Hidden Gems: Meet Maria C. Turvin of Yanawana Herbolarios

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria C. Turvin.

Hi Maria C., thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Starting Yanawana Herbolarios is a journey that started for me back in my youth. I was blessed to have a childhood filled with the opportunity for regular outdoor adventures in wild places, leading me to have a strong connection with nature and my non-human relatives.

I was also blessed to have parents that imparted to me (and my siblings) great compassion, a duty to stewardship, and the respect for the unique beauty of every culture combined with a deep love for all as our relatives – sisters, brothers, all. Growing up, music was my first medicine, and although I would come to learn energy work at the hands of my mother during my childhood, and dive deep into herbalism at the start of my 20’s, music, my voice, in particular, was my Creator given a gift, so naturally, I assumed that was the path I would take in life. But even with having made that assumption, I always felt a pull to something stronger – I felt a pull to community healing.

So one day on a trip across the country with my parents and sisters, as we drove through some of the most beautiful yet impoverished communities in the United States, I made a silent pact with the Creator that if I ever lost the use of my singing voice that I would refocus my path and devote myself to community and medicine and healing.

While serving as a Medic-Healer at Sacred Stone Camp during the pipeline protests at Standing Rock, I caught the “DAPL” cough and lost the use of my singing voice for a good year. And while it had been “a little min” since I had been active on the music scene, I took the loss(albeit temporary) of my singing voice as a sign that it was time for me to refocus my path and devote myself to the community and medicine (herbal).

In 2016 Yanawana Herbolarios was officially “born”. Indigenous woman-founded and queer-led, we founded to meet unaddressed needs in the areas of healthcare and preparedness amongst vulnerable communities of San Antonio, TX, with a special focus on Indigenous, Black, Racialized, LGBTQ+, and working-class communities, serving folks of all ages from youth to elders.

We started small, with one program that focused on personal sovereignty, and slowly, community members by community members grew to the organization we are today, with a headquarters on the Eastside and vibrant accessible sovereignty-focused programming that serves all sides of SA, TX.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The path from where I started to where I am now (with Yanawana Herbolarios) has been a bit of a cobblestone road – beautifully bumpy. But that’s where the learning happens honestly, in the rough spots. I can’t say that I ever expected the road to be smooth, not initially anyway.

When I decided to form Yanawana Herbolarios I just did it. I didn’t wait until I had funding or a building or staff. I gathered up some friends, told them what I had in mind, and we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We started with the Eastside, one program, one community partner, 10 volunteers, and no base of operations and grew it into 8 programs, dozens of community partners, over 100 volunteers, a headquarters on the Eastside, and now serve the Eastside, Southside, Westside, and Central.

Funding has been our biggest challenge but we have been incredibly blessed to have a community that fully supports us. Those $5 dollar donations have sustained us in between the $1000 donations.

We’ve been impressed with Yanawana Herbolarios, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Ultimately, the goal of Yanawana Herbolarios is to help our community re-establish personal and communal sovereignty.

We want to help folks remember how to live in agreement with the land and to reconnect with their ancestral ways. Our programming is community informed, growing out of the expressed needs of our community. Every new program we begin is shaped by the continued input of the community in order to create programming that stays relevant to the most current needs of the community. Our programming includes:

The People’s Clinic.
The People’s Clinic is a donation optional botanically integrative holistic clinic open to the public and located at Yanawana Herbolarios headquarters on the Eastside of San Antonio, TX. Clinical services offered through The People’s Clinic include herbalism, reiki, curanderismo, accelerated resolution therapy, family counseling, trauma-informed counseling, Womxn’s healthcare, preventative healthcare, and more.

Sowing la Futura.
is an interactive ancestral skills community educational program for all ages meant to empower and create sovereignty for vulnerable populations. Past programming has included adobe oven building, fire-building skills, emergency shelter building, food foraging, medicine making, water purification, weaving, and gardening. Sowing la Futura programming is open to the public and is free, donation-based, or low cost depending on the program being offered.

Street Clinic.
Every week, several times a week, members of the Yanawana Herbolarios Street Clinic team head out to provide free trauma-informed, culturally-appropriate care to our houseless relatives, meeting them directly where their needs are at encampments, shelters, and on the street.

The Street Clinic team provides a variety of services, including wound care, foot care, preventative health, diabetes management, limpias, mental health, and needs distribution (clothing, food, harm reduction, menstrual, hygiene supplies, etc.) Yanawana Herbolarios Street Medic team comprises herbalists, curanderas, nurses, mental health professionals, nurses, and doctors.

Community Pantry.
Located at Yanawana Herbolarios Headquarters on the Eastside of San Antonio, TX is our Community Needs Pantry. Through our pantry, we offer non-perishable food, menstrual supplies, harm reduction supplies, hygiene items, books, plant seeds, diapers (infant – adult), and other community donated goods. The Community Needs pantry is free and open to everyone.

The Indigenous Land Restoration Project.
The 5-acres of creek access land that Yanawana Herbolarios is situated on is perfectly located to provide the communities YH serves with conveniently located access to an outdoor, educational, healing community sanctuary. Wild spaces within the city are precious and rare and provide a unique opportunity to observe and be with nature.

The management, revitalization, and re-indigenizing of this land will provide for educational opportunities surrounding traditional Indigenous plant medicine and land management practices, food sovereignty, and Climate Change; as well as create community food forests and gardens that will provide food, healing sanctuary, and the space to learn how to live in agreement with the land.

Project Home.
Housing is a human need and right. Through Project Home, we advocate for harm reduction and no-barrier houseless shelters, the overturning of harmful local housing policies, and work to create realistic, accessible, rapid housing solutions for those experiencing houselessness.

Feria de Resistencia.
This monthly event takes place 10 months out of the year, on the grounds of Yanawana Herbolarios. The Feria is a community event that combines education (Sowing la Futura mini-workshops), healthcare (The People’s Clinic), local commerce (pop-up market with local artisans), and community connection (through connection to community resources and special themed Feria events like Trans Day of Remembrance). The monthly fairs are free and open to the public.

Medic-healer program.
This is a high-level 2 phase educational program consisting of approximately 3,500 hours of classes, labs, clinics, and intensive field training. The first phase is spent as an apprentice, gaining a strong foundation of skills and knowledge. The second phase is spent as a journeymxn, solidifying both skills and knowledge through advanced studies, student teaching, and remote field team missions meant to test competency and readiness. A Medic-Healer must be able to care for their people in any situation or scenario.

Therefore this educational program has been designed to equip the student with a high level of personal sovereignty. Classes include (but are not limited to) – Indigenous Plant Practices, Emergency and Acute Medicine, Clinical Herbalism, Clinical Nutrition and Cooking, Advance Medicine Making, Emergency birth work, Ancestral living practices, Defense, and Cultural Competency. The program is free for those accepted and prioritizes Indigenous, Black, Racialized, and LGBTQ+.

Contact Info:

• Email: yhresponse@gmail.com
• Website: www.yanawanaherbolarios.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yanawanaherbolarios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YanawanaHerbolarios

Image Credits
Clarissa Peppers and Maria C. Turvin