Interview by Marcus Waldron

It seems like you’ve been pretty busy. What have you been up to?
I’ve been editing Dolores issue #12, which is in the print shop now. It should be delivered on Monday. But for the last three weeks I’ve been traveling through the Alps with Bataleon Snowboards. It was chill, but I got super sick, and I’ve been lying down for five days in a row. And then we went to Laax for Team Travel Laax, which is like a sick skateboard event inside Freestyle Academy Laax, which is an underground indoor with an insane bowl and an insane vert. It’s at the bottom of a resort in the mountains, it’s an insane place. To arrive there, you have to take a flight, two trains, and a bus. 

How would you introduce yourself? If you meet someone at a party, they ask you what do you do? What would you say?
I don’t know. That’s something that always comes out like “Whatcha doing here?” So basically I’m a photographer, but I’m a media too, and the magazine thing. It’s crazy because at the end of the day, Letti and I, she’s my partner from the magazine, we do everything. We do social, we do the videos, we do most of the graphics. Now, we have someone doing layouts. We’re just there to work, and we love to work. We love skateboarding, so we do everything to have fun.

What’s your first memory of a magazine or print media?
I remember at my local skateshop in my hometown, which is like 30,000 people in the north of Spain, there was this little surf shop that used to have skateboards and stuff.  I remember the first time I saw Uno mag, which was a sick Spanish skate magazine, and it was square. It was like 2006 or 2007. I remember the graphics, and I remember the guys had elbows burned from the concrete. I was like, what’s this? And I still have it at home. Also, do you remember Rugged? Carhartt used to do a magazine called Rugged. I think those were some of my first contact with printed things. It was beautiful.

Do you remember when you first started thinking about making a magazine?
Yes, I was in my master’s already in 2016. My homie and I, we got together in the advertising & art direction Master. We had to decide what to do as a final project, and he proposed we do a magazine together. That was No Complain magazine in 2015. He’s a great graphic designer, so I used the same layout for the first Dolores. We did the magazine for the final project. So I took that project and transformed it, four years later.

You were born in Galicia in the north of Spain, right? Did you grow up there or in Barcelona?
I grew up in Galicia, and then I did my third year of degree in Bordeaux in southern France. And then I did my fourth year in Madrid. That’s why I lost one year of university because in Madrid, the system was the old one, so my qualifications didn’t make it on time to Galicia to apply for my Master’s. So I did the Master’s in Galicia as well, and then I moved to Barcelona when I finished in 2015, and it’s been already nine years in Barcelona.

And how do you like it?
I used to be so in love with it, but now I feel over it. I don’t like it anymore. I know why I like it, but the reasons why I like it are gone. I feel like the city is so sketchy now.

You think it’s changed a lot?
It changed way more than a lot. It changed totally. It is great to be here because a lot of things happen here, but it used to be better. And I remember when I moved here, all my friends used to say, it used to be better. So I think it is just getting worse and worse.

What other cities do you think are really good for skating right now?
I really love Helsinki. Every time we go, it’s just amazing. The street spots are amazing. Also, Vienna. The Vienna community is so cool as well. They both have an insane DIY, with such a great community. I think Paris is the shit now. Also maybe Barcelona for a week is nice. It’s just that I feel that I’m stuck here. If you come for three weeks it is probably amazing.

Which came first? Photography or skating?
Photography. When me and my friends grew up, most of them were boys. As teenagers some of them turned to BMX and some of them to skating. The skatepark in our town was new then, so I was there with them and at some point I started to take pictures when I was 17 or 16 or something. But they used to tell me that I couldn’t skate. I tried and they were like, Raisa don’t try because you basically can’t. And I was like, okay, bro, I don’t know why, because I did athletics all my life. I’m a taekwondo black belt. It is not that I’m not athletic. Blah, blah, blah, she’s just a groupie. That’s the only reason she’s at the park. And it’s like, I’m not your fucking groupie. These are my friends for my whole life. So I really started skating when I moved to Bordeaux in 2012 because nobody knew me, so I just started skating. There was a little plaza, so I got a board at the shop and started skating. 

What is Milagros Studio?
A lot of brands pitch us things with an agency or someone else that basically does the work that we could do. So it’s like, alright, let’s do our own thing. So we use Milagros as a platform between the brands and us. So that there’s nobody between us and the brands. We do little things, but it’s nice. My two friends who I work with there do commercial videos and wedding videos, insane videos. They are really pro in every aspect. So I was like, let’s do this.

It seems like that’s become a thing for a lot of magazines is stepping into the agency role.
It’s going slowly since I have the magazine, and they have the video project thing. It takes time and energy. But for example, the Dickies thing I just made came from there. The girl from Dickies was like, are you doing stuff with Milagros? And I was like, yes, so let’s do this. And I produced the whole thing. But we need to work on the platform.

What’s one of the best things about running a magazine?
That you have no boss. It is my favorite thing.

What’s one of the worst or hardest?
There’s no schedule. So you better control your sleep hours. I don’t know. I’m trying to learn how to manage everything at the same time.

How much do you travel normally in a year?
I think there’s one side where I like to be on the road, but now, lately, I really like to be at home, alone. I took a break, and I didn’t travel in all December and in all January because I needed to stop. And now, since February, I did Greece, and then I did Salzburg, Mayrhofen, Bulgaria, Austria, and Laax. And now, this month, there’s nothing else for the moment. But after May, summer is crazy because we have a lot of skate events in Europe. So it’s like every weekend it’s a different one. I’m going to LA in May, and then probably UK, and then Montpelier, and then Vienna, and then Helsinki, and then Norway.

When you’re home, how often do you try to shoot skating? Or how often does it happen? Maybe you’re not even trying.
I was supposed to go today, but it rained. I want to skate tomorrow myself because I wasn’t skating that much in winter. I skated yesterday, and I was pretty stoked. I just try to see who’s in town to do stuff. I was also supposed to shoot with Fiona two days ago, but she hit her knee, and we couldn’t make it. It’s a difficult thing to find the balance. When there are skate events, you don’t always have time to go to shoot in the street. I try not to stress myself, but also not sleep. Now I’m at the point that the mag is sent to print, so it’s kind of like vacation. And Tanya is here now and Vanessa, so they are always good ones to go and shoot with, even with no purpose. Let’s go to shoot some tricks, and we can see what we do with them.

What gets you excited to shoot a photo? Like if somebody hits you up to, because they want to shoot a photo, what about a situation will get you excited?
If we’re talking about Barcelona, I will say a spot that I haven’t been to. Because imagine “Let’s go to the Barceloneta banks.” Again! Or a spot that’s far that and you have to go by car, those too.

Do you want to shoutout any of your favorite female media or magazines? 
I will shout out Lucia from Skatesencia in Berlin. She doesn’t have a mag, but she created an insane community there in Berlin for FLINTA people. She’s a hard worker, she’s super pro, she’s super talented, and she’s always down to do stuff. I will also shout out Pipa from Brazil, from Into the Mirror magazine, because I know how hard it is in Europe, so imagine how hard it is in Brazil. She’s doing a great job there as well.

Any advice for somebody who’s interested in starting a magazine?
I will say the key is to never stop. I know sometimes it is boring, sometimes it’s frustrating,  sometimes you don’t have money, some brands don’t answer, or you don’t know what to do, or you need a designer, but there’s always a solution. You do what you want, you interview people that you like, and that inspire you. You do work that inspires you, and these things inspire others. I think it’s really sick. Telling someone else’s stories through you. I think that’s amazing.