“Toda una Vida”  

The titles for the paintings, as well as the series itself, derive from bolero songs (a music style popular to my native Ecuador) and book titles from the boom of Latin American Literature.

Bolero songs are mostly romantic, with slow tempos, many talk about treachery and broken hearts.  These songs convey deep feelings of nostalgia and melancholy.  The songs I refer to  are mostly from the period of the 1950s and 1960s. I grew up surrounded by music, my grandfather is a musician and my memories from childhood are filled with singing in family gatherings.

Books became a very important part of my life as a teenager.  I left Ecuador for the USA at 15 years of age.  Reading these books allowed me to maintain a connection to my culture and language. They also allowed me to explore my identity while living in the diaspora, and they helped me to establish a sense of belonging.