The Ancestors Called My Name

Marla Teyolia grew up four miles from the Mexican border, the only one in her family born in the United States. In her 20s, she started meditating and building an ancestral altar while navigating Columbia University as one of the only people of color in her program. She did it in secret, behind a locked bedroom door, because it did not feel safe to be seen. Thirty years later, she runs a coaching firm, trains leaders at some of the world's most powerful institutions, and still sits with her ancestors every morning. She never had to choose between those worlds. She just had to wait until she was strong enough to hold both of them in the open.

This is a conversation about what it means to carry indigenous practices into modern life, what curanderismo actually is and what it does, and why you cannot AI your way out of the need to reconnect with your humanity.