Oral history interview, David Atekpatzin Young, 2013 (video and transcript)

David Atekpatzin (his name as a curandero) Young was born in 1956 and moved to Boulder in 1972 so his mother (Maria Dora Esquivel, an activist who died in May, 2013) could attend the University of Colorado. In this very long interview he talks about his ethnic identity: he calls himself a Chicano, but is a “Genizaro” Apache, the descendent of Native Americans who were enslaved to serve Spanish families in New Mexico. His mother when a child and her relatives were brought by truck from New Mexico to Colorado by a “coyote” to whom they owed all their wages, another form of human trafficking. Describes his mother’s later involvement with UMAS on the CU-Boulder campus and her work with other Chicano leaders; her and his engagement in the 1970s-90s with the American Indian Movement, Nicaragua, and the Communist Party; his conflicts with the City of Boulder and the Boulder School District in the 1990s and 2000s. Gives history of Indian and Chicano oppression by the government. Talks in detail about curanderismo (traditional healing), how it succeeds in helping people, and his own training. Many stories about his grandmother, Lakota healers, and others from whom he has learned. Describes differences between Chicanos and Anglos.