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OUR STORIES

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Our stories

At the Botanical Bus we value lived experience as institutional knowledge. We prioritize care that recognizes each clients’ unique sense of wellbeing. We believe that our stories are our power! 

Botanical Bus client sharing a self-portrait made during an art therapy wellness workshop.

LuLu Pérez Centurion (Community Health Worker and Founder of Botanical Bus Planting Seeds of Self-Care program) welcoming clients to the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic.

Hearing from Our Clients:

Consejos en Nuestra Lengua Materna [Advice in our Mother Tongue]

I sit across the table from Concepción (her name changed in this story to protect her privacy) at a café up the street from her current home, a shelter for youth at risk of being unhoused. She immigrated to Sonoma County alone from San Martín, a region of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. 

“The water from the river pools into a deep, clear swimming hole where I am from. I stay in the water all day.  My father and I are expert swimmers….and my mother knows all about medicinal plants. I think my father fell in love with her because of her expertise.” She brightens as she shares about a paste made from cacao and cinnamon that her mother uses for treating her acne.

 

Concepción arrived in the United States early 2023 with a serious injury to her foot and hand. Unable to walk due to nerve damage, she experienced extreme hardship.

“The first week I arrived was very hard. I felt so much sadness. But the next week I started to find help.”

Keep reading

LuLu Pérez Centurion (Community Health Worker and founder of Botanical Bus Planting Seeds of Self-Care program) welcoming clients to the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic.

Maria Rivera, Mind-Body Medicine Facilitator and Founder of Botanical Bus Rest in Our Breath program.

Our Way Back with Maria Rivera

Maria Rivera was born in the pine forest, on a mountain twelve hours outside the nearest town in Michoacan, Mexico. “There was absolute green everywhere” she shares. “Living in an isolated place, I felt fully accompanied by my surroundings…by the wind, the sun, the corn, the plants in our home garden. We spent our days in the open, harvesting verdolagas, nopales, quelites, plums, plátanos, y todo del jardín.”

 

Midsummer, I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Maria about her life and somatic therapy practice with the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic. Maria moved from her mountain home of Buena Vista to Santa Rosa, California when she was 15 years old.

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Maria Rivera, Mind-Body Medicine Facilitator and founder of Botanical Bus Rest in Our Breath program

Juliana Jimenez and Norma Rico(Community Health Workers and Founders of Botanical Bus Present to Nourish Us program) harvest Nopales.

Love + Nopales with Juliana Jimenez + Norma Rico

Let me tell you a story about how plants connect us to each other and to our deepest sense of wellbeing. In a system that prioritizes individualism as productivity, we can lose touch with our intertwined roots. Interdependence underpins all healthy ecosystems. We need each other to feel good. The plants show us that. 

It’s a Thursday afternoon and I have a couple calls to make before I go home to confirm staffing for an upcoming wellness fair at Korbel Vineyards. “Hola Juliana, cómo está usted [Hi Juliana, how are you],” I begin. 

Juliana joins the Botanical Bus as founder of the Botanical Bus, Presente para Nutrirnos [Present to Nourish Us] program, wellness workshops that center whole, accessible Indigenous foods and traditional recipes for type two diabetes prevention and care.   

 

At a Farmworker Clinic, a client had invited us to the land where her husband tends to harvest Nopales. When I ask if Juliana can participate, she happily agrees, excited to take part in this generous invitation from a Botanical Bus client. Juliana…¡Presente!

Keep reading

Juliana Jimenez and Norma Rico(Community Health Workers and founders of Botanical Bus Present to Nourish Us program) harvest Nopales

OUR STORIES

Foto-1-9-24,-11-37-37-a.m

Our stories

At the Botanical Bus we value lived experience as institutional knowledge. We prioritize care that recognizes each clients’ unique sense of wellbeing. We believe that our stories are our power! 

Botanical Bus client sharing a self-portrait made during an art therapy wellness workshop.

LuLu Pérez Centurion (Community Health Worker and Founder of Botanical Bus Planting Seeds of Self-Care program) welcoming clients to the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic.

Hearing from Our Clients:

Consejos en Nuestra Lengua Materna [Advice in our Mother Tongue]

I sit across the table from Concepción (her name changed in this story to protect her privacy) at a café up the street from her current home, a shelter for youth at risk of being unhoused. She immigrated to Sonoma County alone from San Martín, a region of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. 

“The water from the river pools into a deep, clear swimming hole where I am from. I stay in the water all day.  My father and I are expert swimmers….and my mother knows all about medicinal plants. I think my father fell in love with her because of her expertise.” She brightens as she shares about a paste made from cacao and cinnamon that her mother uses for treating her acne.

 

Concepción arrived in the United States early 2023 with a serious injury to her foot and hand. Unable to walk due to nerve damage, she experienced extreme hardship.

“The first week I arrived was very hard. I felt so much sadness. But the next week I started to find help.”

Keep reading

LuLu Pérez Centurion (Community Health Worker and founder of Botanical Bus Planting Seeds of Self-Care program) welcoming clients to the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic.

Maria Rivera, Mind-Body Medicine Facilitator and Founder of Botanical Bus Rest in Our Breath program.

Our Way Back with Maria Rivera

Maria Rivera was born in the pine forest, on a mountain twelve hours outside the nearest town in Michoacan, Mexico. “There was absolute green everywhere” she shares. “Living in an isolated place, I felt fully accompanied by my surroundings…by the wind, the sun, the corn, the plants in our home garden. We spent our days in the open, harvesting verdolagas, nopales, quelites, plums, plátanos, y todo del jardín.”

Midsummer, I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Maria about her life and somatic therapy practice with the Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic. Maria moved from her mountain home of Buena Vista to Santa Rosa, California when she was 15 years old.

Keep reading

Maria Rivera, Mind-Body Medicine Facilitator and founder of Botanical Bus Rest in Our Breath program

Juliana Jimenez and Norma Rico(Community Health Workers and Founders of Botanical Bus Present to Nourish Us program) harvest Nopales.

Love + Nopales with Juliana Jimenez + Norma Rico

Let me tell you a story about how plants connect us to each other and to our deepest sense of wellbeing. In a system that prioritizes individualism as productivity, we can lose touch with our intertwined roots. Interdependence underpins all healthy ecosystems. We need each other to feel good. The plants show us that. 

It’s a Thursday afternoon and I have a couple calls to make before I go home to confirm staffing for an upcoming wellness fair at Korbel Vineyards. “Hola Juliana, cómo está usted [Hi Juliana, how are you],” I begin. 

Juliana joins the Botanical Bus as founder of the Botanical Bus, Presente para Nutrirnos [Present to Nourish Us] program, wellness workshops that center whole, accessible Indigenous foods and traditional recipes for type two diabetes prevention and care.   

 

At a Farmworker Clinic, a client had invited us to the land where her husband tends to harvest Nopales. When I ask if Juliana can participate, she happily agrees, excited to take part in this generous invitation from a Botanical Bus client. Juliana…¡Presente!

Keep reading

Juliana Jimenez and Norma Rico (Community Health Workers and founders of Botanical Bus Present to Nourish Us program) harvest Nopales

OUR IMPACT

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Our Impact

The Botanical Bus (501c3) is a bilingual mobile herb clinic that empowers holistic health by-and-for Latine and Indigenous people through culturally centered, community driven programs. We meet our Latine and Indigenous clients where they are- at vineyard worksites and trusted family service centers- to provide bilingual, bicultural health services. Our programs, led by Promotora Community Health Workers (CHWs), include a Mobile Herb Clinic and Wellness Workshops. 

LuLu Pérez Centurion (Community Health Worker and founder of Botanical Bus Planting Seeds of Self-Care program) providing foot care at Botanical Bus Mobile Herb Clinic.

Volunteer practitioner providing acupuncture treatment at Botanical Bus Mobile Clinic.

Mobile Herb Clinic

In 2023 we organized 21 clinic events in Santa Rosa, Guerneville and Sonoma Valley at vineyard worksites and family service centers to provide 261 clients with 1,872 direct healthcare services. Botanical Bus Clinic events are scheduled during paid shifts at vineyard worksites and on regular Saturdays at trusted family service center community hubs.

Keep reading

Volunteer practitioner providing acupuncture treatment at Botanical Bus Mobile Clinic.

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