Three weeks ago, I arrived back in my native
country--Guatemala, after six months of traveling around the
U.S. I was starting to promote my book and was invited to
attend a forum that is campaigning for change in the attitude
of Guatemalans. Why, you ask? Guatemala went through a
30-year civil war, and in 1996, signed an agreement in support
of peace. However, ten years time was not long enough to heal
old wounds. In many ways, the Guatemalan people are still
suffering from the effects of the past and they are just now
starting to believe that their future is going to be
brighter. It may seem hard to believe as, although the war is
over, the people are still living in an environment filled
with hostility and unrest.
The violence of war has struck my own family seven years
ago.
It was on a typical Saturday--life was usual. I remember I
was having lunch with some friends at the University,
meanwhile at the same time my parents were being held captive
at home. There were three captors, two ransacked the place and
the third held a gun to my father’s head. My parents were
held hostage at gun point for three hours in our own house.
After the dramatic incident, my father who’s a singer lost his
will to sing. His voice was no longer the same and since that
day, our lives changed forever.
I believed that it was only God who could have saved my
parents and helped us to survive through that terrible day of
our lives. It’s very emotional for me to tell the whole story
in details as it is hard to think about it. I even chose not
to mention it in my book. But nevertheless, I wanted to share
the story in the hope that you would understand the reason why
we desperately need to change our people’s attitude for the
benefits of Guatemala.
The Guatemalan people have lived in a society of fear and
death for many years. It is now the right time to change
that reality and start living in the vibrant culture of a new
and brighter life! One of the core organizers of the forum
brought this message to our people. I couldn’t agree more.
This forum took place for 2 weeks long in one of the most
beautiful scenic places of Guatemala City. You can read more
about it at
www.guateamala.com. At the forum, there were nine different cultures gathered to
share thoughts and develop new ideas among Guatemalans. The
exchange of ideas helped our people to believe that they
themselves can get involved in change. Benjamin
Franklin had said “Craziness is when you expect
changes in your life, but still you are doing
the same things in your life everyday” and that is so
true of the people of Guatemala. Guatemala will never change
if we only focus on the problems as a country in general.
To achieve this goal, we first need to focus in
our individual’s potentials and then we need to have faith in
everything regardless of the circumstances. In this sense I
believe that Guatemala can be changed and will change for
good.
I was invited to be a part of the Culture of Dreams. I
was thrilled to be involved and shared my experience about
publishing my book. Perhaps you might ask yourself why it is
so special to write a book. Anyone can do it. However in my
case, I am coming from a country where only 35% of the people
learned how to read and write and only 2% made it to the
university level. So as for me, it was a dream come true to
write and publish my book in the English language. I’ve shared
with many students from high school and university levels
about my whole experience--it was a difficult time for me, as
well as a frightening challenge to knock on doors in a foreign
country.
I’m telling you my story because maybe you have a dream that
you want to become true in your life. Maybe it is not a book
but more or less a family matter such as to make a trip with
your family, or something at your work, to apply for a new
job, or to say something to your loved ones…Go for it!
If your dream is going to bless other people…Go for it!
It will be the most fulfilling experience you can have in your
life.
I believe that when we try to reach for a dream, there will be
good days and bad days, there will be love and pain
involved. There will be painful days when you try to
accomplish your dream and fail. There will be days that you
will ask yourself if you have made the right decision. There
will be days that you will regret it, or you will get mad
because things are not going the way you planned them. There
will be days that you cry out to God for help, and you feel
like nothing happened.
As for me, it was the language barrier, the money, the
loneliness, the many days that I knocked on doors and got them
slammed in my face. Sometimes I ran out of strength.
Yes… things will happen but we have to be patient and we are
not good at that………the waiting.
Don’t give up! Keep moving forward, no
matter what.
I was honored to share my book with the local media at
different TV shows and radio stations for interviews about my
experience of writing the book. Honestly, I was more
concerned about touching their spirits and letting them know
that we need to have faith and GOD will do the rest. We need
to believe that, no matter what. Something that I realized is that through the experience of
writing the book, I got to see clearly many things in my heart
as I shared with you the passion and love of a true Latin Man.
I’ve shared with you about my mistakes, as well as what I’ve
learned from women. I’ve learned to value and respect your
perspectives—especially about life and many things that I need
to change to become a better man.
My heart wants to share more with you, but for now, let’s keep
searching for our dreams and start working on making them
REAL.
We say in Spanish: “Muchas Gracias
por tu tiempo, La mujer es una bendición de Dios”.
go to page 2...
