Health & Fitness:Alternative Health
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
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. As a child, she was deeply influenced by her great-grandmother, who was well-known in her community as a curandera, working with traditional herbs, delivering babies or caught babies, and using her hands to heal. Felicia honored her own spirit, answered the call, and began studying massage therapy, energy work,aromatherapy, Indigenous herbalism, whole food cooking, 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 and have been practiced throughout the Americas for over five hundred years, with each healer offering a unique skillset applying their natural gifts, training, or cultural practices. With permission from her elders, 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!
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