TLAHTOLLI is a new series on Xica Nation featuring exclusive interviews with community leaders, spiritual elders, thinkers and artists that participate actively in community work and empowerment within the greater/pan-Xican@ nation.
What is your name, title/what you do, and how you identify? Where are you from?
Carlos Aceves, bilingual teacher, I am writer, presenter, and I identify as a human being first and foremost, with my ethnic identity is Mexican, which in Nahuatl means “universal citizen”. I was born in Mazatlan, Sinaloa and grew up in Juarez and El Paso (until I was a teenager, I did not know there was a difference between the two). I live in El Paso, Texas.
What types of community projects are you involved in?
I do presentations on indigenous spirituality wherever I am invited (The Xinachtli Project www.indigenouscultures.org) . I participate in ceremony with local indigenous organizations that identify as Mexica or indigenous, such as Kalpulli Tlalteca, Hueco Tanks All Nations Sundance, Moon Circle.
Was there a defining moment in your life when you felt the urge to learn about/protect/become involved with your community?
In 1971 I read El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan and felt I was not an immigrant or outsider but Native to the United States.
Why is it important for people to embrace their indigenous /Xican@ identity and get involved in their communities? What is the connection?
Actually it is not, but it serves a useful purpose since it is difficult for most of us to understand who our authentic selves are. Cultural identity is like Dumbo’s feather, it gives us faith in walking towards a more natural and authentic path without feeling lost, isolated, an alone.
What words of wisdom do you have for the next generation?
Your background/history is important just as your parents and grandparents are important. To know your roots is to honor them, but that is not who you are. Our language, nationality, religion, race is part of our “accidental identity”—we happen to have been born at a particular place and raised a particular way, but who we are lives in the center our heart, our Teyolia, our Spirit, that was here from the beginning of the Universe and will continue—it will carry our memory into the Infinite, let’s make our lives a good memory.
Where can folks learn more about the projects your involved in?
Diadema by Carlos Aceves (Amazon)
Indigenous Cultures Institute www.indigenouscultures.org
Tonatierra www.tonatierra.org
Nassim Haramein: Sacred Geometry And Unified Fields (Full Version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFTMiVs4VhY
Words On A Wire Radio Interview: http://ktep.org/post/words-wire-carlos-aceves
What are some upcoming community events you will be participating in?
April 25 Mornings Star Sacred Geometry workshop, Las Cruces-New Mexico
May 24 Pilgrimage to Hueco Tanks State Park by Kalpulli Tlalteca
July 23 Hueco Tanks All Nations Sun Dance
Is there anything else you’d like to add or any other message you’d like to share with the world?
The sun no longer rises in the same place during the equinoxes, there has been as of 2012 a major shift in the Earth’s alignment to the sky. This change along with human alteration of the environment means great changes are coming and they will be challenging. If you see yourself through the eyes of those that hate, you will find reasons to hate yourself. If you see yourself through the eyes of those that love, you will find reasons to love yourself. If you see yourself through your own heart, your will find reasons to love all three. There is a Power coming, the greatest humans can invoke. Grandmother Moon is dancing with her sisters.
