ABOUT THE WRITER
Hi there, and welcome! This space is a blend of wellness reflections and bookish recommendations, offering insights meant to inspire calm, curiosity, and connection. It’s my pleasure to join you and to be a part of the Cuerpo de Flores community. My name is Reyna Campuzano Scarfo (she/her), and I proudly identify as Chicanx, Latinx, Indigenous, and Mexican-American. I grew up in East Los Angeles with roots in Guerrero and Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Though my journey has not been linear, it has been filled with experiences that helped me learn about myself and explore both my passions and curiosities.
I hold a B.A. in Anthropology with a focus on Archaeology. After excavating in Northern California and Belize, I discovered a deep interest in working closely with the community. I shifted my focus from studying those who came before us in the underground of Xibalba to supporting and connecting with the people who are here with us now in the present. I’m currently working in libraries, and I’ll be receiving my Master of Library and Information Sciences from San José State University in December 2025.
In the seasons ahead, I’ll be sharing book recommendations for those interested in ecological and botanical wellness, always centered through the lens, stories, and histories of BIPOC communities. To begin our journey together, let’s start with a few recommendations to welcome this Fall season.
Books to nurture your roots…
Medicine Wheel for the Planet (2024)
Dr. Jennifer Grenz is an ecologist, community organizer, and a Nlaka’pamux woman. She’s always held love and respect for the land. Yet, after serving two decades as a restoration ecologist in the Pacific Northwest, she felt frustrated and constrained by futile effort. Through this journey, she embarked on a mission to blend Western medicine with her indigenous worldview. In Medicine Wheel for the Planet, Grenz draws on field observations, sacred stories, and her own experiences. She invites readers to share in the teachings of the four directions of the medicine wheel.
Tsunami: Women’s voices from Mexico (2025)
In this collection of essays, manifestos, creative nonfictions, and poems, Tsunami merges the feminist thought of Mexican women writers, a beautiful, strong, and powerful force to be reckoned with. Diving into writings on gender violence, community building, indigenous rights, and more, these works dismantle the Eurocentric connotations and drive towards the current affairs in Mexico today. Tsunami showcases the voices of trans, Indigenous, Afro-Latinx, and those within and outside of academic institutions, spanning across multi-generations.
* Contributors include Marina Azahua, Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil, Dahlia de la Cerda, Alexandra R. DeRuiz, Lia García, Jimena González, Gabriela Jauregui, Fernanda Latani M. Bravo, Valeria Luiselli, Ytzel Maya, Brenda Navarro, Jumko Ogata, Daniela Rea, Cristina Rivera Garza, Diana J. Torres, Sara Uribe, and the Zapatista Army for National Liberation.
The Latina Anti-Diet (2025)
Are you tired of hearing what you can't eat? Step away from diet culture while still honoring your body and the comida you love! Dalina Soto is here to bring the flavor back to our plates, no guilt, no nonsense.
As a registered dietitian, she knows the ins and outs of intuitive eating. But as a first-generation Dominican American, she’s also seen how that “movement” often leaves out the very people who need it most. Enter her CHULA method, a refreshingly real, no-BS approach that helps us:
Challenge the negative chatter
Honor our bodies (and our cravings)
Understand what we actually need
Listen when our stomach talks back
Acknowledge those messy emotions
With CHULA, Soto hands us the tools to call out diet culture, clap back at the whitewashing of food, and reclaim the joy of eating what we love, without sacrificing our health or our heritage.
The Possession of Alba Diaz (2025)
In 1765, plague tears through Zacatecas. Alba escapes the city with her parents and her fiancé, Carlos, seeking refuge in his family’s remote silver mine. But safety has sharp edges. Soon, Alba is struck by visions, restless nights, and violent fits that shake her to the bone. She can feel something moving beneath her skin, something ancient, cold, and furious.
Elías came to the New World to leave his family’s greed behind and carve out his own fate. Alba, his cousin’s promised bride, should mean nothing to him. And yet, he can’t look away. Not from her quick smile, not from the quiet dread settling around her, not from the way the air changes when she walks into the room. As the demon inside her grows hungrier, Elías is drawn into a darkness he swore he’d escaped, one that might just devour them both.
