However, I owe to my mother — a singer and unapologetic nomad — the excitement of those early years. By the time I was 16, we had moved residence back and forth eleven times; experiencing life in the Yucatan peninsula, Puerto Rico and North Mexico. We had also traveled extensively and repeatedly to most states in Mexico, all of them with contrasting subcultures and traditions, and to places as far as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Taiwan, Italy and the USA. With so much movement in my early years, it was essential to find refuge in painting and poetry. They both became my anchors and, in many ways, my form of meditation. If I could summarize my childhood, without sugar-coating it, I would say that it was a happy, awe-inspiring one where the main theme was "multiplicity of cultures and religions" and I learned at a very young age about this common thread of love that ties all of us together and makes us One.
Oh, you're curious! Well...
Growing up in Mexico City was a delight. I was lucky to have an illustrious father who, above all, fostered the love for reading, classical music, chess, and all things cultural. His family had been the cradle of many historical and artistic personalities from writers like Jose Vasconcelos to painters like Frida Kahlo. Therefore, I was only 6 when he came home with an easel, canvases, and my new set of oil paints. From then on, we dedicated many afternoons to learning some easy oil techniques. It didn't take much for me to get hooked and soon I had a collection of paintings that mom displayed proudly. By age 11, dad hired me to copy portions of the Dresden Codex to illustrate one of his books on Mayan archaeo-astronomy. That, now that I think about it, was the start of my career as an illustrator.