I was born and grew up in Naranjo,
a rural area filled with nature, surrounded by beautiful
rivers and steep hillsides covered in vegetation, a rich
variety of birds and butterflies which I could almost catch
in my hands.
I used to love to watch the straightforward, hard-working
people who came from the Province of Guanacaste to pick
coffee on my father’s farm with their bronzed skin
product of our bountiful land and bringing with them the
rains that as they fall give off such a special smell.
The country people, upstanding, fine, straightforward
and hard-working, with whom I felt a great affinity, strong
working people whose faces reflected such nobleness.
My house faced onto the
village square, the church and the school; a wonderful climate,
like an eternal spring, the square with its fruit trees,
flowers and brightly coloured benches where we used to rest
after our bicycle rides and roller-skating.
My trips to the rivers, where I learnt to swim and
love the sound of running water, the animals, the wind and
the rain. Horseback riding with my grandfather, José
Cruz, in the mountains of San Isidro of Perez Zeledón,
in those days a land of exuberant vegetation and virgin
forests.
As a child my dream was to be able to paint or play
the piano or dance ballet. I believe myself to be a very
fortunate person and, with the help of God, since I started
to paint I have had very good opportunities to exhibit
my work: on three occasions in the National Museum and
in other museums in Costa Rica and, abroad, in the First
Biennale in the Museum of Cuenca, Ecuador, in Monaco,
France, in Mexico where I received an honourable mention
in the Museum of Modern Art in the Pedro Domec Biennale
with my painting "Mestizaje (Being Mestizo)".
I have paintings in a museum in Germany, in the United
States and in other countries.
I started to paint because I felt a great
need to express myself and, when my youngest son turned six,
I was able to dedicate time to myself every day as my children
had grown up and I could develop the gifts which God had granted
me and which I wished to share with others.
