The role of the Chicana Dreamer is embedded in the Creation Stories and given the attributes of a deity with the power to transform, dispense, revoke, and unify. The Chicana/o culture is vibrantly rich with myths and legends, prophecies, and supernatural events that color the worldview and religious beliefs of the ancient Dreamers.
The world of the Dreamers is not limited to what is normally called "the real world", for they travel into other realms, and have the capacity to experience the past and foretell future events. Upon inquiry into historical documents, legends and anthropological sources, the role of the pre-columbian Dreamers emerged, revealing the following areas of their world view:
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The God of Duality The Dreamer - Present at Creation Shape Shifter & Former Gods and Goddesses, Women and Men The Spanish Invasion The Mestizo is a blend of Spanish and Indigenous Cultures La Virgen de Guadalupe is derived from Tonantzin |
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Nagualism Metamorphosis Time and Space Multidimensionality Spirit Beings Dreaming - Gifts of Power Contemporary Writers Red and Black Ink-Curanderas |
The investigation employed a qualitative case study method. A phenomenological approach to the content analysis of archival data from a Chicana Dreamer's dream journals over a 25-year period was conducted, wherein dream themes were compared to historical and anthropological research that outline cultural and religious beliefs of the ancient Meso American and North American Native cultures. The analysis examined the extent to which the dreamer reflected the worldview and dream traditions of the pre-Colombian, Mesoamerican cultures as found in the categorization of themes of the literature review.
Results of the study revealed a congruency among the categories of the Traditional Dreamer as delineated in the Literature Review, the data, and the dreams themselves, in the areas of Destiny, Duality, Nagualism, Time and Space, Power, and Transcendence/Transformation. These ancient Mesoamerican spiritual technologies are made accessible to the general public for the first time in my book, "Corn Woman Sings," published in 2008.