Ever since she was a child growing up in the upstate New York community of Rochester, Danielle Giudici Wallis has been acutely aware of her cultural surroundings. She was always drawing and writing what she refers to as bad poetry, but she was also taking notice of the community.

"Rochester, while I was there, was pretty homogenous," says Wallis, a 48-year-old Redlands resident. "I'm Italian American. Many of my friends growing up had similar stories, whether they were Jewish, Irish or Italian. I find the immigrant experience very compelling. The stories, customs and things we don't even realize that get passed down through culture amaze me."

Read more

Source: http://www.sbsun.com/