57. Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz, Known as The Kitchen Curandera & An Indigenous Foods Activist, Who Keeps Alive the Oral Knowledge of the Tewa Pueblo People in New Mexico, Uses Culinary Recipes as a Healing Medicine Host: Enoe Aracely Brown, Dec, 19. 2024

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Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz is a curandera (latina indigenous healer), and indigenous foods activist with roots in Northern New Mexico. As an indigenous foods activist Felicia is one of the many native people who retains or goes back to the original way nature taught people to heal themselves, treat the land and live on the land in harmony. Felicia's natural cooking skills identified her talent as a healer who would use food as medicine in the similar way her ancestors once did.  She is one of the most knowledgeable foragers about places like the Sonoran Desert, in Phoenix,AZ which holds the most edible and medicinal landscape of North America. Felicia teaches how to  prepare foods from the perspective of the four elements also known in India's culture as well as Traditional Chinese medicine. Food is seen as medicinal, not just about having good taste, which sometimes can be toxic to our health. There are over 30 million Latin Americans in the US and within this group indigenous people exist who still practice such knowledge. Authors like Felicia have made these healing approaches available to help anyone anywhere. In her book, Earth Medicines, she breaks down these approaches addressing hydration, beauty, respiratory issues, spirituality, and so on. Such earth knowledge is needed today so we can understand how to work with the lands we live on, so they don't turn toxic or cause damage to people, in a world that has become about how to take more for ourselves only.

Guest Bio:
Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz (Tewa/ Xicana) is a traditional healer or curandera, a storyteller, and an indigenous foods activist.  She lives in the upper part of the Sonoran Desert, in Phoenix, AZ which holds most edible and medicinal landscapes of North America.  She is from her mother’s maternal tribal family lineage of the Tewa Pueblo based in Northern New Mexico.  Felicia honored her own spirit, answered the call, and began studying massage therapy, and other holistic modalities, earning the title of Curandera while in ceremony in 2018. Today Felicia shares the Medicine of her People, she weaves together stories of Indigenous wisdom with the intention of her recipes, applying "Culinary Medicine," as named by one of her Maestras. (or teachers). Curanderas are traditional healers in the indigenous Latin world, who carry knowledge of foods, herbs, and other cultural remedies , with each healer offering a unique skillset applying their natural gifts, training. Felicia shares her work with others through private consultations, workshops, and ceremony. Her business name “Kitchen Curandera” was given to her by friends who always found her cooking and making remedies in her tiny kitchen. Felicia has been featured on numerous platforms, including Food & Wine, Spirituality & Health, and on Padma Lakshmi's Taste The Nation streaming on Hulu. Felicia is also a lead instructor for her Herbal Academy, sharing herbal folk wisdom with a community of over 100K people. Felicia is also an award-winning author of the book called Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, & Wellness Rituals from a Curandera. Felicia's book is the Winner of the 2022 Eating the West Award!, and also the Winner of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Book Award!

Guest Contact:   www.kitchencurandera.com

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Host Contact Information:

Enoe Aracely Brown:
Email: holisticedgeradio.gmail.com
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