Indigenous Man Walking the Land-Fidel Moreno by AntonioSolisGomez

Meeting Fidel involved some synchronicity. He had come to Tucson to attend the Yoeme Easter Celebration at Old Pascua but arriving early went to one of the assisted living complexes to conduct a healing ritual with the residents. There he met Olga Tafolla one of the residents and asked her if she was related to Linda, an old friend who had been part of his video crew in Nicaragua in the late 1980’s.

Fidel Moreno

Why she’s my daughter,” Olga answered. An exchange of telephone numbers led to Linda, an old friend of mine from Battle Creek Michigan, calling to tell me that I should meet Fidel.

Fidel and I met at Old Pascua, met again at the home of Joyce, another of Olga’s daughter’s and a third time at a youth center in South Tucson.  He’s a very unusual fellow, this Fidel, whose father was a Huichol and his mother of undetermined Mexican ancestry. He considers himself an indigenous person and has become versed in healing ceremonies in which his powerful baritone voice astounds as happened at Joyce’s home when he performed a ceremony for Olga in which he sang and cleansed with feathers and played a small flute. It was very spontaneous and impressive.

For the third meeting, he asked me to join him at the youth center and I went thinking we would sit down and talk but instead I walked in on him conducting a session with a roomful of twenty plus young kids making a beaded bracelet with leather.  The kids, male and female, were probably 6^th or 7^th graders squirmy with energy, requiring him to help them to stay focused on the task that required several steps. He was gentle but strict and he elaborated on why it was important to pay attention to the bracelet that had colored beads each representing the student and family members. Each child was asked to think deeply about their mom, their dad, their grandparents and he would introduce new words to them such as maternal grandmother, or hygiene

After the session he and I did sit down and talked. I was especially interested in an architectural drawing that he had shown me at Joyce’s home, which I had come to realize was the prime reason he was traveling to various towns and villages. He travels in an older white panel van carrying all sorts of stuff including the leather and beads which he used with the kids and a big drum, sufficiently large to accommodate fifteen drummers.

White Eagle Sanctuary

Antonio- “Fidel this is what I find on the Internet when I do a search on you. Will you elaborate?

Fidel Moreno is Huichol / Chichimeca and Mexican American. He is an Oscar nominee in the Best Short Documentary category as co-producer and co-director of WIPING THE TEARS OF 7 GENERATIONS, and a three-time Telly Award winner for THE PEYOTE ROAD and 500 NATIONS. Moreno is an activist passionate about working with youth and children through cultural literacy skill building, emotional development and purposeful life navigation. His most recent video,  Behind Standing Rock, chronicles the Native American struggle over water rights and ancient burial grounds.

Raised in both old Mexico and the Midwest area of the United States, Moreno’s work in documentary film and video since 1983 has focused on the struggle and dialogues of indigenous people and communities in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America. He has worked directly with many communities, aboriginal leaders, chiefs and elders in documenting environmental actions and issues, human rights violations and crisis relief services.

Fidel- I retired from film making six years ago and now I’m trying to establish The

White Eagle Native American Holocaust Sanctuary & Trauma, Truth and
Reconciliation Institute for Healing & Wellness for Veterans, families and
individuals with PTSD who are working through historical trauma and
multi-generational grief in various communities. Here in Tucson I presented the idea to elders from both the Yoeme and the Tohono O’Odham. So I travel and offer my services wherever I can find an appropriate place as I did with the assisted living home and the youth center. I don’t get paid in money, instead I get paid by the awareness that I raise. And there is great interest here in South Tucson for such a center.

fmoreno@cybermesa.com

www.healingwinds.net  Cell: 832-777-8081