Mindahi Bastida
Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz, Ph.D., was born in San Pedro Tultepec, Lerma, Mexico. He is part of the Otomi-Toltec Peoples and a former JPAC-CEC member. Mindahi is a traditional authority of the Grand Council of the Eagle and the Condor. His mission is to ensure that the Earth Mandates are implemented in 52 major bioregions in the world. The Earth Mandates were received in a ceremony hosted by the Kogi, Arwak and Kankuamo in Sacred Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in May 2013.
He is the General Coordinator of the Otomi-Toltec Regional Council in Mexico and caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples. He has been an Otomi-Toltec Ceremonial Officer since 1988 and, since 2012, has been a consultant to UNESCO on Sacred Sites and Biocultural protection. He has served as the Director of the Original Nations Program of the Fountain (2020–2023), the Director of the Original Caretakers Program at the Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (2017–2020), and as the Director of Sustainable Development Division, Intercultural University of Mexico State (2002–2012).
His two most recent books are Ancestors. Divine Remembrance of Lineage, Relations and Sacred Sites (Translated in four languages and available as Audiobook) and Rooted in Ethics. He has written extensively on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Sacred Sites, intercultural education, collective intellectual property rights and associated traditional knowledge, among other topics. He was also chief editor of a book series on Culture, Gastronomy, and Biodiversity of the Wetlands of his original homeland in the highlands of Mexico.
He is an international speaker, having been invited to over fifty countries and to every continent. Currently there are two films being produced that focus on his message and legacy. Mihandi is a member of the Advisory Group, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, the Advisory Council of Kiss the Ground, the Executive Committee of the Alliance Guardians of Mother Nature and a Former Member of the board of directors of The Fountain.