Patrisia Gonzales is a

traditional healer A folk healer is an unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional medicine, traditional practices, herbal medicine, herbal remedies and the power of suggestion. The healer may be a highly trained person who pursues their sp ...

/midwife and professor of Mexican American Studies and American Indian Studies at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. Gonzales is a granddaughter of Kickapoo,

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

, and Macehual peoples who migrated throughout the present-day

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and has taught about the ways in which

Indigenous medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...

and Western

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

can be complementary, both nationally and internationally. She was formerly a Distinguished Community Scholar at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Regent’s Scholar at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. Gonzales was selected to teach visitors at the Dunbar Pavilion, an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

Arts and Culture Center in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, how to identify and incorporate plants into their health and wellness practices with funding from a Agnese Haury Program of Environment and Social Justice grant. Gonzales worked for over ten years with colleague

Roberto Cintli Rodríguez Roberto Cintli Rodríguez is a columnist, author, and academic of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. On March 23, 1979, Rodriguez was taking photos on the corner of Whittier Boulevard and McDonnell Avenue in East Los Angeles fo ...

on a syndicated column entitled "Column of the Americas" and have many joint publications together. Gonzales and Rodriguez's work was jointly celebrated in 2014.

Publications

Articles * "The Language of Prayer: The Transformational Power of Native Languages," 2001, ''Ithaca'', 8(1) * "ANT MEDICINE: A Narrative Ecology," ''Chicana/Latina Studies'', 2012, 11(2) * "Calling our spirits back: Indigenous ways of diagnosing and treating soul sickness," ''Fourth World Journal'', 2012, 11(2) Books * ''The Mud People'' (Chusma House, 2003) * ''Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing'' (University of Arizona Press, 2012) * ''Traditional Indian Medicine: American Indian Wellness'' (Kendall Hunt Publishers, 2016) Foreword * ''Yolqui: A warrior summonsed from the spirit world'' by Roberto Cintli Rodríguez (University of Arizona Press, 2019) Lectures *
The Unseen Realm in Indigenous Healing Systems
(Colorado College, 2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzales, Patrisia Living people Indigenous academics of the Americas American academics of Mexican descent Chicano University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Year of birth missing (living people)