The kites are a journal of a true story of a shoemaker, his wife, and children during the Spanish Civil War. This sculptural collage uses actual photographs, wedding certificates, professional titles, and symbolic imagery. For example, shoes, shoe lasts, and footprints represent the life of the shoemaker, his journey. Trees and roots symbolize family and uprooting. The story takes place at the brink of the war in the center of Madrid. The shoemaker’s children were playing with a kite in their patio. The kite became tangled in a balcony of a neighbor who confiscated the toy. The shoemaker demanded the neighbor return the kite, and upon not cooperating, he consulted his brother who worked in the justice department. After receiving an order to return the property to their rightful owners, the rancorous neighbor reported to authorities that the family was communist.The shoemaker’s family was forced to leave their home and their belongings to flee to Artés, Barcelona. The wife was pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl there. In January 1939, Barcelona was seized by Franco’s troops, which obligated the family, along with many other refugees, to seek safety in southern France by foot through the snow-covered Pyrenees. After the war, the family returned to live with the shoemaker’s sister in Madrid where he continued his profession. However, poverty-stricken (malnourished and non-medicated), the two younger sons and the shoemaker didn’t survive. They are buried in a family grave in Almudena Cemetery, Madrid. The oldest brother, who had joined the Republican force, was captured and his death was undocumented.