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Ana aka Annie aka SpanishLady Rider
was
born in New York City, New York on St. Patrick's Day in 1955.
During her youth, she went to Catholic school from kindergarten up to the second year of High school, when she decided to drop-out in order to work.
It was then that she met a doctor who trained her as his assistant. Annie worked for him for 8 years until she wound up moving to Miami, Florida. She has lived there for the past 20 years.
Upon arriving in Florida, she met and married Osvaldo, affectionately known to his friends as Pipo. He is of Cuban descent, having come to the United States on the Mariel Lift in 1980.
They had a wonderful life, raising and riding horses on their ranch when in May, 1996 Ana was struck down with the first symptoms of a brain aneurism.
At first, the doctors could not figure out what was wrong. However, after arriving at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the aneurism sitting on her optic nerve was found and finally approved for a risky surgery by Dr. Robert Heros.
During her recuperation, her loving husband had to feed and clothe her. She finally recovered from the surgery. However, the memories of that painful event are to be remembered in her permanent loss of depth perception and double vision. Annie states, "I couldn't walk, talk or feed myself and if it were not for Pipo, who washed me, fed me and picked me up I would not even be here today".
Once again fate dealt her an unlucky hand when she had to have back surgery in 2001 which left her unable to ride her beloved quarterhorse, Diversify. At the present time , the horse is with foal and is due to give birth in about 3 months so Annie derives her joy from just being able to watch and feed her.
In 2003, having been on the internet for several years making sites out of her pagebuilder, Annie came across a Digital Imaging Newsgroup.
It was there that the leader and teacher of the Ng, Scarlet, finally convinced her that she could learn to image and, perhaps, one day become an artist if she worked very hard, dedicated herself to Imaging and had faith in herself.
Annie recollects about her first meeting Scarlet, "All this (gallery and art) is due to my wonderful sister and best friend, Scarlet. I wouldn't be Imaging if not for her. She convinced me to stay in her Imaging Ng when I wanted to hightail it out of there 'cause I didn't think I could ever image and then for teaching me all that I know and for her continued support of my talent and having this Image gallery, made for all the World Wide Web to enjoy...Thank you Scarlet, The Pirate Voyager, My mentor!".
Scarlet's viewpoint is this Annie couldn't have become the imager she is today is it weren't for her
extreme dedication and hard work habits. "It took me, with a formal class taught by Tigerlilly herself (pilgrim and a Founder of Extreme Imagery) over 2 years of an average of 12 hours of homework 7 days a week just to be comfortable with the material," the Imaging Teacher reflects. "Annie has not even been at it a year and the promise that this, now Artist, shows is incomprehensible".
Some of Ana's other interests are Spanish cooking, her other quarterhorse named Aztec Star and 2 dogs, Caballito and Tribilin.
She plans on making Miami her permanent home and Extreme Digital Imaging her permanent "life-source".
One final reflection:
"God has a purpose for me in this lifetime. I don't know what? Maybe it's to Image because I am so hooked that it's all I think about,,,sometimes even dream about it"
Interview written by Pamela J. Witzke
07/13/04
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