I was born in Warsaw Indiana in 1978; I am of Mexican descent, even though my American accent is so thick, you might think I am from the Middle Eastern continent. I am not kidding, many people I talk to think I am Saudi Arab until I speak my natal language, even other Mexican folk do.
I spent my childhood in Mexico, and was glad to do so as well. I got to spend countless days in the city, while keeping my heritage and language. After school I always walked to the local arcade and spent whole afternoons playing classic games like Altered Beast and Street Fighter. Arcade and videogames are something that I still play today; I never grew out of that hobbies...or addiction, whichever you wish to call it.
It was when I graduated from Elementary school that my father decided to take us back to the US. I was kind of frightened because I have forgotten how to speak the language save for some generic words like "Hi", "Yes", and being able to count to ten. All went well as I started High School, which gave me basic education on the language. School here was difficult for me, unlike in Mexico, where you only had one teacher for the entire school day, you had 8 teachers, and 8 different subjects every day. While re-learning the language was something of a breeze for me, the grammar rules used were hell. I am still trying to understand it even today, that I have become somewhat of a writer. Differences between Spanish and American languages are broad, but I had to get used to it.
I guess my passion for furry drawings started when I watched cartoons in an early age. I often preferred to watch animals than human beings when it came to learn lessons in life, or have a laugh when a coyote fell down from a cliff while trying to catch a roadrunner. I still liked watching toons like GI Joe and He-Man, however. I am still waiting for a good reincarnation of the Ghostbusters cartoon since the original aired almost 20 years ago. Not that Extreme Ghostbusters was bad, but it did not have the same feeling to it at all.
Furry toons back then were worried more about the moral of the story than anything else, whereas furry toons of the 90's were at times depicted as heroes or comedy relieves. Either way, I was pleased to see anthromporphic cartoons animated in TV, and I wished that it could last longer than just a few years. Nowadays, cartoons are about dueling with monsters or cards, either of which is from Japan. Japanese Animation has slowly climbed the latter, and it seemed to me that American TV didn't want to spend their ink coming with another cartoon series of their own.
Furry cartoons where one of the influences that helped me becomes a fan of furry, another was trying my hand at drawing and the Internet. In 1993, I met a senior high school student who always carried a humongous drawing pad whenever he goes. He could come up with interesting furry toons done with his skilled hand, which included a D-cup bunny with a shirt reading "Come and get it!" In 1997, I was introduced t the WWW, and my search for furry was done a lot easier. VCL was among the first archives I visited, and artist sites like Afterfox's, and FoxxFire's were also among the first for me to find furry art. The librarians back then didn't seem to mind me looking over a pinup of an anatomically correct vixen looking back at the viewer.
I decided to stray away from drawing anime-influenced sketches and started drawing canines, felines, avian, and dragons. Although drawing never came naturally to me, I still managed to create a few interesting pictures for my friends to gander at. Nowadays I write furry-themed fiction based on popular cartoons like Sonic the Hedgehog, or videogames like Starfox more than I try to sketch anything.
It was 1999 when I began life as a bachelor, and I lived by myself in a little apartment in a rough neighborhood. Money was severely scarce, and I had just barely enough to pay rent in a place where the landlord paid bills. I had all the time in the world using the Internet and talking to friends while exploring the WWW and drawing.
However, good things often come to an end, and I was laid off work in 2001. The city was undergoing a budget plan, and it laid off 200 jobs, which it included mine. Since I was part time, I was not eligible to get benefits until I found another job. I spent 6 months trying to find anything, while my bank account was depleting fast in bills and rent. I had no choice, I called my father.
I moved with him to another city, while saying farewell to the Internet and the many people I used to chat with. I lived with father and his own family (my parents separated 5 years ago, and father already had another woman around before then,) in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. Life was not easy, I took any job I could and at least was paying off my debt with whatever money I earned.
I hope the furry fandom doesn't give up on itself, and that it will still be around for a long, long time.
About Kanmeros:
Kan is my Dragon. He is the moral and the rational side of me. He loves the arts, writing, and music. A red dragon whose horde is filled not with gold, but with treasures given to him by his closest friends. He often shares my sorrows, often drowning himself along with my depression. He also shares with me conversations, for he likes to talk about various subjects whenever someone else is with me. His temper is as mighty as the color of his scales, but he often finds ways to suppress his anger, only when his rage is justified he shares the same views as I, and we band together to write about it.