Her Early Years
Her original name is Amalia Montserrat Márquez Marín.
She was born on April 4, 1955, in Puerto Rico.
Amalia was part of a group of girls who grew up together in the same family, with many cousins and a brother.
Her cousin Sara Gutiérrez remembers that from a very young age, Amalia demonstrated an energetic and independent character.
Amalia was also intelligent. She graduated from high school a year ahead of her classmates. She traveled alone on the Amazon River. She had a keen business sense and was generally well-liked by those who knew her.
Joining Castaneda's Group
Amalia had read Castaneda's books and, fascinated, moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s to join Castaneda's inner circle.
Amalia became the president of Cleargreen, the organization Castaneda founded in 1995 to market his teachings.
Castaneda asked his personal students to change their names, and she changed hers to Talia Bey.
Castaneda also asked his personal disciples to sever ties with their family and friends, and she obeyed that as well.
Sara felt immense affection for her cousin, which is why she named her daughter Amalia. Amalia was born just as her cousin was becoming increasingly involved in Castaneda's cult.
A card congratulating Sara on the birth of her daughter was one of the last times she heard from her.
« Sarita,
Congratulations on the ‘new kid on the block’-Amalia. This is to wish you and your family the best of all and to Amalia a very warm welcome to the world. Knowing she is in good hands may her life be full of beautiful and peaceful things. Take care, always,
Amalia. »
A few years later, Amalia would call her mother and ask for all the family photos in which she appeared. She wanted to destroy them, as that was another of Castaneda's directives: erase the past.
It was then that the family realized Amalia wasn't just working and traveling with an unreliable group, but that something was wrong.
Some time later, when Amalia's father was dying, he desperately wanted to hear his daughter's voice one last time. A call to Cleargreen was answered by an unknown person, who simply said, "She knows her father is dying," and nothing more.
Amy Wallace, a person close to Castaneda who wrote a book about her experience within this sect titled 'The Witch's Apprentice,' recalled how Castaneda ridiculed Amalia for being too close to his family after the phone call about her father.
According to Castaneda, her personal relationships were a burden she had to get rid of if she wanted to become a shamanic warrior.
What happened after Castaneda's death
When Castaneda died on April 27, 1998, Amalia/Talia and four other women very close to him disappeared.
It is suspected that they committed suicide.
PHOTOS
Photo probably taken by her family when she was very young.
The following photo was taken when she was already a disciple of Castaneda. He required his recruits/lovers to have a masculine appearance with very short hair.
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