José Fragoso: "The first year of our daughters' life was beautiful but we would not want to repeat it"

Olivia, the big one, was born in Manhattan and lived there for her first few months. Then, we moved to Chicago and Frida was born there. But they have no memories of New York. The character of Burricorn comes from a series of comic strips that I created in 2010 when I lived in New York. It was titled Another day at work and told the story of a donkey who worked disguised as a unicorn. It tried to reflect the lives of people who move to that city with the dream of dedicating themselves to the world of entertainment and, to achieve it, have to play a role.Your daughters appear in the comic.

— Burricorn's friend is called Frida, like my daughter, and they resemble each other so much in physical appearance as well as in character.

Now you live in Madrid, but have you returned with them to New York?

— Many times, and they love it. We have a group of friends with sons and daughters of similar ages and it's very nice that they see each other from time to time. Every trip we take is interesting because each one experiences it in a different way. When they were very young, we spent the day at the famous toy store FAO Schwartz. We also really missed the swings, of which there are now almost none. But they were very surprised by the strange people you meet on the streets of Manhattan.

How has the way people live the city changed?

— Now they really like to walk up and down, go to stores like Toy Tokyo in the East Village, eat bagels or go see the Stranger Things show on Broadway. But there are two places we always visit, the Museum of the Moving Image, in Queens, and Central Park, the place where I asked my partner, Isabel, to marry me.

Do your daughters continue to inspire you?

— I have always dedicated myself to children's illustration, but since I became a father, I have created my best works, and I owe this completely to my daughters. I have been adapting my work to their age, and they read it before anyone else. I admire authors who don't have children because for me it would be very difficult to create literature for children without having them as references.

Give me an example.

— I made a story titled Olivia Diluvio, who was a girl who expressed her emotions by triggering all sorts of meteorological phenomena that appeared over her head. This idea occurred to me seeing that my daughter could go from being the happiest person in the world to, a second later, crying her eyes out, like one of those summer storms that unleash a downpour in less than a minute.

How do you get your daughters to draw?

— They have always liked drawing very much. We have encouraged their hobby by buying them books and drawing materials. They know that whenever they want, they can use my light table, my little table. At home, when we have to leave a note or a greeting, we always do it with a drawing. I always tell them that not everyone likes my drawings, but that doesn't mean I have to stop drawing. There is no such thing as drawing badly. A drawing will always please someone.

What has been the hardest period?

— My wife and I have sometimes commented that the first year of our daughters' lives was beautiful, but that we wouldn't want to repeat it for anything in the world. It was exhausting. It's very intense to have two creatures who need you for everything. Now we really enjoy the fact that they are people with whom you can talk about anything.

What do you like most about fatherhood?

— Stop being the main character of my life. It is much more beautiful to live for someone who makes you happy.

What do you do when you can't anymore?

— I play the drums in a punk band. Our name is Engrudo. We are friends who have been playing for years. We have no aspirations. We just disconnect for a while every week.

Tell me an anecdote.

— One morning, when we lived in Chicago and Olivia was four years old, we woke her up to go to school and she got up all angry shouting: "I don't want to go to school! When can I have a job?"

And of the little one?

— He must have been around three years old and, one day, in front of the mirror all alone, she learned to walk doing the moonwalk. "Look daddy – she shouted –, I'm walking but I'm not going anywhere'.