SAN ANTONIO — Karizma Cedillo Williams beat a drum as she walked through an open space surrounded by trees and the harsh sounds of cicadas.
Williams, 18, went though a lot of turmoil growing up on San Antonio’s East Side and recently she’s been more comfortable talking about it.
“There’s a lot of poverty. You notice there are a lot Blacks, there are a lot Mexicans, but more likely you can say it’s rough,” Williams said.
Data shows that having trauma while growing in these circumstances is almost inevitable and the coping mechanisms are usually not healthy ones, which is why Williams chose to be a part of a group called Circles In Da Hood.
Madelein Santibáñez is a circle leader for the group, which consists of youth from the inner city of San Antonio, and posed a question.
“As you all know, circles in the hood is about what?” Santibáñez asked.
“Healing,” the group answered, collectively.
“Thanks to the mother of our offsprings, thanks for the women that raised their children,” Williams said out loud. “The ones that nurture, and love and give us strength to go on.”
Williams said she uses the group's non-violent and healthy approaches at home and it’s made her a much happier person.
Santibáñez, who belongs to Kalpulli Ayolopaktzin and Corazón De Circles, blew into a shell horn to begin the circle.
"It (circles) was something that came out of what youth said they needed. They were struggling, they were compounded like trauma and mental health issues,” Santibáñez said. “We have a lot of our students who are dealing with anxiety and depression.”
The kids refer to Santibáñez as Madé.
She says their pain is rooted in generational trauma that exists in households, but she hopes that passing on indigenous traditions can help break those vicious cycles.
After everyone introduced themselves, they walked to Salado Creek where they had to sit down in silence for five minutes.
“I know life is hard, it can be really difficult to look past that baggage and that pain and that stress,” Santibáñez said. “But I want us to focus on that water and the things that gives us life and I want us to think about those blessings.”
Wanda, 15, sat in the piercing cold water and says she was able to tune out the blaring cicadas as well as the discrimination she experienced as an immigrant and focus on her blessings. She felt so at peace that she eventually laid flat in the clear stream.
“The water kind of hugs you in a way, it frees you and makes you feel like you are special for one moment and doesn’t invalidate you,” Wanda said.
As the sun started to set on San Antonio’s East Side, the group went back to write their drown baggage, roll the paper into a funnel and toss it into a little fire to part ways with it.