ELENA AVILA
Elena Avila is a poet, playwright, actor, writer, and renowned throughout
the United States as a Curandera. Her book, Woman Who Glows
in the Dark: A Curandera Reveals Traditional Aztec Secrets of
Physical and Spiritual Health with an introduction by Clarissa
Pinkola Estes, is according to Ms. Estes, "on the horizon
line of rare sightings...Her work and life form a prototype. Hers is
heretofore a hidden treasure that she is capable of relating to us
in both academic voice and in the voice of a poet. You will
see as you read that it is through her true sorrows and her true times -
that she has grown into a fierce lover to and defender of the soul."
"Elena Avila's book is a combination manual, memoir, and healing chant. I'm so glad these stories and secrets-which have been known orally by our culture for ages, are finally down on paper."--Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.
"This wise and courageous woman restores our souls to our bodies and our bodies sacred earth stewardship through her profound teachings of ancient ways in modern times." __Jean Houston, author of Search for the Beloved and The Possible Human.
"Grounded in the earth, at home in both modern and indigenous medicine, Elena Avila is a true emissary of healing, casting a brilliant glow into the dark of all medicine that denies the soul..." __ Judith Orloff, M.D., author of Second Sight.
"Truthful, often painful, always riveting, Woman Who Glows in the Dark reveals how the practices of curanderismo can heal the soul sickness not addressed by Western Medicine." --Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me' Ultima.
Ms. Avila is available for seminars, lecture and workshops
MENDING WINGS AND BUILDING BRIDGES
The rains came early today before the sun had a chance to burst through another sunrise. I fell off a cloud and into sunburned thoughts of building bridges with my poems. I hear you. I'll be a temporary bridge for you but take your own ass across the waters of your doubt. You are too big to be carried so do not pretend to be asleep. What do you want from me? Freshly minted divine ambivalence to test the limits of you god? Do you want the tiny ember of your faith to die? So many questions and you came to me for answers. I'll stoke the tiny flame with my eagle feather as you ponder. I say make you new millennium resolution now and toast to the end of century death bed dreams that did not fly. this is the part where the heart actually hurts. Can you hear the silence of your screams? The eagle has gone fishing and I am off to Honolulu for brunch I mended his wings and I did not even get a thank you note from his Eagle highness! Ponder on that as I eat lunch.
Mending Wings and Building Bridges A book of poems by
Ms. Avila, is a "celebration of my journey as a woman, lover, wife
mother, grandmother, sister and curandera. It is always a good day
when a poem is formed from my creative womb. My Aztec name is
XoxiwetzkPahtli, "Flower that Brings Medicine through Laughter.
My journey as a curandera has enriched me with an earth and organic
creativity. My poems are born from a flowering need to express the
deepest feeling of my soul. Poetry does not lie. It is a soul
language with a thousand voices wanting to be
understood. The Aztec call it Yolitzin and it means "knowledge
of my essence. Yolitzin is our true nature, the inner I/Me that
longs for recognition."
Elena co-authored the play Tu Y Yo (You and I) with Jerry Mondragon.
This popular bilingual play has toured the Southwest and Mexico. She and
Mr. Mondragon also co-authored Amantes Sin Casa ( Lovers without a
Home) a book of poetry , also produced as a play.
For booking, please call,
(505) 892-8918
(505) 345-9354
Coyolxauhqui is "Woman Who Glows in the Dark". She is an Aztec goddess, who used to be of the earth, but is now a goddess of the sky. To the Aztecs she represents the moon.