On Indigenous Peoples’ Day I was reminded of a powerful poem written by my first therapist who wasn’t white.
An Indigenous member of the Santa Clara Pueblo and a Brazilian, Marcia Bonato Warren resonated with my spirit and my non-verbal ways of knowing in ways I had never before experienced in therapy. Before each session, she offered me a cup of coffee and greeted me with that unmistakable jeitinho Brasileiro—a warm hug and a kiss on each cheek. Where I come from, nothing begins without coffee and an embrace like this.
The impact of those small but meaningful gestures remains with me to this day. I have since shared them with many of my clients, who appreciate—and sometimes need—that touchstone of cultural warmth.
For those of us who feel as though we belong everywhere and nowhere at once, words like these are deeply affirming. Thank you, Marcia, for paving the way—for helping me and so many others reclaim our Indigeneity and our rightful place in healing spaces.
Marcia’s words capture our profound connection to Nature, place and belonging.
I am from Alvin and Louisita, Aurelio and Antonia Maria
I am from seekers pursing: A better life. An Education. A dream. An answer.
I am from coffee beans ground into fragrant powder, sweet nectar served in a tiny cup.
and the slow rising heat of red chile stew on a winter’s day
I am from people swimming in so.much.talking.thatIcan’tgetawordinedgewise to
Full
Pregnant
Silences
I am from mountains and chamisas
all the time
and humid green, bursting flowers
sometimes
I am from narrow pathways between houses
and goat head stickers in callused feet
I am from a spark of recognition between opposite ends of the world
I am from Dave and Aurea and a slow dance in the kitchen
I am from Love
I am from stories and land and dreams and never-ending questions
“What are you?” What am I?
I am from the in-between spaces, the high ceiling of observation shifting colors when the scenery is changed
I am from women leaving home
carrying their stories like clothes in a laundry basket
I am from men building families with the earth on their hands
and the heavens in the hearts
I am the next generation, and the last of my kind.
I am from brown earth in the skin, humid air in the blood, and blue sky in all dreams,
Standing.
From her chapter titled Movement and Identity: Multiculturalism, Somatic Awareness, and Embodied Code-Switching from Oppression and The Body: Roots, Resistance, and Resolution. (2018)
