Patrisia Gonzales, Fort Worth native and syndicated columnist, takes
readers on a spiritual, political journey to Mexico in her recently
published book, The Mud People, Chronicles, Testimonios and
Remembrances.

One strand follows the dignity and strength of the common Mexicans'
struggle against governmental repression and poverty. Another draws
on indigenous creation stories that tell how people emerged from the
earth, colored in muddy hues, and drew strength from its healing
powers.

Mexican curanderas -- natural healers -- taught her Aztec and Mayan
cures and rituals that helped her to overcome her own emotional
traumas from childhood sexual molestation, adult rape and a crippling
autoimmune disease.

Blending Buddhist teachings with practical, indigenous survival
skills of hard work, land use, resiliency and frugality, she learned
that we can control our destinies.

Despite the terrors of torture, abductions and murder that she claims
the Mexican government perpetrated in the "dirty wars' against
dissidents and Indians in the last century and today, the mud people
raised their voices and named their abuse and abusers.

In a book loaded with examples of anonymous Mexican women who
couldn't weep anymore for their abducted husbands and sons, Gonzales
tells heroic stories of their purification of fear and shedding
shackles of silence.

Seldom seen by the tourist class, Mexican mothers and wives
organized, marched and petitioned the federales for democracy,
justice and the return of their disappeared love ones. They displayed
their photos in public squares for all to remember. - from Amzon