About Elena
Photo Credit: Kimberly Rivers
Elena Rios is a Cultural Practitioner, ANFT Certified Nature & Forest Therapy Guide, Interdisciplinary Artist, and Wildland Fire Professional. She draws inspiration from the life of her late grandmother, Maria Rios, who was a “curandera” and a “huesera” on Tataviam/Tongva territory in the San Fernando Valley. Her journey toward deepening relationship with the healing power of trees, plants, herbs, and flowers has continued throughout her life. It has taken shape within the context of their inclusion in inter-tribal circles of learning, ceremony, dance, and song, including Danza Azteca Mexica.
Elena is a former California Interagency Hotshot wildland fire professional. There, she experienced the kind of camaraderie found among operators who work on highly trained, physically fit, elite teams. Later, as an employee of a well respected tribal fire department, she received training as a Cultural Specialist from tribal elders and archeologists. This has enhanced her perspective in relationship to land and place. She also explores the cultural lens in which we may view our relationship to fire as teacher, healer, and as a necessary restorative, regenerative sacred element in the western landscape.
Elena was born in California on the ancestral lands of the Tongva and Acjachemen peoples. She spent many of her formative years on Tübatulabul/Yokut territory in the foothills of Sequoia National Forest (adjacent to the Tule River Indian Reservation), where she first learned about ranch, land, and fire stewardship practices from her family. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has formed and participated in cultural music, song, dance, and interdisciplinary art groups. She is a Xicana Indigena/Azteca/Mexica/Chichimeca/SW Pueblo/Inter-tribal/Scots-Irish daughter of the Americas. She is based on Chumash land in central/southern California.
