September 4, 2003
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Profile of a medicine warrior: Camila Martinez
AWE interview by Stephanie Hiller
Camila Martinez is a unique combination of an American activist and indigenous healer, and in both ways she is totally true to her Hispanic roots.
Tiny, soft spoken, but possessed of an unmistakable tone of authority, this woman is moves like a native through the forest of tangled fictions we take to be the reality of our lives. She is determined and lean -- little preoccupied, it seems, with herself -- and completely committed to anything she undertakes. Most recently, that work has been to carry information about the dangers of genetic engineering to the agrarian people of Mexico.
I first met Camila in 1995 at the second Goddess Festival held at Ocean Song Farm and Wilderness Center in Occidental, a place where I have since spent many hours moving on the land. She was sitting under a great oak tree on the edge of the main field of activities, waiting to hold a workshop. In the workshop, she talked about the need for pure water, and the danger facing the waters of the world. She had information available on this issue. She also talked about nuclear radiation. And she talked about the Maya, and their medicines.
I got her schedule and that fall I attended a weekend workshop at the place where she was then living, in a roomy ranch house in Point Reyes. We stayed in tents nearby. The first night we shared a potluck and watched slides of Camila's medicine teachers in Mexico and in Tibet. The next day we sat in circle, then hiked the coastal ridge, learning some of the plants. We rose the next morning before dawn, to hike to Tomales Bay. There after meditation practice, most of us took off our clothes and swam in the Bay.
Since then I've run into Camila several times at the Bioneers Conference and elsewhere, and every time I wanted to figure out how to spend more time with her. Then this summer poetry editor Janine Canan sent me a poem by Camila. It was a remarkable coincidence to discover that she and Camila are friends.
Last month I was fortunate to interview Camila. She was still recovering from a very strange bike accident in which she had broken her leg. Still a warrior, she has entered the realm of the grandmothers. Her words have a quiet tenacity worthy of emulation. Several times in our talk she alluded to the café culture and how oblivious it is of its impact on the planet. The environment is her primary concern, and what is clear from our interview is that for Camila it's very simple to make a plan and act on it. You just take a look at where you are, and you figure out where you want to go. But don't worry -- it's not all up to you. The spirits are there to help.
Tell us how you began your work on genetic
engineering.
You know I'm very interested in medicine, all aspects of medicine -- how it's grown in the earth, who's growing it, what is going on in the food chain. Food is our medicine. I've been going to the Bioneers Conference for about eight years. About two years ago I heard Dr. David Suzuki and Dr. Mae Wan Ho speak about genetic engineering and the food chain. They were world renowned experts in their fields. After listening to them and getting their message into my bones, I realized that very little of this information was being taken down to Mexico and the Spanish speaking countries.
After hearing them speak, my mother passed on. I was with her and I helped her transition. I had been with other dying people before, but when it's your mother it's a very profound thing. My own life came into focus, as death has that great ability to do and I thought about what do I want to do between now and the time that I die, and how can I use myself for the greater benefit? I received a little bit of money from her and I decided I'm going to use that money to do some serious activism in Mexico. So that's what I did.
I went to Mexico with a bunch of information and I started a translation project with an anthrologist friend of mine. We translated all the written materials on genetic engineering and then started to have meetings with government officials regarding the genetic engineering situation in Oaxaca. Several months before that it had been discovered in Oaxaca in the Zapotec communities where corn was first discovered in the Americas -- that five of those communities found genetically engineered corn growing in those communities. Which was like a real bomb. After that I started to really mobilize. Also starting to teach at the State Agricultural Institute regarding genetic engineering. So that was the beginning of the trail.
Tell me a bit about your own life story. You're from California and that's about all I know.
I'll just tell a little bit about how I got to what I'm doing. Let's just say that I have very fortunate karma in certain ways. I've met and had the very great honor and privilege of studying with some very great living masters. My main spiritual teacher is a Tibetan lama, a Tibetan Rinpoche. Gyatrul Rinpoche. And my main medicine teacher, Dona Julieta. I've also had the chance to live pretty closely with and study with a Hawaiian kahuna, and also with a Mayan master. And also other longtime teacher, a Mexica elder, who's quite an amazing person. Very wise. Most of them I did live with for a period of time, and I've gotten the opportunity to not only study with them but practice with them. That's the most important thing. Extended retreats and practice.
How did you get on this path? Why did you even seek out these teachers?
It's part of my nature. It's just part of my nature. Of course when I met Dona Julieta, I really didn't know in that instant, [but] that's when the studies began in earnest. That was in the early 70s. I was taken to her. I was very fortunate, very very fortunate to be with her. She was in a very remote area of Oaxaca. In those days it was very difficult to get there.
I was raised in suburbia but I was on the edge of the wild land and I was a roamer. I had a very free childhood. I was allowed to roam at will from the age of six or seven. And I had the juxtaposition of a very disciplined education as well, in parochial schools, a classic education. I studied Latin and was into the ancient things from a very early age. When my classmates were into reading Seventeen, I was into Thoreau. I was different.
I have an older sister. She's into the healing arts too. I really believe our ancestors too were into the healing arts.
Are you a shaman?
I wouldn't use those terms. I don't make any claims. I think there are too many people making claims, that's what I think.
Do you see patients?
Yes, I do.
For physical illnesses?
Physical, mental, spiritual.
What can you tell us about plant medicines?
Rely on the plants. You can rely on the plants. As long as they're not genetically engineered, you can rely on the plants.
No genetically engineered substance is good for your health. They've been doing studies in regards to these substances and they lower the immune system, and especially for children who are on a relatively steady diet of these things. There's word coming that children who are having a large diet of this, their hearts don't develop properly, their brains don't develop properly. In other words, it affects the organs of the body. So many of the products we have here, the Third World depends on as staples. Nestle's powdered milk -- we're talking of tens of millions of babies are raised on that stuff. It's genetically engineered. Fifty percent of the corn is.
So you have to buy organic everything?
If you can. But the rest of the planet, they don't have access to organic. It's kind of unfortunate that a lot of activists are into these things but they have no clue what's going on with the rest of the planet. Organic! Give me a break. It's just not there.
In really remote areas, the food is not organic?
It depends on how remote you are and what's going on with the seeds in that place. In really remote areas, you have Monsanto sending representatives into remote areas, giving their seeds away, hooking the farmers into a never ending cycle of having to continually buy seeds because the seeds are hybridized. And secondly, the virus from the seed that's genetically engineered jumps into the soil and contaminates the soil of his land, his neighbor's land, and extends out from there. There's no way to control it. I went into the marketplace to see what seeds are for sale. You have your heirloom seeds for sale and also you have genetically engineered seeds for sale and there's no marking on the things unless you know what the heck you're looking at. We're looking at a really big situation and there's very little information on it and the information tends to be in the large cities but as far as really getting out into the populace? No, very little.
We're dealing with land here. Land is the issue, and food is the issue. What can I say? A quick way to make a revolution is to keep the people without food.
In Mexico they're not self sustainable, they're importing hundreds of thousands of tons of genetically engineered corn, just to keep the people fed, that's what their government has already done. They've sold the farmer down the tubes just like they're trying to do here in the United States. When that happens it's very very serious, and that's what's going on in Mexico.
What would you say to people who are trying to figure out what to do?
The first thing is recognizing what channel you're on. What is your comfort zone? What do you surround yourself with? How much of your money and energy are you directing to directly benefit other people. Then start changing your channel. It can be something very simple. Pick your topic, any topic -- homelessness, AIDS -- so many areas. It's about actually getting up and getting in the car, turning the car key and actually getting there and saying, What can I do to help, instead of all this wishful thinking. Generally you don't have to look very far to see suffering. Think about how many elders are shut away in your community, or how many crippled people -- the unseen people or the partially seen.
If you have the ability to get out there on the planet and see what's going on, the rewards are very great because hey, there's human beings out there, and they might not speak the same language and they might not live the same way but there's some pretty fantastic things happening out there and it's quite miraculous to touch it.
For example, one thing I've done is I founded an ecological literacy program in the jungle with the Maya. It's been going on for five years now. I work with a group of elders in southern Yucatan on an ecological reserve deep in the jungle, teaching the young children of farmers, because they are fast becoming the stewards of that land and they don't really know about the jungle. Their elders know about the jungle but the children don't, and they live at the edge of the jungle. It's one of the largest regions of biodiversity left on the earth. It's a very interesting process, working with these kids and with a Mayan master to see what he thinks is important to say to them and how he teaches the children.
Aren't indigenous people already teaching these things to their children?
Sad to say, no. There are many displaced indigenous people that are two generations removed from living on the land. That's a basic break in the process of evolution.
The teachers of the public school, they don't get any training in ecoliteracy or sustainability. Those two words are unknown to them, as is bioregion or diversity. The teachers asked me to do a teacher training course. I've gotten a lot of invitations from communities to go teach there. Womens' groups have asked me to come back down and teach. I would love to take some women from here. It's a wonderful opportunity. You get to meet women who live in the jungle. Part of my whole process for almost 20 years has been to take people into the region to have this connection with the native people, and also bringing the native elders up here. That's where I see the real connect. You can't do it over the Internet and you can't do it over the telephone. That's just the way it really is. I am supposed to keep those threads, to keep that weaving happening.
When I was in Oaxaca, people had gathered with some activists to do No Violence Against Women Sunday. It was at a small art gallery in the great colonial center of the city, very beautiful, 16th and 17th century buildings all around. Everyone was sitting out under a large shady tree. In Latin culture there's really lots of violence against women. They gave me the opportunity to speak as an activist from the U.S. That was a really a great honor to address the community. There were some young Vera Cruz musicians, seven of them, who had come on an overnight bus, very threadbare with absolutely no money, in order to be there and play music. I could feel their heart and their intention and it really moved me because I realized it was for them, for their generation and younger, that I do what I do. [Tears started to well up in her eyes.] And it doesn't take money to make this scene go on. A lot of people with hardly any money are out there doing what they can to raise consciousness in so many different ways.
The good part of all that was that I got a chance to go to really remote communities, I travelled far into the jungle, I got a lot of invitations to return by the elders. There's a lot of work to be done, but I need a benefactor to do this. I need money for the next round. But I'm waiting to see what's developing here first. And right now I need to stop and sharpen my knife. I think it's important to continue to sharpen because the game gets more subtle so you have to have your antennas up.
Are you a feminist?
Oh, yes. You have to be. With the work that I do and what I've seen. . . I've seen plenty. I've seen women on the streets. Hunger. Abuse in all ways. Tens of thousands of abandoned children.
Do you feel women would do things differently?
Yes. [But] the desire for power has been bred out of them. Women that are feminists in western countries, it's nice they feel liberated but it's hard for them to talk to women that are really oppressed in other countries. If people think the problem is solved, they're not looking far beyond their noses. I think it's important that we all come together now. Come out of our comfort zones. Take a deep breath and plunge into the river. The water's exquisite.
When women gather there's still so much of this whole emotionalism thing. I think it's up to us to take a much more of a warrior attitude and cut through all the he-said-she-said, the whole my-feelings-are-hurt kind of thing. When things are desperate, and the situation is desperate in many places, there's no room for this STUFF. The planet does not operate like California. I love California. I'm a native Californian, this is where my heart is. But when you experience what other people have to go through, your view changes a lot, and I think that this is a very healthy thing. We're all sisters, we all breathe the same air, we all drink water. And when you see suffering up close, your compassion increases, and that's what my motivation is for helping people have that experience. Because then your whole commitment deepens or you learn to have commitment, you learn to know what that is, and you begin to understand what that takes.
How do you see the overall situation in the world today?
I try to look at the bigger picture here and try to step out of the very intense political situation and one of the images that always comes to me is the Nataraj image of Shiva, and also the Kali images.
So we're looking at pralaya, the dance of destruction?
Yeah. And that's been going on for a very long time. World systems come and world systems go. None of this is any different than it's been. We're just in an apparent different time frame.
Don't you think it's a little more urgent today, with the threat of planetary destruction?
We're only realizing this present urgency because of the increase of information the last 50 years. I believe there's been a lot of urgency in the past, but people didn't know about it as much. Now because we have so much information, that makes things a little more intense for the people that are plugged in. However, there's always been these voices and also there's always been the great pacifying and nurturing force of the great mother, along with everything else, so you know -- good babies and naughty babies.
And on it goes?
And on it goes.
She can't stop it?
Well, it's all Her. Her mind. I'm less than a speck, so why should I too much worry about what's in her mind? She has her own mind, She's a lot more creative than I'll ever be. So therefore I trust in Her. And I feel if one is open and listening, one can always hear what she wants. It's up to us to follow. And that's the same thing that people have been working on for thousands and thousands of years.
That gets discouraging!
Mmm, I don't think it's discouraging. You get discouraged when you're too attached to what you're looking at.
You have to understand the propitiation aspect. It's like if you have your own spiritual practice and you practice with a pure heart then that's what it takes. It's you that you change. If you're going to be focussing on the bad boys, that's all you're going to see. But if you're going to open up, you're gonna see that the bad boys need compassion too because they're the ones that are really in a pickle.
Do you see a turning point, after which humanity begins to create a sustainable world?
I don't see a particular turning point. I think the turning point is in every one, how you choose to do. But anyway you have to realize that not everyone has that choice. Because many people, they don't have opportunity. If you're locked in, for example, you're in some place that's deeply impoverished, what can you do? You don't have much of a choice except maybe you have a choice of you drink water or maybe you don't. Meaning there may be pure water to drink or there may not be.
Here where we have the choices, take a clear look -- what have we got here, and what are we gonna do?
What about the Mayan calendar in 2012. Is there going to be a major change?
I'm looking at that. I'll be going down to Mayaland quite a lot, meeting with elders and talking story. I think something very powerful is coming, yes. (pause) And it's not far away.
Kind of like when you get into very intense life situations -- I always think it's like you put your life under the microscope. And when your life is on a slide under the microscope, you get a chance to turn the power up on the microscope and fine tune the microscope, and the more intense the situation is, you look closer and closer at a higher and higher power, and that's what's happening. It's like you're on the stove and you're being cooked and the heat's being turned up, so what happens with you when the heat turns up? You either incinerate or you cook along nicely. You make a lovely dish. That's what I think, there's a level of us -- a strata, shall I say -- we're really being cooked. And that's good.