13. Sacred Fatherhood Means Honoring All Our Relations

A Sacred Fatherhood Message - 

We begin in great gratitude to the creator and the ancestors for all that they provide and have provided for us everyday.
To our fathers… for the prayers, values and traditions of our culture, that you passed on to us to remind us of our sacredness, and as tools for us to survive - we are grateful.
For the perseverance of showing up in the best way you could, in spite of the devastations, trauma and generational oppression you carried -  we feel blessed.
And for the hurt, neglect and false traditions that we experienced due to your own woundedness - we commit to break the cycles and to work on forgiveness, healing and recovering our true sacredness so that the children, grandchildren and future generations will not live with pain, trauma and colonized ways but with more blessings and hope.

For those of you who have walked this journey of guiding, caring for, protecting, loving and worrying about your children, it comes with many blessings and a variety of challenges. We also recognize that the teachings we offer to our children go beyond just the relationships we have with them. They watch our every move and many times mimic our every word. They learn how to treat women, children, elders, men, LGBTQ relatives and people of all cultures by how they see us do it. They learn how to value life by how they see us interact with, talk about, share with, and advocate for others. They develop beliefs, attitudes and habits for how to handle blessings and challenges in their lives by how we handle them. And they learn to love, accept and be proud of who they are by how we unconditionally acknowledge, accept and embrace them in all of their dimensions. But more than anything, they learn that they are sacred blessings from the creator and their ancestors by how we follow through with our palabra (word), showing up authentically and walking with them no matter what life brings. It takes us doing our own healing work, cleansing the colonized values and traditions from our behaviors, honoring all our relations and making our children and grandchildren a priority.

We at the National Compadres Network have made this effort a part of our sacred purpose. And over the years I have been blessed to have witnessed thousands of Brown, Black, Asian and Native men commit to do their healing and recovery work, and transform the lives of themselves, their children and grandchildren. But now more than ever, we as men must show up, step up and speak up to ensure that the honoring of children, women, elders and all our relations is respected and treated as sacred. If you are interested in becoming part of this effort, join us in bringing sacred fatherhood and sacred grandfatherhood to children, families and communities.   

Tlazocamati and may the creator and the ancestors continue to bless you and all your relations.

Tamox, Tlazocamati,

Maestro Jerry Tello