Maria Cristina Moroles, Águila (eagle), has lived at Santuario Arco Iris in the Ozark mountains since 1976. It is one of the few women’s land communities in the United States founded by women of color. An Indigenous Mexican American curandera (healer), Águila turned this very, very rugged mountain land into a sanctuary for women and girls.

It’s a very complex thing that I’ve taken very seriously as a sacred responsibility. Our mission now is to heal our community, our local community, our Ozark community, and our indigenous community; and to bring all the colors into sacred union again.

Rose Norman, author, grew up in rural Alabama during the civil rights era. She finally found lesbian culture when she was forty, and it changed her life forever for the better.

The Pagoda was a lesbian residential community and cultural center on the beach near St. Augustine, Florida, from 1977 to 1999. Rose Norman interviewed founders, residents, and guests for the story of how it came to be and how it lasted so long.