And he told me how frustrated he is to talk to journalists that come to write only about the problems. How all they want to do is write about the violence. And the cartels. And the war on drugs. About the corpses hanging from bridges in broad daylight. And he tells me what he really hopes for: A new story about his home town. That Juarez would become the city of peace

How can acupuncture help communities affected by war, violence and displacement?

Since 2006, the population the Valley of Juarez, a rural area outside Cd Juarez, Mexico, has dwindleed by 90% due to drug trafficking and human rights abuses. In response, local community workers have been offering Barefoot Clinics for survivors.

Las Cruces’ local National Public Radio station featured Crossroads’ Barefoot Acupuncture Movement’s disaster response efforts in August, 2019, at the first responder site outside of the Wal Mart where the shooting occurred.

In their story airing on KRWG Friday August 16th entitled El Paso Community, Volunteers Come Together To Mourn And Try To Heal, Reporter Anthony Moreno interviewed people receiving care at our Barefoot Clinics, with treatments like NADA ear acupuncture (Acudetox) groups.

Featuring a new Medicare program, Crossroads Acupuncture has moved back to Downtown Las Cruces across from the plaza. The 501c3 nonprofit organization also has new programs within the jail system, migrant shelters in Juarez, Mexico as well as the new La Vida Project of Families and Youth Innovations, also in in downtown Las Cruces.

Free ear acupuncture clinics are offered throughout the southern New Mexico region, through Crossroads Acupuncture’s acudetox training program. One of the programs that year in year out offers free addictions recovery, as well as harm reduction care, is Amador Health Center (formerly known as St. Luke’s Health Clinic). Damien Willis of the Las Cruces Sun News featured this innovative program back in 2016.

RISE will be offering acudetox within jails in Carrizozo and Truth or Consequences and in collaboration with local drug courts and Indian Health Services serving RISE clients.

Cassie McClure and Neighbors Magazine sat down with us to learn more about our clinic in Las Cruces, NM, our acudetox training program and our global Barefoot Acupuncture Movement, which works in addictions, disaster relief, and humanitarian aid and development. The article can be read in the July 2021 issue, and is available to read for free on lascruces.com.

Who can call themself an “acupuncturist?” The answer is a tricky one, at least in North America.

At the Barefoot Acupuncture Movement, I have found that this question is best answered, discussed and debated with a historical lens, which is the angle that Bob Quinn, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and professor in the field, took in in his most recent “quintissentials” blog: The Return of the Barefoot Doctor.

Acupuncture is a portable medicine. In the 1960’s the barefoot doctors in China took Chinese medicine into the countryside. Over the years acupuncturist’s response to natural disasters has show us that acupuncture can be practiced in makeshift shelters or tents. It also has a place in refugee camps, churches of impoverished communities and rural villages. In this conversation acupuncturist and activist Ryan Bemis talks about how acupuncture and liberation theology go together and can help to relieve a lot of suffering.

Acupuncture is becoming more accessible—one ear at a time.

Ear acupuncture, also known as auricular acupuncture, is the most widely used form of acupuncture within Western health settings in the United States and Europe.

"A lot of our students migrated from other parts of Mexico to Juarez with their families to work in the maquiladoras, and a lot of the people they help are employed in the factories (or used to be until they got laid off). Our new school is inspired by another migrant and factory worker who is credited as the founder of acupuncture in the West: Miriam Lee. Back in the 70’s, she assisted other factory workers in California after she immigrated from China. It’s fitting that we are teaching her techniques and her spirit of service has caught hold among our students.