Written by Juliana Castañeda
February 21, 2021
It’s December of 2018. The frontier between Colombia and Venezuela is crowded with sorrowful families that will leave their homes behind to start new lives abroad. Besides the pain they carry, most people are walking around with heavy bags filled with their belongings. Alejandrina notices how children offer their help to carry other peoples’ bags in exchange for some cash. This vision is one that has been common for way too many Venezuelans during the last years. For Alejandrina, however, it is surprising and shocking. Her family had migrated to Canada three years ago, when a future in Venezuela started to seem unbearable. Alejandrina would have never pictured something quite like what she saw that day. Her creative mind starts thinking about ways in which the travelling conditions of migrants could be improved. As an industrial design student, she focuses on adapting objects that can ease the burden of walking around a foreign country. This is how she first came up with the idea of creating a cart to carry one’s belongings that could also be converted into a bed. This idea would earn her an important prize in the industrial design arena two years later.
Alejandrina’s cart/bed design won first place in the Bonnell Sustainable Design Category of the 2020 Student Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition. The judges qualified her idea as “innovative, practical and creative satisfying an international need” [1] since the goal is to make it affordable for international organizations to distribute them to refugees. Her final proposal is a result of hard work and passion, along with the help received from teachers at Dawson College, especially Michael Santella. The difficult travelling conditions of her fellow Venezuelans which Alejandrina witnessed in 2018 were not, however, the beginning of the road that led her to an award-winning idea.
Alejandrina’s product design.
(Alejandrina wishes to credit ©️ K M Asad/LightRocket/Getty Images for the line-up of refugees photo used in the product overview image)
Born and raised in Maracaibo, Alejandrina Hernández Zavarce was always surrounded by a beautiful, hard-working, and creative family which allowed her and her siblings to develop their skills and interests with complete freedom and support. Her mom (an artist and teacher) and her dad (an architect) were always role models for the family. From a very young age, Alejandrina showed an interest in objects, especially their purpose and accessibility. Being in school, playing in the backyard, or visiting friends and family would make her wonder how she could play around with objects to make them more functional. This creativity developed alongside her sense of giving. Growing up, Alejandrina had the chance to visit marginalized communities, which touched her and made her want to focus on helping others, particularly the poor and sick. Deciding what she wanted to study after high school was not simple for Alejandrina. She noticed her talents and interests pointed to creating things and helping others, but it was not clear how that could be translated into a university program. Finally, Alejandrina and her older sister discovered what would become her study program and passion: industrial design.
The close relationship Alejandrina has with objects and how they can affect people’s lives goes back to her first years of life. Her parents had perceived that Alejandrina was very silent when others spoke, and very loud when she wanted to talk. When she was three years old the doctors noticed she had been born with a hearing disability. Even today, Alejandrina vividly remembers the moment when she first used hearing aids. She was only a toddler, but the impact of finally recognizing the distinctive voices of her loved ones is something that still has a place in her memory and heart. “It was magical, I could perceive so many sounds in a world that I thought was silent,” she tells with a shining smile. Her mom made sure that this did not limit her life; Alejandrina went to a regular school for girls and was able to enjoy life outside school playing soccer with boys who were always impressed by her talent.
Alejandrina’s disability became a blessing. She can understand people beyond words and forge connections with others that enhance her selflessness and generosity. She used to say she wanted to become a doctor to “cure” objects. “Alejandrina, you don’t cure objects, you fix them,” her mom would say. As time passed, her family understood that Alejandrina was really aiming at curing people through objects because they are a part of the self. It is only natural that Alejandrina Hernández turned into a compassionate woman who wants to use her creativity and talent to design and “cure” objects that will improve other people’s lives.
Alejandrina is currently collaborating with others to develop her cart/bed design. The next step is to create prototypes and hopefully her idea will soon translate into a reality that will help thousands of migrants.
I want to thank Alejandrina for sharing her story with me, and Seleste Estrada Orrego for creating the cover image.
Source:
Comments