When Jose Cruz Gonzalez was 7, the driver on his school bus announced a contest for the best Christmas decoration. The winner would get a candy bar and a dollar.
So Gonzalez set about drawing a very elaborate Santa coming out of a chimney, and he won the prizes. But what most affected his life was when another child asked if he could buy the Santa.
"I thought, 'Wow, this does have worth,'" Gonzalez, now 43, remembers with a laugh. It was the first time he realized how important art can be in people's lives. And it sent him on an artist's path first with drawing and painting, then into the theater.
That path brings him to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where his play "The Magic Rainforest: An Amazon Journey," above, made its world premiere last week.
As part of "AmericArtes!," a three-year celebration of the arts in Latin America, the Kennedy Center asked Gonzalez to come up with an idea about something related to Brazil, and paid him to write the play. The Kennedy Center is spending about $130,000 on the production.
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