Maria Cristina Moroles (Águila)

Maria Cristina Moroles, now known as Águila, born in 1953, founded and is president of Arco Iris Earth Care Project, a nonprofit, conservation organization. She is a resident, matriarchal steward, and spiritual leader of Santuario Arco Iris, her home. Arco Iris Earth Care Project holds in stewardship 400 acres of wilderness land adjacent to Santuario (arcoirisearthcareproject.com). The nonprofit organization works to fulfill its mission of preserving and protecting this 400 acres of wilderness near Boxley, Arkansas, according to Indigenous Earth care principles. It has served as a survival camp for women and children of color since the late 1970s.

Aguila is seated outside smiling — Águila in recent times.

Águila, formerly SunHawk, is Native American, from the Coahuilteco Mexica nation of southern Texas and northern Mexico. She has been a curandera [healer] since the age of eighteen. She grew up in a traditional, Mexican-American family in Dallas, Texas, in a low-income barrio plagued by violence. She had an intense and difficult childhood.

Águila came to Arkansas in the 1970s as a result of a recurring, visionary dream. She has lived on reclaimed native land for over forty years, land that is now known as Santuario Arco Iris. Earlier, it was known as Rancho Arco Iris, Rainbow Land, or simply The Land. For much of that time, Águila, her partners, and family members have lived fully off the grid, without running water, electricity, or telephone. Over the years, Águila and her partners opened a 3-mile long, dirt road to their land to build dwellings and water systems, and to enable organic farming and farm animals.

Águila is a traditional, Indigenous healer, known as a curandera; a state licensed, master massage therapist; an herbalist; and a ceremonial leader who runs a spiritual medicine lodge at Santuario Arco Iris. She has a daughter, Jennifer, and a son, Mario, who have homes on the land. For many years, Águila has opened the land and her home as safe healing spaces for displaced women and children of color; and for Two Spirit peoples needing it. She also teaches Indigenous, sustainable, living skills to young women and seekers. Currently, she teaches primarily through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) with preference given to LGBTQ2S+ people and women of color. Her memoir, Águila: The Vision, Life, Death & Rebirth of a Two-Spirit Shaman in the Ozark Mountains was published in 2024 by the University of Arkansas press (with coauthor Lauri Umansky).

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