You are never too old to make your dreams come true

By Daniela M. Perez

Nicaraguan immigrant Alex Perez makes a huge comeback in his career as an artist at the age of 61 and he’s here to prove it’s never too late to accomplish your dreams.

Alex Perez first came here as immigrant from Nicaragua after the country was under going a civil war. Alex says “It was extremely hard for me to fit into the American culture at the beginning I barely knew how to speak English”. But his passion for art was always there he painted on old pieces of wood and anything he could find. Alex graduated from high school in Texas only a year after moving to the U.S and knew he had to move to pursue a career in becoming an artist.

So he packed up his belongings and moved to Los Angeles. Alex claims “Most people are scared to move to somewhere like Los Angeles but I had nothing to lose so I applied and sent in my art work everywhere.” He landed a job as a political cartoonist at the newspaper called “La Opinion” a hispanic newspaper. Through this job Perez claims he found his style and what worked for him.

Alex left “La Opinion” after two years and with a new portfolio he started to apply to more newspapers. And to his surprise his career took a new turn instead of being a political cartoonist he was now drawing pure entertainment. His work was published in newspapers like Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post etc.

He was living the dream Alex went from bagging groceries at a local grocery store to attending movie premiers, being in newspapers and starting to become recognized for his art by several famous actors like Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman and much more. Alex claims “ from 1985 to 1997 were some of the best years of his life, “I was finally getting recognized for what I loved to do it was a surreal moment in my life.”

Over the years of being in Hollywood Alex became syndicated and recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures. And obtained many famous signatures from many famous actors, singers and people in the industry.

Unfortunately at the pinnacle of his career the newspapers were slowly starting to fade in the late 2000’s and his career started to slow down. Perez had worked on a few projects here and there but ultimately he decided to move to Reno, Nevada to start his family and work for a gaming company called IGT. Perez claims “Although I was still drawing, I was crushed inside because it wasn’t what I truly wanted to do and I finally had a taste of what my dreams were like because they had came true.”

“Almost 20 years passed I knew I couldn’t let my dreams die down so I picked up the pieces and started to create something new.” Perez knew he had to get current with the times and all the technology that had been created in the past couple decades. And he did just that. He learned how to use new programs like procreate and started submitting his work to the Academy of Motion Pictures.

Within a couple of months Alex received a call and letter that would change his career he was recognized by the Academy once again. And was invited to visit and view where the Oscar’s took place and met with a new agent while his last visit to Los Angeles.

Alex is now retired but continues to work closely with the Academy and has plans and hopes to host an exhibition with all of his art in Los Angeles. Alex wants people to remember “To never give up on your dreams but most importantly to never give up on yourself in all my years of my career I had doubts but I picked myself back up and knew that I could make it.” As for Alex he is still continuing to create new pieces of art as well as being an inspiration for many.

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