Ignacio F. Aguilar, LCSW

Ignacio Aguilar, “Nacho,” as he is usually called, was born and reared in Mexico City. He attended and graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico with a B.Sc. (1948) in Biological Science. In Mexico City he worked with the YMCA directing youth programs and it was they who sent him to the United States to study at Whittier College. In 1952 he earned a BA in Social Welfare and Sociology from Cal State University Los Angeles. During the 1950s and 60s he worked as Director of El Calvario Community Center in El Monte. In 1970 he received a Master in Social Work from University of Southern California. During those years he also did post-graduate work in Clinical Psychology, both at Whittier College and Cal State University in Los Angeles.

Nacho is best known for his applied work in the field of Transcultural Psychotherapy. Since 1970 he planned and implemented the first cultural psychiatric treatment for the Spanish-speaking at Metropolitan State Hospital (MSH). He started by being an interpreter for the group dynamics sessions at the hospital. He soon advocated for a group in Spanish, which was objected to by hospital officials as they feared that they would be accused of segregation. Nacho persisted and by 1972 the Xipe Totec Clinic was founded on the premises of Metro. Nacho was an innovator and developed an assortment of culturally based approaches and techniques to reach the Spanish-speaking severely mentally ill. He used linguistic approaches, drama, poetry, the cancionero, and artesanias to make the cultural connection with the clients. Nacho caught the attention of the authorities and acquired notoriety when he started bringing in a spiritist healer to treat the clients. Each of the clients would receive three limpias and then return to the clinical procedures in which Nacho had been trained, psychoanalytic group process, psychodrama, and family systems. Later when the spiritist healer retired, Nacho took over the tradition himself. He has published several professional articles and was sought after for interviews by local, national, and international media programs such as “Cristina” on Univision, Leonard Limoy, “In search of . . .”, and numerous other local and national TV programs on religion and culture. The Time-Life Books featured the program at MSH in a book, The Enigma of The Mind. Presently Nacho relaxes in retirement and maintains a small private practice in Norwalk Ca. He is co-founder of the Xipe Totec Institute of Transcultural Psychotherapy, Inc. in Fresno CA.

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