BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela (AP) – Samuel Andrés Mendoza carefully chooses from dozens of colored pencils scattered on his kitchen table, humming a reggaeton song while deftly applying the contrast to the Dragon Ball anime character taking shape in his sketchbook.
It is no longer just a hobby for the 14 year old. Unbeknownst to his mother, he started selling his drawings on his Twitter page to help the family survive and to pay for a special diet that doctors say he needs in Venezuela’s economic crisis.
“Hi. I’m Samuel, I’m selling my drawings for $ 1 to help my mom with my diet, buy a house and shop so she doesn’t work on the street and get sick with COVID-19 and buy me peanut butter. Thanks, sir and madam ”, tweeted along with photos of four drawings.
It caught the attention of many and he now has more than 15,000 followers, selling dozens of drawings he made on a table between a worn sofa and a rusty refrigerator in the family’s small house in Barquisimeto, about five hours west of Venezuela. capital, Caracas.
“The truth is that I didn’t know I was going to draw like that, but time passed and I managed to paint for real,” said Samuel this month, showing his final drawing of Goku from Dragon Ball. “And here it is.”
In a crisis-ridden country, where workers earn an average of $ 2 a month, their sales can make a big difference to a family budget pressured by their need for protein-rich foods to deal with a form of malnutrition.
Like millions of other Venezuelans, Samuel and his mother, Magdalena Rodríguez, emigrated in search of better conditions. They went to Colombia in 2019, when a widespread power outbreak hit her country the moment she learned of her son’s diagnosis.
But they returned home in December, after she lost her job and discovered growing prejudice against the growing number of Venezuelan migrants.
The mother of three now sells snacks at a table in Barquisimeto’s main square. She also found work as a cleaner. Still, it has been difficult to pay for the relatively expensive, protein-rich foods needed for her son, who also has a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a wide branch of the autism spectrum.
“It is not easy,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, 38, discovered Samuel’s effort when he asked for his bank account information so people could pay for his work.
Samuel, who said he started drawing at the age of 5, has a penchant for anime characters, but also played the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and the animated SpongeBob SquarePants.
Venezuelan artist Oscar Olivares, who runs an art academy, saw Samuel’s tweets and gave him a scholarship to study drawing. Social media followers also gave him a laptop, a set of art pencils – and peanut butter, a good source of protein.
Samuel, who said he can raise his prices as his skills advance, would like to make YouTube-style videos about video games when he grows up.
“I’m really proud of him. I have no words, ”said Rodríguez. “But sometimes I get angry, I feel helpless, because I think that at his age, he should be studying, learning, and not wanting to work to help me, when I have to do everything possible to give them comfort and nourish ”.
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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.
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This story has been corrected to show that the teenager’s surname is Mendoza.