Odyssey to Opportunity by Roger R. Fernández - HTML preview

Chapter 10

THE SUN SHINES AGAIN

October 1986.

Another milestone in Roger’s checkered life marks the beginning of a rejuvenating and promising future that breaks the vegetating mold of his most recent past and propels him into new heights of personal and professional fulfillment. A significant event in his human relationships occurs that will make him feel fully human again and enjoy life in its fullness once more: he meets Lucille Paradela.

Understandably, though unjustifiably, Roger’s faith in women had been severely shaken when he was left alone to face an uncertain and frightening future with a dismembered and anguished family. His mother’s memory, his sisters’ messages of sympathy and offers of help, and the expressions of support that kept pouring in from women friends of the family firmly reassured him that not all women behave irresponsibly, and effectively contributed to restore his trust in them.

By the time when his first marriage was annulled, Roger was sufficiently healed in his relations to women so that he started preparing himself mentally to date once again. He was not as clumsy as when he first dated some twenty years earlier, but he was far from being sure of himself and of the procedures to follow to find the right woman with whom to spend the rest of his life in holy matri  mony. Nonetheless, he was ready to face the severest obstacles to his dating: financial responsibilities, coupled with shortage of funds, and his tendency to be totally frank and to reveal, from the beginning, his present condition and future aspirations.

Before he met Lucille, Roger had already been going out with someone to whom he even got engaged. She was the daughter of a prominent couple from El Bierzo who was living in Southern California with her children. The engagement party was certainly impressive but the wedding did not materialize due to a serious impediment on her part that Roger was not prepared to overlook since he was not willing to marry outside the church. He was ready to wait for its resolution but she started growing impatient with the delay, and the affair ended there.

LUCKY ENCOUNTER

Roger’s encounter with Lucille came under unexpected and, he says, even providential circumstances. On the third Tuesday of October 1986, the then Chair of the Foreign Languages and Humanities Department at Los Angeles City College asked him if he could go that afternoon to represent the department at the Curriculum Committee meeting. Although Roger had been teaching at the college for over twenty years, he had never attended any of the monthly curriculum meetings. He accepted the invitation, however, and proceeded to the meeting room, ignorant as he was of its functions and his own duties in its deliberations.

As Roger was crossing the main quad to fulfill his assignment, he saw, walking in the same direction in front of him, the back of a beautifully dressed and rather petite woman with an attractive gait. Roger hastened his pace to catch up with her and start a conversation.

“Pardon me. Are you going to the Curriculum Committee meeting?” Roger ventured to say.

“Yes,” she replied with a smile.

“This is my first time to go there and I am a little bit nervous…” continued Roger.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “You just listen and give your opinion.”

During the meeting, Roger was impressed by Lucille’s intelligent participation. She was bright, sharp and knowledgeable. As for himself, he felt out of place, for he knew little of what was being discussed and, for the first time in his life, he chose to act as a philosopher by being silent as the French saying goes, “Si vous vous étiez tû, vous seriez resté philosophe”, or to avoid showing ignorance, a truly difficult task for Roger who is always ready with comments in gatherings he attends.

At the end of the meeting, Roger decided to go to the faculty mailroom across campus in the Administration Building. Also going in the same direction was Horatio Martínez, a colleague who, like himself, was born in Spain. The topic of their conversation soon turned towards plans for retirement. By then, Lucille, whose office was located in the Administration Building, had caught up with them. She overheard Roger as he said “I would like to retire for some time in Ponferrada or in Salamanca…” Lucille joined the conversation saying: “Oh, Salamanca! It’s a beautiful city. I love Salamanca. I was there last year with the summer International Program”.

By this time they had arrived at the Administration Building. Roger continued:

“Why don’t you come again next summer? I will be leading the program and I am starting to recruit possible participants.

“Oh, I can’t”, she replied.

“Why, won’t your husband allow you to go?”, Roger ventured to ask.

“No. I am free to do what I want, but I have other things to do…”, Lucille replied as she proceeded towards the elevator.

Roger quickly turned to his friend:

“What does she mean, she’s free? Does it mean that she is

single?”

“Yes”, he replied.

“You know”, continued Roger, “she is very nice and intelligent. I would certainly like to know her better.”

“Go ahead. Hurry up and catch up with her”, the colleague advised him.

“What’s her name, do you know?”, Roger asked.

“I don’t know her name”, he said, “but she is the Chair of the Nursing Department”.

Roger bade good-bye to his friend and went to the office to look for her name in the college Catalogue. She was listed as L.  Paradela. He could not find what the L. stood for. He hurried back to the mailroom to check with the mail clerk for the full name of the Chair of the Nursing Department. The next day, between his classes, Roger went to the Nursing offices, reported to the Chair’s office and, sounding as if he had known her name long before… he said: “Lucille, would you like to have lunch with me today?”

“Not today”, she answered, “but tomorrow will be all right.”

The next day came. While pretending to be happy on their way out to lunch, Roger was scared to death, for he had only twenty dollars in his pocket, and prayed that Lucille would choose an inexpensive place to eat. Fortunately, she selected Max’s Fried Chicken, a Filipino eatery on Wilshire Boulevard where the food was delicious and, more importantly, moderately priced.

When they returned on campus and went to their respective offices, Roger was again approached by the Chair of his department who told him: “I have good news for you. Your services in the Curriculum Committee are no longer needed. The regular representative has decided to continue his work.”

How ironic, Roger thought. In more than twenty years of teaching at LACC I never attended Curriculum Committee meetings. I was asked to represent the department at these meetings once, then I am recalled, as summarily as I was appointed, shortly after I met the woman that could change my life.

To his way of thinking, this was definitely not an accident, but rather a providential event.

In the days and weeks that followed, Roger was floating on cloud

9. He basked under the sunshine of their courtship. Each day, when driving the long trip back home after seeing her, his heart was overjoyed with song as he contemplated what their life could be together. During the family gatherings at her sister Virgie’s warm house he observed and admired an enviable closeness and love that they enjoyed with each other. He was especially impressed by her daughter Marguerite whose intelligence he promptly discerned. He savored her quick wit with delight, and soon began to appreciate and value her ingenuity and savoir-faire.

CHOICE FOR LIFE

As time went by, Roger’s personal troubles and anxieties receded in the background. Soon, he entertained the notion of making permanent his relationship with Lucille. On Thanksgiving Day, one month after they met, he proposed to her. They exchanged wedding vows on February 21, 1987, at a well attended Mass in Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic church, near the City College campus.

For Roger, his four-month romance with Lucille had an inescapable symbolism of destiny. As he puts it into perspective, he says: “I struck out in my first and only participation at the LACC Curriculum Committee meeting of October 28, 1986, but scored a grand-slam homerun in post deliberations at Our Mother of Good Counsel church four months later.”

What drew Roger to Lucille? Aside from the physical attributes, her whole personality appealed to him. He found her to be levelheaded, intelligent and very organized. Her leadership qualities attracted him, her skills in money matters reassured him and her sound religious principles uplifted him spiritually.

Lucille had a remarkable career of her own. Born in the Philippines, she attended nursing school there. She pursued a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and graduated Magna Cum Laude, prior to receiving a Fulbright scholarship to the United States. She took postgraduate courses at the New York Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital. Following her stint in New York, she moved to Minneapolis where she had accepted a scholarship from the University of Minnesota. After graduating with a Master’s in Nursing Education in 1954, she returned to the Philippines and became Dean of the College of Nursing at the Manila Central University. While in her first year as Dean, the Department of National Defense recruited her to organize the nursing department at the Veteran’s Memorial Hospital which was under construction. She remained Chief of the Nursing Service until 1972 when she immigrated to the United States to take a teaching position at the Bronx Community College in New York.

The cold winter that year encouraged Lucille to move to Los Angeles. She was fortunate to receive a contract to teach at the Nursing Department at Los Angeles City College where she was a professor before being elected Chair of the department in 1982, a  position she held until she retired in 1987.

Roger’s marriage to Lucille took the college community by surprise, but, in addition to the emotional support she gave him, Lucille brought him financial stability, professional growth and the physical well-being that being a nurse can provide. Lady Luck began smiling at him. Less than one month after the wedding, he was elected Chair of the Foreign Languages and Humanities Department. Her wise handling of funds brought security to his life, and her administrative experience helped him to adjust to his new responsibilities as Chair of a department.

With a busy schedule ahead, Roger needed Lucille’s companionship, experience and assistance. She came through with flying colors, for Roger’s leadership of his department produced positive changes and accelerated growth, not only because he wanted to prove himself, but also because, in her, he found inspiration and sound advice. Roger became active and somewhat influential again in the political and intellectual life and discourse of the college. It could hardly be otherwise, for the number of languages taught at LACC doubled from 8 to 16 under his direction and enjoyed an almost equal increase in class enrollment to more than 2500 students. The department has become the fourth largest among the 34 departments of the college, after Business Administration, English and Mathematics. Moreover, Roger was recognized once more with an entry among noted people in “Who’s Who among Hispanic Americans 1992-93".

INTERNATIONAL STUDY PROGRAMS

Before meeting Roger, Lucille had traveled extensively through Europe, Asia and North America. With her experience as a world traveler and a nurse, she became a most resourceful aid to Roger’s duties in the international program. She became instrumental in helping him recruit students, and accompanied him to the summer programs in Salamanca, Spain and Florence, Italy. They started traveling either with students in the program excursions to various cities of historical or artistic importance or by themselves to several locations of common interest and delight.

The first time Lucille and Roger traveled together was in the summer of 1987 to Spain, which served as a second honeymoon, as  they only had a few days off after the wedding. In addition to their tours with students, they went to the 15th of August celebrations in Fuentesnuevas. There, Roger’s friends and relatives met Lucille for the first time. They gave her a very warm Spanish welcome. Fred Anderson, a Channel 7, ABC Eyewitness News reporter who had spent two summers studying in Salamanca and at that time was in Santander, Northern Spain, went to Ponferrada, recorded the visit and broadcast parts of it four months later during the local evening news on ABC in Los Angeles.

Fred was so impressed by the beauty of El Bierzo that he decided to rent a car and do some more exploring of the region. When he finished his studies in Santander at the end of August, he drove south to Salamanca to meet Roger. The summer session had ended. Lucille and the students had departed for the United States, but Roger had remained in Spain a few more days to welcome and help settle his semester group of students who were being accompanied by Dr. Raoul de la Sota, an art professor from Los Angeles City College. Dr. de la Sota was on sabbatical, but was also teaching an art course in Salamanca.

When the students were all properly placed in families and school, Fred, Raoul and Roger headed for a two-day visit to Ponferrada. They toured “Las Médulas”, an impressive spread of barren peaks of red earth standing near each other, naked of all vegetation. In their glorious splendor, they remind the visitor of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. In early Roman times, however, thousands of slaves extracted tons of gold for their masters from the man-made peaks of Las Médulas that today remain as an imposing memorial of pain and wealth.

Fred drove Roger and Raoul through a winding, narrow-mountain road to a small Visigothic village which treasures an architectural masterpiece in its 10th century church. In its simplicity, this structure constitutes a true lesson in art. This excursion, with a breadth-taking view of the vast, picturesque landscape of “el valle del silencio” (the valley of silence), is an unforgettable experience well worth the sacrifice of a tortuous and difficult journey.

El Bierzo is rich in historical and artistic monuments that tourists have recently been discovering. Being a lover of nature and idyllic pastoral land, forestal growth and crystalline streams, Roger could not help but take Fred and Raoul to Compludo and its “Herrería”, a forge or smithery of Visigothic times that still works today.

To get to Compludo, Roger chose the road that he knew when  he was a little boy wandering through the hills of Salas de los Barrios, his place of birth. He saw a newly built road leading to the historic little town and signaled to Fred to drive in that direction. What Roger did not know was that the good road ended at Espinoso, some three miles short of their destination. The rest of the way was rough, made almost impassable by torrential rains that had fallen a few days earlier. With great courage they decided to continue their venture through the narrow, rocky and winding road. Riding in the back seat was Raoul, looking with amazement at the beauty of the landscape, while Roger was concerned about the possible damage to the car, and Fred scared to make a wrong move with the wheel. So awed was Raoul by the panoramic view that he yelled: “Fred, stop the car. Let’s contemplate this magnificent vastness of natural decoration…” Fred, struggling to keep the car on course, answered with a worried smile on his face: “Raoul, I am trying to make sure that we do not fall down into the gorge. I have no time to appreciate, much less behold beauty of any kind…” They finally arrived at Compludo, relieved that they made it without harm to themselves or to the car. They proceeded on foot through the scenic path that leads to the “Herrería”, but the walk was pleasurable and relaxing. After the visit, they returned to Ponferrada by the only other road, longer but asphalted.

Raoul and Fred expressed their appreciation to Roger for having taken them to the “Herrería”, for that unique relic of arts and crafts of old captures the imagination, curiosity and interest of the visitor in a way that no other remnant of ancient technology does. The whole system within the brick structure, including the fire that melts the iron to give it the shape desired and the huge wooden hammer used to do the finishing work, is hydraulically operated and functions by means of the energy of the channeled force of air created by a natural waterfall. This object of wonder is hidden in a harmonious blend of colorful foliage and clear, pure water of the combined streamlets Miera and Miruelos. The Compludo Herrería, is indeed, a true wonder of the past which people continue to marvel at in the present…

Since their marriage, Roger and Lucille have visited new places or revisited old ones either with students or by themselves at the end of the summer educational programs. Although a trip to Portugal is not normally included in the Salamanca study project, most students want to partake in such a journey. Colegio Hispánico Miguel de Unamuno organizes excursions to Portugal at a moder  ate price and an attractive and relaxing timetable. Both Roger and Lucille have enjoyed the experience with the summer students in their discovery of Portugal.

The itinerary to Portugal provides for an overnight stop at the ancient and renowned university city of Coimbra, site of a church which contains the tombs of the first kings and a marvelous library of world fame that is housed on the campus of the university itself. The Hotel Dom Luis, where the group usually stays, is perched on a hill that overlooks the sprawling Mondego river and its scenic valley as well as the city’s historic skyline and offers the visitor a most restful view of beauty and tranquility.

Other stops at meaningful and noted locations embellish the journey to Lisbon. Fátima, the renowned site of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1917 to Francisco, Jacinta and Lucía has a special meaning for Roger. It satisfies one of his most ardent wishes even since his youth: to visit one of the places in modern times that Mary herself chose to bless with her presence. He also recalls his short but memorable stay in Túy where Lucía also had stayed for a few years as a nun after the apparitions.

From Fátima, the journey continues on to Batalha where an imposing and exquisite monastery was built in Romanesque style to celebrate the 1385 Portuguese victory over Spain and the self-rule that ensued from the outcome of the battle. This artistic structure stands as one of the best examples of 14th century architecture in Europe.

After a rest for lunch or a dip in the Atlantic Ocean at the charming and nostalgic city of Nazaré, travel resumes to Lisbon, a spacious modern city built on seven hills. Since antiquity, this westernmost capital of Portugal that overlooks the Straw Sea has harbored ships of all sizes and flourished as a busy trade center. Among the many priced monuments that celebrate Portugal’s age of discoveries, Roger and Lucille marveled at the Torre de Belém, the Monasteiro dos Jerónimos, and the modern Padrao dos Descobrimentos. A night visit to Barrio Alto delights travelers with the Portuguese folksongs known as “fados”.

Lisbon’s surrounding cities that are equally attractive to tourists include Sintra, which Lord Byron described as a “Glorious Eden…that contains beauties of every description, natural and artificial…” This serene city, with its clear mountain air, captured Roger’s idyllic love of nature and Lucille’s romantic view of castles and royal abodes. Indeed, the Royal Palace and the Castelo dos Mouros (Castle  of the Moors), with their rich interior decoration and multiple openings to the outside to behold the amazing vistas of lush vegetation that is all around them and beyond, justify the many Portuguese poets’ description of Sintra as “a garden of earthly paradise”. This picturesque city has not changed much since Lord Byron wrote great praises about it. Even in today’s world of cars and buses, no traffic signals disturb the harmonious ensemble in display for human admiration and enjoyment.

On the return to Lisbon, a pleasant and fascinating bus-ride through vineyards and villas with swimming pools and tennis courts leads to the fishing port of Cascais, now a popular summer resort that in the past hosted many world heads of state. This historic enclave of universal fame is one of Roger’s favorite places of rest and contemplation before resuming the journey to Lisbon passing by Estoril, site of one of the most famous casinos in Europe.

In the summer of 1992, Roger and Lucille drove by car to Portugal with Lucille’s cousin, Josie Flores, who had come to Europe with her husband to visit Fátima and Lourdes. The two couples stayed overnight at Fátima and then proceeded to Seville, Spain, site of Expo, the 1992 World’s Fair. Their travel there coincided with the arrival of the Latin American heads of state for a high-level Hispanic conference.

Both Lucille and Roger had been to Seville before. This time, however, Roger’s presence there became most meaningful to him, for he had the unexpected but pleasant opportunity to shake hands with some of the leaders who were at the World’s Fair grounds that Sunday, July 26, and to voice aloud his displeasure with Fidel Castro who had come to Seville to participate in the Hispanic summit.

At about noontime, Lucille asked Roger to go to the Spanish pavilion to obtain tickets if they were needed to enter. He found the compound closed and was told that the Latin American Presidents were lunching with the Royal family. Disillusioned that he might have to leave the World’s Fair without seeing the Spanish pavilion, Roger decided to go back and report the bad news to Lucille and her cousin. As he was walking back, he heard some commotion coming from a cross street. He turned to his left and there he saw Felipe González, the President of Spain. Instinctively, Roger yelled: “Señor Presidente…”. Mr. González extended his hand to him saying in Spanish: “Very glad to see you here”. Even though Roger would never vote for Felipe González, he was overjoyed to have shaken hands with the President of the country of his birth.

Roger related the incident to Lucille and the accompanying couple. When the four of them walked later to the Spanish pavilion, they were just in time to see the dignitaries coming out of their state dinner. Roger managed to place himself very close to the front line of well wishers. He shook hands with several Presidents, including Carlos Salinas of Mexico. The moment he relished most, however, was when Castro came out and got close to him. Roger yelled twice in Spanish: “Freedom for Cuba, assassin!” Castro gave Roger a nasty look of disgust as he rushed into another corner of the crowd where a small group of people who had followed him everywhere received him with open arms. Roger accepted Castro’s spiteful attention with a big smile of sweet personal revenge.

In the summers of 1989 and 1990, Lucille accompanied Roger and a group of students to the Florence study program and all the excursions. They toured two charming medieval cities: Siena, with a harmonious atmosphere of a historical and artistic environment, and San Gimignano, a serene town of “towers of nobility” and narrow streets lined with palaces and patrician homes that delight lovers of past splendor. San Gimignano has also something to offer to Dante Alighieri’s readers and admirers with its numerous shops that sell white “Vernaccia”, the only wine mentioned in his “Divine Comedy”.

The ride through “Chianti” country to these two enchanting localities was itself very pleasing to the eye with a scenic landscape of green fields of cypresses, vineyards and olive-trees. Of similar striking panoramic beauty was the road leading to Lucca, Torre del Lago and Pisa, three wonder cities that were the object of another memorable excursion.

Lucca, a prestigious and prosperous city within tree-topped ramparts and no sidewalks, flourished throughout the centuries in art, commerce and agriculture. The visitor may be raptured by the museum at the birthplace of Puccini, the well-known opera composer or intrigued by the Cathedral with its “Volto Santo”, a wooden crucifix believed to be the true image of Christ, and Tintoretto’s exquisite “Last Supper” whose table appears to turn with the viewer as he moves from one side to another. No visit to Lucca would be complete, however, without a pleasant walk along the city walls, shaded with old trees, a unique feature of this old town: a superb promenade which no other city can boast of having.

A short visit to Torre del Lago before proceeding to Pisa is relaxing and educational. Here, Puccini’s lovers can visit his villa where  he composed “Madame Butterfly”, take a boat ride in the lake or sit on the restaurant patio that overlooks this renowned body of water while sipping a cappucino or a cup of tea or whatever the visitor feels like drinking or eating while contemplating a truly romantic setting.

Less than a twenty-minute bus ride away is Pisa, the city of the Leaning Tower, of historic and cultural clout, of riches and world fame. At the present time, the impressive Tower is off limits to the public. During the 1989 visit to Pisa, however, both Roger and Lucille climbed the Tower and experienced the weird sensation of leaning with it, particularly when going up through the outside part. While Lucille stopped at the 252nd step, Roger continued to the very top, the 298th step and all. On the top, where the slant of the Tower is really noticeable, to the amazement and disbelief of all there, he performed a little dance. He invited a girl from Long Beach, California, to join him. She, instead, grabbed the inside railing and held tightly to it.

The queen of the excursions has always been the three-day long weekend trip to Venice. On their way there, they stop to visit Padova, the birthplace of St. Anthony. They return to Florence via Verona, a prehistoric town circled by walls and gates. Here, as part of the group’s activity, Roger indulges his literary curiosity with a visit to Juliet’s house (for Romeo and Juliet supposedly lived in Verona), and Lucille satisfies her musical itch by going to the opera at the city’s majestic “Arena”, a centuries-old Roman amphitheater with a gigantic stage that lends itself to the massive numbers of persons and animals in the production of “Aida”, a frequent summer presentation.

In Venice, they tour the main sights: St. Mark’s Basilica of splendid Byzantine style, the Doge’s Palace and the “Galleria dell’Accademia” (Academy of Fine Arts). Each year that they go, their activities vary for “idling in Venice”. In 1990, they rented a private boat and toured the fascinating islands of Murano, renowned for its glass-blowing factories; Burano, well known for its lace-factories and loved by painters for the colors of its houses, and Torcello, the idyllic island whose past is recognizable in the Cathedral and its mosaics, and in the XIIth century church of Santa Fosca. That year, this foray into the islands was a welcome exit from the mainland of Venice at a time when it was being invaded by thousands upon thousands of youngsters from all over Europe who gathered for Pink Floyd’s concert (of sad memory to the Venetians) that preceded an  almost full hour of fire-works which annually announce the celebration of the Feast of the Redeemer.

Nothing can match, however, the 1993 group’s experience during a specially arranged gondola tour through the canals of the city. They rented the service of ten gondolas with their gondoliers and proceeded to glide through the narrow canals, serenaded by the delightful voice of Rona Commins, professor of Music from Sacramento State College. When the gondolas reached the Grand Canal, the gondoliers set their gondolas side by side, and started a triumphal march towards the Rialto Bridge with Rona in the middle, singing “arias” of noted operas. It was a majestic, regal march, so impressive that people from the sides and on the bridge stopped to watch and take pictures. For the participants, this was indeed the highlight of the trip.

Roger and Lucille do not limit their travels to study program activities. Often, at the end of the study program, they go by themselves to explore new places. In 1990, while in Italy, they rented a car to go south. On the way, they visited Assisi of religious as well as artistic and historic interest to both of them, and the nearby university city of Perugia, mentioned in Boccaccio’s writings, and where international students flock to study.

The journey to southern Italy fulfilled two of Roger’s dreams: to see Pompeii and the Isle of Capri. He was overwhelmed by awe as he toured the ruins of Pompeii where he could appreciate the remnants of an ancient civilization destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. Of equal interest to him were the ruins of another destroyed civilization found at Ostia Antica near Rome. Recently discovered, these ruins are less known, but no less impressive than Pompeii to the beholder.

In the Isle of Capri, on the other hand, Roger could fall back on his usual reverie of great natural beauty that often captures his imagination and takes him to paradise, for that’s what this island is. Introduced to the world by Gracie Allen, it has been spoiled somewhat by the impure and greedy demands of modern commercialism. Nevertheless, for Roger and Lucille, Capri fulfilled a dream of fantasy well worth the visit and the two-night stay at the nearby romantic city of Sorrento.

Two other delightful Italian cities that Lucille and Roger enjoyed visiting are Spoleto and Urbino. Both localities are three to four hours from Florence by bus, but both are almost perfect examples of the period of history that are portrayed in their buildings and their streets: Urbino, a striking flawlessly harmonious ensemble of Renaissance style and tradition, with a fairytale-like skyline yet untouched by pollution; and Spoleto, a charming center of medieval streets and a scenic hilltop setting that overwhelms the sensitivity of nature lovers as Roger is. Spoleto is world known for its arts Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds), while Urbino is renowned for its university, its Palazzo Ducale and its native sons Raphae