Camila & Daniela are the co-proprietors of Letra Chueca / Crooked Letter Press & Bindery.Camila Araya was born in Santiago, Chile, raised by an artistic mother who cultivated her creative mind and by a journalist father who encouraged her to expand her horizons beyond Chile. Camila studied Graphic Design at Universidad del Pacifico and after graduating, decided to leave her beloved family and country to start a new path, bound for the USA. Her first job landed her in The Dalles, Oregon where she worked at a local newspaper doing freelance and advertising design. This work taught her much, but also reaffirmed that digital design did not completely nourish her artistry. She moved to Portland to participate in the MFA Applied in Craft and Design program, offered by both Pacific Northwest college of Art and Oregon College of Art and Craft, She used her time to develop her skillset in analog printmaking (letterpress, woodcarving, screenprinting, etching) and fell in love with the production process of each. Like most students after graduating Camila lost her access to specialty printing equipment, but she found a great opportunity to print again at the communal studio, EM Space Book Arts Center. It was here that she met her friend and business partner, Daniela, and the realization of a shared dream engendered this printing & bookbinding studio.Daniela was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, where the value of local community, homestyle schemes, and a good read were instilled in her at an early age. After high school Daniela yielded to genetic wanderlust and she plumb up and moved to Chile to find her estranged family. Living in Chile galvanized her passion to explore her own cultural heritages and traditions, while exposing her to a rich library of Latin American literature. After alternating between tramping and working for a few years, Daniela moved to the lush northwest to attend Lewis & Clark College. She graduated with a BAS in Hispanoamerican Literature & Studio Art. During school she started to make her own notebooks and sketchpads to keep up with how fast they filled. This initially economic approach to binding continued to evolve with a post-graduation apprenticeship at Em Space Book Arts Center. After studying under a master printer/binder, Daniela began her own small freelance operation out of Em Space, which is where she met Camila. And now, the next chapter of our story is waiting to be written by you and your support of our small business.