rossana martinez

Last week, my father was telling me about the time when my parents decided to move to Puerto Rico. He was a student in Spain, where he met my mother. Those were hard times for them because they were living on a student budget (=no money), had a kid (my amazing brother), and my father was studying to take the exams to be a lawyer. But when talking about it, he said: “I was not afraid of life”.

Although I think this is the first time I hear these words from my father, I’ve always felt that my parents taught me to love what I do, always give my best, and to do it with passion. Seeing their courage has influenced me as a person and as an artist.

As artists, we have to love what we do. This profession is very personal and full of rejections. Rejection is hard to take and that is why it is important to feel secure of who we are and what we want. We all have insecurities, but to learn how to deal with them positively is the most important. Making honest work gives us the courage to continue making art – even if we are rejected or criticized.

Following the conversation with my father, my whole family decided to go to the beach. It was hard to get everyone ready. I have a big family! At the beach, my older nieces and nephews were jumping from the pier into the water. It was wonderful to see how they mentally prepared until they had the courage to jump into the ocean.

My six-year old niece and I were looking at them when she said: “Titi (aunt), I’m ready to jump”. We walked toward the pier holding hands. When we got to the pier, we looked down and, I have to confess, I would have preferred not to jump. The water wasn’t very deep, but it looked like there was no bottom of the ocean. But I knew this was an important moment for her. We looked at each other one last time (still holding hands) when I began to count: uno, dos, and we jumped at tres. After we jumped, I asked her how was it. I was so happy to hear her say: “Titi, I want to jump again”…and we did.

Courage is what makes life worth living!

Photo: Piers at Crash Boat Beach, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.