Paola Velez Instagram – Story time: I often don’t talk about the work that I’ve done online, because I had this misconception of seeming like i’m bragging too much or like I was boasting. But I’ve been working on how I see the work that I’ve done and how I feel when I share these stories with you all. One of my favorite campaigns happened to be when I worked with Presidente and with the Alex Rodriguez. I’m a kid from the Bronx so you absolutely know that my head was spinning as I prepped to be on set for hours with someone that both Dominicans and NYers hold in high esteem.
But the story isn’t about the campaign or boasting about the work. Which side bar: was absolutely SO COOL lol. The crew was so sweet and took over a bakery and transformed it into what they thought my future bakery might look like. (Insane!)
But a story about human connection. During takes we A-Rod and I were staged next to each other, me on double Apple boxes so that my 5’2 self could look like a normal sized human next to Mr. Rodriguez. And in between takes I had to make small talk, so instead of making it awkward, I started telling A-Rod about my summers in the Dominican Republic. Which led me to one of my favorite stories to tell of the mango that fell like a rocket onto my head one summer in the Dominican Republic.
The story goes, I remember the first time that I realized that you don’t stand under the mango tree during mango season. As a kid I wouldn’t always listen to my mother, as any free spirited creative kid does. So in trying to find shade from the blazing Caribbean sun I stood underneath one of my families mango trees. Unbeknown to me a slight wind would be unleashing a Banilejo mango that with gravity would end up feeling like a 10 ton anvil landed on the tender spot of my adolescent head.
Trust me it was a shocking wake up call that taught me in real time Newtons laws of gravity. LOL
I heard the soft sound of the wind rustling amongst the trees, a snap, a whoosh and then black out. A mango landed straight onto the top of my dome.
I remember coming to, and hearing my aunt yell out to my mom “¡¡¡Un mango cayó sobre la cabeza de Paola!!!!!”
T: “a mango fell onto Paola’s head!”
Con’t: | Posted on 06/May/2024 21:12:18
