Welcome to my world.
The world of P.T. Barnum,
the Greatest Showman.
Have a magical Holiday Season
with Montblanc.
I'm Evelyn Gallardo, children's author, and wildlife photographer.
While growing up in East Los Angeles, I often dreamed of travelling.
As a child, I loved reading and writing. Books were my passport to the world.
My fascination with great apes stems from childhood.
When I first saw the movie "King Kong," I fell in love with the legendary "King
of the Apes." I thought that no one understood him like
I did. Now, my favorite place to be is in the rainforest,
photographing gorillas, orangutans, and other primates.
My husband and I travel to some of the remotest places on earth, including Borneo, Rwanda,
Nepal, India, Costa Rica, and the Amazon. I eventually wrote a book called "Among
the Orangutans" and now I work as an author and a photographer, and go into schools talking
to kids about orangutans. Good morning boys and girls.
Good morning Ms. Palmer. Today's a very special day here at Rosemont.
We have a real author with us today. We're very excited about this.
I know all of you are very excited and what I think is very special is that every one
of you prepared for this visit. In the classrooms you talked about Evelyn
Gallardo's book, "Among the Orangutans" and now you get to meet her personally, which
is just a real treat. Evelyn Gallardo grew up very close to here
and went on to travel around the world. She's a globetrotting author, whose been
to the rainforest of Borneo and Indonesia. As well as studying the gorillas in Africa
and she's here to tell you all about it. So, ladies and gentlemen, Evelyn Gallardo.
And then also my heritage. I'm Mexican-American and Hopi.
Mi herencia es mexicoamericana y hopi. And my great grandfather was a curandero,
a folk healer. Mi bisabuelo era un curandero popular.
And he used to tell me wonderful stories about the plants and animals.
Y solía contarme historias maravillosas sobre plantas y animales.
So, my great grandfather helped to nurture my love of nature.
The gorilla greeting sounds like this. Ready, your turn and...
Okay that was excellent. That was really good.
And as I sat there for a few minutes, it wasn't really comfortable, I saw a gorilla coming
up the side of the volcano, right towards me.
I thought, "Oh my gosh. What have I done." But as I sat there, this gorilla knuckle walked
over toward me. And gorillas like to look into your eyes all
the time. He knuckle walked over to me and he got this
close. I write for children to help them discover
that they do have the power to create positive changes.
I also encourage them to pursue science and writing careers.
In 1984 I wrote a letter from the heart to Dr. Dian Fossey, saying that I wanted to volunteer
to help her in her struggle to save the mountain gorillas.
Dian responded with an invitation to her research center in Rwanda.
My wildest dream, to help the real King Kong came about through the power of writing.
Another dream led me to Borneo to work with the Orangutan Authority, Dr. Biruté Galdikas,
who was often compared to Jane Goodall. I knew Dian Fossey very well and Louis Leakey
picked me, and he picked Dian, and he picked Biruté, so I suppose she'll do a great
job too. Thank you for taking this brief moment to
get to know me. I'd love to show your students how good
reading and writing skills will help them succeed.
I look forward to sharing my adventures and to encouraging your students to follow their
wildest dreams, and I look forward to your invitation to visit your school soon.
I want to thank you all for coming today and for being such a wonderful audience.
Follow your dreams.
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