Abvut Maestra Grace

Grace Alvarez Sesma is of Yaqui descent and Mexican heritage, with ancestral roots in Sonora and Baja California. Like many families in Mexico, her mother and tias (aunties) used traditional cultural remedies to care for their loved ones. Grace grew up surrounded by these healing practices—receiving abdominal sobadas from her mother to cure empacho, and watching her aunt tend to neighborhood children suffering from mal de ojo and caída de mollera.

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One of her greatest early influences was a tia who was a respected curandera, sharing stories and observing her help neighbors with spiritual illnesses. Grace also had an uncle who was a well-known sobador and huesero (bonesetter). From a young age, she understood that the path of Curanderismo is not taken lightly—it is a sacred calling, one that must be accepted with humility and dedication.

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Although her ancestors visited her in dreams during childhood, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that she formally embraced her calling. After receiving powerful warning dreams urging her to return to her ancestral healing ways, Grace began intensive training with traditional healers in Baja California and the United States. These experiences deepened her commitment to Curanderismo and the spiritual medicine of her lineage.

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Grace’s life journey has been one of resilience and service.

Married at 16 and divorced by 19, she raised two daughters as a single mother. She left high school to support her family, later earning her GED while working multiple jobs. Her determination led her to become the administrator of a psychiatric partial hospitalization program, and in 1991, she launched a consultancy focused on public relations and cultural competency.

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In 1993, Grace was selected as one of only 26 women nationwide to become a Fellow of the National Hispana Leadership Institute—a collaboration with the Center for Creative Leadership and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. As part of her fellowship, she returned to her community and founded MANA of Imperial Valley, a local chapter of the national organization dedicated to empowering Latinas through leadership and advocacy. Grace’s work has earned her numerous honors, including three commendations from the California State Senate. In 2019, she received MANA of Imperial Valley’s Legacy Award, and in 2023, she was honored with the Stone of Hope Award by the Imperial Valley Martin Luther King Jr. Committee for her dedication to justice, healing, and community empowerment. Now in her late sixties, Grace continues to share the healing traditions of her ancestors through teaching, ceremony, and community service—guided always by Spirit and the wisdom of those who came before her.

A Life Guided by Spirit and Service

From early childhood, Grace Alvarez Sesma was called to the medicine ways through vivid dreams. In her late teens through her 30s, she was visited in the dreamtime by a circle of Indigenous Grandmothers, each dressed in the traditional regalia of different Native nations. These spiritual guides offered teachings and urged her to return to the ancestral healing ways in preparation for a time when women would help usher in the return of the Grandmothers’ energy —a sacred force working to restore balance between the feminine and masculine, and to answer Mother Earth’s call for renewed respect for land, water, and sacred places.

In alignment with these visions, Grace attended the 13 International Indigenous Grandmothers Council gathering in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, in May 2006 —a powerful affirmation of her spiritual path.

Bringing the Medicine to the Community

In the early 2000s, one of Grace’s elders encouraged her to begin sharing the teachings she had received from Spirit and him. In July 2006, she was invited by Arizona Western College in Yuma, Arizona, to teach a course on Native healing traditions of the U.S. and Mexico. Following traditional protocol, Grace sought and received permission from local Kwatsan elders to bring her medicine to their ancestral lands. She then became an adjunct professor, teaching “Exploring Native American Medicine Ways: Learning from, and Honoring, Indigenous Healing Traditions.”

Her community work has since expanded to include:

• Baby blessing ceremonies

• Opening prayers for gatherings and social justice events

• Offering guidance and spiritual support during a person's end-of-life transition.

• Guiding funeral rituals

• Family, community, and organizational conflict transformation circles

• Lectures and Trainings for medical and behavioral health organizations

• Training Chicano, Latine, and Indigenous mental health providers and clinicians

Advocacy, Education & Cultural Preservation

Grace is deeply involved in community building and social justice. In 2013, she led a successful social media campaign to stop Disney from trademarking Día de Muertos. She also presented “Trauma from a Practitioner’s Perspective” and led the Cultural & Holistic Practitioners Team at the 2019 SDSU Native Truth and Healing California Genocide Conference.

She is a member of:

• Kumeyaay Original Peoples Alliance

• Kanap Kuahan (Tell the Truth) Coalition

• MANA de Imperial Valley

• House of the Moon (MMIW+ Advocacy Training Program)

• Consciousness & Healing Initiative’s Healing Practitioners Council

• Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine

• Associate Faculty, Southern California University of Health Sciences

Philosophy of Care

Grace advocates for a respectful integration of traditional Indigenous healing with conventional Western medicine. She collaborates with healthcare providers to support patients holistically—body, mind, emotions, relationships, and spirit. When referred by physicians, her sessions become part of a client’s overall treatment plan, with Grace offering feedback as part of a multidisciplinary care team.

Speaker, Educator, and Author

Grace is a sought-after speaker and has presented at:

• Pepperdine University

• San Diego State University

• CSU San Marcos

• Children’s Hospital-Denver

• International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy & Energy Medicine

• Great River Symposium on Mesoamerican Acupuncture

• Iskotew and Kumik Lodge Elders-in-Residence Programs (First Nations, Canada)

• University of Miami

• 2018 Taoism Conference - Taiwan

• Keynote “Respecting Indigenous Healing Traditions: From Colonizer to Ally” at the 2022 Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology Annual Conference.

• Created & Developed Curriculum for AIHM Integrative Health Residency Program, 2022

• Cultural Humility & Traditional Indigenous Medicine Training for County Behavioral Health Clinicians and Leadership, 2023

• Speaker and Healing Circle facilitator, Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine 2024 Conference

Her written contributions include:

• Meditations for InterSpiritual Practice (2012)

• Voice of the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices (edited by Lara Medina & Martha R. Gonzales)

She has also been featured in media interviews, academic abstracts, and dissertations.

A Lifelong Commitment to Healing

Grace views her path as one of lifelong learning. She continues to deepen her understanding of healing, engages in personal growth, and serves her community with humility and dedication. Her work emphasizes the respectful reclamation of traditional Indigenous identification, culture, and healing practices and is rooted in community empowerment, intergenerational healing, and the vision Indigenous peoples hold for their futures. Through education, advocacy, and direct service, Grace continues to build pathways for cultural resilience and systemic change.

Grace travels extensively, offering workshops and presentations on Mexico’s healing traditions across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. She lives on the unceded land of the Kumeyaay Nation, known today as San Diego, California, and actively supports the voices and rights of Yaqui (Yoeme) and Kumeyaay Peoples.

For consultations, workshops, or speaking engagements, please email Grace directly.