Eric Velasquez reads an excerpt from "Grandma's Gift"

Hi, I'm Eric Velazquez, and I'm going to be reading from my book Grandma's Gift. “Suddenly Grandma turned and said “Oye, Juan de Pareja, qué tú haces aquí?” (“Hey, Juan de Pareja, what are you doing there?’) Grandma finally recognized someone from El Barrio, but she was talking to the A painting, and it was the most magnificent of all of them. I quickly ran up and read the caption next to it. “Grandma, it says, Wanda was a slave and an assistant to the great painter, Diego Velazquez. He later set de Pareja free. And Pareja became a great artist himself.” We both stood there, just staring at the amazing painting. The gentleman seemed to be looking back at us. He seemed so real much like someone we might see walking around in a barrio. I couldn't believe that this was a painting in a museum.