Meet Jesus Garcia

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jesus Garcia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jesus, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
My creativity is essential to the communities that welcome the spiritual and botanical traditions of my lineage. Each time I am asked to teach a class, workshop or be a guest speaker; I bring seeds with me, to share with community, to remind them of the magic of self love and ever changing abundance through growth of our human experience.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I feel as a preschool teacher and community educator, my profession bloomed at a young age through hardships of obtaining the American dream. I came to understand these struggles in my early youth, but it kept my family strong in devotion to our Mexican heritage and spirited culture.

My grandparents were always skilled with the language of cultural preservation; teaching me the healing abilities of plants, elements and the importance of family. Through my journey I became a health educator being a home-health caregiver; I realized that this profession was also needed in the school district. My nieces and nephews would follow me around the garden harvesting herbs for my community Botanica , we would often have emotional conversations that were similar to the healing platicas I would have with my late grandparents.

I decided to support my family as a homeschool teacher, blending our Mexican traditions with enrichment homesteading subjects that eventually grew into a national curriculum program known as TheHerbalActionProject.

As the founder of this project, I found a way to support the level of care and kindness my family taught me, through the growing roots of our BIPOC communities and the children becoming the leaders of this botanical movement all while caring for our public school gardens and teachers.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back at my early path, knowing this now – my advice for anyone facing difficulties in their purpose would be to first trust in your spirit, let it guide you, let it shed emotions, let it feel refreshed by your tears. The second thing would be to hold your body as a best friend, take care of this vessel for it will get you through adversity and pave the way for your new adventures. The last thing would be to listen to your mind, don’t ignore the dreams waiting to be reached in this reality; make them happen and remember the ancestors that brought you the knowledge to keep moving forward.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As a National & international community educator, I am always looking to expand the knowledge passed down from my peers, ancestors and family. I wanted to carefully explore the possibilities of a community aid culture through not only garden and herbalism classes; but through a shared network of teachers and wellness practitioners helping share skills, and opening the door for our youth.

Our programs are all dependent upon volunteers, time givers and those simply searching to belong in a world were we can all share the abilities of kindness. We are always looking to meet new friends through our classes, community events and in our education gardens at the HerbalActionProject.com

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Photos by: Bastrop Botanical Gardens Sanctuary Holistic Kitchen Wildflower School of Botanical Medicine SustainFrame NYC

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