the story of Us

In 2002, we met at the Epicenter, a cutting-edge multimedia teen center located in San Diego, California. At the time, Christina had recently moved to San Diego from New York City and was working on indexing best community technology practices to bridge the digital divide for youth. Julio, on the other hand, had left the LA rap scene after a spiritual awakening and had started a mobile music education program for teens. On our first date, we danced all night and had a deep, profound conversation about the wonders of the universe.

Since then, we have always had a shared vision of creating a conscious company that brings love into the world. Our website, julioandchristina.com, is the first project we are sharing with you. We hope you enjoy it. To learn more about us as individuals, please see the section below.

Julio

My name is Julio Cesar de Aragon Iglesias Andujar. I was born in New York City but grew up in La Jolla, California. My ancestry is Spanish from Galicia on my dad's side and Cuban from Havana on my mom's side. Both of my parents are political refugees, and my maternal grandfather was a Democratic Cuban political hero. As a young man, I traveled to many countries in the Pacific Rim, including Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, and Indonesia, accompanying my father, who was a publishing and English as a Second Language executive.

At home, I had a passion for acting and singing that led me to the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and eventually to the Musician's Institute and the Recording Institute of Technology in Hollywood, California. I developed a passion for music production and became one of the producers and back-up rappers for early Cuban Hip Hop groups Cypress Hill, the Reyes Brothers, and Mellow Man Ace. I was also an early raver and performed live Drum & Bass music at underground parties as "the Cuban" for ten years. Eventually, I moved into corporate, library, film, and television music creation and began consulting companies as well as doing sound, graphic, and product design through the Forces of Light. Using the skills I learned from my father, I started several companies and discovered a passion for leadership and bringing new ventures to life.

In 1999, Yoga entered my life and led me to a more spiritual lifestyle and regular selfless service. Inspired, I began computer music education programs for at-risk youth in San Diego, where I would meet my future wife Christina, who was working as a researcher at the Epicenter for teens in Mira Mesa, California.

In 2003, I was called to Hawaii by a dear friend and mentor, Shammy Dingus, and began an incredible journey that changed me forever. I moved to the very local and Hawaiian stronghold of the Waianae coast, Oahu, where I worked with Ma'o Farms and the Ka’ala Cultural Learning Center. I was fortunate to work with and learn from some of Hawaii's greatest activists, farmers, and kahunas during that time, while also living with the monks of a Korean Buddhist monastery in Makaha, which helped me deepen my Yoga practice. I also had the opportunity to meet sixties icon Richard Alpert, also known as Ram Dass, whose wisdom and legacy served as a great inspiration to me. While living in the monastery was not for me, I enjoyed life in the mountains growing taro, cassava, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and fruit, or jamming at the beach with my Hawaiian uncles in Makaha.

After several years in Hawaii, I returned to the mainland and started businesses with renewed vigor and expertise. It didn't take long for me to realize that I wanted to align my spiritual life with my professional aspirations, and at the suggestion of Ram Dass, I sought formal yoga teacher training and learned even more about how to share and speak on Yoga and Eastern spiritual traditions. While practicing and learning every day, I experienced great healing and a newfound sustainability in my life and Yoga teaching. Within a two-year period, I was married, truly happy for the first time, traveling the world with my wife, and completely sure of what I would do for the rest of my life to serve others.

Christina

I describe myself as a Jane of all Trades, Mistress of One.

Born in Astoria, Queens and raised in the suburbs of Long Island, I grew up straddling two societies – one, a first generation Greek traditional family and the other a suburban reality where I felt like I never quite belonged. My culture played a big part in my life: one of tradition, community, and patriarchy where I spoke another language, attended after-school programs and participated in church and family as the center of my life.

As an “American,” I felt like an outsider (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding). There was a constant implicit immigrant pressure to compete, to “Keep up with the Joneses,” and to do better. I thrived under that pressure academically and benefited from a great education where I was exposed to feminism; I also constantly questioned myself and both cultures. Through this questioning, I formed a strong foundation of my understanding of my individual self, of differentiated cultures in America, and of the systemic underpinnings of capitalism and its permeation throughout family, community and society as a measure of “success.” Living with this duality, and within this system, I understood from an early age that reality is subjective and relative.

I had my first taste of traveling and understanding this dynamic globally when I went to Jamaica with my family at 9 years old. It was the 1980s, we stayed at a beautiful resort but had to drive through rural poverty to get there – my eyes were glued to the window. How could this reality co-exist with the one of my home neighborhood? Was it fair? How did this duality mirror my personal experiences at home of being on Long Island and visiting my family living in NYC? I have never stopped asking myself those questions and it has driven my interest in systemic thinking and my choices.

I've had an exciting career path rooted in Communication and Social Change that has taken me across a wide range of experiences - domestic non-profit work, community technology, youth media, in-classroom teaching, human rights, international conflict resolution, the UN, mobile software start-ups and most recently, management consulting with big businesses. I am now at an integration point in my path where I am focused on business and social impact – a bridge between two worlds. You can read more about me and my professional history on LinkedIn and see my new venture at Elia Intel.

In addition to my professional path, I am especially interested in integrative embodiment and energy healing practices. I’ve been a practicing yogi since 1997 and completed my yoga teacher training with Shiva Rea. I have also studied energy healing modalities including Hawaiian mysticism, Kundalini-based Sat Nam Rasayan and I am a certified Reiki practitioner.

I’m fascinated by history, lineage, and the entangled web of the planet. I truly believe that "what we are, the world is" and feel that activism starts with the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.

I believe strongly in reconciling the lineage of learned fear and hate that comes through culture and family lines, albeit unconsciously.

I believe in unity through diversity – as in Nature.

I believe in embodiment as personal activism that must come first in order to shift systemic inequalities.

When we are truly ourselves, we can become one collective humanity working together to create a New Earth.

A Music Video featuring some of Julio’s original music

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