Dear friends,
Our friends from San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua – Angelica Gonzalez and Edwin M. Corea – left Baltimore a week ago Wednesday. During their two weeks with us, they experienced a series of visits, sightseeing, and speaking engagements that included (whew!) a weekend Nicaragua Network (Nicanet) conference and concert, five colleges, two high schools, two churches, and our own Casa Baltimore/Limay public dinner event.
I want to express my appreciation to all those Baltimoreans, and others, who participated in some way during this busy period. I’m sending this letter to all of you as a group, so that you can appreciate each other! Together, we pulled off a monumental feat, with substantial success.
In the following narrative, I’m mentioning people and groups in more-or-less chronological order, based on the first date of their involvement before or during October 14-28. If I’ve inadvertently omitted someone, it was an oversight; please let me know, and I’ll send an addendum. But wait till you see how many people are already on this list!
Maurice Morales, Dave Schott, and Ellen Barfield participated in the regional phone calls to plan the conference program. Maurice offered to, and subsequently did, videotape the entire conference; we look forward to viewing the results! He arranged for the conference venue. He also videotaped the talk at Morgan State, and he hosted an out-of-town conference guest.
Dave Schott handled emails and phone calls about the upcoming conference and delegation during my absence for a week – having to finesse the answers on some occasions. He later sent some great photos from the conference and other delegation events he attended. Thanks, Dave!
Thanks also to Katie Malone, aide to Congressman Elijah Cummings, and Joyce Revell, aide to Senator Benjamin Cardin, for their assistance in obtaining letters of support from their legislators for the delegation’s visa applications.
Marilyn Carlisle also provided support, during my absence, for the visa applications. In addition, she helped line up several of the delegation’s speaking engagements. She assisted with food preparation and served as an interpreter during the conference and our October 24 dinner. On top of all that, she ended up hosting BOTH Angelica and Edwin for two weeks, after she had been expecting to host only Angelica. She did so while working full-time and juggling other family responsibilities, handling it all with gracious diplomacy.
Tom Hyatt kept our website information up-to-date about the conference, concert, and delegation events, even during a very difficult period for him personally. He and his family had originally planned to host Edwin for two weeks, but had to cancel because of the illness and subsequent death of Tom’s mother. Despite his loss, Tom lent his IT expertise at the conference and, a week later, spent an afternoon at the zoo with Edwin.
Paul Pojman introduced me to a colleague at Towson University who later hosted the delegation for some speaking events. Paul was also a mainstay to my sanity while I searched almost endlessly for a new venue for the reggae concert by Philip Montalban, after the first one fell through. He indirectly provided the solution when he introduced me to Emma Cervone at Johns Hopkins University, Program for Latin American Studies.
Huge thanks to Johns Hopkins for agreeing to co-sponsor the concert! In addition to Emma Cervone, special credit goes to Ben Vinson and Claude Poux of the Africana Studies Program for facilitating this effort. The JHU International Studies Program also co-sponsored. Pat Forster in the Scheduling Office was also very helpful, as was Campus Security.
Laurie Bezold aka Polly Riddims of Fusion Partnerships gave me lots of other good ideas for potential concert venues, and she helped publicize Philip’s concert through the ReggaeRunnins.com website.
Guillermo Brown, WEAA’s DJ for the “Fiesta Musical” program on Tuesday nights, also provided publicity for Philip’s concert. He interpreted Edwin’s plenary speech at the conference, and he hosted the delegation for two Spanish classes at the Institute of Notre Dame, including one with his delightful young students over lunch in Fells Point.
Carol Berman planned the food, and prepared much of it, for the Nicanet regional gathering, the reggae concert, and our dinner event. She froze individual food batches in advance; she missed a lot of the conference while running out to buy more supplies; and she came in under budget! Carol also made the Heart’s Place shelter space available for four conference attendees. This description doesn’t begin to capture the extent of her efforts – they were invaluable.
Maureen Daly hosted Walter Castillo Sandino, his wife Marbely and little daughter Blanquita for five days; and she even transported them to an urgent care center to get treatment for Blanquita. She lent warm clothes to Edwin and Angelica. She served as an interpreter to the delegation at the conference, in visits to the court system and City Hall, and at St. Vincent’s church. She treated Angelica, Edwin and me to a lunch at which we brainstormed some new ideas to help Limay. Wow! That’s a lot, and she did it unsparingly, sometimes on short notice.
M’bare N’gom, Chair of World Languages and International Studies, was extremely helpful in arranging a delegation talk and slideshow at Morgan State University. He also treated us all to a delicious lunch afterward in the faculty dining room. He has expressed interest in working with Casa Baltimore/Limay on future service learning opportunities for students at Morgan. Great idea!
Claudette Rhone was an absorbing co-presenter at Morgan State, and also at our public dinner, discussing photos of San Juan de Limay and our projects. She, her sister Brandi Rhone, Bernie Brown and Aaron Valentino also assisted at the conference. Additional thanks, Aaron, for lending us your laptop projector for the conference.
Harold (Howdy) Burns, Esq. and Joanne Capizzi warmly hosted a very pleasant dinner and business meeting in their home for the delegation and Casa Baltimore/Limay committee members. They also hosted two out-of-town guests during the conference, who reported how much they had enjoyed their stay. At Howdy’s invitation, Edwin (who is also a lawyer) accompanied him to three courts in one afternoon, in order to learn about our judicial system. Howdy also served as an excellent sightseeing guide to DC for the delegation – they visited the National Archives, Museum of Natural History, Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, and the National Gallery of Art.
Barbara Crain and John Reuter helped with food preparations for the conference and our public dinner, and they handled admissions at the reggae concert. John hosted Philip Montalban for several days and brought him from and back to BWI Marshall airport. John also helped to transport and to connect the rental sound system for the concert.
Carol Baish provided hospitality for two guests during the conference, and received high praise from them. Genie Strache also hosted an attendee who was pleased with Genie’s caring concern for her comfort. Many thanks to other potential hosts for their willingness to take people into their homes, if needed – Tiffany DeFoe, Jeff Duong, Mary Slicher, Elli Leontsini and Peter Winch.
Mark Chalkley was the excellent interpreter for Walter Castillo Sandino at the conference, and he also translated the conference program for Edwin and Angelica.
Maria Gabriela Aldana interpreted for Angelica’s conference presentation on immigration/ emigration issues. Maria also conducted a great conference workshop on cutting-edge media techniques for building solidarity. Finally, she participated with the delegation at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in a presentation about Limay, including a video about the sculpted soapstone gordas (large women) that mark twenty points of interest between Limay and its regional capital Esteli.
According to all reports, Hugo Lam, a Nicaraguan currently working in management for Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, led a wonderful conference workshop on stream preservation and water quality projects. One participant came up to me afterward and asked, “Where did you find this guy? He’s fantastic!”
Helen Melton and Gustavo Torres at CASA de Maryland facilitated the presence of another excellent and energetic speaker at our conference – Gustavo Andrade, CASA’s senior manager of organizing – who spoke on issues of immigration in the US.
ACORN-Baltimore never wavered in its willingness to provide a venue for the conference, even in the midst of dealing with rightwing media attacks. Particular thanks go to Joe Cox, who served as their liaison, and to Michelle Moore, his back-up. Joe also met with our Limay visitors a week later, to exchange information about poor people’s organizing techniques in the US and Nicaragua.
Tom Ward, Spanish professor at Loyola College, hosted Edwin and Angelica for two classes, in which they discussed past and present political and social issues in Nicaragua. Tom had visited Nicaragua, including Limay, in the 1990s, and has continued to follow events there. He expressed the desire to offer future Limay-related service learning opportunities to his students. We’ll definitely talk!
Goucher College produced a great campus-wide event for Edwin and Angelica, co-sponsored by Peace Studies and Hispanic Languages. Fran Donelan tirelessly coordinated this effort, along with Seble Dawit; and Kristen Keener in Media Relations created very slick posters and flyers! The student interpreters and campus guides – Shaina Longway, Scott Davis, and Sarah Ropp – also did a terrific job. In addition, Spanish professor Frances Ramos-Valdez hosted the delegation for a class.
Lea Ramsdell, a professor of Spanish at Towson University, organized very nice campus-wide and classroom events for our Limay visitors; and she wants to work with us on future projects for Towson U students. Many thanks also to the Spanish Honor Society who sponsored the campus event and provided very good interpreters (Maria and Lorena – sorry I don’t know your last names).
Carol Gerson Higgs and Dennis Livingston, just as they were headed out of town for the weekend, quickly made arrangements to lend us a laptop projector for our public dinner presentation. Later on, John Grace of Faith Community Church figured out how to make it work with my laptop! (John and his two sons, Fred and Gabe, visited Limay in 2005.) Thanks also to the Rev. Howard Nash and the church for making their space available for the dinner.
Angelica was especially pleased to visit Charles Curtiss at Heathcote, and she shared lots of news from Limay with him which he absorbed with interest. Charles was the Baltimore coordinator of Casa Baltimore/Limay until 1992; he lived in Limay for six months in 1990; and he led numerous Baltimore delegations to Limay through 1994. Thanks, Charles, for your hospitality during this special visit.
David Gracyalny and Tracy Jacobs facilitated the scheduling of the talk, slideshow, and video at MICA. It was a pleasure to meet after that event with MICA professor Ken Krafchek and two of his students, Natalie Tranelli and Michelle Faulkner. All three of them, and two others, plan to travel to Limay with Casa Baltimore/Limay in January; and they wanted Edwin’s and Angelica’s opinions about some community art project ideas they could carry out then in the town. Example: Natalie has a digital panoramic camera which could give Internet visitors a virtual tour of Limay!
The delegation paid a special visit to Baltimore City Hall, where they met with Jessica Contreras, the Mayor’s Office Liaison to the Hispanic and Latino Community, and Catalina Rodriguez from the City Council President’s office. They also enjoyed a building tour provided by Jeanne Davis, curator, during which they briefly viewed a City Council hearing and learned the basics of how Baltimore City ordinances are passed.
Many thanks to the other people and institutions who hosted visits and presentations by the delegation during their time in Baltimore: Joe Duncan and Will Perkins at Gilman School; St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Congregation; St. John’s of Baltimore City United Methodist Church; and Mary Slicher at Project PLASE, where we met with some friendly formerly homeless persons who are currently receiving holistic services at PLASE.
Thanks as well to Latin American Music Company (Ted’s Music Shop) for giving us a good deal on the sound system rental for Philip’s concert, and to the Restaurante El Salvador, who gave us a generous discount on their tasty pupusas and tamales de elote for our public dinner on October 24.
Up to this point, I have directed my appreciation only to persons who live or work in Baltimore. But other people have contributed a lot to our recent very moving experiences.
Thanks to Norberto Martinez of the Latino Radio Collective for taping an interview of Edwin and Angelica, and of Walter C. Sandino and Marbely Castillo Cerna, for later broadcast on WPFW-89.3 FM radio in DC. Marbely’s gift to the program is worthy of special note – her interesting discussion of the historical role of women within Sandino’s movement.
Walter Castillo Sandino, the grandson of Nicaraguan hero Augusto Cesar Sandino, gave an excellent presentation at Morgan State about the elder Sandino’s values and legacy. He then outdid himself three days later with his fiery speech at our regional conference, inspiring us all. His photos were also fascinating.
Philip Montalban put on a great reggae concert, which got us tapping our toes, then clapping and swaying on our feet, and finally (for some of us) linking up in a “dance train” in locomotion around the room.
I am grateful to everyone who made the Nicanet conference so meaningful for all of us. Everybody who attended had a wonderful contribution to make – people from Atlanta in the south, to Vermont and New Hampshire in the north, to Chicago in the west.
In addition, certain people deserve special mention. Kathy Hoyt and Chuck Kaufman, the National Co-Coordinators of Nicaragua Network, were key to making sure all the conference program details were handled. Arnie Matlin of the Nicanet Executive Committee helped solve several thorny issues before, during and after. Stephen Sefton and Michael Schroeder facilitated the attendance of Walter C. Sandino and family.
Other conference speakers, not previously acknowledged, were also excellent: ambassador Magda Enriquez, who enumerated the accomplishments of the UN General Assembly during the Presidency of Nicaragua’s Miguel D’Escoto; Melinda St. Louis, Deputy Director of JubileeUSA, who inspired us to commit to working even harder to “drop the debt” of countries in the “Two-Thirds World” and eradicate poverty worldwide; and Jenny Atlee, whose workshop on recent events in Honduras provided valuable background for our activism.
Above all, I’m grateful to our Limay friends, Angelica Gonzalez and Edwin M. Corea. They willingly came here, to a strange culture in (for them) a cold climate, where they met new people day after day – many of whom knew little about Nicaragua – and gave substantially the same talk time after time. It’s a tribute to them that, afterward, they said they want to go back home and keep working on our mutual projects. They made me feel the same way!
Barbara Larcom