Hispanic Heritage Month With Adriana Prieto Quintero

Adriana Prieto Quintero is a writer and teacher. She is from Venezuela where she studied Education and received her Master’s Degree in Literature. She is incredibly passionate about teaching children and has over ten years of experience in teaching both Literature and Spanish. Currently, Adriana is pursuing her PhD at the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at University of Cincinnati, Ohio. While Adriana is currently based out of Cincinnati, she has been collaborating with The Well on creating the Spanish speaking prompts for the Mindful Music Moments program. She sat down with us today to discuss her background and how she became involved with this collaboration.

How did you get involved with The Well and Mindful Music Moments?

AQ: “I met Stacy at Wavepool Gallery where I published a book, and the artists working at Wavepool introduced us to each other.”

What was the process like in writing this book through Wavepool Gallery?

AQ: “The book I published is a children’s book called Where Are We From?. The book was published through a grant from The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC). A friend of mine from Honduras sent me the project and at first it was going to be a fictional children’s story, but we wanted to think deeper about how this could help others more, and how this story could be something that involves immigrants from other countries.”

What are you working on now through your PhD program?

AQ: “The program is through the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at University of Cincinnati. I am getting my PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures. The great thing about this program is that you can work in your own particular doctoral curriculum, between teaching second languages, doing your academic research, and working in creative writing. There’s not a lot of programs like this in the states where you can receive your PhD in another language while doing the academic work in the Creative Writing department. Literature is my base. That’s what I studied in Venezuela.”

Did you have any other experience working in more music related programs or projects prior to your collaboration with Mindful Music Moments?

AQ: “I used to work at a radio program in Venezuela where I would talk about children’s literature and education.”

What have you found to be the most challenging part about creating the Spanish speaking prompts for Mindful Music Moments?

AQ: “Everything! It’s nice that Stacy is always there to help. There are a lot of details to say, and I want to say it well and make the students feel calm.”

How do you practice mindfulness in your daily life? Is there a specific thing that helps you feel more grounded?

AQ: “Listening to music. I don’t trust anyone that doesn’t like music! I like a lot of popular music and listen mostly in Spanish from South America. I like to see what other countries are doing. I like singer-songwriter music because my life is literature.”

For more information on Mindful Music Moments you can head over to our website to read further on our Spanish speaking elements of the program. Check out our playlist below of some of Adriana’s favorite Hispanic Artists and celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with us!

Playlist can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2pAeom02nv8iYUSQjvSHzM?si=05004b7a83584645