Vanessa Cruz, originally from Stamford Connecticut, visited us on May 20th, a brief chat in her busy schedule as guest Fullbright Professor for the Summer School of Animation. After working for 10 years as a freelancer in the animation industry in glamorous L.A. for such companies like Film Roman and 20th Century Fox, Vanessa moved with her family to Florida to pursue a teaching carrer, as well as offer her 4 children a quieter, sometimes more adventurous childhood. In between stories of alligatos, sharks, bikers’ “Fests” and challenges that face a young hispanic animator-artist-teacher-mother, we listened to some good ol`Billie Holiday, Ottis Redding and AC/DC.