On rooting and reclaiming
with Robyn Moreno author of 'Get Rooted'
#NuevasPaginas is a space that aims to amplify and spotlight Hispanic/Latine/x authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to their next favorite Hispanic/Latine/x authored book through a mini casual get-to-know-the-book-and-author interview. So give please spread the news so we can reach more readers and continue the love/support of Latine literature!
Hey Book Franz!
Welcome to another exciting week in books and Happy Pride Month!!! I hope your summer is going well so far. Mine has been filled with so much joy and adventure. Though even among all the activities, I do, still find myself sad at times. It’s something that happens to me every summer. I’ve even written about it here. It’s a hard feeling to explain but think of it as a mix of saddness and a feeling of impending doom.
So I try to sit with the heavy emotions in the sun and ask those emotions what it wants me to pay attention to. What does it need? When that gets too tough, I pick up a book. This is why I always like to say books save me. They really do. I’m sharing this in hopes someone out there feels like this too and to normalize the idea that just because the weather is beautiful, the sun is out, the music and activities are endless; sometimes heavy emotions still need to be felt and that’s okay ❤️
What is Lupita reading this week?
📕 Physical book - I set down ‘The Consequences’ by Manuel Muñoz so I could devour ‘An Island Princess Starts a Scandal’ by Adriana Herrera, because I have the honor of chatting with her in person (the convo will also be available virtually!!) this coming Saturday, June 17th at 7PM at East City Bookshop! So far, the book is everything I want me summer to be - full of sapphic tension and love. Also, you might remember Adriana Herrera because in addition being a USA Today Best Selling Author, we hosted her here on the substack for her first book of Las Léonas series. Check out the interview here and you can register to join our conversation here!
🎧 Audio - I am halfway through ‘Horse Barbie’: A Memoir by Geena Rocero! It details the life of a trans pageant queen from the Philippines. I recently heard it was listed as one of the best memoirs of 2023 and I’d agree the voice in this one is so strong.
For #LupitasBookClub Besties:
WE ARE FINALLY READING THE CONSEQUENCES by Manuel Muñoz!!! Reading it slowly but we are reading it. It’s really not too late for you to grab a copy and join our conversation happening at the end of the month, right here.
Without further ado, our special guest author for today’s Nuevas Pagina issue is……Robyn Moreno author of Get Rooted: Reclaim Your Soul, Serenity, and Sisterhood Through the Healing Medicine of the Grandmothers!
Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?
This photo was taken right by house, I am lucky to live close to nature which always roots me. In my book I talk about walking in the woods near my house and listening to the water, and this is where I usually. Though I am usually not as primped and polished as in this photo!
Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book
My life changed when I read Women Who Glows in the Dark by Elena Avila on a beach in Mexico several years ago. At that time, I was experiencing a true mental and spiritual burnout. The book is about a Mexican American (Texas-born, like me) nurse turned curandera. In that book she talks about healing on a soul level. She discusses the concepts of soul loss and soul retrieval, and how our culture has always known that the soul can be just as injured as the body mind, and emotions. In that moment I saw myself and started on a path guided by this beautiful curandera— and fellow Tejana—that I had never met, yet felt like I knew. To me, that is the power of books and story. You share your truth like an offering, and the wind picks it up and takes it where it needs to go.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
Rooting and reclaiming. In this book, and in my life, I learned (or remembered) how to root back home into myself—again and again, because it’s not a one-and-done deal. I rooted back into ancestry, rooted back into my own self-trust, and knowing, and followed a path to rootedness laid out to me by my ancestors. And in the book, I share some of those stories and tools, so others can do the same.
The book is also a giant soul retrieval and reclamation, because I reclaimed and honored and held and cherished so many things my family and I lost, because of colonization, assimilation, systemic racism, and trauma. And the beautiful thing is that I got to choose what I wanted to reclaim—and what I wanted to leave behind, because there was a lot I did not want to carry forward. And that was profound lesson for me, and a gift to my children.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
Each chapter might be different: on the beach in Mexico or alongside a river in the Hudson Valley, but my true home is always nature.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be?
It would most likely be a Chicano soundtrack from the 70s.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
A hot bowl of pozole and agua fresca de jamaica
and definitely conchas and breakfast tacos, and coffee, though manzanilla tea is always nice, too.
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
Great question and both! Growing up, I was fed by Sandra Cisneros, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Rudolfo Anaya, Isabel Allende, and Julia Alvarez, but I was always hungry for more. In the self-help/spirituality space, I was greatly moved by the works of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés and Don Miguel Ruiz but again yearned for more stories and ways I knew existed, so I was inspired to share my story so Latine can hopefully see themselves reflected back and know they are not alone.
Where can readers keep up with your work?
Visit robynmoreno.com to sign up for my newsletter and learn about upcoming readings and workshops, and visit me on IG at robynnmoreno and getrootedwithrobynmoreno
Thank you to Robyn Moreno for taking the time to chat with me about her book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) #SupportLatinxLit!
Robyn Moreno is a Curanderismo practitioner, meditation teacher, and author. Robyn has worked to lift the stories and voices of Latinxs via her popular podcast Get Rooted with Robyn Moreno, and in her books, including Border-line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass, and Cultural Shifting. A native Texan and certified yoga teacher and life coach, Robyn lives with her family in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Synopsis for ‘Get Rooted’ from the Bookshop website:
The alchemy for real personal transformation lies in digging up your own medicine and tools. Your ancestors, with all their struggles, strength, and resilience, are your greatest guides.
Anyone scrolling through Robyn Moreno's social media and seeing her with her adorable kids and taking the stage at empowerment conferences would have thought she had it all together. But the truth behind her well-curated pics was that Robyn was burnt out: in the midst of a full-on, midlife meltdown caused by that all-too-familiar working mom tightrope walk coupled with painful family drama.
To save her soul, sanity, and family, Robyn quit her manic #mommyboss existence, and set out on a 260-day spiritual journey based on an ancient Mexica (Aztec) calendar, studying the medicine of her Mexican grandmothers: curanderismo. She learned about sustos--soul losses--and ser--your true essence. She reconnected with family she hadn't spoken to in ages, and learned fantastical stories about her great-grandmother, Mama Natalia, who was a curandera. She took cooking lessons with a tough but tender-hearted Mexican chef and found community, and joy, in hiking. She had dramatic moments with her sisters, her mom, her husband, and herself. And finally, she went into the jungle of Belize and found healing in the most unexpected way.
Reckoning with the hidden stories and aspects of her family and her Mexican American culture that were transforming and heartbreaking brought Robyn to an unshakable understanding of who she is and how she fits into this world. And, by looking to her past to decide which traditions, which medicines, to pass on to her daughters--and which to leave behind--she began to root into the person she was meant to be.
Get Rooted sounds like a gorgeous and essential book. Thank you for putting this on my radar (and Horse Barbie, which also sounds fascinating!