“We honor all that is around us on the earth, for we are part of everything. We are only here for a while, and I am so happy the Ancestors showed me this way, that they embraced me, that they loved me enough to give me the gift of life.” —Adelina-Alva Padilla
Chumash Spiritual Leader, healer, culture bearer, Bear Clan, mother of seven, grandmother of 30, great-grandmother of 104, and great-great-grandmother of 33, Adelina Alva-Padilla lived an extraordinary life spanning 87 years. She passed into the spirit world on October 1, 2023.
Given to strangers in early childhood, Adelina was embraced by a foster family and her stepfather at 8 years old. Married at 17 and having seven children by age 22, she raised her young family in Watts and Santa Fe Springs as a single parent. Adelina would have never guessed that her journey would take her to ceremony around the world where spiritual leaders revered and respected her wisdom. She became much sought-after by many for her knowledge and insights.
When Adelina returned to the Santa Ynez Reservation in 1980 after caring for her mother, Juanita Kitano Pena, she reconnected with her traditional teachings. As people learned about her gifts, they began to seek her help. After a few years, she expanded her welcome area to include ceremonial grounds and a sweat lodge, eventually naming it Kiyičxalaswun Molmoloqiwaš, Healing Together with the Ancient Ones.
Adelina enjoyed hosting many diverse groups at her home. After a ceremonial fire was lit, prayers said, and offerings given, Adelina welcomed everyone from Urban Indians in Los Angeles who used her sweat lodge to Māori people sharing culture abroad. She welcomed participants in the Peace and Dignity Run, Fulbright Scholars, Catholic priests baptizing her grandchildren, Kumeyaay Elders from Baja California, university students, and migrant farm workers.
While the Spiritual Leader for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians for 18 years, Adelina played a significant role by providing blessings and prayers at tribal milestones and events.
Adelina traveled extensively. She was honored at the Vatican and visited South Africa, where she was blessed and honored by the well-known traditional African tribal leader Credo Mutwa. Her travels took her from Mexico to Alaska and Hawai‘i to meet with spiritual leaders and attend gatherings, sharing traditional healing, songs, and prayers. She shared blessings with Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú and met with Hopi Prophecy spokesperson Thomas Banyacya and Onondaga Chief and Faithkeeper Oren Lyons.
Adelina was a guest speaker at several events such as the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa, at the Honoring of Nations Conference on Religious Traditions at Harvard University, and at the Grandmother’s Gathering in Hawai‘i.
It was my honor to take Adelina to 12 different museums in six states — to visit artifacts made by her ancestors and bring ceremony and offer blessings for these precious items. She regarded the artifacts as ancestors, some of which, as she said, “had not been around people of their own blood in over 150 years.” She wept openly while tenderly holding a finely woven basket like a newborn baby. To her, each item was a storyteller and carried the story of the earth, the person who made it, the people who used it, and the language and songs it heard — its entire journey. When museum visitors were present, they were drawn in, becoming respectful observers in these ceremonies. There wasn’t a dry eye among us.
Adelina Alva-Padilla lived an exemplary life of service to the Chumash people and to people throughout the world. After a childhood filled with unimaginable hardships, she believed wholeheartedly in helping others. In service to her community, Adelina delighted in serving homemade burritos to the needy from her kitchen window in Santa Fe Springs. She compassionately administered to people with AIDS, provided artificial legs to a young amputee in Mexico, took food and clothes to Native communities in Baja California, participated in veterans’ projects, and helped an entire community when she built a home in a village near Guadalajara. She supported the Flame of Peace project and tribal members participating at Sun Dance. She was generous with her time and resources.
Adelina loved spending time on the Channel Islands helping Channel Island National Park on special projects and participating in programs at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. She particularly loved welcoming the condors at the Santa Barbara Zoo. She enjoyed helping on projects at Vandenberg Space Force Base and assisting Los Padres Forest Service.
One of Adelina’s most valued relationships was with the California Bears, a group from various tribes, inspired by Tachi Yokuts Spiritual Leader and Chief Clarence Atwell Jr. to renew the Bear Dance after it had been “sleeping” for more than 30 years. Knowing this was very sacred, she traveled with them to support ceremony at Cholollo, Tule River Reservation, Pala Reservation, Santa Rosa Rancheria, Mt. Madonna, Zaca Lake, and eventually brought it back to the Santa Ynez Reservation.
The Bear Dance is done for healing. The dancers transform, wearing full bear-skin capes and mimicking Bear’s voice, posture, and walk, while bringing the spirit of Bear to help heal the earth and people.
Despite all this responsibility, Adelina had a light side where she sang along to her favorite Elvis song, “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,” while dancing in her kitchen. She would crack up at a good joke and laugh at herself when she thought about how she wore tight jeans and hair ratted out to “there” in her younger years.
Adelina loved eating her one pancake, butter, and syrup breakfast at the Solvang Restaurant and rajas at Super-Rica. These simple meals always brought a smile to her face.
Adelina made her own style of prayer ties. To help her make them was an honor as well as a multiple-day ritual, gathering mountain sage, adding loose tobacco, and mixing with clean hands and a good heart. She gave them to people she met along the way in her life.
In 1992, after believing she was an only child for more than five decades, Adelina got the surprise of her life! In ill health and near the end of his life, the father she had never known, Vincent de Alba, revealed to his children that they had an older sister born in 1936. With some research, her brother Greg found Adelina, and she was united with this branch of her family. She was overjoyed to learn that she had 11 siblings: five brothers and six sisters.
Adelina remained ever indebted to the father who raised her, Patrick Martinez, and would make an annual trip to his resting place with her children and grandchildren to celebrate his life.
Adelina treasured her family deeply. Her partner, Oswaldo M. Casillas; her children — Elizabeth Ventura, Rosalie Padilla-Torres, Maria Padilla, Eleanor Martinez, Juanita Ayala, Raymond Padilla, and Phillip Padilla — as well as their families, held a place in her heart. No matter where she was in the world, it is family that she thought of first, ending every conversation with “I love you” and “I love you more.”
At her celebration of life, one of her granddaughters said, “Though I will miss Granny, I can find her anywhere on the internet … she’s everywhere!” Indeed, she is, as Adelina’s life has been featured in articles, books, and films, including Women’s Voices: The Wisdom of the Grandmothers. Adelina’s legacy will live on in her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and all those whose lives she touched.
She truly will be missed.
Rest well, my friend.