share your spiritual biography in 10 words, or less:
chiiiile, it’s mess. but it’s my mess.
where are you turning for soul nourishment / joy / aliveness?
we are transforming our backyard into a little farm. we have a salsa garden, leafy green tower, strawberries, a three sisters raised garden bed, and my own personal tea garden. my children have an altar they decorate with their prayers, our plant clippings, and findings from family outings. I dry flower blossoms and turn them into tea. We have a tumbling compost bin where I am known to talk endlessly about how composting reminds us that the journey of death is to nourish new life. Perhaps we’ll add chickens to it soon. The little farm is where we make art, cultivate our lives, and grow our connections with one another.
what is a text you hold sacred?
I read Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “when you have forgotten Sunday: the love story” every day of Lent. Isn’t it incredible how one poem can speak to you in so many ways on so many days?
what is a spiritual practice currently sustaining you?
At nighttime I pray with prayer beads made from aged olive trees in Palestine crafted by the hands of Palestinian artisans. Every prayer is coated with the longing to know a free and autonomous Palestine in my lifetime.
how would you describe the work you feel called to do in this world (even if it is not the work you get paid for)?
I am a literary doula: tenderly providing readers with the strength to birth the unnamed vocabularies of our deepest ache to find pathways towards our collective liberation.
knowing that none of us “has it all together,” what is one question you are wrestling with, or bit of wisdom you are struggling to enflesh in your daily life?
I’m continually awakening to the knowledge that decolonizing is not an intellectual pursuit. Hyperintellectualism is a trauma response, and we live in a culture/society that demands we hyperintellectualize our healing journey in order for it to be “valid.” Decolonizing isn’t about how smart, analytical, or well versed you are. It’s about the life you live outside of the public eye. Are you connected? Are you whole? What soil do your roots grow in?
who is one elder / ancestor / mentor whose guidance you draw from? what is one piece of wisdom they have offered?
I recently finished the memoir Horse Barbie by trans supermodel Geena Rocero. She is a few years older than me. I consider her story, words, wisdom, and insight to be sage guidance handed down from our kababayan trancestors.
what’s one oppressive untruth you are practicing unlearning / divesting from?
Ohhhhh… what am I not unlearning? Today I wrote in my journal that it is an act of alchemy to unlearn scarcity through expanding our relationship with time. Interpret that in whichever way you desire.
what is one thing you wish were required listening / viewing? (please link to the song, poem, art piece, podcast, etc.)
The Broad Museum in Los Angeles has an audio tour segment called “Looking with LeVar.” We did it as a family and it kept our kids (8, 5, 2) engaged! Gotta love the voice, spirit, and curiosity of LeVar Burton. Pieces from the virtual tour is available to all.
Here’s the link: https://mobile.thebroad.org/kids-audio-tour?families=1
any of your website and/or social media handles you’d like us to include / highlight?
website: www.camillehernandez.com
instagram+tiktok: @writercamille
substack: www.camillehernandez.substack.com