The Indigenous Xicana/o/xs who belong to many of the mobile tribes of Mesoamerica share a long genealogical history of cultivating and sustaining their Native American rituals, which was weakened in Mexico and the United States during various periods of colonization. As it stands, healing ways of knowing that depend on medicinal plants, the Earth’s elements, and knowledge of the stars are still intact. To close the essay, we present a healthcare kit for the Indigenous Xicana/o family to reclaim and sustain their native lifeways in their own homes where life matters the most.įor more than 3500 years, since Olmec times (1500–400 BC), the peoples of Mesoamerica have shared with one another a profound way of living involving a deep understanding of the human body and of land and cosmology. Our sources of knowledge stem from the ancestral and the familial, as well as from our own work as educators and mental health workers. In Part II, dad describes the use of obsidian in the role of a therapeutic mirror and home-birth tool. In Part I, mom describes her altar as a model for reconciling her feelings and emotions toward her former life and her new life as an aspiring mother.
In this essay, we parent-authors write about the role altars and obsidian played in the restoration of our family’s health and well-being. There are no easy responses and the conditions that Xicana/o families face differ from household to household. As more Xicanas and Xicanos revitalize their Indigenous lifeways, the health questions and wellness practices those families face concerning raising their children becomes central.
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