Lenin Roman’s self-portrait features him in the middle of an alien abduction, flashing a peace sign and looking unperturbed. This image alone gives you enough insight into who he is. However, he also offers a list of his likes, which span from the paranormal to, “hearing about ghost and UFO experiences, Mexican food with an ice cold coke, retro art, comics, advertising & Americana, and Houston sports.” His dislikes include “hot and humid weather, awkward small talk, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Houston sports.”
It’s obvious Roman is a recent arrival from Houston because he has yet to switch his allegiance to New England sports teams. Roman relocated to Providence in 2022 with his fiancé to be closer to her family. He feels it’s a good fit for someone interested in horror and the supernatural. He elaborates that Houston was founded in the late 1800s, and nothing is very old. “I’ve been enjoying being in a place with so much history. Driving around Providence, you see all these old buildings and old graveyards. I like the spookiness! I’m happy to be in Rhode Island.” His illustration for this month’s cover is an affectionate, slightly spooky portrait of his adopted city. Roman says, “My artwork is heavily influenced by retro-inspired aesthetics.”
He is Mexican American, and some of his best work references Latin American legends. He reports that his grandmother was a curandera (a traditional healer) and a midwife who cared for the people in her community. “She told me all the old stories,” he says. One was the tale of La Llorona, the woman who weeps over her drowned children. In some versions, she was the one who drowned them to punish her philandering husband. She screams into the night, “Mis hijos! Mis hijos!” Roman says, “There are so many versions of that tale. Sometimes, I ask people to tell me their version.” I say, “Here is mine: I lived in Chinandega, Nicaragua from 2015 – 2017. There was a port city named Corinto about an hour away. It was well known that men driving alone at night on the highway from Chinandega to Corinto would frequently encounter La Llorena. She would manifest as a beautiful woman dressed all in white standing on the side of the road. Of course, you could never pick her up, but further, if you saw her, it was imperative to hold her in your vision until you were well past her. If you broke your gaze, the next time you looked in the rearview mirror, you’d see she was sitting in your backseat. She’d grab the steering wheel and drive you off the road into the ocean to meet your watery end.” Roman’s goal for his artwork comes from “Growing up immersed in old comics, pulps, and books full of scary stories and mythology. I fell in love with the charming retro artwork that brought those tales to life. I strive to evoke that same sense of wonder and feeling in my art as well.
” Sorry, Houston. Your loss is Providence’s gain! •
Picture: La Llorona by Lenin Roman
