real moms. RÉSUMÉ HAILS FROM Dallas LIVES IN Oak Cliff ALMA MATER Texas A&M University and Parsons School of Design CURRENT OCCUPATION Visual Director at Neighborhood Goods FORMER OCCUPATION Fashion Stylist DREAM JOB AS A CHILD A singer SIGNIFICANT OTHER Joshua King, Co-Founder and Executive Director of AURORA, a multifaceted arts platform OFFSPRING Javier, 4
Mari Hidalgo King and husband Joshua are raising their son Javier to value his Puerto Rican heritage.
WARDROBE: NOUN PROJECT
mom next door /
MARI HIDALGO KING mama with a vision WORDS
HEATHER VANCE DEVERS
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KORENA BOLDING SINNETT
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ANY OF US HAVE PRETTY SPECIFIC DREAMS for our kiddos. Yes, we ultimately want them to be happy—still, maybe we really want them to attend this school, go into this career field and so on. Mari Hidalgo King also has a clear vision for her son’s future, but it’s about life’s basic virtues. The rest is up to him. “Being a parent, it’s about what you think a good person should be,” the Oak Cliff mom reflects. “It’s a constant instruction, making sure you build a really wonderful human for the sake of themselves and everybody around them.” King also values imagination and creativity. She and husband Joshua are in creative professions—she is visual director of Neighborhood Goods, a store with locations in Plano, Austin and New York, while he co-founded a Dallas-based arts platform—so they’re especially suited to fostering that sensibility in 4-year-old Javier. It’s all about helping him find his own voice and path in a world where uniformity often reigns. dfwchild.com / december 2020
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