Our Spiritual Council
Nopal & Mesquite Sacred Pathways Board of Directors
Libre Rocha
Director
Libre Rocha (Lipan Apache / Coahuiltecan) is a Two-Spirit Navy Veteran in Austin, Texas, and a founding Member of Nopal & Mesquite Sacred Pathways. Libre’s work bridges traditional lifeways with community resilience. They bring a strong background in Indigenous land-based healing, conservation, and cultural revitalization, grounded in the belief that healing the land and healing the people are one and the same.
Libre studied Apache language at Tohono O’odham College and is deeply committed to language preservation and intergenerational education. Libre also currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiate and previously served through Americorps Vista as Volunteer Manager for Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, a Lipan Apache matriarchal-led “Iyanne” buffalo conservation herd restoring the buffalo to the South Texas prairie.
Drawing from a wide range of experience—including work as a tattoo artist and Aveda stylist in Brooklyn, traditional adobe construction, urban farming, and designing off-grid tiny homes in Atlanta—Libre integrates art, design, and traditional ecological knowledge into each aspect of Nopal & Mesquite’s work.
Their vision is to nurture pathways of reconnection between people, land, and spirit—cultivating a future rooted in balance, beauty, and collective healing.
Austin, Texas
Board of Directors
Nopal and Mesquite Sacred Pathways is a 100% Indigenous-led organization, guided and stewarded entirely by Indigenous leadership and community members. Every aspect of our work—from ceremony and land stewardship to education and community organizing—is shaped by Indigenous knowledge, responsibility, and lived experience.
Our members and leaders come from the peoples whose lands, waters, and cultures we serve. This ensures that decisions are made with accountability to community, ancestors, and future generations, rather than outside interests. We believe sovereignty begins with self-determination, and that Indigenous communities are best positioned to lead their own pathways of healing, restoration, and cultural continuity.
Indigenous-Led, Indigenous-Centered
Eagle Bear Alvarado
Deputy Director
Eagle Bear Alvarado (Lipan Apache / Nahua) is a father, husband, culinary artist, community organizer, and cultural practitioner in Corpus Christi Texas whose work centers around food sovereignty, climate justice, community representation, and Indigenous cultural preservation. Born between the Oso Creek and Bays of now called Corpus Christi, Texas, he carries forward teachings from his elders while actively representing Indigenous presence in public, educational, and community spaces.
He is the founder of Four Elements Indigenous Cuisine, where he bridges ancestral foodways, with contemporary practice advancing food sovereignty by centering Indigenous knowledge as living, shared wisdom and by creating food experiences that nourish physical health, cultural identity, and community belonging.
Eagle Bear has served as a Bison Meat Distribution Coordinator for Texas Tribal Buffalo Project through AmeriCorps VISTA, advancing Native food security and health outcomes, and has been recognized by the Gulf of Mexico Youth Climate Summit for leadership in youth and climate advocacy. In 2023, he was a key organizer in planning the Corpus Christi Turtle Bay Pow Wow, supporting cultural visibility, community gathering and environmenal awareness.
He is an active member of Kalpulli Ollin Papalotl, part of the Conformidad Ollinkan from Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City) where he participates in ceremony and teachings that sustain cultural continuity and has shared the traditional Mesoamerican ballgame ulama in cultural exchanges including in Canada.
His work is grounded in reciprocity and Indigenous teachings that understand "Food is Medicine", supporting community well-being and cultural resilience.
Ehecatl Cortes
Cultural Ambassador of Mexico
Ehecatl Cortes (Chalca / Matlazinca / Mazahua) was born and raised in the Anahuac Valley of Mexico and has dedicated his life to ecological restoration and cultural preservation, with water at the center of his work—its retention, capture, purification, and protection. His practice bridges bioconstruction, ecological technologies, and traditional Anahuac cultural knowledge, honoring the deep relationship between land, water, and people.
A practitioner and teacher of traditional dances, ancestral medicine, and Ulama (the Mesoamerican ball game), Ehecatl brings living Indigenous traditions into Indigenous and rural communities across Mexico and the southern United States. His work emphasizes continuity—ensuring these practices are not only remembered, but actively lived, taught, and adapted in community-centered ways.
Ehecatl serves as a representative and ambassador to Mexico for Nopal and Mesquite Sacred Pathways, supporting cross-border relationship building, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Recognizing that Indigenous nations and cultural lineages long predate modern borders, his role strengthens ongoing cooperation with Indigenous relatives on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border. Through this work, he helps foster shared stewardship of land, water, and cultural responsibility rooted in ancestral ties.
Committed to collective sovereignty and ecological balance, Ehecatl continues to collaborate with Indigenous collectives—including Zapatista communities—on projects that center traditional knowledge, community autonomy, and regenerative relationships with the natural world.
Maurice Gonzalez
Treasurer
Maurice Gonzalez (Lipan Apache / Coahuiltecan) is a Navy Veteran and Certified Surgical Technician who brings a steady, disciplined approach to service, leadership, and community care. His path reflects a balance between modern medical practice and Indigenous responsibility, rooted in accountability, humility, and respect for life.
From 2014 to 2024, Maurice served on active duty in the United States Navy as a Hospital Corpsman specializing in surgical technology. Through years of military medicine, he developed a deep commitment to precision, teamwork, and calm leadership under pressure—skills that continue to inform his work both professionally and in community settings. He currently serves in the Navy Reserves while working as a Certified Surgical Technician.
Beyond his medical career, Maurice is deeply engaged in Indigenous land and cultural stewardship. He volunteers in the care and protection of sacred peyote lifeways, supporting conservation efforts that safeguard this medicine for future generations. His commitment extends to participation in traditional cultural and ceremonial spaces, including bear dances, buffalo harvests, and sweat lodges, where responsibility, discipline, and prayer guide each role.
Maurice’s work centers on restoring relationships between people, land, and tradition. Through service, cultural continuity, and hands-on stewardship, he contributes to pathways of healing that strengthen both community and place.
Kyle Gropp
Director of Operations
Kyle Gropp (Lipan Apache / Coahuiltecan) walks the Red Road as a Two-Spirit healer with roots in Texas, Ciudad de México and Monterrey, México. Raised within a large Indigenous family, Kyle learned early the values of community, care, and shared responsibility—teachings that continue to shape his path and the way he shows up in service to others.
Kyle’s work weaves together spiritual guidance, bodywork, and intuitive practice to support balance, release, and reconnection. Central to his role is his responsibility as a fire keeper, including ceremony fire keeping, sweat lodge fire tending, and traditional bow drill fire-making. Through this work, Kyle carries the discipline, focus, and prayer required to hold ceremonial space, understanding fire as both teacher and relative.
He supports sweat lodge and ceremonial spaces with attentiveness and respect, ensuring safety, continuity, and spiritual integrity. His presence reflects an understanding that healing work is not about authority, but about service—listening deeply to the body, to spirit, and to ancestral wisdom.
Kyle has traveled across the nation learning from elders, healers, and communities, building relationships and sharing light wherever he is welcomed. His intention is to help people remember their own capacity to heal and to reconnect with themselves, their ancestors, and the living world. Healing, for Kyle, is a shared journey—walked side by side, in humility, prayer, and community.
Meagan Alvarado
Meagan (Lipan Apache / Nahua) was born in so-called Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and raised and currently lives in Corpus Christi, Texas. She is of Lipan Apache and Nahua Indigenous descent and has been a ranked member of Kalpulli Papalotl for over twelve years. Married in a traditional Mexica ceremony, Meagan continues to walk a life rooted in ancestral teachings, responsibilities, and Indigenous lifeways passed down through generations.
Meagan is one of the caretakers and leaders of the community’s sweat lodges, which are intentionally run by a woman and a man together to honor balance, reciprocity, and the presence of Two-Spirit relatives. In this role, she helps hold ceremonial space with care, discipline, and prayer—supporting safety, spiritual integrity, and continuity while honoring the complementary responsibilities carried within ceremony.
Her commitment to land-based stewardship is reflected in her service with the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project through AmeriCorps, where she supported Indigenous-led efforts centered on buffalo restoration, food sovereignty, and cultural revitalization. This work deepened her relationship with the land and reinforced the interconnected responsibilities between education, ceremony, and ecological care.
Meagan has also dedicated herself to building meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities across Texas and organizing Indigenous-centered gatherings, including the First Annual Turtle Bay Powwow. With over seven years of experience as an educator, she views education as a form of service—grounded in land-based learning, cultural continuity, and collective responsibility. As a wife and mother, she carries these values into both her family and community life, finding balance and renewal through time outdoors, dancing, and learning.
Director of Indigenous Programs