Juliana Torres Gomez enjoys the best of both worlds. Dad Richard encourages her to jump, frolic, swim, play ball and keep herself fit. Mom Lucy Torres, on the other hand, brings out Juliana’s sedate side. They huddle over home crafts like making scrapbooks out of the many photos they take any chance they get. This way, the days pass swiftly, the hours go flying past.
Dad buys the rubber shoes Juliana needs for her favorite sport: Baseball. Mom gets the ribbons and colored papers for the scrapbooks. Dad takes Juliana outdoors; Mom keeps the girl busy at home with projects that challenge her creativity.
No wonder Juliana shakes her head when people ask her if she wants a sibling. All that attention she’s getting makes her reject the idea of another child in the family. Lucy is nonplussed, though. She knows her daughter, at seven, will eventually change her mind like most children do.
“We’re waiting for another child, in God’s time,” reveals Lucy.
Meantime, there are just so many things to do in-between hosting Q-11’s Sweet Life and raising Juliana as a God-fearing, well-grounded girl.
Her parents may be showbiz, but this does not mean Juliana will lead the kind of life Dad and Mom are steeped in. Lucy, for one, wants Juliana to enjoy a regular life, away from the trappings and temptations of showbiz. She wants Juliana to work for what she wants and to wait for them if needed.
Showbiz, after all, is a world of instant gratification. You get what you want right here, right now, like canned soda that pops out of the vendo machine with one push of the button.
And this is not what Lucy wants for her only child right now.
“I’d rather that Juliana be an athlete like her Dad,” says Lucy.
Take it from any athlete or even a sports-loving person. Sports teaches you more than running or jumping. It builds stamina, fosters the competitive spirit so vital in life.
But if her heart is really in showbiz since her parents love it so so much, Lucy will understand. She will impose only one condition: That Juliana finish school first (she’s a second grader at Montessori White Plains).
It’s a compromise over what Juliana wants and what her parents wish for her.
This early though, Juliana is proving that she has a mind of her own. The seven-year-old refuses to wear clothes she doesn’t like, even if Lucy, thinking it will look good on Juliana, chose them herself.
“I was raised on ruffles; mixing and matching clothes,” Lucy explains. So she thought it would be easy to impart the same fashion sense on her daughter. But since she can’t, Lucy has allowed Juliana take over her wardrobe. Lucy even allows Juliana to choose how she wants to style her hair.
“We used to fight over clothes,” Lucy admits. “So I’ve stopped buying clothes for her.” The battle is over.
This doesn’t mean mother and daughter are locked in a constant battle of wills. The two agree over a lot of things, like photography.
Lucy describes Juliana as “trigger-happy” with her Canon, which Mom also loves using to record precious moments with her and Dad for posterity.
Richard, whose expertise with the camera is known far and wide, clicks away with Lucy and Juliana wherever and whenever.
“Richard taught me to go for photos that tell stories,” relates Lucy.
And now that Lucy and Juliana were chosen to endorse Canon’s Selphy series — a line of portable photo printers — the Gomez family is having the time of their life taking photos for posterity.
Selphy allows the user to shoot, edit and print photos on the move without grappling with connectivity issues. With more than 21 types of memory cards and distinguished card slots, and an easy-to-view tilted 2.5” LCD screen Selphy CP770 and CP760 are for printing personal photos anytime, anywhere.
Lucy and Juliana can easily tote their Selphy CP770 around since it’s housed in a portable beach bucket container. Here, mother and daughter can store accessories, like compact power adapter, paper, ink and paper cassettes.
Now, the Gomez family can say “cheese!” as many times as they want, anytime, anywhere.