Personal-stories-II.html

The site of Cristina Alvarez Magliano

My friends from the Golden Gate

All the characters a child living in the Bay Area (California) may want, are here. Most
of them have a personal story - the Basset-hound, the Shih-Tzu, the Samoyans and
the Cow, par example- while others are playing in the water or on the ground, ready
to have a story of their own.
Four panels- Natural and dyed veneer over board

On the left, preliminary drawing; on the right, unfinished project on the floor

El Abuelo Manuel y sus gallos de riña

72" x 36" - Natural and dyed veneer over board, ink, over-glued veneer.
Grandfather Manuel came from Asturias, Spain, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, around the last decade of
the XIX century. He married grandma Maria Maquiera in 1899; they had five children. My father was
one of them. Manuel was handsome, light-skinned, had green eyes inherited from the celtic family, but
unfortunately, was not very tall. Not that he was worried; he was so proud as any Spaniard from
Asturias La Vieja that had to emigrate looking for better life overseas. Anyway, Maria was not tall either.
As any other immigrants, they worked hard and made a position. But Manuel never forgot a few
practices from the mother land, even if his wife and children didn't like them at all, as the raise of beautiful
roosters for fight. Actually, he never tried the ring with competitors; he couldn't see his loved birds
destroyed by a vicious play. He just enjoyed breeding them to have the best, only the best in colors and
bravura -although braveness was only a presumption-.
Grandma repeatedly refused to take care of them: 'enough I have to do in this big house and family to
add even more work', so he had to care for the birds himself, which did with much pleasure. He became
older and his hair faded into white, but his rooster stayed red and blue, spotted black and gray, their
crests red as reddish as anyone could imagine. They all lived for 89 years.

Abuelo Roque y Abuela Teresa en Chivilcoy

Natural and dyed veneer over board, silver-leaf, silver wire, mixed technique. 36x24 in.
Left and right: Details
The Zunino Family was a big and solid one living in the farming areas of the Province of Buenos
Aires, in the center of the Pampa Humeda. According to some of the countless brothers, sisters,
cousins, and the like, the old guy bearing the name founded the clan after he came from Uruguay, at
the end of the XIX Century, with enough money to buy extensions of land to secure his heirs. One of
his descendants, Roque Zunino, married the daughter of an Italian immigrant couple named Teresa
Moraglio. As a wedding present they received adequate amount of hectares to have a 'campo',
although it was not sufficient to be called 'estancia'. Anyway, there was enough land to produce
cereals like wheat and corn -big sellers at that time- to have a good life for the five new heirs (four
women and one male). Everything kept going on for more than twenty years, as predicted, and would
have continued in that way if the young guy hadn't had the idea of studying to become a medical
doctor. Because Roque was so proud that he decided to give the land on lease for five years, to
resume the work later. He didn't realized that soon the rentals will be frozen -for another twenty more
years- by a populist government. Roque and Teresa lived in the town of Chivilcoy, dreaming of the
land. Their children, already married and with families of their own, took back 'el campo' when no one
of them, any longer, was able to sow just one seed. To 'mis abuelos Roque y Teresa' .

Three Baroque Studies

Left: "Hands" - three layers of marquetry and fusion over board. Right: "After
Guerrit Dou" - natural wood veneer over board, some fusion, leather crude,
and silver wire.

"After Sanchez Gotan" - Natural wood veneer, stained
veneer, silver wire, natural leather.