By Beatriz Garay
Roberto “Dr. Cintli” Rodriguez knows the consequences and problems that come when a traumatic event happen at a young age, and how to work through it.
When traumatic events happen at any moment in life, we struggle to find ways in how to cope with it, how we identify with it, and how we can move forward beyond the traumatic events.
He experienced police violence at a young age and had trouble coping with it.
He said hard to cope with an experience when it’s based on your skin color and appearance. Especially when it is a continuous experience. Being brown-skinned does not mean that trouble is a foot.
He said when brown colored people get together in crowds, they are often identified as violent gang members.
Rodriguez said being judged based on one’s looks and mannerisms, brown colored people will face many prejudices and be seen as an aggressive group. These societal stereotypes were made about them by those who do not want them to live in a United States.
He said police violence happens to someone it’s not so easy to forget especially when it occurs multiple times to the same person.
Soon one starts to identify themselves with police violence.
Rodriguez said, one night he was hanging out with his buddies when police violence occurred.
He was intimidated and questioned by the officers about possible violence when in reality, he was just having a good time with friends.
He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Rodriguez said he was inflicted with numerous life-threatening injuries but managed to survive. He talks about his trauma so that he can enact a change to make the lifestyle of brown colored people better.
With the words and experiences he has encountered, he was able to work with other people with the similar trauma events as a means to make a difference in the community.
Rodriguez said one of the methods they recommend using is a distinct form of yoga that originated from Mesoamerica and has healing properties. This method that gives people using it the relief needed and removes the pain they have within themselves.
He said the way they use this is by focusing all of the mental and emotional pain into their chest. The person then takes deep breaths while thinking about positive things to help replace all the pain.
By focusing all of the pain into one area of the body, it would make it easier for one to feel the relief from their minds and exhaling it can send signals to the brain the give a sense of tranquility to the person.
Rodriguez said the importance of this method is that it holds significant purposes and properties within the Mesoamerica culture and has been used through different generations.
It certain points, trauma is something that is quite inevitable for most people as it is something that either breaks us down or makes us better than we were before.
He said it is important to learn things that were used in the past as it could contain unique traits that can be used today.
These traits can make things like trauma, easier to live with and instruct others to do the same if it can help them.
Trauma can be a tough thing to talk about. Asking for help from others to help carry the weight is something that can be bearable and can make people feel like unique individual.