Brian & Maria

"Brian grew up in Racine County, spending his first 6 years living behind the family's modest restaurant and gas station on old Highway 41.  As he was growing up, he spent much of his time feeding and caring for the family's growing variety of livestock and much of his summer playing baseball.  He was able to attend many Milwaukee Braves baseball games each season with his grandfather.  He enjoyed riding the family's horses.

In his early adulthood, he played classical guitar, alto saxophone and the piano, with questionable success."

Brian says:

"While I led this action-packed life in Racine, and later, Kenosha, Maria had to settle for an early life in Spain.

She was born in Murcia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea.  Her family had a large lemon huerta (orchard) outside of the city, where they grew and sold lemons wholesale.  In her early teens, Maria was a member of a kayak racing team that competed around the country.

Maria lived in a Gitano (gypsy) commune for a period of time during her late teens, followed by 4 years in Barcelona.  Her interest in the culture and music of Andalucia (southern Spain) led to time spent in the cities of Cadiz, Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, Aranjuez and especially Rota, where she was living with her family of 4 by age 26.

She and her family spent the next 4 years in Puerto Rico.  She was able to sail throughout the Caribbean Sea with her good friends Jerry and Marsha Packer.  Maria then moved to Lake County, Illinois, and finally to Kenosha."

We met at the Kenosha Literacy Council in January, 2012.  We gradually realized that we both have a deep interest in the same types of music that are not in the mainstream.  For example, what other couple in Kenosha can say that one of them has had Spanish zarzuela recordings for over 30 years, while the other has sung these songs since her childhood in Spain?  This led to attending a Spanish classical guitar performance one lovely summer evening at Ravinia.

We began spending more time together.  Despite our strikingly different backgrounds and life experiences, we shared the same values and had fallen in love.

                          Brian and Maria