Hilda’s grandmother Maria treated the woman with a bath of cinnamon, basil, and piri piri. She used agua florida and sang a strong icaro (medicinal song) that lasted four days in a row. The woman recovered quickly — able to eat and sleep again.

Since then, Hilda has used the same treatment for people experiencing similar struggles, honoring her grandmother’s teachings. She feels deep gratitude to be a part of the continuation of her family’s medicine and cultural legacy — passed down through generations with love and purpose.

As a child, Hilda would accompany her grandmother Maria in helping people in their communities using plant medicine.

Many of the treatments Hilda now uses were learned by working with her family and witnessing firsthand the difference they were able to make in people’s lives.

Hilda remembers a time when she was young and accompanied her grandmother on a visit to a woman in Iquitos. The woman was suffering from extreme anxiety, fear, and terrors—and desperately needed help.

Hilda Arevalo Rosas’s spiritual journey began through her family’s deep roots in traditional Amazonian medicine and culture. Born on May 19, 1975, in a very small community of Native Shipibo people on the regional borders of Loreto and Ucayali, she came into a generational family of spiritual healers. To this day, Maestra Hilda continues to carry and preserve the special traditions and spiritual knowledge of her people.

Hilda’s journey is greatly inspired by her father, Maestro Kestembetsa, and her grandparents.

Daughter of the Plants: The Path of Maestra Hilda