Maria Cristina Moroles Oral History

Maria Cristina Moroles was born in Corpus Christi,Texas, in 1953 and grew up in a large traditional, loving Mexican-American family in Dallas, Texas. Both her parents were from Coahuilateco Mexica Nation people. She is a traditional Mexica curandera, state-licensed master massage therapist, herbalist, and ceremonial leader. In 2024, she co-authored with Lauri Umansky her memoir, Aguila: The Vision, Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Two-Spirit Shaman in the Ozark Mountains published by University of Arkansas Press. 

The West Dallas barrio of her childhood was plagued by violence–she was raped and impregnated at the age of 12 and became estranged from her family for several years of her adolescence, living on the streets and in and out of juvenile detention and foster care. In 1968, at age 15 she married to obtain amnesty as an independent juvenile. At age 17 she gave birth to her daughter, Jennifer. After the murder of her teenage brother and several attempts on her and Jennifer’s life, she began to have a recurring dream of standing on a mountain top overlooking a war like chaos in a city below. Yet she was safe on the mountain. The dream inspired her to leave Dallas and move to Fayetteville, Arkansas, in search of the mountain of her dream. After less than a year she separated and later divorced. In 1974, she worked for the Ozark Women’s Trucking Collective, an all-lesbian trucking collective for Ozark Natural Food Warehouse Co-op.

In 1976, she visited Sassafras, a 400-acre “hippie” commune. Certain she was on the right mountain yet was confused and repelled by litter, chaos and racism she felt from the community, she did not return until around 1977. By that time, it had become a lesbian separatist commune.

Ultimately, she and Jennifer were allowed to move onto a part of land not used by the Sassafras community but owned by an all-white womyns collective. She and Jennifer never were residents of Sassafras community. After a couple of years, she and Two-Spirit Women Of Color (WOC) negotiated and reclaimed 120 acres of land as WOC-led land. In 1988, she and her partner birthed a baby boy on the land. With the birth of Mario the vision of land became more inclusive.

In 2000, Moroles and her partner negotiated the reclamation of the original 400 acres of Sassafras Womyns Community lands that had been abandoned and created Arco Iris Earth Care Project (AIECP) as a 501(c)3 non-profit. She has lived on the land of her vision for almost 50 years, and for many years mostly without running water, electricity, or telephone. Santuario Arco Iris and AIECP are still "off the grid" but her home, clinic, bunkhouse, natural clinic, barn, Arco Iris office and La Cocina Community kitchen have minimal if any power. The homes have limited to no solar power and gravity flow Ozark spring water. Her son is non-binary and her daughter is also a Two-Spirit married to her partner. Both Jennifer and Mario own their own cabins on the land, are resident stewards and work for AIECP.

Maria Cristina’s ceremonial name is Águila (AKA Sun Hawk), and continues to identify as a curandera, chamán, as an elder she mostly teaches, speaks, or leads ceremonies. Currently, she is president of AIECP (arcoírisearthcareproject.com), the non-profit organization that works to fulfill the Arco Iris vision and mission of preserving and protecting Mother Earth and teaching Ozark and indigenous sustainability skills to the community in collaboration with Santuario Arco Iris her home.

Biography Date: April 2025