My Journey Into Massage Therapy

From Mexico to San Francisco, and Abuela to Grandson — the story behind my journey into healing through touch inspired by generations of my family.

There was never any confusion or doubt for me as to what I wanted to do with my life.

From a young age, I knew I wanted to become a massage therapist. And so at age 17, I enrolled in massage school and was the youngest student there.

I wasn’t daunted, though — I was pursuing a passion for something that I had grown up with and that had been a significant part of my family’s identity within my community for generations.

You see for me, massage therapy runs in my family.

My parents are massage therapists. My sister is a massage therapist. I have several aunts and uncles who are also massage therapists. So it’s safe to say that my family and I are very passionate and knowledgeable about massage therapy.

Though it all officially started with my abuela Angela — she was the very first massage therapist in the family.

However she didn’t learn this trade via typical Western practices. She acquired her skills and knowledge from travelling priests in her remote hometown in the state of Nayarit, Mexico in the 1960s. The methods she was taught involved the use of clays, herbs, and sometimes even prayers.

She was interested in learning the art of healing through touch because she wanted to help the people of her town. The most common occupation at that time was as a farmworker, which required very physically demanding labor, and this resulted in many workplace injuries and chronic pain. She saw the opportunity to learn healing practices in order to provide pain relief and support for the people in the town and jumped at it, and soon became the town healer or sobadora.

When my abuela later decided to move her family to the Bay Area, she impressively established a reputation for herself as a widely respected healer in Richmond, particularly amongst the Latino community. My parents were inspired by the impact my abuela was having on her clients, and so decided to also become massage therapists. As the years went by, word continued to spread, and my family became known as the sobadores within our community.

So I grew up getting sports massages following football and soccer games from my parents as well as my grandmother, who would wrap my ankles with sports bandages and “healing clay” based from the methods she learned back in Mexico. This is where I developed my fascination with healing through touch, as well as having experienced firsthand the tangible positive results from massage therapy.

So I like to continue to honor my abuela to this day by bringing her same passion for healing through touch in her community to my clients right here in the Bay Area!

If you’re interested in booking a Sports Massage or Deep Tissue Massage with me, click the Book Online button above, or give me a call at (510) 982-1686.