Dana Catharine de Ruiz was born in New York and brought up there, and in Northwestern Connecticut where she met the man she ultimately married, Mario Ruiz Santillan. They moved to the provincial capital of Guanajuato, in the center of Mexico, where she studied drawing and printmaking with Jesús Gallardo, at the school of Artes Plásticas de la Universidad de Guanajuato, and taught languages at the Centro de Idiomas there. She and her husband traveled the country playing Medieval and Renaissance music with Las Flautas Barrocas de Guanajuato, and Los Tiempos Pasados. Much of Catharine de Ruiz's writing is informed by her love and understanding of Mexico, where she lived for many years. Unlike many Americans who move to a foreign country, she lived an almost entirely Mexican life. Her ability to speak Spanish fluently allowed her to live her experiences profoundly. The contrast between her life in the central, provincial capital where she lived and worked and the Northeastern United States where she grew up provokes constant meditations on life, many of which she writes about in her blog, LaOtraMexicana.wordpress.com Her first published illustrations will appear in the spring of 2018, in Susana Buckley's delightful and appetizing memoir, 'Eating with Peter'.
