigenous people in the camps, and an entire tube of European oil paint was used to create the thick barrier of prison bars over the figure. Still, with hope, the praying hands peek through.

THE POWER OF ART I have no doubt in the power of art. Creative thinkers are needed to progress ideas and movements forward. Art is not neutral, and artists have the choice to create for a purpose. My work serves as a platform for working through my own intersections as well as striving for an intercultural conversation with folks outside of my identities. This, I hope, will open doors to compassion and healing in this world of destruction.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH

Brenda Salgado

I

’M GUESSING YOU’VE heard the refrain as often as I have: we are living through “unprecedented times.” Part awakening, part reckoning, part restructuring, the shift is palpable. We’re all feeling the rumble in some form and navigating our way through. So how do we stabilize ourselves and even flourish during these times of change? How might we prepare ourselves to be of greatest service? Where might we find our power? I caught up with Brenda Salgado, spiritual teacher and social justice worker, who shared her wisdom on this topic in the following interview.

Brenda Salgado has over 20 years of experience in organizing and social justice, nonprofit leadership, and spiritual teaching. She is the founder of Nepantla Consulting, editor of Real World Mindfulness for Beginners, and former director of the East Bay Meditation Center, which, as she describes, “is considered by many to be one of the most diverse Buddhist Sanghas in the country and a model of gift economy and collective leadership.” These days, Salgado is using her gifts—her power—to found a land trust that will provide space for healers to practice in ways that are culturally and economically in tune with their ancestral traditions. May you find encouragement in her words.

—M. Carbajal, Ed. Ofrenda Magazine (OM): Thank you for sharing your wisdom with our community, Brenda! You’re actively involved in so many projects—consulting, working as a speaker and healer, and now, founding a land trust. Would you mind sharing more about your background and current projects?

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Brenda Salgado (BS): I am a first-genera-

tion Nicaraguan-American, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. I am grateful to my parents and my ancestors for instilling in me the values and teachings that have led me to cultural, spiritual, and social justice work.

I work as a curandera, Toltec energy healer, and consultant. I am committed to the role of culture, ceremony, relationship building and community wisdom in creating a society filled with wholeness and beauty. I believe that individuals, families and groups have tremendous amounts of untapped knowledge, wisdom, and medicine within them.

The best part of my work is creating space for that knowledge to be rediscovered and unleashed in the world.

I’m currently working to establish the Nepantla Land Trust, which will house a center for healing and spiritual renewal. We’re in the process of fundraising to purchase a 58acre property in the East Bay [San Francisco Bay area, California].

There are many traditional community teachers and healers in the area who are committed to serving low-income communities and grassroots leaders, but they are often challenged to find culturally appropriate and reasonably priced spaces in the East Bay that would allow them to offer their teachings on a gift, reciprocity, or low-cost basis. The vision is to create space for this community and these services. The land will also serve as the administrative home for a network of properties, for community healing and cere-

mony, and open to hosting teachers so they can share more widely in the community.

OM: You’ve spoken about, from the perspective of your tradition, the time or epoch we’re entering—the Time of the Sixth Sun—and what that means for our planet and our relationships with each other. Can you share more about your understanding of this special time that we’re in and what it’s calling us all to do?

BS: In the Toltec understanding, we are clos-

ing the Time of the Fifth Sun, and embarking on the Time of the Sixth Sun. (You can watch my presentation on this topic on YouTube.)

This is a time of great planetary and consciousness shift, a time of stepping into our Quetzalcoatl path, where, in the language of enlightenment, we are “blossoming on our path of destiny.” I know that each of us has a unique part to play in this great unfolding, and also that part of what is required of me is to lean into personal, ancestral, and karmic healing, as well as reclaim my power, sovereignty, heart, and wisdom in ways that hold integrity and compassion for self and for others.

ages me energetically by placing Kindred Spirits on my path, companions of destiny.

It may feel as if we are just meeting, and yet at the same time, feel like familiar or ancient friends. Sometimes these new relationships are human, and other times they are relatives from other worlds (trees, animals, ancestors).

Each time it feels beyond words, more of a feeling of curiosity, synchronicity, and align-

In the Toltec understanding, we are closing the Time of the Fifth Sun, and embarking on the Time of the Sixth Sun... This is a time of great planetary and consciousness shift...

OM: This great planetary shift is meaningful and important—but as humans, of course, we often experience resistance to change. How would you say we can find our power and rootedness in the midst of this “unfolding”?

ment—and a mutual attention to energy and the creation of relationship rather than rushing to do something together. And often I sense a mutual witnessing of our roles as bridge builders and edge walkers in these times. Nepantleras unite!

BS: Though sometimes this journey may

Here’s an example of what I mean. I sometimes receive requests to speak at events, in

seem daunting, the universe often encour-

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person and online. If it is someone I don’t know, I usually ask if we can speak first, share our stories, and talk about our paths and what spirit and ancestors are calling us to these days. Then, after this occurs, we can discuss the intention around the event and if we feel mutual alignment to work together.

It is always an invitation to be human BEings together first, to build relationship before talking about human DOings. The response folks have to this request is already a gate of sorts, to pass through together.

The nonhuman kingdoms all have deep kinship and wisdom to share if we are able to slow down and deeply listen in this way.

Recently, a woman named Sara reached out to me about a Plant Spirit Herbalism Summit she was hosting. In her email, she wrote this: “Plants are such loving beings of service. And in particular with everything that’s happened over the past year in the context of bigger planetary changes occurring, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Plants are asking to connect more in reciprocity and offer more of their multidimensional healing gifts for all who are genuinely interested with an open heart. I’m so in awe and grateful for how much they continue to love and support us as humans.”

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This was meaningful to me. I felt excited to talk to her and share our stories of plant relationships, of our listening to these wise and loving nonhuman guides. We delighted in sharing what the plants have been whispering to us, teaching us.

When we ended our call, I was musing on the word “nepantla” and a quote from Gloria Anzaldua’s “Speaking across the Divide” that I love: “Nepantleras are the supreme border crossers. They act as intermediaries between cultures and their various versions of reality... They serve as agents of awakening, inspire and challenge others to deeper awareness, greater conocimiento, serve as reminders of each other’s search for wholeness of being.”

In Sara’s invitation, I saw her desire to serve in a Nepantlera role between humans and our beloved plant teachers and friends, and to gather a bunch of other plant Nepantleras to speak from our hearts, to share our various stories of deep relationship, and listen into what the plants want to speak through us.

OM: I love that, in addition to finding power and strength in relationship with kindred spirits, you mention cultivating relationships with plants and other nonhuman beings. We humans often neglect our relationships (in a reflective way) with other species.

Could you share more on this topic?

What are your thoughts?

BS: The nonhuman kingdoms all have

deep kinship and wisdom to share if we are able to slow down and deeply listen in this

way. A book I am delighting in right now is Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Poetic, wise and observant, Gumbs delves into wisdom that our marine mammal relatives have to offer us. She offers meditations and invitations from these relatives that can help us individually and as a collective human family as we navigate these times of shift, to invite us to “Listen,” “Breathe,” “Stay Black,” and “Go Deep.”

other kingdoms that have so much to share with us in these times.

OM: You identify as a “nepantlera,” which is a powerful calling. (Ofrenda released an issue on the theme of nepantla, which has different interpretations but generally strong and important connotations in Latinx and Xicanx spiritual activism—including being able to bridge or weave together cultures, perspectives, or worldviews.)

Can you tell us about what being a “nepantlera” means to you?

BS: Reflect on these questions: Where have

BS: These days, I often find myself bridging

and serving as an intermediary in community when conflicts arise in organizations or communities, holding space, bringing in ceremony and circle work, and leading activities that help people slow down and hear one another across difference.

In moments of joy, discomfort and vulnerability, I delight when community has the courage to bring their experiences, challenges, and collective wisdom to co-create a different way forward together. I feel grateful to be a Nepantlera not just between people, but also between people and their ancestors, and between people and the

OM: Thank you for sharing your thoughts and wisdom with us. In closing, what advice do you have to share with Ofrenda’s audience? How would you encourage them to engage in the power of kinship—or to work as a “nepantlera” between humans or species?

you been able to slow down and listen deeply to our nonhuman relatives? To those you find yourself in difficulty or challenge with at times? Where are you being called to serve as a Nepantlera and to contribute to this threshold, this rite of passage, we are in as a human family? What healing work, personal and ancestral, has helped you to step into this role more fully?

And think about sharing the wisdom: Who have been your mentors on your Nepantlera path, and whom have you mentored and passed things to? And do you have peers to be in circle with, encouraging one another in this sacred work?

May you be energetically supported and find your Kindred Spirits, your companions of destiny as you do, Beloved Ones!

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Grief

AND THE

9-Shower Ritual

WORDS BY

Cuauhtli Cihuatl Sharing a recent personal experience, curandera and Indigenous elder Maestra CC walks through a ritual to guide the bodymindspirit from shock to reintegration.

A

RECENT INCIDENT refocused me to my grief. Traveling by myself for the first time since before the pandemic, I was not prepared for the energy surrounding me and permeating every pore of my senses. The buzzing of people’s energy, the consumption of consumerism, the lack of respect for personal space, and the entitlement of “mine” over-stimulated my whole being. My stomach was in knots, my hands were shaking, and my inner chiquitx (inner child) was full.

Boarding the airplane was intense, like the “survival of the fittest” fighting for the best seats or cows in a cattle truck pushing

towards the end of the line with wide-eyed, tormented faces. I sat at an open seat using my hands to brush off energy. A couple using their outside voices with entitlement felt it necessary to disrespect me about how, why, and where my backpack was located and about the empty seat between myself and them. I took a breath and calmly proceeded to explain that I had taken a seat to care for myself. I was not prepared for the animosity coming out of their mouths. The stewardess intervened. Everyone calmed down, and the flight was on its way.

I looked out of the window and found myself in tears. Tears of grief for the lack of humanity, for the shame I felt, for feeling vulnerable, for the souls lost to the pandemic, for the wandering souls trying to find their way back from isolation, for my body not being strong enough, for feeling pendeja for not defending myself…tears for feeling death close by, tears just because…

I found comfort in the voice of a comadrita, a kind woman nearby, who was able to hear my pain and grief. Her words refocused me to feel what I was feeling. Centering into myself, I heard the ancestors whisper that I should shower using the Nine-Shower Ritual and let the water cleanse me. The Nine-Shower Ritual would connect me to the nine stages of grief, from shock to reintegration.

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Nine-Shower Ritual 1. Shock Shock was my body’s first reaction as my skin felt the cold water down my back, mimicking the shock my spine felt from all the chaotic energy and frenzy. It was important to connect both types of shock to my skin’s sensory mechanism in order to center what I was feeling.

2. Disorganization Disorganization followed shock, as my mind could not think. I struggled for clarity: Where was my mask, my phone, my wallet, my room key? The lukewarm water in my face felt like a soft caress from my abuelita, and the mind chatter—the mitote of What if? What could have happened?—slowly disappeared.

3. Denial Denial came next, as the third shower trickled to my hands. I cupped the water and splashed it on my face as my mind tried to deny the reality of the situation, preferring instead to believe a mistake was made. With each splash, I stated, “I love myself, I accept myself, I embrace myself.”

4. Depression Depression or low feelings came as my heart felt immense sadness for the world, for humanity, for Mother Earth, for me, for you, for us.

I used the water to receive clarity and release the sadness as I turned my body towards each sacred direction.

5. Guilt Guilt and shame set in as I thought the incident would not have occurred if I had done, or had not done, something. I felt like I didn’t have control over anything and that I should have been more vocal.

I stood over the shower drain and watched the shame and guilt go down with the water into the darkness of the drain pipes.

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6. Anxiety or Panic Attacks The stress of the incident was overwhelming, and by the sixth shower, my legs folded, and I sat on the floor with the water running down my head and back. I slowly performed some deep-breathing exercises in each direction as if I were conducting a chanupa (sacred prayer pipe) ceremony. The deep breathing helped me manage and reduce feelings of anxiety.

7. Aggression Feelings are sometimes released as aggression, hostility, or anger.

I found myself using the West direction jaguar scream exercise to release my anger. Facing up into the shower head and yelling while the water poured on my face, I was able to desahogar echando maldiciones (vent frustrations) in a way that won’t damage me or others.

My screams echoed while the water washed my anger away.

8. Resolution Resolution set in by the eighth shower. I used a vocalization exercise with Spanish vowel sounds. Aaahhh to open my tonalli to Creator, Eheehehe to clear the grief from my throat, Iiiiiiiiiii to heal my heart, OHOHOhooo to center my strength, and UUUuuuu to feel the snake Quetzalcoatl clearing ancestral wounds from my nape to my tailbone. This exercise helped me release the grief and begin to accept the situation.

9. Reintegration The final shower gave me the message to use movement as a step to rebuild, a sense of moving forth and starting to feel more positive about life, humanity, and my future. I wiggled my fingers, toes, shook my hands and legs, stretched, did planks, and released the energy with a final, deep, full-belly breath.

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Any triggering event can create strong feelings and have an impact on those involved. Everyone is different, and moving through the stages of grief must go at a personal pace. The Nine Showers took me three hours to complete. I am grateful I was able to be still, process, and take my time with each shower so that I could allow the sacred water to comfort me.

With no tools, herbs, or traditional medicina, my body processed the stages as the water gifted me relief.

Agua bendita, Agua bendita, limpia esta alma Agua bendita, Agua bendita, limpia este cuerpo Tata Tonatiuh, Tata Tonatiuh, dale fuerza con tu luz Madre Tierra, Madre Tierra, sustenta este corazón Blessed Water, blessed Water, cleanse this soul Blessed Water, blessed Water, cleanse this body Father Sun, Father Sun, give strength with your light Mother Earth, Mother Earth, nourish this heart

My spirit, heart, mind and body needed the catharsis, el desahogo, and now I’m ready to move forth, travel, be of service, and live. No more Judas body labeling. I love myself, I accept myself, I embrace myself.

A’ho Ometeotl

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Art by Tiana Crispino

Restorative Heartset Mindset

AND

WORDS BY

Marisol Quevedo Rerucha ART BY TIANA CRISPINO

What does it mean to be restorative? How can we build a culture of equity, connection, and healing? Educator, writer, and advocate Marisol Quevedo Rerucha shares her wisdom in this excerpt from Beyond the Surface of Restorative Practices.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This nourishing selection is an excerpt

from Beyond the Surface of Restorative Practices: Building a Culture of Equity, Connection, and Healing

by Marisol Quevedo Rerucha. Rerucha, an educator who serves as the Chief of Strategy and Partnerships for the National Parents Union, is an expert in restorative practices in schools. (This excerpt is taken from a chapter by the same title and has been edited for length.)

Rerucha writes and speaks with humility, vulnerability, grace, and power. Though she has written this book specifically for educators, the wisdom it contains extends far beyond the field of education. I highly recommend this book to anyone—whether parents, service professionals, organizers, workshop facilitators, or even ecologists—working to promote healing and strong relationships in community with others. You can find links to purchase a copy of the book on ofrendamagazine.com and at the end of the excerpt. Enjoy it, share it, support it. —Marcy Carbajal, Ed.

Why We Need Restorative Practices

I

N MY TWENTY-ONE years as an educator, I have witnessed time and time again the power that teachers, staff, and leaders can have on educational systems and, most importantly, on students.

Human beings are social by nature, and we rely heavily on our relationships with others to form who we are in this world. We can all turn to our childhoods and recognize that who we have become is largely a result of our experiences with those who raised us

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Cover image courtesy of the publisher, Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

(or were supposed to). When we were adolescents, our friends also had a tremendous influence on us. As adults, we continue to be shaped by our relationships with others. We learn so much from them—how to behave, communicate, and speak. Our values are based on this learning. Just as love, joy, celebration, and achievement are a part of our human experience, so are pain, loss, and fear.

We need restorative practices because of this reality. Many of us walk in this life without having healed from the pain, loss, or fear that we received in childhood, adolescence,

and adulthood. Many of us also carry historical and ancestral trauma that, if unhealed, will be passed down to our future generations, causing continuous pain through a cycle of trauma. Healing and learning from our pain and trauma are possible, but only when we are willing and able to reflect on and own all of our experiences—the good, the bad, and the ugly. The truth? This is tremendously hard and scary work. But when we don’t do it, we continue to keep ourselves from reaching our true potential for goodness.

Restorative practices provide a framework for being, reflecting, forgiving, and growing.

We need this framework because there are so many of us who are carrying trauma that can show itself as fear, hurt, anger, disappointment, blame, distrust, control, self-aggrandizing, insecurity, and so much more. When we don’t face these truths within ourselves, we continue to inflict our pain onto others.

Restorative practices are transformational in that they also offer a way of being through which systems and organizations can heal.

Educational systems and those who work in them have a great deal of influence on students—on who they are and who they are becoming. Adults in school systems deserve the opportunity to grow and heal from the personal and professional harm that has occurred in their lives. By engaging and becoming truly restorative, teachers, leaders, and school staff can then offer this transformational way of being to students, parents, and their community. Imagine every person being able to communicate their remorse and acknowledge the suffering they inflicted—and ask for forgiveness and the ability to repair the damage. In order for this

to happen, adults in school systems need to have the opportunity to grow and heal from the personal and professional harm that has occurred in their lives. [...]

What Does It Mean to Be Restorative?

Let’s begin by sharing what restorative practices are not: They’re not new. They’re not simply a step-by-step process to fix students and staff. They’re not a manual full of topics to get students to share their experiences, thoughts, and emotions. They’re not a training that you complete or a book that you read. They’re not just about mediation or forgiveness.

Pedro [my colleague and a contributor to this book] and I have each been working in education for over twenty years. We understand the educator’s need to see restorative practices as a framework for designing lessons or learning processes in the classroom to change student behavior. As educators, we have a tendency to try something new with a hard focus on outcomes. We want to know, “How does this work? How will this improve my classroom/teaching? When will I see a change in my students?” But restorative practices are not just an outcome.

Restorative practices are sagrados, sacred.

These practices are rooted in indigeneity and offer a way of life that recognizes our responsibility for self, others, our community, our Mother Earth, and all earth’s creatures.

Restorative practices provide a way to both build and repair relationships with self, others, and the broader community. We adopt these teachings—this way of being—so that

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“Restorative practices are sagrados, sacred. These practices are rooted in indigeneity and offer a way of life that recognizes our responsibility for self, others, our community, our Mother Earth, and all earth’s creatures.

grounded and you embrace vulnerability and authenticity in yourself and others.

we can improve and build a stronger society for future generations.

Restorative practices are based on the belief that all human beings want and deserve to be heard, seen, and accepted. They are based on the belief that all human beings intrinsically want to do the right thing and embrace growth. People who have a restorative mindset and what we refer to as a heartset are authentic and reflective; they can build trust, listen with their hearts as well as their minds, embrace difficult and awkward situations, seek growth, and provide opportunities for others to grow. They are human-focused to their core.

Having a restorative mindset means that you have the tools and methods to guide restorative practices. It also means that you believe others are capable of wanting to address and repair harm. Having a restorative heartset means that you’re emotionally

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Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention and rehab program, believes that a truly restorative person doesn’t just serve students, staff, and community, but savors life with them.

He says, “We don’t go to the margins to rescue but to be rescued.” We recognize that we walk in life alongside students, connect beyond academic learning, and feel impact through our shared human experience. Restorative practices allow us to create a space where we can be heard, seen, and accepted.

Through dialogue, we can share who we are, where we come from, what we desire, what our hopes are for ourselves, our families, and our communities. When we listen to the hearts, pain, and dreams of others, we feel truly connected in our shared experiences as human beings. We stop seeing people as the other or as having the potential to be our enemy or the bad guy. This connection is the basis for healing and problem solving.

Restorative practices are about being and doing.

In our society, we have a difficult time being direct with others about what we think or feel for fear of hurting someone else’s feelings or of being perceived in a negative way.

Talking with someone who you perceive as having hurt or harmed you is uncomfortable and scary. Many of us fear being judged or labeled, and we avoid real conversations. We have a tendency to shy away from conversations that may offend or make someone else uncomfortable, and instead, we live in a state of discomfort. We also have a hard time taking responsibility for our own actions that contribute to conflicts. We are not really taught how to solve conflicts or how to effectively communicate when we’ve been harmed. Because most of us haven’t developed healthy conflict-resolution and communication skills, when conflict happens or harm occurs, many people hold their emotions in, which can result in unresolved pain that leads to pent-up anger and stress.

What also happens is that we start to see the person who hurt us as a villain.

A Way to HEAL We are all walking miracles with the immense power to heal. Just take a dive into researching how our bodies repair and heal themselves. Our bodies, fueled by our will, can be miraculous. When I was teaching, I would show my ninth-grade students a short video about the power of the human brain.

This video showed a young girl who had half of her brain removed who had learned again how to walk, talk, and use both sides of her body. A dear friend of mine had an eighty-five-year-old grandmother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and in hospice care. I remember receiving a call telling

me that if I wanted to have one last visit with her, I needed to get in my car and make the two-and-a-half-hour drive as soon as possible. That was over eleven years ago. It is my joy to report that she lived to be ninety-six years of age. Healing is a gift. So, if our bodies have these amazing abilities, don’t we also have the ability to heal our inner beings? Our minds and spirits? Of course we do. [...]

In some households, sharing and reflecting on emotions is not part of the family culture.

My home was full of love, but there was always something to be done, and emotions were almost a luxury of time that no one could afford. My parents were divorced, and they were both open with my brother and me but only to a certain point. We could ask questions about sex, and the effects of drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol. We could even talk about depression—but only as it related to other people. What we couldn’t do—as kids or adults—was ask about their divorce or try to discuss any ways that their actions may have harmed us. My parents either weren’t willing or able to go into that space.

At some point in my adult life, I realized that I was being held captive by pain from my childhood, which resulted in anger, disappointment, and depression.

I became a mother at nineteen years old.

Pretty early on in my adulthood, I decided I wanted to have a healthy relationship with my parents, just as I wanted with my own children. I needed to figure out how to heal from events that happened in my childhood.

A gift of realization was bestowed upon me in the process of acceptance and forgiveness. For every choice we make, there is a consequence. I realized that those who hurt

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me through their words and actions were really acting from their own pain, which had nothing to do with me. In turn, I saw the way my pain caused me to harm others. It was essential that I end this cycle. I made the decision to embrace healing.

As mentioned, restorative practices allow for individual and community healing. Actually, I believe this to be generational work that can transform familial and collective futures.

I use the acronym HEAL to describe my foundational beliefs when providing restorative practices training because the training centers on:

HUMANS. We are all human beings living the same human experience. We deserve respect and love and interpersonal communication, regardless of differences, such as age, sex, ethnicity, and any other forms that our differences take. We have a responsibility to ourselves and each other to understand and acknowledge that we are whole beings with intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and social needs. Restorative practices are both a holistic- and human-centered mindset and heartset that put relationships of self and relationships with others at the forefront.

This acceptance of self and other is a way of healing that allows us to walk in this world authentically.

EMPATHY. We are more alike than not, regardless of any noticeable differences. By listening with our hearts, with dignity and respect, we open ourselves up to the experiences of others. We can then begin to see patterns of experience and frequency. Most

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of us at some point have been targeted for the way we look. Through this, we begin to notice that factors like (but not limited to) poverty, race, abilities, and body size can increase the frequency of negative experiences.

When we share our experiences with one another, we begin to connect and build bridges of understanding. This leads to accepting the need for equity and inclusion in our work, schools, and communities.

AGREEMENTS. By having agreements that are reviewed and revised regularly, we continuously remind participants that their privacy will be honored (unless someone is abusing them or they are considering serious harm to themselves). This creates a culture of trust that allows individuals and communities to be authentic and vulnerable, leading to reflection and potential healing of emotions and harm. It also allows for the true celebration of joy and love. Agreements should include how you will treat one another, celebrate one another with joy, work out disagreements or harm done, and engage in healing as a community.

LOVE for self and others. This is what allows us to heal. As long as we are alive, we have the ability to grow and learn. We embrace a growth mindset because we are committed to being the best humans possible. Growth is difficult and uncomfortable.

In order to grow, we have to brave discomfort within ourselves and between others.

We grow through our experiences and interactions with others. In this work we must encourage, recognize, and celebrate love, joy, and success.

Restorative Practices Start with the Self My friend Ginger shared a statement with me from an episode of Oprah’s Lifeclass made by Iyanla Vanzant that changed my life: “It’s self-full to be first, to be as good as possible to you. To take care of you, to keep you whole and healthy. That doesn’t mean you disregard everything and everyone. But you want to come with your cup full. You know: ‘My cup runneth over.’ What comes out of the cup is for y’all. What’s in the cup is mine. But I’ve got to keep my cup full.” Of course, I’ve heard and thought I understood the analogies of self-care that described filling our own cups or putting our masks on first in an airplane in case of losing cabin pressure. But I had it wrong. I thought the ultimate goal was to fill my cup so that I could empty it again. It never dawned on me that I was to keep my cup full for myself and allow it to overflow so that then I can give that extra goodness to others. [...]

I keep my cup full by being patient with myself and being aware of my thoughts, physical sensations in my body, and my emotions.

Meditation and prayer allow me the time and space to do these internal investigations about what my needs are. Here are some of the things I do to try and keep my cup full: • •

•

•

Connect with Daniel [my partner] in some way every day.

Talk/text with Atiya [my chosen sister who helped me raise my daughters] at least once a day.

Do something to help my body feel healthy, stretched, and strong (a total work in progress).

Practice daily prayer and meditation.

Keeping my cup full is a new practice for me, one that requires actions that come from a deeply personal and reflective place.

“I thought the ultimate goal was to fill my cup so that I could empty it again.

It never dawned on me that I was to keep my cup full for myself and allow it to overflow so that then I can give that extra goodness to others. ”

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• • • • • • • • •

• •

Visit my therapist regularly and more frequently as needed.

Eat breakfast.

Drink a lot of water.

Take medication and supplements as prescribed by my doctor.

Sleep at least seven hours a night.

Connect with my girls via text or in person as often as possible.

Check in with my mom, dad, aunt, and brothers.

See, or check in on, my dear friends regularly.

When a stressful situation occurs, check in with myself, and make a decision on how to react and what to say (or not) that represents who I am.

Visit my chiropractor, acupuncturist, and/or massage therapist regularly.

Engage in community prayer.

By doing the above regularly, I am filling my cup so that I can walk in this world ready to support and give to others, including my family, staff, and strangers. There are other things I need that also fill my soul and inspire me. I am someone who needs to engage with beauty and movement regularly. For this reason, I need to dance, read, write, travel, visit art museums, and engage in creative thinking and activity. This practice of keeping my cup full has allowed me to respond to life’s challenges and blessings in a healthy way.

Forgiveness “If you want to fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” —Toni Morrison Forgiveness allows you to release yourself from being controlled or led by the pain of

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another. We have all been hurt, harmed, or maybe even destroyed by another person’s actions or words. Those of us who get through the pain do so with the gift of true forgiveness. When someone intentionally hurts you, it can be soul crushing. Being harmed has made me doubt my worth and made me feel ashamed. Forgiveness is essential for those who want to live happy lives.

But here’s the catch: to forgive, you have to be willing to accept that you have been hurt, feel that pain, and be willing to release the way that holding on to the harm has served you. This is such a difficult process that in Rising Strong, Brené Brown equates it with the actual process of grieving the loss of someone you love. She writes, “Forgiveness is so difficult because it involves death and grief.” In forgiveness, we have to be willing to let our hurt, blame, and victimhood die.

I learned at an early age that forgiveness isn’t about the other person. It’s about me not allowing my anger, hurt, pain, and disappointment to define who I am. As hard as it can be to forgive someone who hurt me, it’s even harder to forgive someone who has hurt my loved ones. The hardest thing has been learning to forgive myself. [...]

Restorative practices provide a process for harm to be examined from all perspectives.

This examination opens a pathway to forgiveness that releases us from the chains and weight of harm.

Additional Considerations When Pedro [my colleague] and I do the work of restorative practices, we’ve found that the following concepts should be acknowledged.

They aren’t conditions that need to exist for restorative practices to be successful in your classroom, school, or district, but they are the solid foundation upon which our collective and individual way of being is built: •

Our ancestors are those who lived before us and have now passed into the next life. Their actions and connections to us, each other, the earth, and all elements continue to live through us and ceremony. We are guided and protected by them.

•

We are constantly watching out for ourselves and our families. We strive for balance in our lives, taking care of our needs and those of our partners and children before we attempt to take care of others.

In order to do the work, we must have a solid foundation within ourselves, our families, our homes, and our organizations. In [Chapter 2 of the book], we will explore how to build a foundation of trust and collective action.

•

We are all relatives, regardless of shared blood. As human beings, we are related, and we honor, accept, and recognize each other as family.

Excerpt reprinted with permission of the

•

We are future ancestors; our children are future ancestors. We have responsibilities as future ancestors to create goodness in our lives and to care for each other.

Watch Marisol Quevedo Rerucha discuss her book in this interview hosted by the National Parents Union (via YouTube): https://youtu. be/KXsIF6TKRes.

•

We are connected to Mother Earth and all its animals. We have a responsibility to protect and care for both.

publisher Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc. Purchase the book from the publisher at www.daveburgessconsulting.com/books/beyond-the-surface-of-restorative-practices/.

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Developing Symbolic

Communication with

Animals

WORDS BY ERIKA BUENAFLOR AN EXCERPT FROM ANIMAL MEDICINE

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m excited to share an excerpt from Erika Buenaflor’s latest release, Animal Medicine: A Curanderismo Guide to Shapeshifting, Journeying, and Connecting with Animal Allies—available now from Bear & Company. (This excerpt is taken from a chapter by the same title and has been edited for length.)

Like Buenaflor’s other books, Animal Medicine weaves together academic research about ancient Mesoamerica, meaningful activities that help you develop your spiritual and intuitive awareness, and stories of lived experience from Buenaflor’s modern-day curanderismo practice.

What I especially love about the book (and Buenaflor’s perspective in general) is that it’s not just about what we humans can get, take, or gain from non-human animals through spiritual practice, but also what we can give and how we can share. Animal Medicine is an ofrenda of love and respect for ancestral traditions and the more-than-human world we inhabit. You can purchase the book at www.innertraditions.com and through Ofrenda's Bookshop.org site.— Marcy Carbajal, Ed. —

D

EVELOPING SYMBOLIC communication systems with animals can be exciting and informative and help us to advance our spiritual growth and awareness. It can take place in the physical third dimension or in the nonordinary realms* and can be used for many diverse purposes, including obtaining and understanding animals’ spiritual counseling and guidance; seeing and comprehending more layers of a past, present, or future circumstance; and understanding our subconscious and uncon-

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scious primal instincts, fears, and desires.

The development of this communication system presumes that we are doing so with an animal we feel some kind of spiritual connection to or an animal we feel we cannot ignore for whatever reason.

WAYS TO DEVELOP ANIMAL SYMBOLIC COMMUNICATION An integral aspect in developing a symbolic communication method with an animal guide is courting: either we are courting them or they are courting us. Animals, like humans, are susceptible to energy and will pick up on when we are trying to connect with them, especially if we are enjoying it.

When we choose a way to connect with them, such as inviting them to guide us during our meditations, we place attention and energy toward this method of communication. They may then appear to us in our mind’s eye or in the physical world with a message, when we are in the following meditative states of consciousness—taking a meditative introspective walk, sitting down meditating, or doing house chores while in a relaxed mindset. Trust that whatever method of communication you choose to use, it will be picked up energetically by an animal guide you have allowed yourself to open up to.

The process for developing animal symbolic communication includes the following techniques: • •

Familiarizing yourself with the animal Gaining insight into the symbolic meaning via intuitive energy surges

The quetzal carries the “spiritual and shapeshifting medicine” of “majesty, shamanism, prosperity, and leadership.”

• • • • •

Developing intuition to comprehend symbolic meanings Practicing shamanic dreamwork Practicing automatic writing Becoming familiar with the animal’s mythological symbolic discourse Strengthening the energy lines of communication

Familiarizing Yourself with the Animal

One of the most practical and useful methods for developing a symbolic communication is to learn about the animal—its physical attributes, natural habits, and instincts—and focusing on anything in particular that catches your attention. Look

at pictures of the animal as well, especially those that show them doing whatever stood out to you in your research. The internet is a great way to quickly research the habits, appearances, patterns, and traits of animals and to start to discern what stands out to you about them.

Knowing the natural traits of the animal can often help you interpret and make sense of what you saw the animal doing and what it looked like and where it was when it was doing it. If you saw, for example, a nocturnal animal engaging in one of its typically nocturnal activities during the day, whether you saw it in a dream or a waking state, it is more than likely that the animal has an urgent message

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for you. Another example is if you saw an animal that looked larger in her belly than most animals that you saw in your research, it would prompt you to find images of what that animal looks like when it’s pregnant.

If you confirm that the animal is pregnant, then you know that it has a message for you concerning the birth of something.

While I may provide insight as to the symbolic meanings of animals in the second

“Animals, like humans, are susceptible to energy and will pick up on when we are trying to connect with them, especially if we are enjoying it.” part of [Animal Medicine], I encourage you to focus on the animal’s natural characteristics and what it is doing when you see it (however you may see it). I highly recommend doing this before you research the spiritual symbolism of the animal. Learning about the animal first typically helps to strengthen our connection and bond with it, allows the message it has for us to unfold in multifaceted ways, helps us trust our intuition and the messages we receive, and encourages us to develop our own modes of communication with our animal guides.

Animals are generally very telepathic. If they believe that you understand the message they are trying to convey to you, they will communicate with you substantially more

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and be willing to engage in more forms of symbolic communication to convey different messages. For instance, pay particular attention to what an animal is doing or carrying when it approaches you. If it is carrying something in its mouth, you can thank it for delivering a message to you verbally or internally. Unless you have a different symbolic communication developed with that animal, the delivered message will be related to the symbolic meanings of that animal, which typically have to do with the animal’s natural instincts and habits.

If you feel connected with the animal, you can ask it to deliver a certain message to you by appearing and doing something related to its natural instincts and habits. For instance, when I see a large flock of crows or parrots, I know they bring messages of abundance and great fortune—crows bring divine guidance and parrots fiscal-related abundance. [...]

Strengthening the Energy Lines of Communication

When we begin to make an effort to learn more about our animal spirit guides, they typically respond by making more appearances in dreams, trance journeys, or the physical realm. To strengthen the energy lines of communication with your animal guides, do any of the following: •

• •

Continue to meditate on or take a trance journey focusing and inviting them into your life.

Place an image of them on your altar or in your office or home.

If they leave a gift for you, such as a skin

•

• •

•

•

• •

or feather, place this item on your altar or in a place you feel is sacred.

If you see the animal in the physical, greet it and talk or sing to it. Animals tend to love when we sing to them or about them.

Find out what the animal likes to eat and leave this out for them.

Create a song, poem, or story for or about them. (I made up a sweet little song about crow one evening, and the next morning on my hike, there was a beautiful crow feather on the trail at my feet.)

Create a mask of its face or wear regalia representing it and engage in ceremony with these items.

Learn more about the nuances of how it adapts and survives in its environment. If it happens to be your animal coessence [one with which we share a soul energy signature, typically since birth], you probably share similar survival traits.

Dance with your animal, and let it dance through you.

Ask the animal to help you in areas that it is particularly skilled at. For example, eagles are known for their bravery and courage. If this is an area you need help in, invite them into your life, and thank them for helping you with this challenge. [...]

NOTE *From Chapter 1: “The ancient Mesoamericans commonly divided the world into two forms: a quadripartite form, which was horizontally organized into four cardinal spaces with a center in the middle, and a tripartite form, which was a vertical division of the nonordinary realms of Underworld, Middleworld, and Upperworld. Each nonordinary realm had its own division and ordering; sacred gifts, insight, challenges, and medicine; and deities, ancestors, supernatural beings, and animals that were associated with it (and sometimes other realms as well).”

Excerpt from: Animal Medicine: A Curanderismo Guide to Shapeshifting, Journeying, and Connecting with Animal Allies by Erika Buenaflor, M.A., J.D., © 2021 Bear & Company.

Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International. www.InnerTraditions.com

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Rage & El Llanto as

Medicine

WORDS BY ADRIANA L. MEDRANO ART BY TIANA CRISPINO

I

WAS THREE years old when I first experienced the feeling of rage. My parents placed me in daycare, and I clearly remember being upset: “Why am I here? I don’t know these other children or adults. I don’t feel safe.” Yes, I clearly remember feeling and thinking these words.

In particular, I remember “naptime,” when all the other children, about a dozen of them, were placed on little green cots. Some were very obedient, others hesitated a bit, and others cried but were eventually coaxed (threatened) into lying down. I remember one of the daycare workers saying, “Tienen que hacer caso” (you have to do as you’re told). She said this as she slapped a yardstick on her palm. It was not uncommon for schools to use rulers to discipline children back then, in the early 1980s.

Most of the children obeyed her, each keeping one eye open and sobbing quietly. I, on

the other hand, was not having it. I knew this was not a safe place. I let out a scream and began bawling. This is the first llanto I can recollect. I remember it because it was a visceral response as much as an emotional one. I stood there, all two-and-a-half feet of me, screaming to the top of my lungs with my hands balled into fists. I was NOT going down.

I remember screaming even louder when one of the caregivers approached me. Deep down in the pit of my stomach, I knew intuitively that I needed to protect myself. The other children began crying too. I was afraid, and I was ENRAGED. The daycare workers called my father to pick me up because I was being “disruptive.” When he arrived, I told him in a firm, tearful, two-word toddler sentence: “Tu cuida” (you care). Thankfully, my maternal grandmother came to live with us shortly

Image credit: Tiana Crispino

Because what is rage if not Spirit reminding you of your sacredness?

thereafter to raise my brother, my sister, and me. Sadly, however, this wasn’t the last time I would feel unsafe in my life.

I THINK OF how many times my rage actually protected me—how it was there to inform me that I needed to protect myself. I turned forty-one earlier this year, and I am now realizing that I may have less time in front of me than what is behind me. I reflect on my chamaca self (my younger self) and how anger and rage sustained me during that stage of my life. How my pain and grief had manifested into a “don’t mess with me” attitude and “I don’t need anyone” mindset.

I talk to my younger self at times, and I wish she knew that her anger was actually a trauma response and not her identity—that, although things would not get any easier, she would heal and become stronger and more resilient. That there is courage in softness, and that the right people would protect and honor her sacred tenderness. That her “sensitivity” was actually a gift, un don, that would support others in their healing. That her llanto was her spirit teaching her the art of el desahogo (relief). Her ability to feel so deeply, like a vast ocean, would later allow her to teach others how to rescue themselves from drowning.

I ask my younger self for forgiveness, for giving too much and expecting too little from others. I also have so much gratitude for her—for her courage, for her stubbornness, for her steadfastness, and for her wild daydreams. Back then, in the midst of recklessness and sometimes chaotic and violent states, I still had the wisdom to trust this small yet growing part of me. Whether the trust came from my intuition, ancestral

knowledge, or spiritual guidance, no sé, but I remember always thinking, “I deserve more.”

And now, in this season of my life, I feel a different sense of grief: the grief of having to release the young, wounded versions of me, which—even though these once sustained me and kept me alive—must die if I am to birth the next season of my life. What will sustain me now? Who am I if not this scared and angry version of me? Who and what is on the other side?

When the pandemic started, I began to go outside every morning, talk to Source, and hear “surrender to what is, and trust what is to come.” Although my bones feel heavier and heavier every day, something in my spirit feels young again. Something has been renewed. Maybe it is the change of seasons approaching. Maybe it is the sun’s warmth. Maybe it is the promise of abundance after an excruciatingly prolonged period of scarcity.

I think of three-year-old me often—and how wise and courageous she was. How she trusted herself and surrendered to her power. I am proud of you, little mamas, for standing your ground. You deserve all that is good, safe, and sacred in this world. I will walk into this new season a bit more softly, with gratitude and surrender.

But don’t get it twisted; my rage will be honored, and I will use it to protect myself and others. Because what is rage if not Spirit reminding you of your sacredness? Even roses, with their beauty and powerful medicine, have thorns.

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Philosophyas Power

WORDS BY SARALIZA ANZALDUA

K

NOWING IS POWER. It not only makes you see, it heightens your awareness. That awareness can determine the life you live—or don’t live—and can protect you from forces that want to control that life.

Philosophy is a deep kind of knowing, and my journey through the depths began at a young age through poetry.

In fact, my grandmother still has an old cassette tape of me reciting verse spontaneously at four years old. Poetry allowed me to express the grand ideas in my head and engage with the world around me. One of my early favorites was Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven.” I happened to see an animation of the poem during a Halloween special, and its macabre lines spoke to the pervasive horror I experi-

enced as a target of racism in childhood: “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood wondering, fearing.” As a teenager, I often skipped lunch during school to spend time alone in the library, seeking a way to come to terms and understand the complex ideas of identity, love, family, society, and nature. It was in the pages of poetry that I found my answers. A simple metaphor could touch my spirit and explain the unexplainable. It was poetry that said the unsayable.

These songs of the spirit began to bloom when I took my first philosophy class, a required general education credit for my biology degree. The class surveyed the primary areas of European philosophy: Metaphysics, what is stuff made of? Epistemology, what do we know and how

do we know it? Ethics, what is “good” and how can we be good?

and logically linear. There was no room for creativity, no room for spirit.

The exploration opened the door to another dimension, where the thoughts that I once found expressed only in poetry now flowered into stimulating discussions that wove together many strands of thought—nepantla.

Once, while I was reading a book about spiritualism in the graduate lounge at Harvard, a colleague approached and laughed, “I never thought I’d see a book like that in a philosophy department.” It was a painful experience and one micro-aggression among many. Another time, I remember defending the value of poetry in a course about the relationship between truth and language. The professor put his hand on my shoulder to interrupt me, and left it there while he told the whole class why I was wrong.

Until this point in my life, the people around me either tolerated my questions or got annoyed. Some people would walk away, and even become angry, when I asked questions like, “Why do you think that way?” and “Is there another way to think about this?” But in my philosophy classes, I’d found people who were interested in similar questions and were also curious about the world we take for granted.

I continued to study philosophy while earning my bachelor’s degree. It was in a philosophy course that I was introduced to feminist ethics: Should gender determine social value? I even took up smoking a pipe so I could continue conversations with my professor during our thirty-minute breaks.

Poetry had planted the seeds, and in the sun of philosophy, I flowered. I was becoming powerful.

But there were clouds that blocked out the sun. While we asked similar questions, I did not share passions and perspectives with my professors and peers. Some of the questions I asked were dismissed as questions for political science, gender studies, sociology, or “ethnic” studies. The answers I gave were often minimized because they failed to adhere to European standards: analytical, abstract,

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Like many living as marginalized persons in an oppressive state, I naturally thought the problem was me: I wasn’t smart enough, or I didn’t speak well enough; I wasn’t good enough, or I didn’t study enough—I just wasn’t enough. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried in my philosophy courses, I could never live up to the standard of those who defined what philosophy should be, how it should be done, and by whom it should be done. In a philosophical lineage nurtured by capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, there are only certain questions that can be asked and only certain answers that can be given.

I can’t fully express the anger and resentment I felt while taking an ethics course about social equality, and raising the problem that we can’t talk about social equality without talking about social inequity, only to have the professor reply that our focus should be solely the principles we were then discussing.

So we continued to discuss the abstract prin-

ciples of an educated, upper-middle-class white male and what he thought made a society equal.

I felt like I was withering, so I left philosophy and earned degrees in sociology and literature. But deep in my heart, I knew that I could not walk this slippery earth without doing philosophy. I say do, because philosophy is not something you merely read. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. It should be something you stick your hands into, like the earth— something that you work and water so that you can live in it. So, after some time away, I gathered my fortitude and went back to formal philosophy to begin the long marathon of a doctoral program.

It was as a Ph.D. student that I first encountered Indigenous philosophy and the legacy of the Mexica tlamatinimeh—persons of knowledge who were considered the wisest of the community. They were responsible for learning the great secrets of our world, for keeping that knowledge, and for passing it along from generation to generation.

History, agriculture, mathematics, astronomy, ethics—they did it all. And they did it all through poetry. This time, instead of a door, I’d found a temple in the middle of a forest with wonders I can’t even begin to describe—a temple that both existed between spaces and connected them all. This place seemed very familiar, and it felt like home.

I started reading the surviving records of what these knowers taught, and I began to flower again.

...one of the fundamental ways people manifest their power is through knowing.

Knowing feeds the spirit, and with a strong spirit, one can fight.

One of the first lessons I learned from my ancestors was our need for land: “Act! Cut

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At its essence, philosophy is spirit, and by doing philosophy, you exercise a spirit that has been passed along through your ancestors—now living in you.

wood, work the land, plant cactus, sow maguey; you shall have drink, food, clothing.

With this you will stand straight. With this you shall live.”* The land doesn’t just grow food; it grows us. It is through the land that we live.

In a system where most farmland is owned by corporations and our access to food is restricted to what companies sell in stores, far removed from the land, I didn’t realize how precarious my life was. My very existence was detached from the land that sustains me, and had been co-opted by forces that demanded I trade my time for paper, on the promise that that paper would feed and shelter me.

Without land to sustain them, people are at the mercy of those who hand out the paper.

When they don’t want you, you will go unfed and be left to wander hungry. Paper will not feed you. Only the land will sustain you. The tlamatinimeh knew this and taught this. It was a “secret” that was no secret. While a political philosophy course based on the European model may be occupied with questions, like “from where do rulers derive their power?” and “what demands can citizens make?” the matter of land is noticeably absent. This absence is no coincidence, considering the system that sustains that model.

*From Angel Maria Garibay Kintana, Historia de la Literatura Nahuatl I.

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Farther along on my path, I now realize why the tlamatinimeh were some of the first macehualli (people) to be systematically murdered. When you erase teachers, you erase knowledge, and without that guidance, it is easier to control people. Likewise, it is no coincidence that our ancestors’ books and schools were burned, and that the surviving oral knowledge is constantly under attack, minimized, and ostracized.

It is also not surprising that, even within their own system, the colonial capitalists underpay teachers, underfund schools, and undermine the idea of knowledge as power.

Why learn when you can make money, and buy things? In fact, in the current system, our very existence is tied to our waged labor and ability to buy. Growing up, I remember hearing things in my community, like “school won’t put food on the table” and “you can’t eat books.” Knowledge isn’t productive and useful in the way that would profit a colonial system, so it is undermined and weakened.

When you weaken knowledge, you weaken people. It is easy to control people who are vulnerable in this way because one of the fundamental ways people manifest their power is through knowing. Knowing feeds the spirit, and with a strong spirit, one can fight.

philosophy is spirit, and by doing philosophy, you exercise a spirit that has been passed along through your ancestors—now living in you. In xochitl in cuicatl, the flower and song of Indigenous Mexican philosophy, allows us to blossom and thrive. The wind carries the song through the generations and teaches us both who we are and who we can become.

When I read about the importance of land in the huehuetlatolli (speech of the elders), I became more powerful. The power of that knowledge allowed me to protest, write petitions, donate my resources, and join with my community for the sake of my people and our land. La cultura nos cura: the culture cures us. It is wisdom, and a piece of that wisdom is in knowing.

I see myself as a modern tlamatini, in the long line of my ancestors and their knowledge building. By reclaiming that knowledge and by sharing it with my students, we challenge the colonial power and the way the colonizers envision the world. By doing our philosophy, we empower ourselves through spirit to build a different world where we may all blossom and sing. In tlanexia in tonatiuh.

May your sun shine brightly.

Philosophy is a critical tool for building knowledge because it teaches you how to engage with the world and your community. It teaches you not only how to open your eyes, but to see. It makes you aware. At its essence,

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AND

La Llorona Water Witness TWO POEMS BY NADINE ANTOINETTE MAESTAS ART BY REBECCA ARTEMISA

Retablo © Rebecca Artemisa

Poet Nadine Antoinette Maestas reimagines La Llorona as a protector of water.

La Llorona I know an evening song of terrifying tears flooding the arroyos and the driest reddest canyons lugubrious La Llorona wailing her song in the darkest mourning hours wearing a translucent white gown in the places that were once rivers some say she cries for the lost land and was first heard in the years before the Spanish came, some say she cried for her own children murdered by her own hand some say she appears as a beautiful woman and others say a rolling ball of fire, that stills others claim to see an apparitional mist that cries for the poisoning of the water for the drying of the rivers and for the carelessness of the people I say she sees the land as a material scene of forces, and scorched hills, and emptied cities reflecting complex civilizations and I say that this evening song seems to know the most midnight of places

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Water Witness La Llorona watches the water bloom with algae watches the rivers turn yellow and orange, pool with crude oil, catch on fire for centuries La Llorona has been watching the rivers and searching for children under the light of stars and moons changing with months and seasons the tilt of earth years and decades then centuries as the water coagulates the refuse of the people

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AUTHORS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE OF OFRENDA

Marisol Quevedo Rerucha Beyond the Surface of Restorative Practices: Building a Culture of Equity, Connection, and Healing Marisol Quevedo Rerucha

Nadine Antoinette Maestas Imperialism as Sweet as Insult Nadine Antoinette Maestas

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Erika Buenaflor Animal Medicine: A Curanderismo Guide to Shapeshifting, Journeying, and Connecting with Animal Allies Erika Buenaflor

Cleansing Rites of Curanderismo: Limpias Espirituales of Ancient Mesoamerican Shamans Erika Buenaflor

Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul Erika Buenaflor

Sacred Energies of the Sun and Moon: Shamanic Rites of Curanderismo Erika Buenaflor

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I Am Here Today WORDS, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND AUDIO

BY SALEM ISLAS-MADLO I am here today from all four sacred directions as the song and heartbeat of my ancestral lineage a legacy of the sun, moon and stars I am here today as the serpent of rebirth the jaguar of discernment the hummingbird sparkle of joy the condor of true liberation I am here today as Earth, home of all my relations as Water, the source of all life as Air, the breath of all life as Fire, the spirit of all life I am here today shedding the yoke of oppression walking pathways within pathways dancing beginnings within beginnings allowing endings within endings ~ an infinite deep wild essence

Hoy estoy aquí desde las cuatro direcciones sagradas como el canto y el latido de mi linaje ancestral un legado del sol, la luna y las estrellas Hoy estoy aquí como la serpiente del renacimiento el jaguar del discernimiento el colibrí destello de gozo el cóndor de la liberación verdadera Hoy estoy aquí como Tierra, hogar de todas mis relaciones como Agua, la fuente de toda vida como Aire, el aliento de toda vida como Fuego, el espíritu de toda vida Hoy estoy aquí despojándome del yugo de la opresión caminando senderos en los senderos bailando comienzos en los comienzos permitiendo finales en los finales ~ una infinita y profunda esencia salvaje

Salem writes: “The photo was taken from the viewing point of Santa Lucia Utalan, Solola, Guatamaya, in February 2020. It overlooks Lake Atitlan, down into the village of San Pedro La Laguna, Guatamaya. I went there to study and learn from Mayan elders during the time of Wayeb, a time out of time, which is a period of five days in which to reflect about the previous year as well as to prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually to receive the energies of the new year according to the cosmovision of the Mayans.

I chose this photo because it is during a season when I was reclaiming my deep wild nature back into a celebration of life and beauty.”

Credit: Salem Islas-Madlo.

ofrenda MAGAZINE Ofrenda Magazine is a multimedia publication exploring Xicanx and Latinx spirituality, earth-centered wisdom traditions, justice, and healing arts. Our mission is to inspire holistic wellness, ancestral connection, social and ecological justice, and spiritual creativity.

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ISSUE 04: POWER | AUG/SEPT 2021 Editor in Chief / Publisher / Creative Director: Marcy Carbajal Editorial support: Gavin Van Horn Stock image credits: iStockphoto.com/arturogi; Boogich; CampPhoto; Cavan Images; Damian Davila; K_Thalhofer; Kodii Kathleen; krblokhin; lindsay_imagery; Lourens Botha; lunanaranja; N-sky; Ondrej Prosicky; Ondrej Prosicky; Sundry Photography; Vizerskaya; Volterra Photography.

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“ I have no doubt in the power of art. Creative thinkers are needed to progress ideas and movements forward. Art is not neutral, and artists have the choice to create for a purpose.

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