I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in December 1951. When I was five years old my parents came to live in New York City and settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where I grew up until I graduated high school. I developed an interest in art while attending New York City Community College (now New York City College of Technology). My major was in Early Childhood Education. While there, I registered for elective courses in art history and found that I really enjoyed the classes as well as assignments that required visits to art museums. I graduated from NYCCC with an Associates degree in Early Childhood Education and continued my studies at Brooklyn College where I registered for my first elective drawing and painting classes while still majoring in Early Childhood Education. A few years after completing the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education, I returned to Brooklyn College as an art major and completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A few years after that I applied and was admitted to the Graduate Art Program at Brooklyn College. By this time I had established a rapport with many of the graduate art instructors and I served two terms as vice president of the Graduate Art Students Union (GASU). In June 1999 I completed the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree and since then I have been working and studying independently at painting and sculpture.