Children & Dolls: Pure Diversity Works by MIRTA TOLEDO

September 5-30, 2002

"More than an object, a doll is an extension of the child's family, the first close friend. Every doll has a story to tell, every one a unique soul."
-- Mirta Toledo '02

Mirta Toledo's Summarized Resume

Mirta Toledo is a native of Argentina who moved to the States in 1988. She holds a M.F.A in Painting and Sculpture from Prilidiano Pueyrredon University of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires. She has exhibited her artwork in Argentina, Brazil, Hawaii and the United State of America.

She has won 21 awards for her drawings and sculptures in her native country.

Since 1993, she has lectured about celebrating the diversity of beliefs, languages, traditions, races and lifestyles, the greatest treasure of Humankind in facing the future.

The conferences were called Pure Diversity: A Quest for Identity, and they took place at Barnard College in New York, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, University of Maryland-College Park; Duke University, Texas Woman's University, among others.

Since 1994 she has served as a juror for the National PTA Reflections Program in Literature for the Fort Worth Independent School District Linguafest; for Nuestra Herencia Art Competition hold by the Mexican-American Educational Advisory Committee; for the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival, and the Austin's Italian Chalk Art Festival, among others.

Toledo has authored the following books: La Semilla Elemental,Vinciguerra, Argentina, 1993 and Dulce de Leche, Torremozas, Spain, 1996. Her short stories were published in literary magazines on the United States of America, Argentina, Spain, Canada and Brazil and in anthologies like Ellas Tambien Cuentan, Spain, 1995, and Cruel Fictions, Cruel Realities. Short Stories by Latin American Writers,î Latin American Literary Review Press, Pennsylvania, 1997.

In 1996, her short story "A Century After" was finalist in the VIII "Ana Maria Matute Award" in Literature, in Madrid, Spain.

In 1997 she was recognized as Outstanding Woman in the Arts and was honored with the Estrella Award by the Hispanic Women's Network of Texas, Fort Worth Chapter.

She also has secured the covers for several books and magazines. Some of them are the following:"ìCalling all Heroes" for Plover Press, Hawaii; "Creole Presence in The Caribbean and Latin America" for Iberoamerica, Spain; "The Americas Review" for the University of Houston and the "Translation Review" for the University of Texas in Dallas.

From 1994-1995 she was co-editor of Grafemas, a publication of the Asociacion de Literatura Femenina Hispanica, at Davidson College, North Carolina.

From 1995-1996 she was a reporter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram's "La Estrella."

She lives in Austin since April 2000. And for the first time since she left Argentina, she feels finally, "at home."