The impact that Indigenous Roots has on the community is immeasurable. What Mary Anne, Sergio, and community members have built and continue to cultivate is so much more than a beautiful building and incredible programming. Indigenous Roots is a movement that is actively modeling what community can be and showing that another world is possible. As a Mexica-Nahua human raising a bi-cultural Indigenous child, it is a deep honor and profoundly healing to share in danza ceremony with her and Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli—canto y flor, in kuikatl in xochitl. My partner, Michelle, and I have been in healing and education work for most of our lives, understanding that healing can most powerfully emerge from community, culture, and ceremony. When we moved to the Twin Cities from Los Angeles with our daughter Evi in 2019—after I was invited to serve as the Director of Research and Programs for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, we were hungry to build community, to connect, and to grow roots in a place new to us. Mary Anne, Sergio, and the IRoots community have welcomed us as family. In a time and place where so many are hurting for belonging and healing, Indigenous Roots embodies growing community power from the ground up."

Samuel B. Torres, Mexica-Nahua

Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli

Director of Research and Programs

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition