October 28, 2001

Subject: Our Lady
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 16:21:33 -0500
From: Chis Sternberg <chrissternberg@home.com>
To: almalopez@earthlink.net

Dear Alma: First, I want to tell you that I visited the "Cyber Arte" exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe on the very last day it was there. I had heard about the controversy surrounding your Virgen and have to tell you that I loved it! I loved its irreverent humour and am glad the museum went on with exhibiting it despite the controversy. (I have in fact written the director of the museum congratulating them for this, but also criticizing the fact that neither "Cyber Arte" nor another exhibit "Familia y Fe" had Spanish translations of the text of the exhibits.)

But I am also writing you for another reason. I read in your biography that you grew up in El Sereno, in L.A. I taught at El Sereno Elementary School for one school year (1974-75) a grade 3-4 combination class, my last year living in L.A. I now live in Toronto, Canada. I wondered if by any chance you went to El Sereno School and what years?

I don't remember an Alma in my class, but perhaps a sibling of yours might have been. I don't teach anymore; I have been a midwife for the past 22 years. But I still remember my students and my year at El Sereno fondly -- though my class had the typical craziness of a first-year teacher.

I do hope you will get this and answer me.

Chris Sternberg, Toronto, Canada