Petra Alvarado was born to parents with deep spiritual beliefs. The foundation of this spirituality was ingrained into Petra by her mother, Vicenta Alvarado, and father, Feliciano Alvarado. As children, both of her parents had lived through the Mexican Revolution and World War I. Her parents bonded together through these personal experiences, turning them into valuable lessons that they would teach their children.
Being the first of 10 siblings, Petra learned from the examples set by her parents. She was taught to have faith, respect others, work hard, and love her family. She accepted the lessons her elders provided and made them a part of her lifelong commitment to uphold them and to ensure they would be passed on to future generations. Any time you had a discussion with Petra, she would always reinforce her point with “My mom always used to tell us …”
Petra was born in Salinas, California, on July 28, 1922, inside of a boxcar. Her dad worked for Pacific Railroad, which supplied a boxcar for families to live in while workers moved up and down California repairing train tracks. But home base for the Alvarados was Santa Barbara County, where Petra spent the first 12 years of her life living with her paternal grandparents, Andres and Isabel Alvarado, in the Santa Ynez Valley. It was during these early years of living with her grandparents that she enjoyed a rural upbringing. Years later, she was given a tour of the Chumash casino and was able to recognize the town folks in old pictures that decorated the walls inside the casino. She remembers being a part of that community, with some family members marrying into the Chumash tribe.