Cihuatlatohki (Jefa) Laura Yohualtlahuiz is a 2-spirit Mexican-born Xicana Matriarch of mixed Anahuaka lineage recognized for her canon of healing justice praxis intersecting traditional Mexican Indigenous healing arts, performance ritual, and ancestral Anahuaka teachings as tools for liberation. They are a Traditional Culture Bearer of Tepehuan, Guachichil Chichimeca origins trained in educational pedagogy, circle keeping, performance art, narrative strategy, and cultural organizing, recognized for their canon of healing-informed praxis addressing the collective soul wound.
She holds a BA in International Relations and Latin American Studies and a MS in Organizational Leadership and has lectured in Mexican-American Studies at The University of Texas in San Antonio. Her work as a Participatory Action Researcher with Southwest Folklife Alliance incubated Circles in Da Hood coalition creating a framework for youth-led health equity, and advocacy earning her a Rooted in Culture leadership award.
They are an Intercultural Leadership Institute and Texas Folklife Community Fellow Alumn and co-lead, Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin, a transnational inter-tribal group of families preserving Anahuaka teachings. As a culture bearer they have represented alongside their Guachichil Chichimeca elders for the Secretaria de Cultura of San Luis Potosi highlighting their role as a Xicanx tradition keeper & Hip-Hop culture bearer. They were a ceremony keeper with Wind & Warrior Sacred Waters Pilgrimage in ritual solidarity response to the murder of George Floyd focusing on healing colonial and land based trauma across the Black/Indigenous diaspora. They serve as a voting member with Alternate Roots offering healing justice thought leadership. They’re an Afro-Indigenous Futurist, Traditional Culture Bearer, Veteran Bgirl with IllMILF crew, Dualidad, and most importantly a Mami passionate about healing intergenerational & colonial trauma through matriarchal leadership, cultural resilience and rooting kinships in critical solidarity through Matriarchal leadership, folklore preservation and cultural resiliency for the next 7 generations.
Their work has been featured by National Folklife Network Magazine, Allied Media Conference, NAISA (Native American & Indigenous Studies Association, The International Gathering of Indigenous Traditions, and The Othering & Belonging Institute, receiving accolades nationally and internationally. Laura is co-founder and visionary behind De Corazón Circles, a consulting and capacity building agency envisioning a brave and equitable world where restorative interactions transform individuals, relationships, communities, and systems through the intentional prevention, repair and deep healing of harm through the power of circle keeping, cultural, and narrative strategy.
They coin their lifework as a Traditional Culture Bearer as being a “Full Spectrum Rites of Passage Doula” holding the sacredness of each stage of life from birth to death centering embodied practice and somatic ritual for collective healing. In 2021, the launched Tlanezi Teatro Ritual, an Indigenous performance art troupe exploring community art interventions for the healing and transmission of knowledge through community ritual, ancestral music, somatic dance, choreography, body art and adornment. Their recent work at the Santa Fe Art Institute’s through an artist residency with Dancing Earth, has catapulted their performance art into new realms of exploration and she will be announcing new work on the ILI website later this fall of 2026. Laura will also be opening a microschool, Calmecac In Lak’Ech, for youth and families exploring Indigenous led & community based education models in August 2026.
