I’ve been transitioning several of my modern characters into custom historical characters, and the second one to do that is Antonia! She has left the present day and is now eleven years old in 1978.
Her story takes place in the first decade of the American Indian Movement, which continues to fuel change in the present day. In February of 1978, AIM activists organized an event called The Longest Walk, which was a march of protest beginning at Alcatraz Island in California and ending in Washington, DC. The Longest Walk intended to bring attention to the numerous broken treaties between Native Americans and the U.S. government that had begun hundreds of years before and were still happening in 1978. The name references the many ways that the government has forcibly resettled people away from their ancestral lands, often by forcing them to walk hundreds of miles. This and other events have encouraged Antonia towards leadership and activism closer to home, and she starts brainstorming ways that she and other kids like her can help make their world a better one.
Antonia is part of the first generation of children who were not forced into residential schooling. So she’s very excited to help her mother, grandmother, and aunts start an after-school program to teach students about gardening and raising crops that thrive in the high desert of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. The students will use their skills to start a large community garden that can help provide their family, friends, and neighbors with fresh, locally-grown vegetables and fruits for free.
Planting seeds of change isn’t Antonia’s only talent. When she’s not in the garden, Antonia is a nerdy kid with big dreams. She has a huge imagination, and loves science fiction and fantasy in whatever form it takes: books, movies, television, and comic books. She daydreams about flying a spaceship and exploring all the other strange worlds that might be out there. She saw the movie Star Wars last year when it came to the theaters, and has now seen it more than anyone else she knows! Antonia’s family lives out in the country, where they raise sheep, goats, horses, and chickens. She has been part of the Girl Scouts and 4-H for several years, and has won prizes at the state fair in several categories. She likes lots of different kinds of music and listens to records with her dad every evening. This year he even helped her build her own radio, and Antonia and her friends like to pretend to have their own radio show where they discuss current events and talk about their favorite records.
I’ll be making most of Antonia’s clothing myself. Her collection will be very different from Julie Albright’s; I’ll be using more earth tones than bright colors, more big pointy shirt collars, and bell bottom pants. In this photo she is wearing a turtleneck shirt made from a thrifted baby onesie, and her faux suede fringed vest was made from a thrifted jacket. Her tortoiseshell glasses and corduroy pants are AG brand. You can’t see her shoes here, but she’s wearing platform sandals from Julie’s peasant top outfit. 70′s clothes really suit her well!
