Puentes Para Invitados 2022 Reflection: “La Cultura Cura” (Culture Heals)
Christina Illarmo, LMSW, CHC Director at the La Plazita Institute
This past year has been one of growth and momentum for Puentes Para Invitados (PPI), or Bridges for Guests. This project is focused on both the healing and psychosocial well-being of migrant individuals — or guests — crossing the U.S. Southern border as well as providers serving migrants in New Mexico. Led by Program Manager Leticia De Los Rios, PPI has made significant progress in supporting the asylee ecosystem of New Mexico and developing a media project to amplify and humanize the untold stories of migrants and the people who serve them.
In October, a handful of IWES staff supporting Puentes headed to New Mexico for the third time to meet with partners, old and new. For this trip, the team was invited by United Voices for Newcomer Rights (UVNR), an organization focused on the well-being of refugees and newcomer families in Albuquerque, to lead a grief workshop and conversation with members of the local Muslim community. During the event, attendees shared their experiences resettling into the United States, including the tension between maintaining one’s cultural identity and the pressures to assimilate.
Some major themes that arose from the conversation were:
the importance of retaining one’s own culture and traditions
the importance of celebrating biculturalism, especially with youth, who will carry on the traditions and create new ones of their own,
suffering As a shared experience beyond borders and cultures
With the support of filmmaker and IWES Media & Communications Director Iman Shervington, we continued to conduct interviews to amplify the stories of community members and workers. Notably, in October, Leticia and Iman sat down with Michele Melendez, Director of Equity & Inclusion for the City of Albuquerque, and Eliseo “Cheo” Torres and Mario Del Angel Guevara, educators at the University of New Mexico and experts on curanderismo, traditional Mexican and indigenous healing practice, and healing folk traditions.
A moment that we cherished during our trip was the generosity and hospitality of La Plazita Institute (LPI), who hosted the team in Albuquerque’s South Valley for a day of “healing the healers.” During a tour of their creative workshop spaces, we met Russell Urban, an artist with LPI who has facilitated artistic work with hundreds of youth and adults. Russell had just completed a beautiful, fully customized urn for a beloved member of a local car club, a service offered for free to community members in need of support during times of tragedy. Curanderos, or curanderismo healers, Albino Garcia Jr., Sylvia Garcia, and Norma Gamble gifted us their medicine via acudetox, limpias, and a traditional purification ceremony. We even got to sample an assortment of organic vegetables they grew on site for youth in juvenile detention and community distribution. Learning and experiencing how LPI embodies its motto “La Cultura Cura” set our team on a reinvigorated path full of reverence for being able to continue this vital work into the new year.
Shortly after we left Albuquerque, LPI’s main building was damaged when a truck drove through a wall, sending furniture and bricks flying. Fortunately, no one was injured. However, their programming has been impacted while the repairs are completed. To support repairs, LPI is correctly accepting donations that you can make here.