We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rocio Francis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rocio thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My company has been the most meaningful project that I’ve worked on. When it comes to skin care not many think of the indigenous history, of skin care or the ingredients. When it came to creating my company I want to re-indigenize what skin care looks like, while using recipes, stories and my knowledge of knowing and understanding the way the land works and how I could leave a positive impact on the land for the future generations to come. When it comes to me even growing my own ingredients, I ended up on the same land and which my family worked on in the fields. My family is a part of agricultural history even as indigenous people, we have survived the hardest of living but work also. I’m here planting ingredients, to use in my products, with packaging that goes back safely into the earth while healing generational trauma.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Rocio Francis, I’m Indigenous to Arizona and New Mexico. My tribal affiliations are Diné as well as Pueblo Laguna, my family roots stem from Grants, Seama, Glendale and Phoenix. I’m a proud Epileptic Mother of three, as well as a stroke survivor. I started my company out of necessity to accommodate to my needs as a disabled person, not being able to work a 9-to-5 job. I also wanted to make skin care accessible to all households, with a cultural and positive impact on the earth. Creating skincare based off real ingredients, with no gender bias, eco friendly, and healing generational trauma. I’m able to tell my family stories by selling vegan artisan soaps, lotion bars, chapstick, deodorant, toner, shampoo bars, and your bathroom necessities while normalizing waste free once again and the beauty of Native Knowledge. Even down to my introduction of my name, and company name it is who I am. Rocio is Spanish for Morning Mist, or dew drop; showing the connection to the land through my company name.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I believe that from the very beginning of my company I was already a few steps behind, just from being an Indigenous woman. My circumstances of my family generations surviving genocide, including me being born into a world that was not accommodating to me has been something that I’ve always navigated. That is one of the many things that makes me resilient, I survived a stroke before I was born, survived a seizure induced coma, and made my presence known whether it was within my community or even small spaces. Not being able to work a regular job or get a regular education only made me more passionate about creating my own company to normalize what it’s like running a business and being disabled while teaching my clients the realities of supporting Indigenous owned, mother owned, and disabled owned companies.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Reclamation of the land.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Morningmistsoapco.Com
• Instagram: @Morningmistsoapco

Image Credits
Nina Paz photography Headshot – Eunique Yazzie