ALAMOSA — There’s a new book on the shelves at Narrow Gauge Book Co-operative titled “Somos Agua” written by local author Belinda Garcia. The title of the book is simple. The images on the cover are vibrant and alive. And both are actually promises of what’s found inside the book which, simply put, is powerful and profound.  

For all her life, Garcia has been about promoting the well-being of others. In 1989, she founded Sisters of Color United for Education, the oldest promotora in the country with a long history in the San Luis Valley and surrounding areas plus an international presence in Mexico, Chiapas, Guatemala and Kenya. A promotora is an Hispanic/Latino organization of people trained and committed to providing support to others in their community. 

But Garcia’s life has also been full of trauma and loss. Her first husband died at the age of 27 from the effects of Agent Orange. Her son – Manuko G. Garcia – was killed by a drunk driver at the age of 9 as he was coming home from school. 

“I’ve had a lot of pain and I could either stay in that space or I could be of service to other people,” she said. Garcia chose to be of service.  

In addition to being an artist and a carpenter, she is a teacher, social worker, therapist and professor at Metro State College in Denver. She is also a practicing curandera, a traditional native healer or shaman. 

Garcia has family roots that run deep in the Valley and, after living in different places, she returned to the area where she spent much of her youth, taking a teaching job at a school in Saguache. Unfortunately, due to her advocacy for changing the school mascot to something that was not an offense to indigenous people, her job came with no small amount of conflict. 

“That’s when I started ‘Somos Agua’,” she says,” but not by myself.”   

“Somos Agua” began as a workshop Garcia offered on historical trauma, something that “…affects us all. Trauma is stored in all parts of our bodies,” she says, “especially in the water in our bodies that is passed on for generations.” 

She then asks a series of questions that get to the heart of the matter. 

“So, what are we doing with that trauma in our lives? What are we leaving for our children? Where is our compassion and our humanity? According to the United Nations, 44% of the deaths in Gaza were children. Where is our responsibility to our children and the next seven generations? When you close your eyes, what are you going to say on your next journey? Those questions are especially important now.” 

Garcia believes strongly in the healing power of art. 

“Art is an expression of communities. Art is music, it’s dance. It’s writing and paintings and murals on walls. We gain social consciousness through art. We must have social consciousness – we must have that.”  

Those ideas combined – the trauma that resides in people, the questions that must be asked, the sacredness of water and art as an expression of community – led to a series of murals being painted, the first one in Saguache, painted on silk and measuring sixty feet long by six feet tall.  

More than 180 people were involved in its creation, Garcia says, ranging in age from four years old to 84, with images that came from their imaginations and collective vision yet reflective of beliefs that reside at Garcia’s core.  

“Somos Agua” – we are water – embodies the belief that all water is sacred, including the waters of the earth and the water within each human being that connects that human being to others, no matter how different one human being is from the next.  

“We need to learn about healing through water,” she says. “We also need to honor the people who are water protectors. We need to learn about the water situation that is happening right now, and how we’re draining water from our Mother Earth.”  

But Garcia doesn’t stop there. “We also need to learn about the water within ourselves, the water that we retain,” she says. “The water within us has memory and how we treat ourselves is how we treat other people.” 

Those experiences, those beliefs, those outcomes are now contained in the book called “Somos Agua”, a simple title that encompasses, well, everything. 

On Feb. 21 at 6 p.m., Belinda Garcia will be at the Narrow Gauge Book Cooperative, 602 Main St., Alamosa, where she will be reading excerpts from her book. Anyone with questions, can call 719-589-3464.