Ostoic, who has lived in Valencia for 24 years, has become the first non-Spanish creator of these figures to win the prize known as “El ninot indultat infantil”.
“Las Fallas is a major festival. People in the streets enjoy it, and that is the essence of it,” he said in a statement to the media.
This festival is a traditional celebration held annually in the city of Valencia, Spain; it is the patronal festival of the town, for which the patron saint is Saint Joseph, whose day is observed on 19 March.
Ostoic, an architect born in the Chilean city of Viña del Mar, has never been to Croatia, although his grandfather was Croatian. “I’ve visited Italy, my grandmother’s country, but I haven’t yet been to Croatia,” he told the local newspaper Levante.
In Chile, he worked in theatre and music, and came to Spain on a Chilean scholarship to study singing in Madrid.
“I came to Valencia because there was an opening in the Generalitat choir (the regional government), and then I stayed, collaborating on various productions. I also work at the Basilica of the Virgin, where I sing and play the organ at Sunday Mass,” he told the Spanish news agency EFE.
His children’s falla, titled “Arca: Pepet’s Journey” (Arca. El viaje de Pepet), won first prize this week, thereby being spared from burning.
Namely, the figures that receive the most votes from the public are granted “Ninot Indultat” status and are preserved as part of the city’s cultural heritage.