About:

Officially, as in professional career:

After getting my B.A. in psychology from Occidental College and my M.A. from Azusa Pacific University, I began my career as an elementary school teacher with my first teaching assignment to first and second grade ESL (English as a second language), or Spanish (Spanish as a first language) speaking students at Webster Elementary School in Pasadena, CA., meanwhile, I was singing and traveling, performing locally and internationally as a country music singer/songwriter to many audiences around the globe. I began working in magazines as an assistant to the managing editor of Beverage Industry News Magazine, BIN Magazine. I subsequently advanced to editorial director, a position I held until 2008. I was named Editor-in-Chief of BIN Magazine in 2008. Along the way I wrote and contributed to various editorial pieces, contributed to the various aspects of publishing BIN Magazine, hosted Drinkstyle “In The Drink” video webisodes on Youtube, for BIN, and created Liquor Rank serving as Director for the marketing company. I began a new career as a spirit brand owner, as well as a spirit brands distributor and importer, with the invention of my liqueur; Araceli Marigold Liqueur, that bears my image on the bottle, my unique tequila; Mascota Tequila, the passion project brand I created in an effort to “give back”, and my spirits companies; Araceli Spirits, LLC., and Mascota Spirits, Inc., respectively. In 2017, I created a lifestyle blog site, “The Vannologue” for my archive of written words and photos displaying my love of psychology, pictures, spirituality, animals, positivity, food, drink, travel, culture, fashion, health and beauty.

Unofficially:

I grew up in Pasadena/Altadena, California, as a Baptist preacher’s daughter. I was voted “most shy” by my entire high school class, and it still surprises me to this day that I was voted Homecoming Queen/Princess by my peers. I graduated from Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California, shared alumni with Former President Barak Obama. My mother worked as a bookkeeper for a company that made drafting supplies for JPL, (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena, and one of my first jobs as a teen, was working in the factory during the summer. My very first job was working at a movie theater in downtown Pasadena, selling popcorn and I spent my breaks sneaking in to watch parts of all the latest movies, dreaming that one day I too would be on the big screen! My father was the Pastor of the church, as was my paternal grandfather prior to daddy’s leadership, but he was furious with me whenever I needed to work on a Sunday! My first public performance was at church, “Walk Around Heaven All Day’ a song made popular by the Grammy Award winning gospel group “The Mighty Clouds of Joy”, the group my preacher father founded along with his singing buddies. It was because of watching daddy perform that made me want to sing also. I began my songwriting career by writing poetry as early as 7 years old. I studied ballet and tap dance along with classical piano at 8 years old for several years. I was a serious horseback rider as a young girl and grew up on a little farm with two horses and a mule named “Dos” who was my favorite animal on the farm! He was the sweetest most gentle animal you ever wanted to meet. I was born with blonde hair, and as I grew up it slowly turned auburn red, but I’ve always dyed it black, go figure! I have numerous freckles on my nose and face which I’ve always hated, until now, wherein which I embrace them. I sing arias in my sleep, which is hilarious in my opinion! My middle name is “Araceli” which means “Altar of Heaven; Heavenly homemaker”. I celebrate the fact that I am multi-racial! It is quite intriguing to me that my genealogy and lineage research has revealed that my global admixture is 40% Sierra Leonean, Tanzanian, Kenyan, Ivorian, Senegalese, Egyptian, 30% Irish, Scottish,Welsh, Scandinavian, Finnish, Italian, German, 30% Colombian, Brazilian, Argentinean, Venezuelan, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Caymanian and Native American, with genetic roots connecting to early ancient Central American civilizations such as the Mayans and the Aztecs.

No one knew, but this little girl would grow up to inspire and encourage others, to follow their dreams.