The Audacity of the Hummingbird

Part 3 in a Series of Reflections by Mario Garcia on participation in the April 2025 Soul of the Movement pilgrimage to Boriken with a gathering of national movement leaders.

The Audacity of the Hummingbird

April 28, evening in the salón Martorell

At dinnertime, we convened in the salón Martorell. The setting had a chapel-like feel—soft light filtering through French doors that opened into small sheltered alcoves. In one of them, Luana stood ready and rooted, cleansing and blessing, offering protection and wellbeing.

One by one, we approached the altar. Weeks before arriving in Borikén, we had been asked to bring an object that spoke to our place of origin or point of departure—something meaningful, rooted, symbolic. These items would form the spiritual and material center of our gathering for the week.

The room was full. Every face carried intent. There was a quiet recognition of shared labor and purpose—across generations, geographies, and lineages. We moved in sequence, naming ourselves and the work that brought us here.

Everything henceforth—rituals, conversations, meditations—carried weight and purpose. It became clear that the structure of the week had been built with precision. Everything was intentional, obviously given deep thought. This is why the center held so strongly—and held us to it—free to have the audacity to ask and to ponder.

With each interaction, each offering, each act of listening and release, we moved further from the colonial narrative to something closer connected to a deeply personal purpose. The forces that bounded the group together—unseen but unmistakable—tightened. A life force not just protecting the circle, but pulling it inward and that gave us permission to go to the places we have been told to keep silent, to have the audacity to be seen and most importantly to be permitted.

Later in the week, standing at the edge of the Atlantic in Arecibo, that force would become undeniable and the structure and foundation of the work bore light onto the sea.

One by one, we introduced ourselves:

Alexie Torres, founder of Soul of the Movement; Luana Morales, Laura Flynn, Malachi Garza, Donna Coltrane Battle, Allyn Maxfield-Steele, Balana’ni Diaz, Jonathan Brenneman, Sherrie Anne Hart, Shenaaz Janmohamed, Pluma Barbara Moreno, Yashna Maya Padamsee, Edgar

Hayes, Anna Rader, Josefina “Mama Joe” Santiago, Ernesto “Eroc” Arroyo Montano, Sonia Renee Taylor, Dey Hernández, Hiva Kadivar, Albino Garcia, Mario García, and Manju Rajendran.

A Discovery of a New World

Alexie stood to speak, offering context, meaning, and direction for the journey we were about to undertake. Earlier that day, I had noticed a sign on the kitchen wall where I’d eaten lunch. In Spanish, it read: Quizá no sea fácil pero seguro merece la pena. Perhaps it won't be easy, but it’s certainly worth it. That sentiment captured the spirit of what we were entering.

By Alexie’s invitation—and the trust built through the groundwork she had laid with each of us individually—it felt both natural and necessary to step into the collective struggle. As she framed it, we were confronting the energies that have long separated spirit from movement work. Only a few, she said, have historically been permitted by society to know spirit, to be in communion with Creator. Our task now, as inheritors of both colonizer and colonized legacies, was to unravel that story and walk through new portals toward a different world.

Mystery, she reminded us, wants to be known. It wants to be seen. It wants to be permitted. And we, both as participants and witnesses, seek to reconnect with that mystery. The work ahead cannot be carried forward in isolation. Not in these conditions. Not in this world as it currently is. We cannot rely solely on our individual energy. That is why we must unravel the mysteries—because we will not make it on willpower alone.

Mama Jo: “An appreciation for the void. Silence. for what's to come as we walk, to honor ourselves with the phenomenal gift of Silence.”

Balana’ni: Our minds are colonized, but our souls are not.

Alexie: The idea that my faith and the work of the movement do not have to be two separate things.

Laura: fully stepping into what I already know

Edgar: I will tell you what I share with my students. I am here to plant seeds. You are sacred, what kind of soil do you need to grow, what do you need to thrive- I need love God and Community.

I like them to see and to be, sharing God's love.

Donna : I am here with gratitude and honor. I like to meditate on how to use the way the world makes you invisible to your advantage, to find a way back into relationship with each other to discover the interaction between the gulf of resistance.

Luana: The hummingbird is a very powerful signal, and I brought this as a reminder for us to have the audacity of the hummingbird.

I invite you to hold my heart, but please do so tenderly.