Bio for Marianna Mejia

Near the end of World War II, in 1944, I was born in Greenwich Village, NY to left-wing parents. After the war we moved to Los Angeles, where I grew up during the paranoia of the McCarthy period, feeling different and estranged from normal society. Always writing, I studied dance, art, and music, winning my first poetry contest in the sixth grade. At fourteen, I won my second poetry contest (this one for adults) and continued writing poetry, but dabbled with acting when I performed with Instant Theater in LA, 1964. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1966 with a BA in English, I moved to Taos, New Mexico 1968-70, selling and trading turquoise jewelry and living in the counterculture, both on communes and by myself. I kept journals chronicling these experiences. 1970-1972 I lived on Black Bear Ranch commune in the wilderness of Northern California. My first child was born there but lived for only 24 hours. I almost died too. In 1971 my son was born in a beautiful home birth, still on the commune. In 1972 we moved to Santa Cruz county where, in 1974, in addition to organic gardening, I started Belly Dancing. I added Flamenco in 1975, and dance consumed me. I taught and performed Belly Dance. I also started to strip, earning enough to put myself through graduate school and support my gifted son after my divorce. 

I received my MA in Psychology 1983 and became a licensed psychotherapist LMFT in 1986. I began to study and practice Shamanism in 1987 and later added the study and use of essential oils. 

In 2000, I married my Flamenco guitarist and long-time friend and muse. We studied Flamenco regularly (yearly) in Spain 1999–2012. 

Still dancing in my mid-sixties, I realized that I could not postpone the writing I planned to do when I became too old to dance, because I might never get too old to dance. So, I began to write my memoirs, taking a writing class for five years and then continuing on my own. Writing is my life’s calling, although I got sidetracked by dancing. 

I have lived in Soquel, California for 25 years with my husband and various land-mates. I still see psychotherapy clients, teach Flamenco from a studio on my property, and host our Spanish artist friends when they visit from Spain. But writing is now, finally, my primary passion.