When identical twins Andrea and Valentina Paredes arrived in Austin from Mexico 12 years ago, they never could have imagined that they would go from the shy girls at school who taught themselves English to the Blue Brigade senior co-lieutenants and award-winning visual artists they are now. They have been through a lot together, but it’s their staunch motivation to push against the status quo that keeps them excelling in dance, art and leadership.

Blue Brigade director and health teacher Nancy Honeycutt-Searle instructs the twins on the field and in

the classroom. She admires their drive to succeed in everything they do.

“They’re just such hard workers,” Honeycutt-Searle said. “They both have really good grades, and I know they work really hard for that- it’s not something that just comes easily to them. They don’t take that for granted. [Them] being hard workers is one of the biggest things I see, not just in dance but in the classroom.”

On the field, Andrea does her best to be a strong leader for her teammates. “I’ve been in Blue Brigade since my freshman year, and it’s been a lot of work trying to improve my skills to get to the point of being an officer, but I think it’s been a really great experience,” Andrea said. “I never expected that to happen, so I think it really helped me grow as a person and my leadership grew a lot with it as well. I love the family of being in Blue Brigade.”

Valentina always tries to keep spirits high in practices and make the experience fun for the dancers, especially during the pandemic.

“[I am] just really trying to make practice fun every morning, because that’s pretty hard, especially this year when we have to do it outside,” Valentina said. Although they work well together, Valentina says that they each have their individual strengths when it comes to dance. “Andrea has done a great job choreographing more contemporary routines,” Valentina said.

“And we both edit the songs, and that’s something we do together for most of the dances we do on Blue Brigade. And then I could say I’m good at choreographing hip-hop routines and jazz. So we do different styles in dance.”

Although Andrea enjoys choreographing dances and hopes to continue that in the future, her dream career is to become a branding designer. She says that her main inspiration are her parents, who own the local Austin business Tamale Addiction.

“I want to study visual communications, which involves everything like art and graphic design and business, because I’ve been around businesses my whole life,” Andrea said. “My parents own a tamale business, so I’ve seen them grow from the start to what they are now. I think that’s a perfect thing. I’d love to own a design company.”

Her parents are not just the inspiration for Andrea’s career, but also role models for both girls. When Valentina and Andrea were 6, they watched their parents move the family from Mexico to Austin and start a business from the ground up, all while raising their young daughters. Valentina said that the experience was just as hard for her and her twin sister as it was for their parents, but some benefits did come out of it.

“[My parents] started a couple businesses that didn’t really work out, they were all in the food industry, and then they finally came to do tamales and that started,” Valentina said. “But for me and Andrea, they just enrolled us in a normal school, it was Doss Elementary, and they didn’t have a Spanish program where we could be helped out. So we were just kind of thrown with the rest of the kids that didn’t speak any Spanish or anything. We were kind of forced to deal with it and just learn English on our own. It was hard, but I think that was probably the easiest way we could just learn and get involved with everyone.”

Andrea is now starting her own small business. She will be hosting art

workshops for children ages 6-15 years old in multiple mediums, from painting to printmaking to clay.

“I wanted to start doing something as a job that would also help kids,” Andrea said. “I was like, ‘What can I do that would incorporate my art skills and entrepreneur skills, and do something fun here my community?’ So I thought that would be the perfect way to incorporate everything and also help kids improve their art skills.”

Valentina is also staying artistically active during quarantine. She says that the time to herself has allowed her to find more creativity as an artist.

“During school, we’re kind of all forced to start new projects and finish them quickly, but having my own time to come up with my own concepts and really do what I think is important has been really inspiring to me,” Valentina said. “I actually did a piece over the Black Lives Matter protests. I did that over quarantine, and I think it really inspired me to just work on what I want to do and not really have a set deadline to meet or anything, it’s just up to me to finish it.”

Valentina said she feels a sense of duty to use her passion for art to make a difference.

“I felt like, since I’m an artist, it would be very important to use my voice and something I like doing the most,” Valentina said. “I couldn’t really go out and protest, so I think that was a motivator for me to use what I love to do to bring awareness to the cause.”

Although the twins have honed different skills and interests within their shared art forms of visual art and dance, one thing they do have in common is their drive to push themselves to their limits. Valentina never wants to stop improving.

“My own motivation to become better each time I do something [inspires me],” Valentina said. “I never want to just stop once I finish something, I want to keep doing more and more. So I guess that is what inspires me to keep experimenting with art and stuff.”

Andrea sometimes struggles with boxing herself in, but her greatest motivator is pushing against those self-made boundaries.

“I feel like… I limit myself because I’m such a perfectionist in a lot of ways,” Andrea said. “So I think what drives me is to break apart my own limits that I put [on] myself and not be scared of doing anything, because that’s limited me in the past before. I don’t want to do that anymore.”

Andrea says that although the similarities between her and her sister are somewhat unintentional, it works in their favor.

“Val and I have always kind of liked the same things, and it’s not something we really try to do, but it’s definitely been a good thing,” Andrea said. “It’s hard, always having the same things as her, but we definitely push each other. It’s a motivator more than an impediment, I’d say.”

Valentina agrees that their similar interests push them to be better and help them to find their own individuality.

“I feel like sometimes it might seem like, ‘Oh, my sister’s doing the same thing,’ like there’s no difference between us,” Valentina said. “But it honestly makes us just find different skills in everything we do. We work together on everything we do, so it’s not like a competition or anything, we just help each other out.”