Rutanya Alda
Rutanya Alda was born Rūta Skrastiņa in Riga, in German-occupied Latvia, the daughter of Vera (née Ozoliņa), a businesswoman, and Jānis Skrastiņš, a poet. Alda, her grandmother, her mother and her brother spent seven years in a refugee camp in Allied-occupied Germany after World War II. She then moved with her family to the United States, briefly living in Chicago before settling in Flagstaff, Arizona.