Facing Challenges with Cultural Resilience

How does one remain steadfast in their identity amidst a world determined to erase it? Join us in a compelling conversation with Reverend Laura Gonzalez, a spiritual and community healer whose life is an inspiring testament to resilience and strength rooted in traditional Mexican folklore, native philosophies, and North American Paganism. Laura's personal journey through adversity highlights the challenges that indigenous and marginalized communities face in today's socio-political climate. Her experiences underscore the emotional toll of systemic racism and dehumanization while emphasizing the vital role of community support in fostering resilience and empowerment.

This episode is a heartfelt homage to the enduring spirit of cultures that have survived attempts at erasure. Reflecting on the aftermath of pivotal elections, we explore the art of poetry as a powerful response to such defining moments. Laura shares a message of courage and perseverance, reminding us of the connection to our ancestors and the strength that flows through our bloodlines. This discussion is a celebration of heritage, unity, and the unyielding spirit that persists in the face of adversity. Tune in for a poignant exploration of human rights struggles and the power of collective solidarity.

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Adversity
• 13:56 Resilience in the Face of Adversity

Transcript

Granddaughter Crow : 0:00

Welcome to Belief, being and Beyond with your host, granddaughter Crow. So, hi everybody, granddaughter Crow here with another episode of Belief, being and Beyond, and today I have the wonderful honor of interviewing and spending some time with and allowing her to share with you her wisdom, laura Gonzalez. And it is just. Let me just tell you a little bit about Reverend Laura Gonzalez. She is a spiritual and community healer, priestess, minister, specializing in traditional Mexican folklore. If you want a little bit of Mexican folklore, follow her. She's got classes, we'll talk about it.

Granddaughter Crow : 0:50

Also, native Philosophies and North American Paganism within the goddess tradition, and I can't wait to get into that. She also holds a leadership role at a Chicago-based community practice of Nawa Tradition of Mexico Please correct me if I'm saying it wrong. That's correct. Yay, where she provides guidance, support community harmony. Laura also advocates for indigenous pagan LGBTQIA communities, with a focus on women's rights and diversity. I've got my candle lit. I set sacred space, put my ego to the outside and asked your ancestors to come through with whatever and you and your soul to come through with whatever it is. And so, if that's what comes through, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. So. And I am so honored because, laura, I've met her and she is my sister, she is my sister, she is my sister. I'm pretty sure that our ancestors knew each other at one time. So everybody, please welcome Laura Gonzalez. Say hi everybody. Say hi Laura.

Laura Gonzales: 2:07

Hi, hello and welcome and thank you for being here. Yeah, my honor and pleasure.

Granddaughter Crow : 2:13

Oh good, I'm interested in, I mean honestly, people. We're going to have a little bit of conversation around 2025, usa. Enough said the all of this stuff kind of speaking from where the heart of the people, the people who have the strength to sit with their uncomfortable real feelings and come out to us as leaders, and that is Laura. So, thank you so much for being on this podcast. I'm looking forward to you, know, promoting what you do, what you stand for and who you support, and I think that that's really important, because we need leaders like you More than ever now.

Laura Gonzales: 3:15

I, I've been okay. I just like you said you know like I share in my life, like you said you know like I share in my life I needed some time to understand my feelings and to understand what's going on, and I'm not. I was on a friend of mine yesterday the allegory of the symbolism of one of those inflatable toys inflatable toys and I feel that five weeks ago, when this whole chaos began, that I was completely and absolutely 100 deflated. I knew it was gonna be a challenge, like we all knew it was gonna be a challenge, but the Like we all knew it was going to be a challenge. But the minute that you see that it's real, real discolored supremacy and people doing gestures that are significant so I think it was a gesture that was made that really knocked me off my center.

Granddaughter Crow : 4:32

Yeah.

Laura Gonzales: 4:34

You know, we indigenous people strive to be on our center and to be right in accordance with all that is love. And that really knocked me over. It really did, because, if we are not hiding that, they are that kind of people and the rhetoric and the lies and the lies and the lies, and the lies, and the lies, and the lies and the lies, to dehumanize people that look like me. Two or three years, maybe more. It's been decades that people have been lying about people like us, but lately it's been cruel, it's been over the top, it's been disinformed, misinformed, dismissive and, more than anything, dehumanizing. And that's, I know my history. I went to school in Mexico. They teach us history and they know that when that kind of people take on power, the first order of business is to dehumanize the people. That is their target for their hatred.

Laura Gonzales: 5:57

Yes, so that dehumanizing campaign, you know, has been already heavy on all of us. Yes, and then now, like I said to, to have seen the gesture on the tv, um, and it's not because I was watching the TV, by all means, I was not going to be watching that, but it was all over. It exploded all over Facebook, instagram, TikTok, et cetera. And so it's like, oh okay, so we're on, yeah, you know we're on, and never again is now Yep, never again is now, yep, never again is now. So, like I said, it knocked me out of my center and I needed to feel my feelings and I was also mourning the loss of my little dog, my companion. Yeah, and it was like intense. Yeah, and it was like intense. Yeah.

Laura Gonzales: 7:00

However, community, yes, community, community community coming to listen, not to talk to me but to listen. Not to talk to me but to listen, um, the community that holds you in a circle, yes, or that you, even when you cannot hold yourself, they hold you up straight. And community, like I said on the last life, that I did, that I finally went back to the lives on Friday Community that holds a mirror that your face is my face, your soul is my soul, I am you, you are me, right. Community that holds a mirror through your eyes, through your face, and they remind you who you are, not because you believe the lies of the dehumanizing campaign, but because the meaning of their campaign is to strike fear on us.

Granddaughter Crow : 8:12

That's exactly right.

Laura Gonzales: 8:15

And so so I was first ashamed to have reacted that way, because that is the colonizer's indoctrination to have shame and judgment. And then, very quickly, and with the help not only of the community but also my therapist, who is an amazing, amazing healer, who helped me navigate the fact that there is no shame on feeling scared when you are the target of the people's hatred. Yeah, and if you are not, okay, it's normal. It it's natural. Yes, and that actually, what is not natural is folks whom are not afraid, right, okay, folks for whom this is nothing and nothing is happening. Yeah, and even on my um moment of feeling not centered and not a hundred percent, so I keep saying about the, this inflatable toy, yes, I feel that I'm like maybe 60 going back into being fully formed. I'm not at 100, 100, but I think a good 60, a strong 60 is there, good. And even when I was in 20 and 30, I keep posting on my forums and some people like that reminder we are human. We are not the value of what we produce. We are not the value of how many tomatoes we picked. We are not the value of how many tomatoes we picked. We are not the value of how many roofs we can fix. Don't move the narrative into oh my god, now groceries are going to be expensive because undocumented migrants are afraid. Let's put the person first. All these people are so scared of going to work or going out, or expressing their existence. All these people are afraid of existing Comma. Wow, this is going to bring a huge consequence to our way of life. Right, their way of life and our way of life. Right, their way of life and our way of life. Right. Put in the the financial problem first. Put in the um scarcity of vegetables first. You're still not centering on the human, and so that's why I have made it my job to remind people to put the human first. We are human and I've been saying this for decades now.

Laura Gonzales: 11:08

If you find a dog in the car, hot in the street, you can break the window, you can give the dog water. You will not be charged with a crime for breaking the window and saving the dog. But if you give water to a person in the desert, you could be charged with aiding and abating. You know, foster fugitives, la la la, and they keep changing the laws and they keep making the laws more abrasive. So, yeah, if you help a dog A okay, right. So yeah, if you help a dog, it's a-okay. If you help a human, that is not the color that the status quo deems dignifying. It's a crime and it's horrible and you know.

Granddaughter Crow : 12:04

But but the sun still rises every day yes, the sun still rises every day, sister and um we are going to keep existing.

Laura Gonzales: 12:21

We come, we come. And this I feel talking to you. I feel that I'm preaching to a choir, but I'm also talking to whoever is watching and listening. We indigenous folks of the planet come from generations upon generations, upon generations of survivors. That's right, and so we have to call on our ancestors, that's right. And so we have to call on our ancestors to remind us, through our cellular memory, how to survive. Yes, because we do have that information. Yes, it's there, it's within us. It's there, it's within us. So I didn't know my extended family. I only know my mother, my father and my siblings I never met. I met one grandmother, but I never met other aunts, uncles, grandmothers. You know it was a very discombobulated family and it was. You know, my mom was so proud to be just carrying her five children. So I don't know my lineage, my background, my, you know. But I know that they're there. Yeah, that's right, they're there and all we have to do is reach out and call on them.

Granddaughter Crow : 13:55

Absolutely. One thing you bring to the table is real. You are real and I was at a poetry slam right after the election results and they asked me to write a poem. The election results, and they asked me to write a poem, and all I could think about was I am living proof that the US government that wants to erase a culture cannot do it. I am here, period. You are here. You are living proof. And maybe we don't know our ancestors like in this realm, but their blood flows through us, their DNA is with us and they have been through the US government doing these kinds of things before. But we are still here, and it's not for the faint of heart, but yeah, we're still we, but yeah, we're still. We're still here, we're still here.

Laura Gonzales: 14:56

Thank you.