Leticia

Nothing fills us more in Alawa than when a flash of the inner beauty that emanates from the woman, reaches us and pierces us. 
In this case, Leticia enlightened us with her life in the way that the headlights indicate the way and help us not to be shipwrecked. An artist, a woman full of courage, but above all, as she well says, a mother.
We open the door for you to enter Leticia Mezzetta's atelier and spend an unforgettable time sheltered by her warm light, which will surely warm your soul.

   If i hadéWe are going to make a sketch of what Leticia's profile is.How to define herare we going?  Qenter? TOartist? Restorative? Entrepreneur?

 L- The truth that I would start with mother, is what really gives value to my life today and the reason why I dedicate myself to this. Uruguayan by birth and Madrilenian by adoption, my first vocation was to be a surgeon and I began studying medicine to achieve that end. But life changes and I also changed, and although I continued to work with my hands, I replaced the scalpel with brushes and other tools.

When I was almost finishing my medical degree here, in Spain, I became pregnant with my children, Camila and Pedro, diagnosed as high risk because they were born extremely premature… And today, they are 19 years old.

Camila has severe profound hearing loss and wears a bilateral cochlear implant, but she is still wonderful the way she is. She studies Audiovisual Communication and her school has advised her to be a dubbing actress, what a paradox! It is the fruit of so many years of dedication and work. My other son is Pedro, who is basically the reason for all this great change, both in my inner world and in “our” outer world, since it is dependent.

   Leticia, how does a girl from Montevideo end up setting up a restoration and abstract painting workshop in Madrid? What is behind this story?

L- As I was saying, I had a twin pregnancy, the term twins is popular, and from the beginning it was a high-risk pregnancy, with absolute hospital rest and very serious. I remember it as a very hard process, very painful, of many months, since my children were extremely serious. This was the turning point in my story. At first I opted for medicine, but it seems that my plans were different. Art, and therefore this workshop, arises through and thanks to the difficulties I encountered along the way. The change in my life was a vehicle to transform what was a hobby when I was young into my current profession. And I feel that it has played an important role in my improvement process. I understood that resilience was living many lives through learning, and that is why my original idea of ​​restoring, repairing and recovering, giving second chances prevails in my work. And I achieve this by using natural materials, broken, forgotten and even disused objects. I try to convey through painting everything that, sometimes, I am not able to verbalize with words. With soft colors and delicate textures, I want to fill my plays. And if they like them and I receive the acceptance of others, that magic fills me with gratitude.

You could say that we are here today, surrounded by so much artistic beauty, by an event that occurred nineteen years ago. What happened in that pregnancy? I imagine that when you receive the news that your children come with these difficulties, you would rethink many questions about what to do with a pregnancy of these characteristics. How was this moment?

L- At no time was there any dilemma. From the moment I found out by surprise that I was pregnant with a high-risk twin pregnancy and considering all that this might entail, the only thing on my mind was raising my children, I did not care what the doctors would tell me.

I am like that, I believe in "persevere and you will succeed", if something doesn't come out or it comes out a little crooked, until I straighten it I won't stop, I become even a little obsessive. I never consider another possibility at all.

Life has taught me that the connotation of pity in the word "poor thing" when referring to people like my son, leads us nowhere. I feel fortunate because this circumstance has not disadvantaged me but on the contrary, I believe that people are afraid of what is different. What I learn with my children! We have turned our loss into our great gain. Pedro, who has a 94% intellectual disability, is like an angel who gave us life. Today I see my nineteen-year-old son, I kiss and hug him, and cover him daily as if he were the same baby. Sometimes, when the children get older, we see that that tenderness and innocence disappears as they grow up, and I feel that it never disappears for me. Every day I see the same thing, I believe that they produce this, they are special beings and they have given me that necessary strength to carry this forward.

Anyway, I think about this today that my children are already nineteen years old. I have also lived through moments in which I have drowned in pain, worries ... If they told me that my son was not going to walk, I would think: “yes he will succeed”. If they told me that Camila was not going to speak, I would think: “she will speak better than me”. 

At first, I thought I was going to resume my career and work as a doctor, but I was left alone, and even so, like other mothers, I have raised my two children. I couldn't afford a job with as many absences as medicine, with guards, congresses, etc. Because I was alone. It did not seem human to deprive my children of affection, it made no sense in the circumstances of life I had at that time.

"If I had to define myself, I would start with mother, which is what really gives value to my life today and the reason why I dedicate myself to this."

On the way to medicine, Camila and Pedro come into your life, they take a dizzying turn and art appears as a new way of life. How does this happen and what is behind all this transformation?

L- Actually, the first years of Camila and Pedro's life were very hard, they both went through a lot of medical interventions. A lifetime of treatments. My mother used to say: "And these children don't play?" I have only bought the right toys for the stimulation of each child, and every afternoon of our lives has been from therapy to therapy. And since I am Uruguayan, my family was in Uruguay 11.000 kilometers away, so I had to do it alone.

Last year, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of talk about how painful the distance is, not being able to be with your loved ones, I have talked about this a lot with Camila. We live with it all our lives. I think that also teaches you a lot to value more what you have and what you don't, what you have far away, what you want, and you also give importance to what really has it.

After those first years of absolute dedication to them and solitude, I decide to return to Uruguay. I thought that my children needed the love of a family, their grandparents, their uncles ... I felt that being surrounded by affection would fill us with security and trust, so necessary at that time. I got his tutelage and to get the tickets and make the international move I started painting. One morning, I overheard a conversation casually in an art store in Murcia, and I agreed with the owner to make several paintings for different clients. The first painting I brought was one morning when I was going to the nursery to drop off Camila and Pedro, and after a while the owner called me to say: “It sold very quickly, I want you to make me more paintings because I have two more montages. ”. . In two months I did about fifteen or eighteen paintings and with that I paid for my return to Uruguay and the move.

That painting, which sold in 15 minutes, was your first painting?   

L- Well, I had already been painting since I was little. My family in Uruguay has always been dedicated to architecture with a construction company, so I believe that art and learning come from a family heritage. He knew about textures, treatments, sanding, painting, pigment combinations, etc. But that was the first painting with which I dared to capture everything I felt to sell it. When you talk about beauty, which is ephemeral, and what you see in “Alawa women”, I think that is what I try to convey, that beauty when I paint. It really does go hand in hand. I express everything that I am, and what I am feeling in that moment.

So, you move to Uruguay and start a new stage. And then what happens?

L- When I arrived in Uruguay, my older sister, an architect, and my father, helped me with the reform of a house in “Pocitos” where I moved with Camila and Pedro.

I looked for schools and training for them. But in Uruguay with only three million inhabitants, there are almost no associations that are in charge of therapies in different capacities to raise children like this. It is true that for medicine and treatments we are in a very globalized world, but that was a long time ago, and although I had the support of my family and friends, I lacked the plus of experience and work with results, for the needs of each of my children.

So, the team of speech therapists who worked with Camila and Pedro in Uruguay, came to Madrid, to do a master in speech therapy with Marcos Monfot, an excellent speech therapist and pedagogue. And they came back delighted, telling me about the “Tres Olivos” school and how they worked. It is a center that is highly awarded in hearing impairment and the academic level that the children reach is excellent. And they encouraged me to give Camila that opportunity. He didn't want to ask me; "What would have happened if ...?", Without having tried. I really can't not do my best for my kids, they deserve it all. That was how I got going and decided to go back to Spain again, specifically, to Madrid.

When we arrived in Madrid, we went to see the school with Camila, they opened a class for us to see her and all the children were there, and Camila began to whistle the implant, warning that her batteries were running out, with 7 years old, my little hand, I He looks at me and says: "Mom, my device is turning off." Suddenly a class girl, implanted like her, gets up and says: "I have batteries!". The girl approaches and the batteries are exchanged. An impressive love and generosity could be seen in that scene. Camila, happy, looks at me and says: "Mom, why did it take so long?" He found himself among his equals for the first time. That was the phrase for which I decided to stay in Madrid.

I had nothing here, no job, and no one I knew, but it was clear to me that I had to be here, that my daughter had to study here, train at that school and she was going to do it. I came with the two of them again, rented an apartment and started over. In the same way that in Murcia I went to the decoration shop presenting my painting, the same I did here. One morning when I dropped them off at school, I went to a decoration shop, told a brief review of my story, and insisted that if they let me, I was going to show them what I was capable of, the owner called me at the two days and he told me: "Look, I have some furniture here, restore it and see what you can do, whatever you see."

Camila, happy, looks at me and says: "Mom, why did it take so long?" He found himself among his equals for the first time. That was the phrase for which I decided to stay in Madrid.

They didn't last a week to sell when I gave them to him, I brought him a couple of paintings too, which he loved, and they were a success.

So I started little by little, in Madrid, I saw that this really worked. Jobs began to drop, first an interior designer called me, I began to work with her, with a very good level, to restore old furniture of great value and to sell some work. Word of mouth began to bear fruit, until I decided to rent a workshop.

Yes I have been afraid, yes I have had concerns, but hey, it is jumping into the water as they say here, because otherwise we would not get anywhere. So I jumped in, I tried and here we are. Perhaps my training as a doctor helped me better understand my children's pathologies and their needs. Being my own boss and owner of my time has allowed me to dedicate myself to them every time they have needed me, but if one day I have to spend the whole morning in the hospital of "La Paz" in Madrid with my son, that day I don't go to the workshop, and the next day I work twice as hard.

I imagine that all this artistic facet that you have been narrating to us also begins to take a business form, until Leticia Mezzeta becomes a reference. How is that transition? Could you tell us a little about how it took shape?

L- Actually I have worked many years with word of mouth. I think it is the best advertisement. I had not gotten to publish anything, and clients asked me why I did not publish my work on a website ... I did not know anyone that I liked, who gathered the necessary knowledge and shared my taste to teach them, until one day that person appeared by the workshop. Several years ago it occurred to me to create different little virgins with a decorative and innovative touch, with fabrics, colors, etc ... And after some photos and a message about the difficulties in my life, which went viral on a social network, they became a "boom", and that person appeared that I needed to help me with the image, the world of communication, and the long-awaited website. That is how Angela came into my life, providing that professional image that I needed and the little virgins "MezzettaKids" took off!

The 'Fundación A la Par' becomes part of the history of the little virgins, in what way did your paths cross?

L- Because the 'The A la Par 'foundation It is where they take care of my son Pedro, with so much love and dedication. They promote very interesting activities, such as markets with excellent taste in which I participate. Both at Christmas and at the beginning of summer. Really divine, the brands that they exhibit are very select and they also sell products that the boys make in the workshops. In the printing press they make the boxes that wrap the little virgins. They usually invite recognized people from Spanish and Madrid society, and when they visit us, they get to know the work on display. Many people who have come to my stand have ended up in my workshop or I have ended up in their houses, transforming or decorating their house.

Today the star product of the workshop is the virgin MezzettaKids, through which I have managed to form a small team, highly integrated and with great enthusiasm, professionalism and love.

So, the little boxes of the virgins are made by the 'Fundación A la Par' which in turn are part of the creation of this product that is now being a “boom” according to what you tell us. Tell us a little more about this creative process.

L- Yes, my greatest pride is working with a team united by special circumstances, in which each one contributes their best version, as the renowned psychiatrist and writer, Marian Rojas-Estapé, says, “Adding the knowledge of each one, plus the common project that unites us, with desire and will, contributing great passion”. Circumstances that have led us to the success of the number of virgins that come out of the workshop. EIn the team there is also Inés, who arrived at a very special moment and has become essential since she puts total dedication, and the order that I need so much. On the other hand, there is Fernando, an all-rounder who helps me so much with the furniture, the racks of the paintings, and is in charge of polishing and painting each table of the virgins, and whatever is needed according to the demand of the workshop. Together we have managed to understand each other and between the four of us we are taking out all the work that is coming in.

Leticia, to what extent do the MezzettaKids Virgencitas contain all your life experience, rich, intense, and passionate that you tell us?

L- Yes, when people ask me about the meaning of the Virgin, for me it encompasses all the tenderness of motherhood, a word that I do not fit because of how big it is and the love that it entails concentrates it in a small one, in a product that, for me, transmits a lot and transcends the personal. It is true that we teach what we are, that it goes beyond a chain work, so that each virgin is pure patience, dedication, and love as a life experience, and all this encompasses motherhood, but also love for what is that one does.

Leticia, a delight to chat with you. Finally, we would like to know what would you say to a person who, like you, also has that restlessness inside and the illusion to do something and "jump into the water"? What message would you give through your story and life experience?

L- That he who does not risk does not win. A sheltered life, fearing and paralyzed, would have no value or meaning. You have to propose it, if you see it clearly, you like it and you give your all, if you try your best, and if you really give 100%, everything comes, nothing is easy. We always have weapons in case it does not turn out as we expected, there is always a way to turn the situation around and find solutions. I was trained in one thing and I thought it would be everything in another way and, nevertheless, look, life had other plans and it makes me just as much or happier. Nor do I imagine my life in any other way.

One day I dreamed that my children did not have different abilities, it was very strange, and I did not like it, and I woke up appreciating even more, if possible, what they are. They have taken out of me what I never imagined I would be able to. I believe that life and difficulties teach you that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Leticia, thank you very much, we leave with a satiated heart, thanks to your story and your generosity. Thank you very much again for sharing these experiences and reflections with our family.

L- Thanks to you, I did not expect the interview at all, I was surprised by Jimena's proposal, I am extremely flattered.

“One day I dreamed that my children did not have different abilities, it was very strange, and I did not like it, and I woke up appreciating even more, if possible, what they are. They have taken from me what I never imagined I would be able to "

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