willi farrales

willi farrales [ t\ he /y ] - i am a brown-skinned, mixed-race, queer, cis-male(ish) being, and i feel at home with narratives of the bisexual community.  i was raised into white adjacency and was heavily oriented toward assimilation into whiteness until my mid-twenties, when my project of decolonization and returning to myself began in earnest.  i bear the lineages of peoples who survived colonization in what is now known as the philippines and el salvador. i carry the lineage of german-american-salvadoreño migrants, which includes ancestors who served in the united states military. soon after birth, my mother remarried into a european-american lineage with a strong generational tradition of american military service. i am in the midst of a healing process and reclaiming of authentic eros by consciously decolonizing how i understand self, other, and collective. this involves deconstructing conventional models of 'gender,' 'sexuality,' 'family/kinship,' 'relationality,' etc. i see this process as a queering of narratives, an embodying of truth that conventional cultural and social conventions do not properly reflect because they lack the flexibility and language to do so- an oppressive feature of settler colonialism and systems of dominance. i strive toward a praxis of decolonization and re-integration of what is indigenous to our humanity. my intention is to live and offer myself in a way that serves compassion, nuancing precision, and awakening. 

i’ve trained and facilitated development workshops for les mills fitness instructors nationally since 2010.  i hold a master's degree and am currently working toward licensure as a somatic psychotherapist through employment at ucsf in the center of aids prevention studies.  i am currently a training facilitator for mndfl's mindfulness intensive training.  among many others, i am inspired by the works of pema chodron, rev angel kyodo williams, john welwood, kim tallbear, audre lorde and wilhelm reich.  

i live on traditional ramaytush ohlone lands, colonized as sf, ca. 

may our exchanges together serve collective liberation- that we feel radically freed, that our every human corner may know rest and joy.