By REBECCA MAYAHUEL ROBLES, teacher with Storytellers of the Ancestral Red Road (SOAR)
“La Medicina es para todos.” “The medicine is for everyone,” Maestra CC
In April of 2024, this mantra by Cuauhtli Cihuatl, also called Maestra CC or Eagle Woman, became a reality when Storytellers of the Ancestral Red Road (SOAR) secured a grant that would fund free programming on indigenous healing ways for Chicana and Native women in Pueblo.
Established in 2022 in Pueblo, Colorado, SOAR is dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of Indigenous communities and promoting their wisdom through storytelling and creative expression. This writer, a student-teacher of Curanderismo, started working with SOAR in July 2023. I have since shared the Aztec teachings of her Maestra CC in the form of songs, ceremonies, and classes. Maestra CC is an elder and founder of Kalpulli Teocalli Ollin, Community of Sacred House of Energy. She is from San Benito, TX, but the Kapulli Teocalli Ollin is based in Bernalillo, NM.
The Women and Girls of Color Fund supports dozens of executives across the state. With no restrictions on the funds, women of color (WOC) leaders are able to use this money however they need. Many WOC leaders are also supporting professional development, self-care, or programmatic needs for the immigrant, Black, and Native women they serve. I had a vision of a year’s worth of classes I could offer to Chicana, mixed, and Indigenous women here in Pueblo.
During the summer of 2024, I taught an eight-week course on Aztec healing songs. In order to understand the power of these songs, students learned about the Aztec Mexhika Medicine Wheel, and the Teotl. The Nahuatl word Teotl is frequently and incorrectly translated as Aztec “Gods” and “Goddesses,” but the Teotl are personifications of the forces of nature — the rain, the streams and lakes, the wind, fire, and the earth to mention but a few.
These are the sacred energies that are called upon for healing. I shared many songs with my students from the album “Sacred Songs of the Aztec,” by Tzotzollin. The ancient sounds of the drum and the sonaja (rattle), are the landscape for poetic lyrics in the Nahuatl and Spanish languages. Over a dozen women came together to sing songs about the Mother Earth, Tonantzin, about the Seven Sacred Directions, and belted out refrains in unison like, “Mother Earth, Grandmother Moon, Honorable Women, you are beautiful!”
The Autumn season is the season of the Woman/Cihuatl. It is a season of release, represented by the sacred sahumerio — a symbol connected to the internal fire, or womb. The coursework of that season was Womb Wellness- exploring the all-too-common ailments that most womb holders endure, yet modern medicine cannot explain such as medical conditions as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), fibroids, endometriosis, and infertility.
There are still questions such as: What did the Aztec Mexhika ancestors have to say about these imbalances? Is there something beyond just the physical body that can be cured through practitioners often find that unresolved trauma can manifest as a physical illness. With this in mind, over a dozen students held space for one another and we burned sacred copal incense while they did some inner child healing exercises. Students told their inner chiquitas, “I got you, mija. They can’t hurt us anymore. We are grown and powerful now. We are healing, protecting ourselves and commanding the respect we have always deserved.”
Each individual in that class was offered a free one-on-one limpia, or energetic cleanse, if further support was desired. After the inner child healing was done for the day, a panel of birthworkers and postpartum experts came to speak to the class about the services and healing modalities they offer to the Southern Colorado community. It was clear that a connection to traditional methodology and practices such as rebozo work, la cuarentena, and even just ancestral foods, were things mamas craved for the wellbeing of their families.
After the summer classes, one of the students, Paulina Alarcón, singer, said, “Rebecca’s classes help me get in deeper touch with my ancestors. I have incorporated Mexhika Medicine on my daily living.
Now that Mother Nature is hibernating beneath a snowy frost, the lessons of this season will also be about introspection. “Looking into the Smoky Mirror,” is the four-week online course that this cohort of students will participate in. Utilizing ancient techniques and tools, such as the obsidian mirror, students will be guided on how and why to do “Shadow Work.” It is not about “fixing,” ourselves, I say. It is about being able to look at our “weakest,” “ugliest,” and most “unacceptable,” aspects of ourselves. Look, and not turn away. Look, and not cringe. Look, and not judge, but slowly practice offering love and acceptance to those less than perfect parts of the human soul.
Thanks to the Women and Girls of Color Fund, all of these teachings are available to women and nonbinary people in the Pueblo community, free of charge. These classes are designed for mixed-race, returning Natives, Chicanas, Indigenous, Black, and other women of color, but no one is turned away because of their racial or ethnic identity. However, there is a screening process designed to reduce the chances of cultural appropriation or otherwise misuse of these sacred teachings.
For those interested in finding out about SOAR’s next course: Kinam, Toltec Warrior Poses, sign up for the email list on SOAR’s website, www.PuebloSOAR.com and follow them on social media to stay up-to-date.
Storytellers of the Ancestral Red Road have some big things in the works for the rest of 2025, and they continue to be deeply humbled by the community’s support and readiness to preserve indigenous cultural heritage!
