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STELLA ARBELAEZ

Heritage: Colombia

Coming from a well-educated family and a good elementary education in Bogotá, Colombia, where she was considered “too energetic,” Stella’s family sent her, and her mother to the US to better afford higher education for all her siblings. She came to Queens, NY, where an aunt owned a gas station. During her high School years, although she was not fluent in English, she was accepted into an arts high school.  After completing a BFA in Fine Arts Illustration, she continued with art classes and worked in the design field. That eventually led to a position with Walt Disney Animation in Orlando.

Her family suffered a number of tragedies – her father was killed in Colombia, her mother was killed in the US, her sister was dying of cancer.

Through the Disney connection she met a Californian and moved there to get married. After the birth of her daughter, she pursued a degree in early childhood education and devoted her life to her family. Her husband and his friends did not speak Spanish. She was not allowed to speak Spanish at the dinner table, and gradually lost touch with her Colombian heritage. She became a surprisingly “well- adapted” exotic person, rather than a true representation of her culture. An annual trip to a Colombian restaurant for her birthday and trips to visit her relatives in South Florida were the sole ties to Colombian culture.

While visiting her extended family in Florida, her marriage ended traumatically. This sent her into a couple of years of dark depression and self-condemnation. For her 48th birthday, she joined a Meet-Up group for a 4-day hike to the Appalachian Trail. “With every step I took”, she recalls, “I felt more alive. I felt the blood rush to my legs and my heart pumping to get me through the next mile.” Hiking the Florida National Scenic Trail in 2020, while reflecting on the person she had been, the person she now was, and the person she still wanted to be, led her back to art. Her mantra became, “Nature heals.”

Also, visiting her extended family in South Florida, she felt enveloped by the love and warmth of her childhood in Colombia with dance parties where they would dance salsa, merengue, and cumbia until the wee hours of the night, reveling in their festive traditions. Her little dog, Bobo, is a faithful companion.