Saguaro Land: A curandera on the healing properties of the Sonoran Desert

Saguaro Land is a series from The Show looking at the Sonoran Desert — the lushest, hottest desert in the world that happens to be our home.

The Show looked at the desert through a botanical lens — both for food and for medicine.

Many people see the Sonoran Desert as a harsh environment that can be dangerous — and it can be. But, it can also heal and nourish.

Felicia Ruiz is a curandera, or traditional healer, as well as an author and teacher. The Show spoke with her about the healing properties of the Sonoran Desert.

Full conversation

FELICIA RUIZ: We live in one of the most edible and medicinal environments in the world, here in the Sonoran Desert. So lots of foods that we can grow or forage, as well as foods that we can use for medicine.

MARK BRODIE: What are some of the ones that you find yourself using or talking about most often?

RUIZ: I do my best to share on foods that people have access to. And with so many people moving to Phoenix from other parts of the country, a lot of people don't know what our edible landscape is and so I'll tell them just go look outside. Look for the palo verde trees. Look for the mesquite trees, they both have edible fruits. And you know, the mesquite alone, it's the tree of life for a reason, because we have so many things that we can make from that tree.

BRODIE: So you can eat flowers from the palo verde trees?

RUIZ: Yes, they kind of taste like sunflower seeds to me. So when they are in full bloom, and I know a lot of people don't like when they are just all over the dry yellow flowers.

BRODIE: That you can't get rid of?

RUIZ: Yes, go collect them. And next time you make a green salad, just toss some in there. They do taste like sunflower seeds, and I often dry them as well and use them to make herbal tea infusions.

BRODIE: I want to ask you about bougainvillea water. And I know that bougainvillea is not necessarily native to the Sonoran Desert, but so many people have it in their yards or have it nearby. And I had never heard of it until somebody brought it up to me, but apparently it's something that's very popular.

RUIZ: Yes, I would say, at least in my culture, on my Mexican side, that's something that many of us grew up drinking as a herbal infusion for, like coughs, like respiratory lung issues. It's vibrant. It's pink. You know, especially bougainvillea comes in so many different colors, but the ones that most of us see around here in the valley are the bright pink, fuchsia flowers, but you're actually using the bracts.

They're not the flowers, but it is that bright, brightly colored, petal, leaf, bract. And what we'll do is we'll just gather a whole bunch of those. We'll put them in a pot of water and really boil them, at least for our family, about 10 minutes, and then we just let them sit and cool down. Add some honey. Sometimes I'll put a cinnamon stick in there and add some lime or lemon. It's super refreshing. And when my daughter was little, I used to call it hummingbird water.

BRODIE: Now, does it taste kind of like I'm imagining, like an herbal tea kind of thing, based on how you're describing it?

RUIZ: A little bit. Some people think it almost looks and tastes like Jamaica hibiscus tea, but I don't think it tastes that strong. It's actually very delicately flavored.

BRODIE: When you talk about the ability to forage in the Sonoran Desert and all sorts of different plants that have medicinal qualities to them, they might taste good to some people. How many of those things have been sort of known for generations and generations, and how many of them are maybe being discovered now?

RUIZ: Well, I wouldn't use the word discovered, because I feel like they are just plants that we've used since time has begun. But I would say a lot of us are remembering the plants that our elders used, or our community, our culture.

I don't really think that they've been forgotten where we're like rediscovering them, but I do hear from my own community that many of the elders are really excited to see the younger generation going out and using them again in a way that they remembered them being used.

BRODIE: Do you find that there are younger people who are really interested in this and trying to sort of reconnect with their roots, especially in indigenous communities?

RUIZ: These most definitely with so many of our Indigenous families like now living in urban areas, you know, we live in areas where you don't have an acre of desert and you can just go out and forage. So there are a lot of programs that are in motion now where we can take people out to the desert and forage and help them reconnect to their culture through food.

I really see it in their eyes, like they're really excited, because I think it's for them, they feel like they're anchoring themselves in stories that they've heard in the past from family members, and it's somehow giving them the context that they've only heard about or read about. But when you can make something, touch it, feel it, cook it, collect it, smell it, it just really brings it to life.

BRODIE: What do you think it is about the Sonoran desert that makes it a place where so many of these kinds of plants grow?

RUIZ: I don't know if I can answer that. I feel really blessed to have been born and raised on this land, and that my people have been here for a long time. I don't know. Perhaps we were just lucky to have this what people think is a wasteland. You know, they look at the brown desert, they don't see the life that I see.

BRODIE: Do you find yourself sticking to uses of some of these plants and flowers that have been used for generations? I mean, do you maybe try to take something and use it, maybe in a different way, or find a different use for it?

RUIZ: Yes, I absolutely love cooking with flowers, and so, for instance, long ago, we weren't adding ice to our beverages and things like that. And yet, I will get the flowers, let's say, from ironwood tree or flowers from the palo verde tree. And sometimes I will put those in my ice cube trays, like the old school ice cube trays and then freeze those. And just even having that little nod to the desert and my ice cube is kind of fun for the summer beverages, even though, of course, that's not a traditional thing to do, but it's so pretty.

BRODIE: Do you think that you see the Sonoran Desert a little differently, maybe than other people, given what you know about which plants and flowers and fruits can be eaten and what the stories are and the traditions are behind them.

RUIZ: I do. Growing up, I didn't really have the same relationship that I do now, but definitely apprenticing and Learning under many of the Indigenous grandmothers of our desert, they really have helped me, I guess, give more context to what it means like to be a desert person, to be a desert dweller and to work with the land, and to really know that we're part of nature and not apart from it.

BRODIE: And I would imagine there's a significance also to it not just being an edible landscape, but having some of these things that have medicinal quality too, that have healing qualities to them?

RUIZ: Oh, yeah so many of our plants are actually used as medicine. And just as an example that I like to share when I'm taking people on walks is the prickly pear pad, the Nopal, if you have ever burned yourself, many of our grandmas will say to put aloe vera, you know, and we can also do the same for our skin, for that burn with a filet cactus pad so it has that same slimy, mucilaginous kind of cold and cool gel that can also be used on your skin for burns. So that's medicine.

BRODIE: All right, Felicia, thanks a lot for coming in. I appreciate it. 

RUIZ: Thank you.

BRODIE: Felicia Ruiz is a curandera or traditional healer, as well as an author and teacher.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

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