Esmerelda Kent, the founder of KINKARACO™, grew up near Hollywood California in the 1950's. She met her husband in 1968 at Neal Cassady's wake in Big Sur California and had two beautiful children at home. Amid an outcry from the medical establishment against natural childbirth, Esmerelda chose this practice because the idea of having a child in a Hospital full of disease without your husband being allowed near you seemed barbaric, unnatural and expensive.

In the 1980's, the AIDS epidemic took the lives of many of Esmerelda's dear friends and she got a crash course on the effects of Death and the modern Funeral Industry itself. When her own Mother died in 2000, Esmerelda had a spiritual experience and washed & wrapped her in a silk shroud for cremation -something she had never heard of before.

Throughout human history, most people on Earth were born in their own homes as opposed to a hospital environment. In the US, the deceased commonly were laid in the parlor in the home with friends and family gathered and then buried on their own property.

"This spiritually rich family community connection to the most basic human experiences of Birth & Death are what we have now lost as a "civilization" and what we are now trying to take back."

In 2004, as a result of her Buddhist practice and the HBO series, "Six Feet Under", Esmerelda's aspiration changed. She developed the wish to be of meaningful service to others and began working in the Cemeteries- both Green & Traditional. Her own life experience in fabric & design combined with her experiences with the families in the cemeteries led her to the making of burial shrouds.

So now, after a lifetime of eating organic food, studying world culture, music and religion, Costume designer Esmerelda is now designing products for other likeminded people who are choosing natural ecological practices and products for their own passings.

(Ironically- In 2005, KINKARACO™ was contracted by the HBO series, "Six Feet Under" to create a shroud for the green burial segment of the show's season finale! Life imitates Art!)