Fidelia Benaventa was born in Mexico City but moved to Los Cabos about 15 years ago. She had always been interested in art and with the encouragement of her mother and sisters, she was never without a blank sheet of paper in her hand. In school, whenever elective classes were offered, she would choose an art or painting class. After high school, she decided to take classes in graphic design but when she took a course in the History or Art, she knew that her calling was creating the art rather than simply building a design. Starting in 2009, she started her professional career as an artist and took classes from well-known artists like Miguel Ramirez in Los Cabos, who also introduced her to the art community and other artists in Los Cabos. Never feeling confident that she was good enough, she has continued to challenge herself and to take more classes including with still-life artists in Mexico City like Magda Torres Gurza and Fabiano Millani.

Fifi started to display her work to the public in San Jose del Cabo at the Thursday night Art Walk and opened a Gallery in the Art District in 2013. Unfortunately, when Hurricane Odile struck in September of 2014, her gallery like many other businesses was basically destroyed in the storm. During that time and since, she has been part of a significant number of gallery, museum and restaurant exhibitions of works by local artists in San Jose del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas and Todos Santos. Fifi currently exhibits her work every Friday at the Plaza Amelia Wilkis in Cabo San Lucas. She has supported charities and government projects with her artwork as part of her commitment to the community.

During the interview, I asked her what inspired her and how did she choose the subjects for her paintings. Again, she referred to her insecurity about her talents and then need to challenge them and continue to grow as much as possible as an artist. She has converted a walk-in closet in her condominium in Cabo San Lucas into a studio and spends a lot of time there painting. I said that it seemed that many of her paintings were based on self-portraits. She said that others had felt that too but that it must be subconsciously as she did not plan to do so. Fifi then pointed to one of the images that looked like her and told me that it was her sister.

I commented that the eyes in her paintings were very expressive and seemed to be an important part of her work. Fifi said that the eyes are where she starts and moves from them to complete the paintings. Often on Facebook, she posts the progress on her paintings (see a sample below) that shows this initial focus on the eyes.