Corn Flakes, Hershey's chocolate and of course baseball welcomed me to the United States in July of 1968 as a Rotary Exchange Student from Bolivia. I arrived in the heat of the presidential elections and a national uneasiness about the Vietnam War. Those who lived those years know those times hardly compare with today’s in effervescence and convulsion. The ghost of drug addiction was making its entrance among the youth. I remember a lecture about Cannabis at the Cooperstown Central School’s auditorium, still not being fluent in English and so understanding little about it. It was only some years later that I would recall that day in Cooperstown - a time when tragedy afflicted my home.
My year in Cooperstown changed me forever. Besides learning all
about "America" I also learned first-hand all about the world while sharing
with 40 other exchange students living in the same Rotary district. We
had periodical meetings in which we exchanged music, food, customs, and
taught
each other our languages.
I was changed, yes, but I found my
home country changed when I returned. Perhaps I had lost my innocence and I
found myself more aware of the challenges facing Bolivia.
I remember
back in 1967 the newspaper photographs of Che Guevara after he was executed.
But it was only after I came back from Cooperstown in June of 1969 when I
placed that event in the perspective of my somewhat global experience: my
conversations about May 1968 with my fellow European exchange students, the
invasion of Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Cuba, Mao Tse Tung,
Nixon, The Soviet
Union.
I entered the (Jesuit) Catholic University in La Paz, Bolivia, in
1970 to study Economics. My stay here lasted only a year and half. I became
fully immersed in a student movement that supported socialist president, Juan
Jose Torres. Torres was overthrown in a bloody coup d'état led by Hugo Banzer
in
August 1971. I fled to Spain in September.
I stayed in Europe two years, until 1973, the first of which in Spain where I entered the Universidad Complutense de Madrid to continue with Economics. However, I only made it through Microeconomics with passing grades as I devoted most of my time to fighting Francisco Franco¹s dictatorship in the classroom and on the streets of Madrid.
I ended up hanging out with people from the Spanish Communist Party, which wasn¹t my objective but it was the only organized effort against Franco. At one point, I decide against joining the party "officially," which was a good decision not only ideologically but it would have come to haunt me when I decided to become a U.S. citizen.
When I began running out of money, I left for London and worked there as a maid for a while. I saved enough money to hitchhike my way back to Spain through Europe. Those were my hippie days.
In 1973, back in Bolivia, I married Kike, an ex-boyfriend from Spain, at the urge of my father, in the Catholic Church. We moved to Puerto Rico, where my daughter Ana Lucia was born the following year. We moved again to the Dominican Republic in search of opportunities, but our marriage ended in 1975. I finally managed to graduate from INTEC with a BS in Economics.
In 1975 I married Joe, a U.S. diplomat and moved to Washington DC. From there we moved to Bolivia. In 1983, my son Joe was born. In 1985, we moved to Guatemala. I entered the Catholic University Rafael Landivar and received a degree in journalism.
Throughout my travels and studies I never lost sight of my purpose in life; fighting for justice and the common good. My husband used to call me a "professional volunteer." Although my involvement with my church had its ups and downs, my faith never abandoned me. I was able to raise my kids Catholic and in the sacraments, even though both of my husbands were atheists.
We moved back to the United States, to Cape Coral, Florida, in 1990. I went back to school and in 1997 graduated with a BA in English from the University of South Florida. I started the first publication in Spanish and used it to fight for the rights of immigrants and migrant workers. In 1994, I started working for our local paper where I'm still employed.
My life took a drastic change in 1999 when my husband Joe died of lung cancer. But is wasn't until 2003 when I decided to dedicate my entire life to Christ. I went back to school for a Master's in Pastoral Theology at Barry University, which has helped me not only to learn about my religion but to grow in my faith.
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