Lidia Doniz

Lidia Doniz is daughter, mother, and comadre. She is a proud mother of two sons, Pakal and Balam. Lidia was born in Guatemala of Mayan descent, raised in Inglewood, Calif., and considers herself a Bay Area transplant. She is a weaver of words, time, and cultures. A storyteller, activist, bridge builder, and antiracist who is disrupting and dismantling institutions for the liberation of BIPOC communities.

Lidia has worked in the fields of economic development, arts, nonprofit, community outreach, and engagement, and is currently working at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department with the Violence Prevention Program. Lidia led the department’s Safe and Peaceful Neighborhood Strategy, which uses a public health approach to address complex issues, including violence, disinvestments in community, and re-establishing trust and building relationships in and with communities. She continues her antiracist work as a member of the Department’s Racial and Health Equity Implementation Team and is a trainer for the Racial and Health Equity Learning Institute for Santa Clara County.

Lidia is a member of Calpulli Teokalli, based in San Francisco, Calif., and founded by the late Manolo Sanchez from Tacuba, Mexico City, Mexico. Her teachers are Irma Pineda and Alvaro Tellez. Lidia initiated her own circle, Movimiento Cósmico, in 2008. Movimiento Cósmico’s purpose is to preserve and strengthen Indigenous traditions of life through dance and movement. Lidia is a student of Pascual Yaxon, Ajqij (Mayan Elder and Keeper of Time) in the Noj Tijoxela school of Mayan Cosmovision.

Lidia currently serves as a board member on the Advisory Council for the Indigenous Healing Center in Northern California. She hopes to weave and leverage the truth, racial healing, and transformation framework to deepen relationships between native tribes from the North and the South. She is excited to develop a project that protects and uplifts intergenerational oral traditional and healing practices. Her intention is to share Mayan healing practices as a form of an upstream strategy to address inequities that affect the quality of life for BIPOC. She is collaborating on developing a Promotora (Cultural Navigator) Model of Indigenous Based Practice for community cohesion and community healing.

Post-Institute: Transformative Action Plans

Lidia plans to strengthen her existing partnerships by incorporating healing, restorative, transformational TRHT, and Indigenous-based frameworks into her work. One of the milestones she has reached during her time in the CoHLI experience is the adoption of the TRHT Strategic Framework process by the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services Department.

Lidia continues working to reconnect, reclaim, recreate, and protect healthy structures and systems for descendants and to ensure the oral traditions she has learned will be passed down for generations.