By Tracy L. Barnett and Angélica Almazán
With collaboration by Noelle Romero and Martín Buen Viaje

Alberto Ruz Buenfil, the inspiration for The Esperanza Project* and many other initiatives to create the better world we know is possible, passed away on Dec. 7, 2023, after a courageous three-year “transit through the Tropic of Cancer” as he referred to his health challenges.

In 2020, the doctors predicted he would only have six months to live after diagnosing him with late-stage prostate cancer, but his unwavering will to live to see another Vision Council and finish the books he had yet to write and publish made him cling to life and remain with his tribe.

Until finally, on a Thursday, early in the morning, at the age of 78, he embarked on his stellar journey, peacefully lying in his bed in the house of his son Odin near the ecovillage of Huehuecóyotl, which he co-founded more than 41 years ago.

Para leer este artículo en Español vaya a El Llamado del Coyote: un tributo a Alberto Ruz con mensajes de amor.

In the hours after the passing of Coyote Alberto, Odin created a space for the legions who loved him to connect. It was in that medium so typical of Latin America in the 2020s: a WhatsApp chat group. From the moment he formed it, the group began to reverberate with condolences, memories, photos, videos, stories – and then, the Earth itself began to tremble, quite literally, in a quake that registered 5.7 on the Richter scale. 

“A farewell from the Mother Earth for Coyote,” wrote Lourdes Ondategui, companion of Alberto and mother of his son Solkin. 

“And the Earth shakes in its centers in greetings to the Coyote with memories of love and caring for a great life of a great person,” wrote someone in the chat, whom I saw with a pang carried the name of our beloved Alberto.

Two months after his passing, the messages are still coming, though the flood has slowed to a gentle, steady stream. The group, originally named “Ceremonia Coyote Alberto” to facilitate planning of his celebration of life, was eventually renamed “Coyote Alberto Tejidos,” or “Weavings,” to commemorate the connections our friend wove throughout his life and across the globe. This chat would soon give a glimpse of the depth and vastness of that rainbow-hued tapestry of community that he wove. 

As Odin noted in his comments at his father’s ceremony, Alberto had impeccable timing. His passing was early on Dec. 7, the Thursday before the farewell gathering on Sunday of his neighbor and friend, fellow Huehuecoyotl ecovillager Bea Briggs, founder of the International Institute for Facilitation and Change. That would mean that everyone would have time to travel and come spend the weekend together.

And travel they did, from near and far, to pay their respects to the legendary leader and chronicler of seven decades of social movements. And those who couldn’t travel logged onto the Zoom link to follow the event online, though the 100-person limit was quickly filled. But hundreds if not thousands paid their respects through the virtual space that was the Coyote Alberto Tejidos chat community. 

Alberto’s timing was cosmic in another sense, as longtime friend and co-conspirator Noelle Romero noted. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the spirit enters a space of transition after their passing known as the bardo, an intermediate space between their old life and their new life, traditionally believed to be 49 days.

Alberto’s bardo, in a curious twist of fate, is January 24th, the birthday of their longtime mutual friend José Arguelles – internationally celebrated leader of the Harmonic Convergence, the original Earth Day, and perhaps most famously, the Law of Time, devising a new galactic 13-Moon calendar and spearheading a movement based on the Mayan and other traditional calendars to gravitate to a view of time that was connected to natural cycles. 

“On this perfection of timing, I have imagined Alberto being informed and trained by his dear friend José, teaching him how to adapt to a new form of existence. As the deadline of the bardo approached, I have felt an ever increasing joy and sadness as well, for this character Alberto Ruz would now take a new role.  So the bardo ends on José Argüelles’ birthday. I wonder, which newborn will be the recipient of Alberto’s soul? Everything is perfect!”

Noelle herself was the inspiration for this piece that we now share, our best attempt to collectively harvest the energy, love, beauty and sharing inspired by Alberto’s passing.

 And why not? This ephemeral community is as real as the ones we have created and continue to create together, under the rainbow banner that Coyote Alberto and so many others have raised, with a multitude of manifestations, including the Vision Council – Guardians of the Earth, the Latin American ecovillage and ecobarrio movement under the name of CASA Latina, a greater and more integrated movement for the Rights of Mother Earth, and many others.

‘Coyote’ Alberto Ruz on the Rights of Nature

The difference is that this cyber community crosses lines of space and time to bring us together from various corners of the globe, each of us a thread in that great weaving that has been created, each bringing to the collective the beautiful ways that one extraordinary human life touched their own, and in many cases, the ways they (or we) are carrying on that work.

Our work here has been to capture a sampling of that tejido in a way that is just a little more lasting and a little more useful. Bringing together a multitude of minds and hearts and hands each in their own way offering a bouquet of flowers to place on the memorial that far supersedes Alberto’s physical resting place on this Earth. But beyond flowers, Alberto’s legacy is best honored with the continued work of each and all of us, interweaving to share stories and strategies, best practices and practical wisdom, and of course no small measure of fun – because that’s what this Coyote was all about.

Coyote Alberto  — or Subcoyote, as he called himself for a long time, with a nod to Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas and also to the fact that he was only one of the “coyotes” who formed the village of Huehuecoyotl — was one of the giant figures in this movement of movements, but he was one of thousands, perhaps millions, who live on. May we go on to honor his name in a thousand ways by making this whirling orb he so loved an ongoingly habitable home for all of life. 

Alberto rejected the limitations placed on the human soul in these dystopian times. He broke out to create a new definition of humanity and in so doing he freed many of us to do the same, creating a new tribe dedicated to uplifting that world where the highest value is the creative, beautiful, loving impulse toward buen vivir, a good life, not just for one but for all, human and non-human alike. Let us honor his memory by dedicating our lives, as he did, to making that world a reality.

To join the Coyote Alberto Tejidos group, click here.
Also, to support the publication of his last book, Raices Negras, Corazón Arcoiris (Black Roots, Rainbow Heart), sign up here to order your copies. A minimum of 300 orders are needed to guarantee a press run.
https://forms.gle/Uz2Z7f6HCmY2L9rD9

Read on to browse highlights from the online presence where Alberto continues to weave community even as his nomadic soul makes its way to other dimensions. Alberto, we remember… and we hold your space.

Coyote Alberto Tejidos: Text Messages of Love

VISION COUNCIL – GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH:

This morning, our grandfather Alberto Ruz Buenfil embarked on his last journey with the celestial caravan in his rainbow body, bound for the heart of the universe, carrying with him a prayer of unity and reconciliation for Peace on this Earth, at this time.

At this moment Alberto is wading through the great river of stars and galaxies, seeing the most wonderful landscapes that he ever could have imagined (and boy did he see many).

Alberto will live forever in the memory and in the path of flowers and songs that he left with his passing in the hearts of all of us so that this prayer and this work for all humanity may continue.

Thank you thank you thank you. For all our relations and the coming generations.

ARUN RUZ, Director and designer of sustainable and responsible construction projects, and Alberto’s grandson: In the early morning of December 7, 2023, Alberto climbed the 13 steps of his new Mazorca** and embarked on the last journey, the most epic of all as he would navigate the galaxies with the Celestial Caravan. A great departure is the merit of a great life: Alberto did not want to die without seeing his film, in which, according to him, Gael García would play the SubCoyote.

His struggle is a struggle of rootedness: He was never bothered by the fact that “you are not from here,” and rather took his identity deeply personal as an ecovillager of the world, a planetary citizen, and as the song says, “One with the universe.” This is my home.

It took four years to realize that he could die, but he didn’t want to die, not even two weeks before, when I saw him for the last time. We were very worried, because it is well known that in bed you can spend years clinging to the simplest breath of life, content with just existing, no matter how difficult it is for your environment to be immobile in bed.

Anyway, on Wednesday, December 6, one day before leaving, Alberto said for the first time: “I want to leave, but I don’t know how.” A big step, but it can even take you years to understand how to leave. It is a whole science; some say it takes lives to learn to die well, transcending. That’s how Wednesday was spent, asking if he had any pending issues, to which he was told that don’t worry, we’ll take care of it here.

At some point in the early morning of Thursday the 7th, Alberto began to breathe Pranayama, and in the first rays of the Sun, he inhaled deeply to the center of his spirit, and began the journey while his body exhaled the last breath of life.

The stratospheric Alberto communicated with my dad [Odin] at 9am (through a close channeling friend) and said: “I am here with my guardians, and at 2pm the Angels come for me.” So my dad asked that the body not be moved until 2pm.

Alberto deeply loved his mother, and in that reflection he deeply loved the Earth. This is how exactly at 2:03 p.m. with its epicenter in Morelos, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake announced Alberto’s departure. It was like the Earth saying “Alberto, we are going to miss you.” And along with the Earth, his family, friends and extended tribe 🌎

See you siempre, para siempre, siempre: forever, forever, always.

LOURDES ONDATEGUI, Alberto’s companion and mother of his son Solkin: Dear life partner…. Thank you…with everything! I would do it again!! I don’t regret anything, on the contrary…I honor everything we created together, our love, our laughter and great sense of humor and sacred irreverence, our disagreements that made us both grow, our families that we always loved and protected. Our union created many other projects: Mayan pilgrimages, the Puente de Wirikuta,*** the Vision Council – Guardians of the Earth and numerous events that always had to do with expanding our consciousness and caring for the sacred. Our house was always full, overflowing, and life flowed through it. We have brothers and sisters on both sides of the pond…we have always been and are Bridges. I’m not saying goodbye to you… it is in the thousand ways in which we can unite and manifest…always, forever, always.

EDUARDO GUZMÁN, Wisdom keeper and land defender, Las Margaritas, San Luis Potosí: With all my respect, an embrace without limit for the journey of that cahuitero,*** sower of ancient seeds with beautiful colors of the mandala, a new, renewed world. Love for his gardens, irrevocable rainbow in the aura of the family of humanity family; a candle burning for Subcoyote Alberto Ruz, a good journey without end!!!!! 

PERNILLE NASH, co-founder and longtime neighbor, Huehuecoyotl ecovillage, Tepoztlán, Morelos: Dear Alberto, We share paths from Drakabygget, Sweden**** in the 1970s, to Huehue, learning and sharing joys and sorrows. Your creations remain alive forever, and your children and grandchildren are present. Fly very high, my friend. Pernille. 🧡🏘🌈

BEATRIZ LARA CARRERO, filmmaker, sociologist and teacher, Caracas, Venezuela: Hello, from Caracas, Venezuela. Alberto left his mark here, with his wisdom. And with a great desire to join my energy in saying goodbye to him, in gratitude.

JUAN CARLOS KAITEN, founder, School of Social Alchemy. Mexico City, Mexico: Blessings to a great teacher of light, Mother Earth received him like the great ones. I hug the whole family with love, we are with you 🙏 

Discovering the Ecobarrios of Latin America

ERICA TOMAS, transpersonal therapist, photographer and documentalist for the Vision Council: I am without words! 💫🙏🏼 Honoring the Presence and life of our beloved Alberto! A tight hug, dear Odin, Mayura, Ixchel, Solkin, Arun, Lourdes, Gerda and all the band of beautiful granddaughters and grandsons💫 For all our relations with the Universe! Now he is always with us🙏🏼 

PRABHU ATMA VALUET, architect, Kundalini yoga teacher, therapist. Valle de Bravo, Mexico: Dear Odin and Arun! I hug you tightly in this transition… may this vortex bring many blessings to the entire Coyote lineage!!! I wish for Alberto that his soul integrates into wherever his destiny is… with lots of light and love. I am present in heart and spirit! 🙏🏼♥️

IVAN SAWYER, Founder, Voices of Amerikua; program manager, Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund; documentary photographer. Tepoztlán, Morelos: Dear Ruz family(s)…. I send you a big hug with love and my gratitude to life for allowing me to meet you and learn so much about the tree of life of which Alberto is the root and trunk, and so many other families its branches…

DANNY PRIMUS, Chef, entrepreneur, designer, longtime Vision Council member, Mexico City: Even Mother Earth said goodbye with honors to her son, who was so adored by her.

The eye of my heart is so full of images of you, beloved brother, you are so much light and love, your mischievous smile speaks to me of magical conspiracies, your eyes call me to action and dance….so many lives lived. I see you today in my eyes, my ears remember your contagious laughter and my arms want to hug you… but today the infinite mystery embraces you with so much light, so much love

The sky is celebrating, welcoming you. You are now stardust that will make everything brighter there and here. Thank you thank you thank you for everything ♥️ I love you brother. Fly, fly…fly 🌈 

HOLGER HIERONOMI, Researcher and designer of ecological and social systems. Cochem, Germany: Have a good trip Alberto – follow the multicolored caravan, grandfather – coyote – rainbow child – so many years – so many circles, meetings, events, projects, experiences – so many learnings – thank you – thank you – thank you…

The Rainbow Path of the Coyote: EcoSapien Interview with Alberto Ruz

LAURA KURI, Founder of Mexico’s Bioregional Movement, environmental educator and community organizer. Mexico City.

My dear brother
I celebrate your intense, adventurous and crazy life
I am grateful that you have crossed my life and that we have made so many proposals on behalf of Life together.
For all our relations.

TRACY L. BARNETT, journalist, founder of the Esperanza Project . Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and Columbia, Missouri, USA: Much love dear Odin… I am seeing you and the whole family surrounded by light. Alberto lives. A legend does not die. 

Dearest Alberto, Thank you for so many beautiful moments that you gifted me, your time, your counsel, your kind embraces, the journey you inspired in me. I will keep the best of you with me always. I am blessed and I thank the universe for putting you in my path. I love you and from here on Earth I will be calling on your continued guidance. 😭💔🌎🐺🌈✨

Saying Farewell to a Legend

MOYENEI VALDES, Chilean Songwriter and performer, Mexico City: A beautiful journey on this, Your Great Caravan of Life!! Keep Filling with Colors, Even the Other Worlds!!! Keep on Creating Revolutions of Love in Every Dimension you inhabit!!! We will howl until Dawn To Summon You to the Dance of the Mountain and Celebrate Life. In every moment… Thank you, Alberto, for every seed you left on this Earth.
Those of us who love you were also Germinated by your Joyful Rebellion!!
Eternal Traveler… may you Continue on your Course… to the Rainbow Source that also gave you Life🙌🏽🥰🦋🪶

PIERO BARANDIARÁN, Coordinator of Roma Verde Garden, Mexico City: We will always be grateful to you dear Grandfather Coyote, thank you for inspiring us, may you have a blessed journey to the stars. We will miss you very much. Much love for this sorrow to Odin, Solkin, Arun, and the entire Ruz family and extended family. Hugs from the Roma Verde Garden.

EDGAR GAINKO, Co-founder of the Educambiando ALC project, holistic therapist and facilitator of learning and collective organization processes: Thank you dear Alberto, your life has inspired me to be and do what is my life today. I give thanks for meeting you on my path; it allowed me to broaden my perspective and increase my faith in creating other desired realities!! Good path, brother-grandfather!! We will meet again…

KENA ACOSTA, Midwife, Wisdom Keeper, Mother of Arun Ruz. Tepoztlán, Morelos: Mayus, Odin, Ixchel, Solkin, dears. Deep, infinite hug full of blessings. May love continue to unite us in his honor and memory.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!
Blessings to the whole family!!

LAURA ESQUIVEL, Internationally acclaimed author of Like Water for Chocolate and other novels, longtime friend and collaborator. Mexico City: A rain of blessings for the entire Tribe that today accompanies the great Coyote on his return home. What a great Legacy he left!!!🌈🌈🌈

LEONOR FUGUET, Venezuelan singer-songwriter, speaker, and group and organizational advisor: I welcomed the Rainbow Caravan for Peace in Venezuela with my song for Mother Earth. Since then I shared with Alberto many ways on various parts of our Mother’s skin to protect her. And I had the painfully beautiful honor of accompanying him in the closing of the life cycle of the Caravan in Brazil and in the recovery of his health in Venezuela so that he could return to Mexico to begin another cycle in his life.

I share my song GUERRERO DEL ARCOIRIS (Rainbow Warrior). I composed it for our Alberto with all my love, respect, gratitude and admiration. (English translation)

You are myth, you are legend, you are history,
you are rite, you are inheritance, you are memory,
you are a dream turned into reality,
You are the owner of your life in freedom.
Guardian of the past, maker of the future,
alchemist of light from darkness,
an irreverent and loving rebel,
that faces life with beauty.

CHORUS: Warrior of the Rainbow, I honor your path, giving everything aboard your caravan for peace

You are a bridge between the Divine and the human,
You are a leader, you are a hippie, you are my brother,
you are a connector of Heaven with Earth,
You are a bringer of peace where there is war.
You planted a million grains of corn,
and you reaped a million thanks from us,
a thousand Mazorcas (ears of corn) will sprout from yours,
a thousand ways to make life flow

The revolutionary Coyote, the supportive friend, Alberto,
Ruz Buenfil, the visionary man, all your colors today I sing!

SEBASTIÁN SUKI BELÁUSTEGUI, Argentinian photojournalist, Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico: There are beings that pass through this land and as they pass, they leave footprints and mythologies, rituals and legends and an endless world of magic of the true magicians of divine power, of the colors of the rainbow, illuminated elephant warriors and like everything in Life comes the moment of the great flight to surrender to the great mystery that absorbs everything. Last night the time came for the great Coyote Alberto Ruz Buenfil, brother-friend of more than 30 years, teacher of life, visionary without equal and without end … in my memory all the crazy things that we did, everything, everything, everything… and the most sacred memories in my life in Tepoztlán are due to you. Thank you Big Brother, Grandfather Coyote, may your flight be just a step to another plane where you will continue working, creating.

Now you are history, you are immortal, your memory is forever…. I LOVE YOU. 

This portrait was made last year due to a call that I had in my heart knowing that his time on Earth was cut short. He fought until the last day.🌈❤️‍🔥❤️ ‍🔥

OX KEME AG 146, or Jozsef Alexander Chávez Medina, White Electric Connector of Worlds and Vision Council member from Caracas, Venezuela:

The same day I had the fortune to synchronize and meet here in Caracas – Venezuela in this life with our appreciated Galactic Agent 91 Oxlahum Chuwen – Blue Cosmic Monkey – Uncle Coyote Alberto Ruz Buenfil, I expressed 2 messages and/or suggestions, which HBO was in charge of making come true for both those of us who make up The Rainbow Peace Caravan and for all Pachamama – Abya Yala – Maka as some indigenous nations call Planet Earth.
[One of them was] It would be important for HBO to record a documentary for them… To which he forcefully said: “Aho”…

The next thing I knew about all this was through a recording made of the original TV broadcast. I heard it for the first time in VHS format thanks to the AG 48 Lahak Etznab – White Crystal Mirror – Rodrigo Urrea from the Documentary Actos de Fe, which was presented to us on the last day of the EWS – SMT (Earth – Wizards Seminary – Seminario Magos de la Tierra) transmitted by José and Lloydine Argüelles for 49 continuous days to an average of 144 Kin from more than 20 countries on the 5 continents, in the Boy Scout Picarquin National Park of the Chilean Andean foothills…

As our appreciated and beloved AG 91 Oxlahum Chuwen – Blue Cosmic Monkey – Uncle Coyote Alberto Ruz always told us…

“A dream that is not lived becomes a nightmare. Live your dreams”…

ARNOLD RICALDE, Founder, Organi-K AC, Mexico City: Saludos, bandera.

Here I share the new Organi-K AC page. Alberto collaborated with this civil association for 10 years. Together we carried out the Ecobarrios program, Expo Ecotechniques and participated in the Ecovillage Courses, as well as at Green Fairs and conferences. On the page there are several videos and photos of Alberto Ruz…
Blessings on your rainbow path. www.organi-k.org.mx

A separate reflection: Alberto Ruz didn’t have such a good time in his last two years. He requested help through different ways, but there were few hands that helped him. I don’t want to make anyone feel bad, but it’s time to turn to see the grandparents and look after them. Help them financially, with our time, take them from one place to another, be patient with them.

Avoid waiting until they die to honor them…

LIORA ADLER, Lifelong friend, fellow caravanista and ecovillager, professional dancer, Gaia University cofounder: I had the honor and challenge of spending the last months of Alberto’s life very close to him. Andrew and I experienced his joys but also his very strong pains, especially in the last month. Part of his pain was very physical due to the progress of his illness against which he fought so hard. But a very strong part was the emotional part in which he felt a lot of abandonment from the tribe and the community that he helped to create.

When a person is in their last stages of physical being, it important to visit. Bring something special, perhaps a meal, hold the person’s hand when they are feeling a lot of pain, give them hugs and tell them how much you love them and how much meaning their life has had (and continues to have), listen to their complaints without judgment, understanding that they are suffering pain and will not always be in the best mood. 

But the MOST IMPORTANT thing, it seems to me, is to reach the person with the total willingness to repair any difficulty or conflict they have had in the past, to let them know that one is capable of forgiving any mistake or misunderstanding of the past and how much one appreciates everything that the person has been and continues to be for you. Tell him in life everything you are saying after his death. I applaud that we have addressed this topic in this list. Thank you Arnold and the others who have contributed to these thoughts. With love to everyone in this process of mourning, reflection and also celebration of a life that I miss with all my heart.

Liora, continuing: Although Alberto was such a charismatic speaker and visionary he also worked hard to give others a place and credit for their work and be supportive of what they were doing and creating.  A very endearing quality in a person of such strength.  Also one of his great qualities was that although he saw so many of his generation giving up their original values and dreams, he kept on living what he believed to be the path forward for humanity.  Not a “perfect” being but one who tried to set an example of how we could live in a more communal, loving and harmonious way.

I spent 8 years on the Caravan project and his capacity to give leadership and Esperanza to 20+ folk through all the trials and tribulations that project entailed, while also supporting myself and others to also take the leadership needed, was exemplary. It was an excellent example of communal living.

JAY RA, Digital Creator, Artist and Designer: The Call of the Coyote…

It is time to meet again, for the seed of love to bloom, to bear more fruits and more seeds and to fill the garden with rainbow hearts. We must tell many the legend of a coyote, a nahual, a cosmic traveler, Pakal rediscovering ourselves. We are part and it is part of our history, of our truth, and the beginning of much transcending, leaving a mark so that we can follow it and carry out the work of the Warriors of the Rainbow. Thank you, Grandfather Coyote.

I embrace you and thank you… To the caravan ⭐🚙🌈 in the stars.

ANGÉLICA “NARÁKURI” ALMAZÁN, songwriter and member of the Vision Council since 2014 – With great love I share the English translation of “Coyote Arcoiris” (Rainbow Coyote), a song that I wrote in Alberto’s honor:

Blue eyes, hummingbird heart, thank you for passing by here. Your rainbow soul enlightened everyone who met you

And now you go to continue your path
the world is so small that now you’re going on a rainbow journey

Alberto Coyote, your footprints will never be erased. In this Earth that you loved so much your seeds will forever sprout.
And your love and your light will eternally guide us until we sing together again…

Dancer of the seven seas, your smile now is shining with the moon and the sun
The eagle, the quetzal and the condor are flying next to you
And the four winds already carry your voice
You will always remain here

And your Council and your Vision will stay with your tribe
Thousands of hearts that will remember you

Grandfather Coyote, your footprints will never be erased
In this Earth that you loved so much, your seeds will forever sprout 🌱

CRISTINA MENDOZA, Guardian of the Earth, naturopath, ceramist and circle dance teacher: I am grateful to be part of this chat and witness all this love for Alberto, a great and dear friend who definitely changed my life when I met him. He will always live in my heart because he fills it with inspiration, devotion and love for the Earth.

It was an immense honor to be with him on his last day on this beloved Earth. It was a very special moment, very intimate, very deep. I caressed him very much, I told him how much we loved him and everything that had inspired him in his wonderful and extraordinary life! I know this filled him with joy and he left full of love!

I’m still sad, it’s hard for me to come to terms with the physical absence of this wonderful being who always had a smile and advice for everyone who approached. Throughout the 40 years that our precious friendship lasted, he was always beautiful to me, and I loved listening to his stories and accompanying him on some of his many adventures. What an honor it was to meet him! Seeing his children grow and witnessing all these seeds that he watered throughout the world, give joy and peace to my heart.

With the example of love for Mother Earth, I will continue to honor your memory. Forever with you dear Alberto, now and always you will shine like the star you always were! Thank you for your existence and for so much inspiration wherever you went! ✨🌟✨🌟

BELENI KUMARA INTI, Professional and Cosmic Dancer, Guide and Energizer of Sacred Circular Dances of the World; Founder and co-Creator of Ecoaldea Ixixtlan Cultura de Paz, and Ríos Vivos México: Cristy, what beautiful words and what a great gift your genuine friendship. I am certain that you gave him the certainty, strength, Peace and Love so that today he could be stardust, breeze and dew of living water, inspiration, encouragement and guidance in every decision we make and in every mountain and tree that we care for… and in every Sanctuary of Peace that we inhabit. I am in Bacalar where we danced and sang and enjoyed together the Call of Water and I am so sad!
His eyes look at me, they see us from this seven-tone blue… So much of life, so much of love, so much of him…
It is true that he is not there but he IS in every battle that we are winning towards respect for life… adding shine to the colors of his beret and dancing in his heart as a Lover of the Earth!
He lives through each one of us and those who come and will come!!!
We are eternal.

MARTIN BUEN VIAJE, Explorer, myth hunter, photographer, writer. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: I share another anecdote about the beloved Coyote: When you dream big like Coyote, even Tlatelolco lights up!

A few years ago, I met the legendary coyote in La Condesa, Mexico City, with his beret and his seven-color aura that expanded like a quantum field throughout the block and he told me:
– I’m going to do something big for the Rights of Mother Earth, do you agree?
– With pleasure! What’s the plan?
– Think of something big, look for me and we will do it.
– Come on, let the light bloom.

Without having any idea what to do, within a few days the revelation came. I proposed making a Mapping video, a technique projected on the buildings, to illuminate the square of the Three Cultures (in Tlatelolco, Mexico City) with a message of peace for our older brothers, the animals.

I didn’t have a penny to spare, and this Mapping technique is very expensive, they are projects that cost millions of pesos to carry out, but Mother Earth took charge of paying the people who donated their work.

Alberto continued to convince many more people and managed to make his dream come true. He organized the first Forum on the Rights of Mother Earth, together with more than 10,000 people for five days, more than 200 NGOs and foundations present, including world leaders like Vandana Shiva, politicians, businessmen, activists, resilient people, government and artists. That’s how Coyote was, he thought big and did it big and without resources; When he got something into his head, he didn’t stop until it came true. His magnetism was impressive.

LOURDES MALVIDO, sustainable architect, Chalmita, Mexico: Hello beautiful Alberto, Today on your third day of detachment towards the Source, day of the West, of autumn, the harvest, the transformation, on this journey to integration, I honor you once again, brother of the path, long path of weaving networks. 1983, Alternative Eco-munication Network, with the Xochicallis, NachONG, Luis and Cristy PDP, Alfonso and Margot GEA, Luis Bustas del Ajusco, Arturo Pozo, my dear mother Marcela, all of those Silver Foxes, so many memories, so many hours shared in those beginnings of the Mexican ecology movement… ArcoRedes, our magazine, with Sandra, Alberto, Guy, and me, among others… and the Vision Councils in Chalmita and beyond, walking, envisioning the future with you and everyone has shaped my life and my own vision… You are in my heart, in my cells and forever in the future built from this alchemy of NOW!
I loved you, I love you and I will always love you.

MITAKUYE OYASIN beautiful brother, SO MUCH GENEROSITY! Your soul has already expanded beyond ourselves, what better example of the future than what you show us with your detachment, realizing through everything that your dedication generated for us the capacity to go beyond the rainbow, beyond the stars, beyond infinity… See you there dear Alberto! 😉🤩🤗

MAGNOLIA MARMOLEJO, Teachers instructor in the International Pilates Evidence School: A being that sows a legacy for life, does not die, flourishes…
An intangible heritage for the diversity of paths… A visionary of the need of time, the city and nature 🌱💕⚖️
Seeds of his journey through a caravan of love, peace and art that manage to reconnect times 🤍 dreams.
Goodbye, Alberto Ruz! Rest and fly 🦅✨️

ALBERT BATES, Author, Ecovillage Cofounder and Permaculture Teacher, Tennessee and Cozumel: My love to the family, I loved the man and his coyote ways!

BEATRIZ ARJONA, biologist, permaculturist and ecovillager, facilitator and member of the sociocracy practice community and vice-president of CASA Latina (Council of Sustainable Settlements of the Americas), cofounder of Semilla de Vida community in Colombia: Good morning, community. Today is a sad day because Coyote has risen to the stars. It is a happy day because he leaves so much wisdom and examples behind him. I cry because we will miss him; I had the honor of working with him, and his heart is one that I will miss on this Earth. If it is possible in your day to light a candle to illuminate his way back home, so be it! We are all going there but today we lost a big tree. Thank you, Friend Death, for reminding us to live in the present.

Beatriz is also co-organizer of the Call of the Mountain, a branch of the Vision Council that has flourished in Colombia, with even more vigor and passion than in Coyote’s native Mexico. At the January 2024 event, they invoked the spirit of Coyote Alberto and honored him in a special tribute. Beatriz shares the video of that tribute here.

Song to Coyote Alberto Ruz on his journey to the stars
Lyrics composed by Tatiana Samper and Beatriz Arjona
Translation by The Esperanza Project
Medicine song music by unknown author

Dear water, dear water
Dear healing water
In life and death everything dissolves in water

Dear sun, dear sun
Grandfathers who transform
Into rainbows of colors
They are flying here in the sky

Oh dear moon, oh dear moon
Look how low the tide is
Oh, the tide rises, she is the one that takes me

Coyotito coyotito
Grandfathers who transform
Into rainbows of colors flying here in the sky

Oh good journeys, oh good journeys
Coyote we thank you.

We are the living seed
We germinate with joy
Rainbow, rainbow
Bearers of dreams.

New land, new people
Colors dance happily.
Messenger of life, peace and harmony

May you flourish, may you flourish,
May your legacy flourish
We are the living seed germinating with joy

You’re already gone, you’re already gone
You went to the stars.
Let’s start the celestial rainbow caravan
We’ll see you, we’ll see you,
Coyotito in the stars.

CLAUDIO “CACO” ARENAS VERGARA, served on José Arguelles’ communications and research team; creator of Radio Noosferica, where he interviewed Alberto several times, and the Escuela de Alta Consciencia; Santiago, Chile: Exactly 14 years ago, I asked Alberto to give us the opportunity to make a historical record of his life using a Toltec Recapitulation Technique, through Radio Noosfera in audio streaming, this due to his health fluctuations of those years. In 2009 we recorded almost 4 hours of recapitulation that developed in depth from his birth and childhood to his latest projects from that time. Here I leave the links to those 4 chapters for you to enjoy and share. It is an intimate, deep and joyful session.

To watch the rest of this interview go to:

https://youtu.be/FgUap4U46eg?si=p_0RNcodZ2nbyodp – Episode 2
https://youtu.be/zgDvGqayWcs?si=6bDPkD_rzCWJJ7Js – Episode 3
https://youtu.be/6jxObXUFaEU – Episode 4

RAQUEL DE LUCAS, Artisan, longtime friend and Vision Council member from Spain, currently living in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico: You have already started another new journey, the truth is that we are not all as brave or fast as you.

I still remember when you were organizing the first trip for the caravan to Chiapas, I listened to you from Spain and came to accompany you In that adventure, even though we didn’t even know each other. Now I listen to you, again…you were the first, as always,…. but we have listened to you…and we are assimilating everything, which has been a lot. Your new invitation is still much stronger and more adventurous than the others, this trip is individual and non-transferable, we can each make this journey alone, but with the security that we are “family” and we will meet again… we will catch up with you, Alberto.

To infinity and beyond. Thank you thank you thank you 😘

PABLO BEDMAR, artist, composer: This photo showing the “Mazorca” disembarking in Cartagena de Indias/Colombia contains the story of when we crossed the Panama Canal, a chapter of the Caravan full of sorcery, pirates, betrayals, robberies, unexpected friendships, conspiracies, night storms on the High Seas, hitmen, rescue and a happy ending. What should have been two days extended to more than a month living illegally in the port of Coco Solo and on the Apemagu “banana” ship that transported us.
Alberto used this photo in presentations about the Caravan; he would say: “We travel by land, by sea… and sometimes we even fly!”

LUZ ELENA RAMÍREZ SAAVEDRA, Colombia: Good return, Coyote of my Soul🕯️🌈 I see us dancing in the big caravan tent right next to the Coffee Coliseum in Armenia, Quindío… I see us celebrating life after a year of so much pain, fear, and death post-earthquake… I see us sharing that big arepa hostia in the plaza of Armenia, I see us singing and playing with the Wizard Merlin in the foothills of Salento…

I see us sweating, singing, envisioning in the great fertile cave of Chalmita… I see us… I see you… Cradling and singing the names of my daughters and presenting them in front of the roots and the embrace of the great ahuehuete tree… How much fire you ignited in the hearts of the world, great grandfather… In my hands remains the joy of having caressed your tired body several times, and especially the last massage in your little house in Huehue last December… In my heart is the certainty of your tranquility because the Great Goddess Life gave you the time you asked for to organize your library, to let go of even your precious Mazorca, organize your files, the computer, and especially matters of couples, families, and the soul…

Your journey through the Tropic of Cancer was also the mastery of the rainbow for those of us who had you close to our hearts, grandfather…

Ahoo, great spirit. Ahoo, grandfather coyote. 🐺🌈 May the return flight be as powerful and blossoming as your own life… 🕸️🌈🕯️🙅🏾‍♀️🐺🐺🐺

LUIS PREKOMA, Co-founder of CASA Latina; Co-founder of the International Alliance for the Rights of Mother Earth/Nature; organizer of the International Declaration of Peace Summit, in the Archaeological Zone of Palenque:

Since I met him and he generated in me inspiration, guidance, clarity, for being a natural weaver of paths and lives during his mythological journeys, rituals, causes, caravans, resistances that are worthy of all gratitude, respect, non-attachment. Honor for him, good regenerating magician of Mother Earth, manifester of the rainbow warrior force that he always manifested in life, until his time came to unfold into the mystery of flowered death…

Super Mission Accomplished, thank you brother, grandfather, Captain Coyote, I LOVE YOU, WE LOVE YOU. 🌬️🌈🌼🌎

MARIA ROS, Body-oriented psychotherapist, medical biomagnetist and sustainable development designer. Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico: I think that Alberto, from his new spiritual life, he wishes us much happiness, health, love, purpose, peace and prosperity for all our hearts and projects.
May we live our dreams and extend them for the good of the wonderful world in which we live, for this reason, and for many other reasons.
To shine twice this year, for us and for all those who, from their path in other dimensions, they cheer us on and encourage us.
In honor of his example and his love,
For the honor of those who come,
For the honor of those of us who are here,
Let’s shine little brothers and sisters!
Here and now !
For all our relations!!!!
I love you and honor your heart full of life and love. Blessed 2024 to everyone!!!!!

LEONARDO ALBERTO BONDANI, Photographer and Filmmaker: Last Saturday night we were able to arrive from other latitudes, with my partner Nicole, to Alberto’s farewell ceremony and we quickly set up the projector, Odin put up the screen that we bought last year, it was going to project the photos that Alberto and I prepared to present the first night of the Vision Council, photos from when we went to the Rainbow Gathering in New Mexico in 1995.

But I decided it was better to pass on the photos of this chat. Ellie (Green, filmmaker and director of the upcoming documentary about Coyote Alberto) applied quickly and put them on the laptop and all the photos that you sent up to that moment we were able to project during the night with the Amate and Alberto, with everyone gathered at the fire!!!

I propose and offer to direct a video made with all the photos that we share here and with all the testimonies that we leave here, the music will be the songs that have been offered to Alberto. I am committed to helping finish one of the pending tasks that worried Alberto, his documentary.

I was already talking about it with Odin, and we are not going to make a single documentary, since it is impossible to compress everything in 2 hours. We are going to do a series, which is what Alberto asked me personally and with the help of all of us.

These testimonies and their ceremony will be the last episode or chapter of the series.
So be it, so it shall be, done, and decreed this. Exactly one year today, since Alberto and Lourdes joined Nicole and me in a ceremony. Tlazocamati, InLakech. At the service of Life and Light. 🦅🌈💚🌎 ‎

For more information and/or to support the effort of the Coyote Alberto documentary by Ellie Green, see @documentalcoyotealberto on Instagram. And to see a comprehensive archive of photos, links, documents and videos gathered from the Coyote Alberto Tejidos chat, see this collection organized by Gwyn Peterdi, a World Circle Dance teacher and organizer and another extraordinary human who forms part of this rainbow web. 

*I (Tracy) was working as a journalism professor at the University of Missouri when my sister Tami attended the Llamado del Condor in the Sacred Valley of Peru. There she met Alberto and the whole tribe, and she was entranced; she wrote a story about it and really captured my imagination. I signed up on the Subcoyote’s email list and started dreaming. It would be seven years and a precipitous career climb before the corporate media world finally cut me loose and I began long-awaited my journey southward. My first stop was with members of the Vision Council — including Alberto, who helped me plan my own yearlong “Caravan of One” through Latin America, which I reported in the brand-new blog I created called The Esperanza Project. Over the years I counted on his collaboration, friendship, advice, and above all, connection to a rainbow of inspiration through the many people he and his colleagues introduced me to, and he never let me down.
** The Mazorca, meaning ear of corn, referred to the name of the colorfully painted schoolbus that carried Alberto and crew on the 13-year Rainbow Peace Caravan that traversed the Americas from Mexico to the Tierra del Fuego.
*** Puente de Wirikuta, named for the sacred desert of Wirikuta in San Luis Potosí, was an initiative intended to connect the Indigenous spiritual traditions of Mexico with those of Spain, together with Spanish conchera dance captain Miyo Fiel and others.
*** Cahuitero/a, Wixárika word for wise elder
**** Drakabygget (which means “the dragon cave”) was a Bauhaus Situationist collective founded in 1960 in Sweden by Pernille’s father, where Alberto and Gerda spent some time and where Odin was born. Alberto often referenced the Bauhaus movement in his talks about the ecovillage movement.