guila

In guila: The Vision, Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Two-Spirit Shaman in the Ozark Mountains, Mara Cristina Moroles traces the path of her extraordinary life from the streets of Dallas to the wilderness of the Arkansas Ozarks, where she has resided for fifty years. Hailing from a large Indigenous and Mexican American family in Texas, Moroles apprentices herself to healers and shamans across the Americas as she follows the spiritual vision that leads her to establish a mountaintop sanctuary for women and children of color in a notoriously insular location in the Ozark Mountains. This is a survivors tale, and a back-to-the-landers tale, unlike any other. From early traumas to countercultural rebellion and profound spiritual awakening, Moroles recounts milestones that earn her the ceremonial names SunHawk and guila, as she builds a sustainable community off the grid, atop a mountain otherwise uninhabited by human life. guila tells the truth of one womans search for freedom and all womens quest for dignity as it celebrates the healing powers of nature.