She said that she first got seriously into intuitive healing after meeting with curanderas, or Mexican and Latin American folk healers, at a fair held by UNM. Later, she found out great great grandmothers had been curanderas, and she ended up training in curanderismo after that experience. She moved onto learning about reiki healing and is a practitioner of that as well.
Having done theater ever since she was young, Pacheco initially wanted to go into film. Now, she cannot see herself pursuing a traditional theatrical route at all. If she does get back into theater, she wants to use it as a medium to share her own creations in the form of devised work and performance art.
“I’ve loved to perform my whole life: I’ve loved to sing and act, and since I was really small I’ve been pulled to performance. And I did theater all throughout high school, and it just seemed like that was the logical thing to do in college … I was very interested in doing film and theater, but then somewhere along the way, I started to tap into my other passion of healing myself and then using that experience to help others,” Pacheco said.
Though she has found that her passions don’t lie in academia, she said that her experiences at UNM have been valuable in helping her move on to the next stage of her life, nonetheless. Pacheco’s primary goal will be working on her business, Marigold Moon Healing, which sells artwork and crafts made by her and her business partner, Abigail Hutton, in addition to intuitive healing services and group meditation sessions.
“I’m thankful that I’ve gotten the opportunity to go to school because I know a lot of people don’t get that opportunity, and I’m so grateful for that. But I’m also really grateful to just be done, to put it behind me, to move on and do the things I’m passionate about and excited about,” Pacheco said.
She said that she first got seriously into intuitive healing after meeting with curanderas, or Mexican and Latin American folk healers, at a fair held by UNM. Later, she found out she had great-great-grandmothers had been curanderas, and she ended up training in curanderismo after that experience. She moved onto learning about reiki healing and is a practitioner of that as well.
“I had this session with a curandera, and it was just life-changing. I just felt out of my body … It opened a door; I saw something that I’d never seen before, and I was like, “okay, there’s a lot more to the world than I had previously thought,” Pacheco said.
Her love of the mystical, however, spans all the way back as long as she can remember.
“Since I’ve been pretty interested in metaphysical stuff; like, when I was a kid, I always wanted to play with crystals, and I thought I was a sorceress, that sort of thing,” Pacheco said.
Pacheco and her childhood friend Claudia Kuchar have known each other since they were both two years old; she has witnessed Pacheco’s growth into her passions and spirituality over many years since then. Kuchar wrote to the Daily Lobo that watching Pacheco’s transformation and connection with herself over her years at UNM has been “nothing short of awe-inspiring.”
“She is a deeply wise and empathic person who knows what she needs and does what is needed to honor that. In turn, this makes her an amazing friend, partner and family member. She knows how to refill her cup and can then give so much to others. Throughout her journey at UNM she has gone through a lot of change; both with her majors and in her personal life and spiritual journey … I have learned so much from her ability to trust herself and do what is right for her highest and best self,” Kuchar wrote.
Pacheco said that her work in the theater has helped her immensely already in leading and being comfortable in groups. She also said that the physical work of theater has helped her feel more attuned to her physical body in meditation.
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“I think in theater, a lot of our acting classes, we really get to know ourselves. We really get to know ourselves and our bodies so we can play characters and we can use our experiences to act. And I think part of that experience of getting to know myself and healing myself … I think that’s part of what caused me to go down the road that I did,” Pacheco said.
Zara Roy is the copy chief at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at copychief@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo
