Beto De Leon

Beto De Leon is a Lipan Apache/ Xicanx 2Spirit herbalist and traditional food researcher based in San Antonio, TX. Originally from the rural Gulf Coast, they connected with traditional herbalism and sustainable ecology through a desire to protect the wetlands they grew up in. Beto has spent the past 12 years as a community organizer in San Antonio with a focus on environmental justice, traditional agriculture, and protecting our natural water sources. Their plant, food, and herbal learning has spanned over 20 years of study, including their role as Environmental Justice Coordinator at Southwest Workers Union. They have presented on indigenous food ways of the Rio Grande delta at the 2015 Native Food Symposium and are a 2018 graduate of an Indigenous Sustainable Communities Design Course in Tesuque Pueblo, NM. They are also an organizing member and co-founder of SanArte Healing and Cultura Clinic collective in San Antonio. Beto's focus is to continue queering ecologies and affirming traditional roles and leadership for 2Spirit people in their kinship and traditional communities. Their pronouns are They/Them.

We are the land, the land is us. However, systemic obstacles continue to keep us from connecting, nurturing and caretaking in solidarity with creation. When we talk about foraging or healing with the land we have to acknowledge that we do not have the same access or safety and conversations about finding safe places to exist and learn have to be made with many factors, first and foremost acknowledging that we exist on stolen land built with stolen labor. That means any approach to finding healing and understanding must be built on a foundation of solidarity with oppressed communities as part of “ecologies.” Offered are tips to lovingly expand our focus of healing to community building with nature and each other.

● Understand the history of the land you occupy, find ways to uplift Indigenous autonomy beyond acknowledgement.

● Demand access and healing for all bodies.

● Support Indigenous, Black and 2S/LGBTQ+ leadership in garden, medicine and land projects.

● Be intentional with what we bring and what we take.

● Connect with elders, learn from your elders and teach your elders.

● Support the safety of Black, Indigenous, 2S/LGBTQ+ folks in natural spaces.

● Disrupt power dynamics by supporting radical reclamation of land.

● Explore creative actions to convey messages and demands.

● Create collectives that restore the land and each other.

● Ground your work spiritually without appropriating.

● Heal each other by creating healing surroundings.

Pictured are the Guadalupe River, and drawing of a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) surrounded by samín/mescal beans(Dermatophyllum secundiflorum).

A tradition spanning many cultures, the addition of pleasant or medicinal herbs to our baths are a beautiful way to help us ground ourselves after intense moments or just to help relax. We’re going to make a basic baño with both plants from the wild and from the garden along with some other ingredients that offer us space to collect out thoughts and check in with our body. I really enjoy this practice often using it around the mon phases to help me address different hurts I still carry. Often times I think many folks assume people who offer support are always good, but the reality is so many of us are motivated by healing ourselves and along the process we share whats worked with our community. Any chance I get to connect with water is an offering to my spirit and I hope this baño helps sooth yours. There are some additional things to consider when making our baños:

Always ask permission before using any live plants out of respect and in consent. It is also important to know where your dried herbs come from, research, consider their journey and conditions it took to arrive in your presence.

When we say baño we mean the act not a tub, this can also be a foot soak in a basin, put into a bucket and poured over yourself or with a washcloth. Some of my favorite experiences have been pouring the bucket over myself in the back of our garden space.

Not all plants are suitable for baños, of course there are some that irritate such as poison ivy, but also for example plants that grow next to a busy street may be exposed to car pollution daily. Get to know the plants before creating intentional space together. By learning the history and connections we disrupt exploitative practices such as over harvesting or exploiting plant communities important to Indigenous communities.

A strainer is a big help, get a good one if you plan to make multiple baths for yourself, or muslin/cotton bags also help hold the herbs and keep them out of your drain.

As Autumn comes in it will soon be time to harvest pecans, one of my favorite ways of using pecans after harvesting is to make a pecan atole beverage to warm the heart. While the word “atole” comes from nahuatl “atolli” this drink has been known by many names and with different recipes for generations. Our Ndé/Lipan ancestors who lived in central and south Texas moved their camps to harvest pecans and had storage and grinding sites that in some cases are still utilized to this day. Our relatives still living here on our lands have had continued access to this important ancestral food which still invites us to explore the evolution of the relationship between the land and our bodies. We may just see another pecan on the ground but the reality is that it is medicine, its food, it has practical uses, it has uses that are for our animal relatives only. It may just be a seed but every seed contains a history.

We can gather with loved ones as my family did to harvest, to pray, to sing, to grieve and more. Of course this looks different now, but it’s about the intention we place in our practices that help us find healing. The warmth of this atole invites us to slow down, to nourish ourselves, the cinnamon and anise offer our bodies warming properties that help us release our tension we carry. Often we carry our emotional stress in our chest and warm drinks can help open our breathing way to help more oxygen enter our body and help us relax. We can continue to make it medicine by giving thanks to the water, offering it a little bit of our breath before we drink, water carries our emotions and when we drink we will take in what we express in the moment.

For this recipe, I prefer Maseca (para tortillas) but any corn meal you have can be toasted and added). Not necessary but a couple of star anise pods while boiling will add more flavor and medicine!