Valeria Ramos, a true role model for Tulsa women
Valeria Ramos is a single mother who currently lives in Tulsa but was born in Toluca, Mexico, and over the last nine years has been doing the impossible to help the local Hispanic community.
Art is the tool she has chosen to foster integration in our community, a field she began to explore when she became pregnant with her son and that she defines as “something that comes up when you need to feel useful.”
The bliss of motherhood pushed her to painting and after a while she started depicting in her drawings her own cultural roots, a fusion of Aztec and Mayan trends that has no precedents.
Valeria felt that Mexico has a lot to give even while being in the United States, and art is a great way of showing the world the heritage of the folkloric culture while expressing it through personal knowledge and first hand experiences.
Even though Mexico has been portrayed over the last decade as a violent country with all kinds of social and gender gaps, the artist is focused on showing the other side of her country, the richness of its traditions and beliefs.
Among her drawings the ones that seem more familiar are those inspired by the figure of Frida Kalho, the artist who moves Valeria and who is considered to be an icon of Mexican cultural influence.
Valeria is aware that her moments of inspiration change with time and her own mood. Over the last nine years through her own cultural clash she was able to explore her own roots from far away, exploring all her potential and talent while learning how to raise a child.
Valeria believes that a single mother can have her own way here in the United States if she follows her guts, her passion and is always committed to her goals. That is why she wants to become a role model for all those Tulsa women in need. She knows it is hard at the beginning, starting a new life, finding a job, but later on she found some pride along the struggle, something that let her stand on her own two feet and allowed her to face all her obstacles, always surrounded by powerful women.
Valeria wishes to continue showing the world her own art and Mexican roots, while learning how to be happy, something she has discovered with a brush in her hand. (La Semana)