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Happy New Year! 2025 has arrived full of energy and ready to start strong. Here in Puerto Rico, the celebrations go on from November to February. Yes, we kick things off with “Sangivin” (our version of Thanksgiving, where we just take the day off to enjoy our food without really celebrating that), continue with Christmas, Three Kings Day, Octavitas (eight extra days to keep celebrating after Three Kings Day), Sanse (Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián), and wrap it all up with Candelaria (on Feb. 2nd, when we burn the remaining holiday trees).

Along the way, there’s plenty of parrandas, filled with Christmas music, bomba, and plena. It’s truly one of the most vibrant expressions of our culture—there’s nothing like spending November through February 2nd in Puerto Rico. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Bad Bunny, who brought a parranda to Jimmy Fallon in NYC!

That’s why I hadn’t written sooner… we’re still celebrating! But I wanted to take a moment to share what’s been happening at Auralis Studio and what’s coming in the months ahead. Without further ado, here we go!

I have consultancy spaces open

Feeling lost among machines, materials, and terms like “circularity”? I’ve got you covered! My consulting services are for individuals and businesses that need a GPS for navigating manufacturing, sustainability, fair trade, and logistics (yes, I even know where those extra screws go).

With over 15 years of experience in the creative industries and 7 years working in a factory, learning everything from “old school” methods to cutting-edge tech, I can help make your operations not just functional, but exceptional! Schedule a call here, and let’s see how we can work together. I promise it’ll be useful—and maybe even fun! 😉

Designers I admire: Yayi Perez

Yayi and I met in New York City around 2016-17, at a café in Brooklyn. We chatted for hours about life in NYC and Puerto Rico, and about a factory in Comerío with a “graveyard” of sewing machines. We immediately connected, sharing a love for design, craftsmanship, and a deep desire to return to Puerto Rico to contribute to the island through our passion: fashion and sustainability.

When I finally got the opportunity to return to Puerto Rico in 2018, I needed a miraculous helping hand to cover areas I couldn’t handle alone within Retazo. Yayi, with her courage and dedication, left New York in 2019 to join the team and to work on her fashion project from here, which she had also started in NYC. Her contribution to Retazo was immense, facing the sacrifices and challenges of working in a startup with a mission as ambitious as creating something unprecedented on the island.

Today, Yayi, with her unique talent, vision, and singular sense of humor, leads a sustainable fashion project that includes her beautiful clothing brand, Yayi Perez,, available online and in her charming store in San Juan. If you haven’t visited yet, you’re missing out!

I will always be deeply grateful to her for that act of love, commitment, and dedication.

Here’s the 90 Grados article about the 2019 “grand opening” of the Retazo Lab, featuring several photos of us. We lived it with so much enthusiasm and hope—those were good times. So much so that if you were there or just want to indulge in some nostalgia like I am, here’s the full album.

The Online School Continues