Irania Macias Patterson (Co-Founder)
Artistic/Educational Director & Storyteller
Irania Patterson is a dynamic and versatile performer, children’s author and educator who like to work with audiences of all ages. Her bilingual children’s picture book Chipi Chipis, Small Shells of the Sea/Chipi Chipi Caracolitos del Mar (CPCC Press 2006) was an International Reading Association Children’s Choice Award for 2006. She is the author of Wings and Dreams: The Legend of Angel Falls. (Novello Press 2010). She is also co-author of several books for librarians across the US.
For the past 15 years she has worked as a multicultural children specialist and consultant in the area of literature and the performing arts. She has worked with library and educational systems offering school-based artist residencies, performances, workshops, development of curriculum and professional development in the state of NC.
Irania holds a Masters degree in Children Literature from La Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. She also obtained a teaching license (k-12) at UNCC. In 1992, she graduated with a BS degree from the Andres Bellos Catholic University in Mass Communications and a Minor in Audiovisuals.
She is originally from Venezuela and she is the mother of two bilingual children: Samuel and Isabella. They are her inspiration to make the world a better place.
“One of the goals I always had for my children was for them to grow up bilingual. Both were born in this country and both listened to their mother’s voice in Spanish and to their father’s voice in English since they were in my womb. When they were two, they went for first time to a childcare program where they learned English in a deeper way. It was then that many questions arose: Will my children get confused now that they are learning more English than Spanish?; Would people in school look down at them because their mother speaks Spanish to them?; Would they suffer of any language delay?. Criss Cross Mangosauce has been a great way to combine my love for working with children and my personal experience as a mother and educator searching for answers and resources in my journey of raising two beautiful children”