Heritage

Writing about the Fiesta Medal last week gave me the idea for this week’s blog.

The Fiesta Medal was inspired by the chosen Fiesta Poster for 2011. The San Antonio Fiesta made me think of heritage and culture. I have a couple of projects that were inspired by my own heritage. The most recent is a bilingual child’s book about an adventure of a little girl named Gabriela. Her grandmother she calls “Abuela” gives her a magical ring for her fifth birthday. Now that the ring is in Gabriela’s possession she begins to have dreams where a little tree frog called “Tito” takes her to the island of Puerto Rico. She always enjoyed her grandmothers’ stories about her homeland and now she gets the opportunity to visit and experience this place for herself.

In the book, I used many symbols known for the island. The tree frog is called a “Coqui” it is only found in Puerto Rico. They say that people have tried to take them to other parts of the world but the frog never survives for very long. I also had Gabriela experience Puerto Rican foods and the island’s hospitality.

My illustration for the book was a cut paper style yet created with the computer. I discovered the medium of cut paper while studying for my bachelor’s degree. I developed the style when I decided to create a Puerto Rican Dance Company that traveled to schools around the United States teaching about the island’s culture for my senior project. I developed informational brochures, posters, newsletter, bookmarkers and calendar. At that time, the entire project was created with cut paper and given the tropical Caribbean look using colors and images.

In 2007, I decided to try to recreate the poster using the computer software Adobe Illustrator.® Take a look at the image, so you can see the before and after.

My inspiration about my heritage comes from my parents they were born and raised in Puerto Rico and they have always instilled in me to never forget where I came from.