Joanna Rosso was born in California, but her parents were not. Her mom and dad are Colombian and spoke Spanish to her when she was a kid. She watched a lot of tv in English—a lot of Nightmare on Elm Street and Masterpiece Theater—which made Joanna bilingual, but also gave her trouble with American idioms. This is why to this day one of her favorite sayings is "stop and smell the eggplant".
This lighthearted and observant outlook probably somewhat explains her interest in drawing and taking photos, but does very little to explain her interest in fowl. Instead, that interest can be explained by an episode that took place on her 3rd birthday, when during an especially scintillating episode of the classic telenovela "Un gancho al Ojo es Para Siempre", young Joanna, suffering from chicken pox, experienced a feverish hallucination whereupon the leading lady, Encarnación Picot, changed herself into a blonde chicken and offered Joanna three wishes. Joanna's first wish was to eat a delicious breakfast the next day. Her second wish was to marry Wolverine. Her third wish was to one day live in Culver City. The blonde chicken Encarnación told Joanna that in return for granting the wishes, Joanna would one day have to care for a lovebird that would try to bite her fingers off. Eventually that bird came around, and it did try to bite her fingers off, but Joanna liked the bird anyway.
So far only two of her three wishes have been granted, but it might be for the best, as Joanna is no longer sure that Wolverine should be a part of her long-term plans. He can be a little over the top sometimes.
—Kim Jean, July 29 '09