Natalia & Anna-maria
Anna-Maria Violich-Olivier and Natalia Bernal had the great fortune of meeting in the spring of 2015, when Natalia took her four year-old child to a Music Together class which Anna-Maria was teaching. They started chatting and realized that they were both Spanish-immersion teachers with a passion for children’s music. Anna-Maria had twin toddlers at the time and was taking a break from classroom teaching to focus on teaching music and movement to young children. Natalia trained with Music Together in the summer of 2015 and with Canta y Baila Conmigo in 2016. She then apprenticed with Anna-Maria to become a music and movement specialist.
In the summer of 2016, Natalia decided to transition away from classroom teaching at Sylvia Mendez Elementary (Berkeley, CA) in order to build a career as a music, movement, yoga, and Spanish teacher. She then started envisioning a health program taught through music and movement. In 2017, Natalia invited Anna-Maria to join her in developing and teaching the Healthy Me/Saludable Soy Program, funded through the YMCA of the East Bay with Berkeley Soda Tax funds. They quickly grew their friendship and teaching partnership and, over the course of the next six years, expanded the program to many cities in the East Bay. Being bilingual teachers with a passion for music, and moms of bilingual children, they realized that, together, they could write simple yet engaging kids’ songs to teach about healthy habits. In 2020, they released a bilingual EP of songs called Sabroso under the band name Healthy Me/Saludable Soy. They rebranded themselves as Aguacate Music Kids in 2022.
Anna-Maria and Natalia both have bilingual teaching credentials, and masters degrees in education, and each have about 10 years experience as elementary public school teachers. Natalia’s family is from Uruguay and Anna-Maria is from Venezuela.They were both raised bilingually. Natalia now has a 12 year-old child and Anna-Maria has 9 year-old twin daughters. They both live in Berkeley, California.