role model

Senior year of college I asked my literature professor if she could suggest me a list of authors who were bilingual, to check their backgrounds and try to learn something from them. She gave me three names: Rosario Ferre, Maria Luisa Bombai and Carlos Fuentes (later I learned that Borges published in english too) One of the two female writers was Puerto Rican and had gone completely bonkers, shooting her husband and then herself. My professor was kind enough to provide me with a book of Carlos Fuentes "Myself with Others: Selected Essays". In the book Fuentes talks about many topics: political views, his academic background (which was very interesting considering he was one of the first mexicans to attend Harvard University) and also his passion for literature.

One of his stories that stuck to my head was when he was in elementary school in Washington and somehow came across this new student in class who had just arrived from Europe, escaping from the Nazi opression. He didn`t know what Jewish meant, he learned after other classmates began to isolate him.

I dont know if it sound "corny" to say, that Carlos Fuentes to me is my biggest literary role model (I really don´t care), but, I can honestly say I only wish to be as close as good as he is-one day; it will probably take me around twenty years; but, I still keep reaching for my english dictionary today and continue to struggle to put my self out there everyday. Everyone has to start somewhere-somehow, right? ... I will continue to follow the yellow brick road, to see where it takes me, until I get there. Paulo.