MAIRA LETICIA RIVERA PINTO
Acerca de su trabajo como artista
About her Art Work
Since she moved to Florida, the artist expressed in her art work the feelings of freedom and her fantastic journey through the new landscape that offered the United States. Birds, boats were a recurrent subject in her earliest art works.
Desde que se mudó para Estados Unidos, la artista expresa en sus pinturas los sentimientos de libertad y seguridad en un país que ofrece estas garantías. Barcos y pájaros es una constante en todas ellas.
Bodegones y otras pinturas
Still life and other paintings
Strong colors as brown, red and yellow predominate in her art work. Plays with dramatic scenarios to highlight objects. The spiritual part is always present. She also loves to paint a little humor to break the seriousness.
En su obra predominan los colores fuertes como marrones, rojos y amarillos. Juega con los escenarios para destacar los objetos. Su parte espiritual siempre está presente. Y a veces pinta con un poco de humor para romper la seriedad.
Acerca de su herencia hispana
About her Hispanic Heritage
El Salvador has many traditions around small villages. One of this traditions is the dance of “Torito Pinto”. After a religious parade, that people offer to their patrons, one or more persons hang on their shoulders a hand made bull with colored paper and fireworks and the tradition is to dance through the crowd and make the on-lookers disperse, at the end of the parade, when fireworks explodes. Everybody laughs and run away from the fireworks.
“Fly a kite”. October is the breeziest month in El Salvador. She and her brother always built their own kite with bamboo sticks and paper and the tail was made with many pieces of cloth. The kite was as big as a person and when it flied it was too strong that it would elevate the person flying it.
In a religious way, the catholic population celebrates the “Day of the Cross” on May 3rd. People buy or make a cross from wood sticks and adorn it with color paper chains and flowers. The tradition is to offer fruits, vegetables and flowers to Christ crucified as a symbol to beg for abundant harvests. In Catholic houses the cross is set on the patio or porche to celebrate this day and share the fruits with family and friends that have came to visit your cross.
El Salvador tiene muchas tradiciones en sus pueblos, una de estas es la danza del "Torito Pinto". Después de una fiesta religiosa, sale a bailar un torito de papel lanzando fuegos artificiales a la concurrencia para deshacer el evento.
"Fly a kite" En octubre comienzan los vientos fuertes y era moda en la época de su niñez, volar una piscucha o cometa.
El "Día de la Cruz" se celebra el 3 de mayo, y es tradición colocar una cruz decorada con papeles de colores, para ofrecer frutas y verduras y pedir por abundantes cosechas.
Her drawing
Sus dibujos y caricaturas
Eran los años 70’s cuando Maira comenzó a dibujar lo que le gustaba. Un recorte de revista, la carátula de una caja, escenas románticas y naturaleza con tinta china. Su firma actual la creó en esos años que se lee: “MAYRA” y son líneas conectadas verticalmente.
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During the 70's Maira started to draw what she liked: a drawing in a magazine, a drawing in the cover of a box, romantic scenes, and nature with china ink as a media. Her current signature was created with lines connected vertically, that reads: "MAYRA".
About her family
Acerca de su familia
Looking in the box of memories, a nostalgic day, Maira found a photo of her grandmother with her children that always has caused her admiration. The photo shows a sadness but also a story of courage. She was widowed when uncle Mario (the baby in her lap) was just 3 months old. Imagine how she must had felt. Still young, with five children, a farm that just had a small area of coffee to harvest, the rest was land without crops, and in which her grandfather had placed all his hopes and efforts, that one day he would see it entirely cultivated. Her grandmother never took off her mourning. Maira always remember her suiting in a black dress. Well, she had learned, in the wake of that unexpected event, to continue working on the dream of her late husband’s coffee farm, which she named “The Hope”. She borrow money from banks, paid, did well with coffee and paid her boys’ education up to university. She had a generous heart, she later adopted a little girl as her only daughter. During Christmas she would give away toys to the children of her coffee plantation workers, and busting them piñatas. El Salvador was a coffee exporter mainly to Germany, but when World War II started, declared war to this country and joined the allies. The country entered into economic depression, so she decided to traveled to the United States with her sister, to work together at shipyards helping build US battleships in Arlington, Va. The expression of her grandmother in this picture is of a woman with determination, as if she was a descendant of Spartan women, haughty and struggling. No one knew that behind that enigmatic smile, that kindly expression and that black dress she waged battles against all odds to bring forward her family.
Un día, buscando en el bahul de los recuerdos, Maira encontró una foto de su abuela con sus hijos que le causó admiración. La fotografía cuenta un triste acontecimiento, pero al mismo tiempo una historia de coraje. Su abuela quedó viuda cuando el último hijo tenía 3 meses de nacido. Imaginen qué sentimientos la atacaban, todavía joven, con 5 hijos y una finca que comenzaba a cultivarse de café, y en la cual su abuelo había invertido tiempo en la siembra. Maira recuerda su abuela siempre vestida de negro. Bueno, la historia continuó para su abuela. y cultivó lo que faltaba de café. Se financió con bancos, pagó la educación de sus hijos. Su abuela tenía un gran corazón, era generosa con los niños de los trabajadores, les regalaba juguetes en Navidad. Adoptó una hija. Se vino la 2a Guerra Mundial, y el mundo sin excepción entró en depresión. EL Salvador declaró la guerra a Alemania (su máximo comprador de café) y se unió a los aliados contribuyendo con mano de obra para trabajar en las fábricas de armamento. Su abuela se unió al grupo de trabajadores que viajaban hacia Arlington, Virginia, para trabajar en la construcción de acorazados. En la foto, la expresión de su abuela es de determinación y coraje. Nadie sabía que detrás de esa enigmática sonrisa, ella libraba batallas para sacar a sus hijos adelante.