Marta I. Rodríguez-Olmeda

Marta Iris Rodriguez-Olmeda was born on June 5, 1965 in Cidra, Puerto Rico. Cidra is known as Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera (the City of Eternal Spring) and is located in the mountains, the central zone of the island. She is the youngest of five (5) children born from the marriage of Don Luis Rodríguez-Collazo and Doña Asuncion Olmeda-Martinez. She spent her life surrounded by the love of her family and their religious customs.

 

Citizen of the world, living in a country in the middle of Puerto Rico, known as la Isla del Encanto, she learned to love her homeland and its customs.  She inherited the devotion for the Saints and the Three Holy Kings from her maternal granfather. She recalls with nostalgia Las Fiestas de Cruz and the Rosaries prayed on the Three Kings Eve that were celebrated at her maternal grandparents' house.

 

Her first formal meeting with the wood took place in 2007, while working in Cayey (Puerto Rico), where she took basic classes to learn the art of Woodcarving Saints (Talla de Santos de Palo). She began her woodcarving journey to honor her family roots, Life and the tradition gifted from the devotion to the Saints and the Three Holy Kings. She obtained the Certification from PRIDCO (Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company) and from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (Puerto Rican Culture Institute). As an Artisan she has participated in Fairs and Festivals such as, El Encuentro Nacional de Talladores de Santos de Palo in Orocovis, El Festival de la Paloma Sabanera in Cidra, Festival de Santos de Palo in Plaza Las Americas', Three Kings’ and other Saints carving competitions and other activities.

 

Currently she resides in the Bronx, New York, and continues offering her talents to teach and pass on the tradition of Saints' Woodcarving. As part of the Puerto Rican Institute for the Development of the Arts (PRIDA), she participates in different art festivals and cultural activities such as Comité Noviembre, Loisaida Festival, 116 St. Festival, Super Sábado at El Museo del Barrio and many others. Her art promotes the oldest Puerto Rican folk art and gives the Diaspora the opportunity to remember the long gone but never forgotten wooden Saints that many of them saw as a child back in Puerto Rico. It also teaches the new generation about a tradition that defines our culture as a Nation. She continues participating in woodcarving competitions in Puerto Rico, and have won several awards and prizes.