Gonzales & Rodriguez speak either separately or jointly. They keynote and conduct workshops as well as scholarly or community presentations. For bios go to bottom of the page.

Patrisia Gonzales, Ph.D. (promotora of herbal doctoring)

 -- author, columnist, herbalist, traditional birth attendant, promotora tradicional, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, Mexican American Studies and Research Center.

Gonzales lectures on Mexican Indigenous Medicine; Indigenous knowledge; plant knowledge; food as medicine; birthing rites; susto and historical trauma; and the codices or Indigenous painted book tradition as medicinal texts.

Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez speaks on human rights issues, Black-Brown relations, migration, historical trauma, origins & migrations, maize and maize culture.

Gonzales & Rodriguez also speak jointly on all issues related to our books & columns. Additionally, they present their documentary: Amoxtli San Ce Tojuan -- We Are One -- Nosotros Somos Uno -- a documentary about origins & migrations of peoples of Mexican/Central American descent & the centrality of maize in these migrations (see its page on this website for background info).

While our rates are reasonable for universities and professional organizations, the fees we charge often allow us to also speak at community events or k-12 schools at no additional cost.

If you are interested in us speaking, please contact us at:

XColumn@gmail.com or 520-743-0376 -

PO BOX 85476 - Tucson AZ 85754

BIOS

PATRISIA GONZALES, PHD

As the daughter of Kickapoo, Commanche and Macehual peoples who migrated across present-day United States and Mexico, Patrisia Gonzales specializes in Indigenous ways of knowing and Indigenous medicine. She was an Advanced Opportunity Fellow at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the Department of Life Sciences Communication. Her works have been cited in various anthologies and scholarly endeavors and she has received various human rights award for the national Column of the Americas, which she co-authors with Roberto Rodriguez, and for her book The Mud People: Chronicles, Testimonios & Remembrances (Chusma 2003).

Her scholarship examines Indigeneity from a hemispheric perspective; Indigenous communication practices; Mesoamerican symbols and codices as medicinal texts; and Indigenous medicine as a parallel system(s) of knowledge that challenge and expand the paradigms of Western Science. As a Kellogg Fellow, she explored community healing and Indigenous medicine and helped to establish a promotora project on traditional medicine in New Mexico. She is a promotora of Mexican Indigenous Medicine and an herbalist. She apprentices with Macehual elders as a Traditional Birth Attendant.

As a “promotora-investigadora” or community health promoter-researcher, her courses and research combine applied Indigenous medicinal knowledge with explorations into under-girding philosophies and world views. She collaborates with the Indigenous Birthworkers Network and is affiliated with the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at the University of Washington.

ROBERTO “DR. CINTLI” RODRIGUEZ

Rodriguez, born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, is a longtime-award-winning journalist/columnist who returned to school in 2003 in pursuit of a Master's degree (2005) and a PhD in Communications (Jan. 2008) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Many of his awards and recognition have come about in the area of defense of the 1st Amendment and human rights. Rodriguez returned as a result of a research interest that developed pursuant to his column writing: origins/migration stories of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. His dissertation: Centeotzintli: Sacred Maize: A 7,000-year-old Ceremonial Discourse. He began a Research Associate appointment at the University of Arizona in January 2008.

For the past several years, in conjunction with the Cesar Chavez Chicana/Chicano Studies Department at UCLA – where he and his wife (Patrisia Gonzales) were named Distinguished Community Scholars in 2003 – he has also embarked upon creating Indigenous Studies within the discipline of Mexican/Chicana/Chicano Studies. This work has included the creation of several classes: Sacred Geography (UCLA 2003), Indigenous Geography (UW-Madison, 2004), Teo Cintli: Story of the Continent (UW-Madison, 2005), Indigenous Liberation Research & Methodology (2006).  It has also included yearly presentations since 1998 on his origins/migrations research and the co-founding of an Indigenous caucus within the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Scholars in 2006. His work – based on the Aztlanahuac Interviews – a series of interviews with Indigenous elders throughout the continent – have also resulted in several documentaries, including: Going Back to Where We came from (2002), Teo Cintli: Story of the Continent (2004), and Amoxtli San Ce Tojuan – We Are One (2005).

His work has also resulted in several exhibits and symposia & the development & teaching of several related classes at UCLA & UW-Madison (2003-2006). His work has also permitted him to develop Indigenous Liberation Research & Methodology research principles and protocols, useful when conducting research, particularly when it involves Indigenous peoples and communities of color.

Rodriguez is the author of several books including: Justice: A Question of Race (Bilingual Review), a book that chronicles his two police brutality trials and that documents the underworld of police brutality. He was also a co-editor of: Cantos Al Sexto Sol, a collection of more than 100 writers writing about origins and migrations.

Rodriguez  continues to write Column of the Americas, a column first syndicated by Chronicle Features, then Universal Press Syndicate.

* VITAS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST