Exclusive: Ancestral Healer Pānquetzani Ticitl is Transforming Communities Through Mesoamerican Wisdom

Photo Credit: Sophia Pav

Long before European settlers colonized the Americas and instituted Western medicinal practices, indigenous healers worked with the elements to provide holistic wellness within their communities.

Despite the loss of thousands of years of ancestral wisdom, matriarchs around the world continue to honor, uphold and pass down these practices so that new generations may benefit from them, as is the case for Ancestral Healer Pānquetzani Ticitl.

The Chicana Indigena is leading a revolution that is helping hundreds of women worldwide benefit from optimal feminine health through her womb healing sobadas, herbalism and full-spectrum doula services.

Additionally, she is helping communities overcome their financial traumas with her Healing Money Trauma Workbook and connecting them to ancestral healing at her Indigescuela.

In an exclusive interview with People Chica, Pānquetzani discusses the importance of Mesoamerican medicinal wisdom in our everyday lives and how it can helo effectuate deep, meaningful transformation.

Photo Credit: Sophia Pav

You talk a lot about healing money trauma and even provide your community with a free workbook. Where do you think these traumas come from and how can we start healing?

Money trauma is colonial trauma rooted in economic exploitation. Money trauma comes from 500 years of indigenous wealth being systematically robbed from under our feet to benefit White settlers and their descendants. When you experience money trauma, it's a response to surviving colonialism, capitalism, and exploitation. It's the result of not having the necessary resources to survive, thrive, feel safe, or have peace of mind due to economic insecurity.

Money trauma affects your body, sense of self, your peace of mind, and nervous system. Money trauma can affect your financial decision-making and your motivation to go out and get what you deserve. The trickiest part about money trauma is this: even when we remove ourselves from poverty, your body remembers the experience, possibly for generations. You could feel money trauma in your body, even if you never lived through it.

I always had access to food growing up. My grandmother, who lived through extreme poverty in Coahuila, Mexico, did not. One evening, I realized I always felt anxious cooking for my children. I didn't eat until I got full. I waited for them to eat all of their food so that I could make sure that there was enough food for them first. I was hyper-vigilant about portions. I micromanaged what we had in the fridge—not because it [was] my joy, but because I felt anxious that there wouldn't be enough. Every night, I'd lay in bed thinking about breakfast, and how to stretch all of our meals the next day.

Photo Credit: Sophia Pav

One fall evening, in honor of my dad's birthday (he was in prison at the time), I decided to do his favorite thing: barbecue and drink a beer. This is the first time that I remember enjoying cooking for my family. Taking my time. Feeling at peace. By asking myself a series of questions, which I list in my Healing Money Trauma workbook, I learned that my visceral reaction to providing food for the family is inherited money trauma.

The first step to healing money trauma is recognizing your triggers. To help you out, I'll tell you two more of my triggers: swiping my card at the grocery store (you ever feel a sense of panic? That's money trauma) and checking my bank balance. I always expected the worst, no matter how much money I had. Recognize your triggers. Ask yourself, "Where does this trigger come from?" Get to the root. Figure out ways to give your nervous system, your spirit, and your body a restorative experience. Ask yourself, "What would I like to feel instead," and tap into that.

New generations are becoming more attuned to the importance of ancestral wisdom. How do you incorporate this into your work and life?

From separating and soaking my frijoles, to the temazcalli in my backyard, ancestral wisdom is an everyday part of my life. Ancestral wisdom is not only the practices that I offer through my work. It's more than vaginal steaming, Sobadas de Matriz, and traditional cerradas de caderas postpartum.

Photo Credit: Sophia Pav

Ancestral wisdom is rooted in our ancient Mesoamerican worldview. It's grounded in the deepest values passed onto us from our ancestors. It's my grandmother's voice in my heart, telling me to never go to anyone's home empty-handed. Always bring an offering, no matter how small. Leave a space better than when you arrived. Always be of service. Helpful people are always wanted. Socialize and bond through communal work.

These are common values that brown Mexicans and Central Americans share that are rooted in the ancient Mesoamerican value of reciprocity. You give and take in all of your relations. Not just with people, but also with the earth, the elements, cosmos, and all of its beings. This means that when we go to a friend's house and take them a little something, we're disseminating ancestral wisdom: it demonstrates that we know that we are all connected. We give and we take.

Before I harvest a plant in my womb healing garden, I offer it some precious stones, a song, or water. When I get a new client or student, I leave an offering for their ancestors. I thank them for connecting us and ask them to guide me in their healing for the benefit of all.

Photo Credit: Sophia Pav

Before I put my hands on a client for a sobada or postpartum care, not only do I ask for their consent, but I also ask their ancestor's permission. It's not only the time-tested womb healing practices I offer that makes up the bulk of my work, but the dissemination of indigenous wisdom through every interaction. I hope that my future grandchildren take these values with them when I leave this earth, just the way my abuela did with her abuelas.

What is a common misconception about the work ancestral healers do?

One common misconception is that ancestral healers are not effective. Due to a colonialist mindset, indigenous healing is seen as inferior. This is an ethnocentric, racist throwback [to] when Spaniards first invaded Mexico. They deemed us inferior so that they could justify theft, rape, and enslavement.

Our doctors were said to have been able to cure many ailments with just one herb. Mexican, or so-called "Aztec" doctors cured Spaniards from health problems that they had suffered with for years because Spanish medicine wasn't evolved enough. We revolutionized their medicine and our ancestral healing has impacted the medical world with no credit.

Terms like bruja and "old wives tale" were used to replace the words for doctor, midwife, and priestess in an attempt to delegitimize ancestral healing. Practices like the traditional sweat bath, or temazcalli, widely used for bathing and healing were outlawed and punished by death. Indigenous science is ancestral healing and is much older than Western medicine.

Through your Indigescuela you are helping women embody ancestral healing to thrive. What was your mindset when creating it and how do you hope it will expand?

I founded Indigescuela in 2014 because my people needed it. At the time, there was no online school for ancestral healing. I was a single mother of two sons flying to different cities, teaching about lifelong womb wellness from a Mesoamerican worldview. The more I traveled, the more I was requested.

That year, I taught in two dozen cities across the country because so many folks requested my help. It got to the point where I was tired. Tour life isn't for me. I need slowness and consistency. Folks from around the world had been asking me to visit and if there were any online teachings I offered, but I was afraid to take my sacred teachings online. I wanted to be respectful [to] the ancient body of knowledge that I preserve and protect.

A friend of mine encouraged me to offer a pre-recorded class on a platform that doesn't even exist anymore. I prayed on it. What I hear back is, "Yes, you have all of the skills and all of the tools." I used to be a videographer, but I had zero equipment. I borrowed my mom's laptop and recorded the first version of Matriz y Concha: Lifelong Self Womb Care.

I had no audio or lighting. I used the sun for light and prayed for silence. Once I started recording, the perfect words flowed from my heart. I had no experience with online sales or marketing, but my course sold itself. The passive income I generated gave me the spaciousness, ease, and peace of mind gave me the resources to dive into my next level of healing. Using these funds, I opened the first and leading online school for ancestral healing.

Indigescuela, my online school for BIPOC womb healers transcends borders and teaches folks not only ancestral healing through ancient practices, but how to be self-sustaining in your healing work through growing your online business. Thirty percent of the Indigescuela community are attending for free, low-cost, or scholarship based.

We've had more than 7,000 BIPOC students learn ancestral healing through Indigescuela. I hope that this online space pours from overflow to the indigenous communities who need it the most. I clearly see Indigescuela growing into an [in] person school for ancestral healing that serves our communities with the healing work they deserve.

As an Indigenous Latina, what is one way you embrace your cultura?

I embrace my cultura by centering my indigeneity. Due to colonialist colorism and racism, the White identity is centered in many modern cultural labels. Labels like Hispanic, Latino, and Mestizo silence my indigenous roots. Hispanic means "from Spain," and Latina means "derived from the Latin language." These labels don't pay homage to my language, land, or the pre-Columbian ancestors who gave me life.

If I'm living and raising children on my indigenous continent, eating my indigenous foods, working with my people's herbs, drinks, and living our traditional values, then it's my duty to lift a banner that says, "I'm Indigenous. Not Latino. Not Hispanic. I'm a Chicana Indigena. This is who I am, where I'm from, and where I'm going."

Even if I have some Spanish blood, I wasn't raised in Spain, with Spanish culture. What I have is the Spanish language that was forced on my people through colonization. My great-grandparents were fluent Nahuatl speakers. They learned Spanish out of necessity so that they could expand their small business outside of their Indigenous community. One of the most significant cultural revitalization projects I'm working on is my Nahuatl Ethnobotanical Card deck, which you can check out on my Instagram page, @indigemama.

I provide the original Nahuatl ethnobotanical names of dozens of common plants and Yerbas used in Mexican, Central American and U.S. Southwest Native American herbalism. I just got a huge book deal with Sounds True publishing for my book on Traditional Postpartum Healing using Mexican Traditional Medicine. These projects are my life work coming to fruition. They pay homage to my ancestors who preserved and protected this medicina, so that I could share it with you.