Photo credit: ¡Re-Existe 2025 Facebook
Cecelia Fire Thunder, Executive Director for Maȟpíya Lúta’s Truth and Healing Initiative, and Maȟpíya Lúta Board member Nick Hernandez participated in ¡Re-Existe 2025!, an international intercultural and interfaith gathering held September 22–26 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Hosted by the Centro de Espiritualidad (CESP) and ITESO Jesuit University, the event brought together more than 80 participants from around the world—faith leaders, educators, artists, and activists—exploring how transformation begins at the margins.
At the gathering, Cecelia shared from her experience as a Lakota leader, reflecting on how her mother’s words at birth—telling her who she was and where she came from—continue to guide her work today. She reminded participants that true leadership grows from belonging and that healing from colonization and patriarchy is sacred, communal work. “Because the wounds were inflicted together,” she said, “we must also heal together.”
Nick and Cecelia contributed to the week’s dialogues, bringing an Indigenous perspective on community healing, food sovereignty, and ecological balance. Participants from across continents—representing diverse faiths, cultures, and social movements—explored how transformation and leadership emerge from communities often overlooked or marginalized. Through storytelling, ritual, and dialogue, the gathering highlighted a shared commitment to justice, ecological healing, and human dignity.
Together, participants embodied the event’s theme, “The Spirit connecting the peripheries,” emphasizing that renewal and leadership arise most powerfully from relationships, courage, and collective healing.