Art Takes Latino Child Beyond Autism

Luis Paredes' drawing depicts the
Greensboro Four during the
famous 1960s sit-in that took
place in Greensboro, N.C.

For anyone who has ever seen it, 11-year-old Luis Gerardo Paredes’s art can only be described as powerful. It’s no surprise that one of his pieces would beat out a little over 3,000 nationwide submissions to land one of the 102 spots for exhibition in the 2012 All Kids Can CREATE art contest. But unlike his fellow junior artists, Paredes is autistic.
“He has a talent, it was evident then and an inquisitiveness and an awareness, an eagerness to recreate,” said his art teacher, Tany’a Wells-Vasquez, who first taught Paredes when he was only 5 years old. “He was such a good boy. He was a good boy then and he’s a good boy now.”