Anika Durand:
CLASS OF 1978
James Garfield High SchoolClass of 1978
Los angeles, CA
Anika's Story
Life
You knew me as Robert Durand...
and my gender was male. Oops! As you can see I'm MUCH different now. When I was at Garfield I was in the honors program. Mr Campagna was my favorite teacher. Where's Susan Miyamoto, or David Rubalcava or Lute Miyasaki? Where's my peeps? Prolly living their lives well or fuh-reaking out on my change. Speaking of which: I have been living female (which is my true gender) "full-time" since April 2003. I think you can see from my picture that I'm very happy! I've always been female inside, but I never knew about Transgender people. There certainly weren't any around in East LA, circa 1978! Now at least those of you who knew me know one now...
Transitioning is a process that takes several years, a huge commitment, and can be very expensive, both financially and relationship-wise. Lots of old friends falling by the wayside. Yes it hurts, but then I move on and I now have great new friends. It takes a lot of courage and perseverance. Contrary to what the media portrays, I'm very happy and have no problems in public, other than finding new ways to tell men, "Thank you, but I'm taken". Because I get along with people, I've been very lucky and have had it really easy. This is the realization of a life-long dream. When I was living in East LA, I couldn't tell anybody this, not even my family (gee, they've chosen to condemn me...oh well), because East LA then was so macho and ultra-Catholic. I saw a kid, Gabriel Benitez, beat up by home boys just for looking feminine. Not exactly an environment conducive to being a Transgender person! So I hid it from everyone, including myself when I entered my '20s.
After I graduated from Garfield in 1978, I went straight into Architecture, at Barrio Planners on Beverly Boulevard. Architecture became my career, and among my achievements is co-Art Directing the "Ruins Tank" at Atlantis II, on Paradise Island, Bahamas. It's the worlds biggest aquarium (well Atlanta got it last year, 2005), and very fascinating. We re-created the fall of Atlantis, a kind of permanent movie set. Everyone on the East coast knows about it 'cos the Bahamas are a very popular vacation destination. It was the only project where I had a blank check to do whatever I wanted, a designer's dream!
I've had a long and varied career, Art Directed a Sci-Fi feature film, played lots of Rock music in clubs around town with plenty of bands, some great, some so-so. Music and design have been threads that go back to high school.
Now, after ...Expand for more
transitioning, my focus is on making a difference in the world. I was given many gifts at birth: talent, looks, intelligence and an ability to communicate with everyone. These I am using to give back to the world and help make our planet, every corner, a sacred place once again.
I have a mate, Dionne, who I met when I was "Robert", eight years ago. It was love at first site for us both, and we met a dinner party that was arranged by two frenchmen named Marc, to get us together. Wow did it work! We married in September, 2000, on sacred Chumash land in Malibu. Together we've travelled to Greece (1998) for month and Egypt (2002) for another month, and we have many more trips to go. We also had a very successful band and plan to get back out there and perform.
But all that, travel and music, has been on hold since March 2000, when Dionne was hit by a car while walking. She almost died from it and the complications, so many!, have keep her very ill since then. In 2001, when she was very critical, I left a very lucrative and growing design practice to care for her full-time. As of this writing (30 Jan, 2005), she is almost completely healed! It's been quite a path to walk. (***Note...the day after I wrote this original draft Dionne passed away suddenly...)
Life now (May 2006) is extraordinary...but you'll havta email me for details
Workplace
Well, it's pretty simple: I began running blueprints at an Architectural firm in 1978, and in 2000 (when I began caring for my severly injured mate), I was a Senior Designer running a crew of people.
In between, I freelanced doing many different types of design, including Technical Illustration for McDonnel-Douglas/Air Force One; design for Toy Fair (world's biggest toy show); schematic design for the second theme park in Japan (Oita); design for Mickey Rourke residence (1989); Project Management for Wells Fargo Bank; Art Direction for "Velocity Trap", a sci-fi feature film; numerous high-end residential and commercial projects; co-Art Directed the world's largest aquarium (Atlantis II, Bahamas) and was Senior Designer for the Bank of Bermuda style guide. Pretty good, especially since I chose not to get an Architectural degree...
I consider my life and experiences as my main work, my art and what matters to me most. I definitely had a lot of fun doing all the above, but it was the way I made to the top, against all conventional thinking, that matters to me most. That, and the friends, experiences and creativity along the way.
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