PAULINA ARANDA-MENA








It is perhaps time that I write few humble words about my only and much beloved little sister PAULINA and her own chosen artistic name is HANKA (http://hankagoesforawalk.blogspot.com/).

Paulina and I have been living in different countries since 1995. First she left Guadalajara to spend a year in Cambridge, England. The following year I left to Seville, Spain to continue my studies in architecture and since then we have been crossing roads somewhere in the globe. We have visited each other and/or travelled together or with our parents - we have always been a bit of a "nomadic" family and I am happy to see how little things have changed for us over the years.



  • January 1996, Cambridge, England - I visited with her host-family the Isdens (Roy, Ruth, James and Jackie).
  • April 1997, Barcelona - she visited with my 'catalan' host-family Eduard and Babette Ferrer.
  • November 1997, Reading, Loughborough and the Midlands, UK. We did a family road-trip and got to visited our friends the Shers' (Willy, Sue, Greg and Tim).
  • December 1998, First time back in "La Republica" since Jan 1996. We traveled around Jalisco and Zacatecas states.
  • December-Jan 1999/2000, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec. Ca. and Ithaka, U.S. We did a road-trip with our parents. We all celebrated the New Year 2000 with our friends Kay and Allan Friedlander at their lodge by the lake in Ithaka, N.Y. state.
  • June 2002, Mexico I managed to arrived a day late to Paulina's Birthday!
  • July 2003, Reading, UK. Paulina visited during the typically short English summer - she met my housemates Alana, James Scott and Stewart (aka Bomberito). We enjoyed a day at the Henley regatta, day visits to London and cycling along the Thames.
  • July 2006, Road-trip Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Canberra Australia (including road-trip around Tasmania). We Stayed with friends the Shers' and Allan and Sheryl White in ACT (Falks, Sydney is NOT the capital of Australia! :)
  • July 2008, Road-trip South America, Chile. From Santiago to the Gran Isla del Chiloe. Brilliant!
  • September 2008, San Francisco and Stanford University.
  • Planed sailing trip to Fiji and New Zealand.

Since I originally wrote this blogpost a couple of years ago, Paulina has done a Masters degree in Melbourne, Australia and set up her practice (http://about.me/paulina_words).
(May, 2012) 


Paulina en los barrios de Guadalajara






































Paulina in Mexican Hacienda 1999














Lighthouse at Low Head - north west Tasmania July, 2006.
Photos Copyright © Guillermo Aranda-Mena