Two days before her first sobriety rebirth day, we sat down with Huitziloxochitl 'Lala' Jaramillo, the former program director of D3 Arts. Her name, Huitziloxochitl, has five syllables and means hummingbird and flower.
"It was always interesting to try and advocate for myself as a child. I'm like, no, this is my name, and you need to say it."
"I feel like a baby"
Lala started using at 13. Coming up on a year sober, she describes the feeling in a phrase that stuck with us.
"I recently described it as being alive for the first time. I do feel like a baby, or like a teenager again — I haven't done the majority of things in life as a sober person. My first show not on substances, first date, first time talking like this, not on substances. Every holiday. I feel like a baby."
The art itself
When asked how her art has shifted,
"My art has gotten more tender since being sober."
She explained what that tenderness replaced.
"In active addiction, a lot of my art was really manic and sporadic — still vulnerable, but maybe a little too vulnerable, and very all over the place. If you look at my old pieces, you can tell I was going through something — very bright, a lot of layering, a lot of texture, or I'm writing words in the pieces that say I'm not doing good. That manic energy has turned into harnessing it to tell a story in a piece now, instead of just — I need to get this out. It's like: okay, I experienced this. How do I put that into a piece? My pieces are more centered on specific moments now."
Death and rebirth, on repeat
We asked how her recovery has felt as a death-and-rebirth experience,
"It's constantly a death and rebirth experience. It's like killing that past version of myself so this new version can be reborn. It feels like one of those timelapse videos of a flower being reborn and dying, and re-being reborn and dying — constantly, daily, weekly, monthly, because I have to give up these old ways I knew how to operate in order to find new ways that are healthy."
What she'd tell someone in their first year
"I would not have been able to do this if I didn't have people in my life I could call and say, I'm having a horrible time right now, I need to vent, I need to scream and cry, I need someone here for me right now. Addiction for a lot of people is such an isolating experience that I don't think you can fully recover unless you have really solid community around you. I want the teenagers and the newly sober people who find this place to know: she went through all the really bad stuff, and now she's here, and she's able to talk about that from a sober perspective."
Her pick from the original 27 Club
"I got to see where Jimi Hendrix lived in San Francisco last time I went, and it was so cool. But I have to go with Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones — that story is insane. The song I want to choose isn't even a Rolling Stones song, though. It's 'GodStar' by Psychic TV, and it's about Brian Jones."
Follow Lala
- Her art: @__badbean on Instagram
- D3 Arts community events: @d3artswestwood
Interview filmed and edited by Lex Chamizo. 2025.
TWNTYSVNCLUB exists to hold space for both grief and celebration. Remembering the lives lost to addiction and raising awareness with those who found a way out. Meet more artists in 27 Interviews, honor someone you love on our Remembrance Wall, or find free support on our Resources page. Proof that 27 can mark a beginning, not just an end.