On the Branches Print

Biography of Cristina Làstrego I was born in Italy, in Castello d'Annone, near Asti, in my grandfather's kiln. From a very young age I loved to play with clay and unbaked bricks, which I used to make constructions of many different shapes. I would take over grandfather's ledgers on which were old accounts rendered useless by the passage of time, and I would draw on them all the barnyard animals I saw around me. When I was five, I left for Argentina with my parents to join a sculptor uncle who had had to leave Italy years earlier because he had dared to expose himself and had been persecuted by the fascists. My life, in Buenos Aires, changed: from the countryside I had moved to a large metropolis that impressed me with its size and whose cultural vibrancy I would later appreciate. In the Buenos Aires newspapers, comics had an important space. When I lived there as a young girl, they also had Héctor Oesterheld writing the Ernie Pike story, Hugo Pratt drawing it, and then Mordillo, Quino, Oski... My dad had built a rudimentary machine for me to project images, and I would draw comic stories on transparent paper and then organize shows with my friends.... I studied for four years in Buenos Aires, and in the meantime I was teaching elementary school children as a substitute teacher. On my way back to Italy, I stopped in Barcelona to see Gaudi's constructions and fell in love with Park Güell. I finished my architectural studies and graduated in Turin, Italy, where I met a strange group of students. In particular, there was one who studied philosophy, wore an old black loden and a lobbia hat that had a hole in the top, like what a bullet might have made. His name was Francesco. We exchanged cartoon drawings and even some kisses. We liked drawing. We liked meeting children in schools and public libraries. We started working in publishing and have continued for many years since writing and illustrating more than 180 volumes. Our works have been translated in 20 countries. Next came the CD-ROMs, which struck us as the first proposal of true interactivity aimed at children. We were fascinated by them and we produced 11 educational titles.