Lucia

Content note: This story includes reflections on experiences with political violence. 

I’m 90 years old, almost a century. When I was a little one in Argentina, I lived with my mother. My father was working for the English railroad, and as a health chief in different places. But my father was from another generation, where education was very valuable. When Perón arrived in 1947 to power, in the first 24 to 48 hours, he said, “All the enterprises in Argentina are going to become nationalized.” People left. This is all to say so many factors produce change not only in a country, but in ourselves. The wisdom of ourselves is choosing the ones we understand, and that will help us do something for others. You have to work for others. And I learned from my father how to respect and love people: the humanistic approach. Now things are dominated by the influence of the media everywhere. Economic interests over human beings is bitter.

There is a cat that lives here. And one afternoon that little cat was on my balcony. And one of those terrible birds, a crow, was trying to attack the cat. I was eating and said to myself, “Listen, are you going to allow that bird to kill or hurt that cat?” I took a piece of rock out there. Threw it. Pow! Then silence. And I said to the little cat, "You can leave now, my little one. Nobody's gonna touch you if I'm here.” That’s an exaggeration, but it's that feeling I have for the weakest.

In Argentina, we don't have the need to be discriminatory, because we come from all types of descendants: Spanish, Indian, Italian. The capital Buenos Aires, with a population of 4 million people, is like New York. The education in Argentina is very, very good, and compulsory. Because of the government, if you have children at home missing school, it will be very, very bad for you. The last time when I was in Argentina, I went to visit family, the children, 11 years old. They knew every geography question I asked. The knowledge of geography in the world gives you the feeling, the idea of who you are, and where you are.

I have interviewed many people: boxers, poets, doctors, Fidel Castro in Cuba. I was invited to the capital of Nicaragua, Managua, when the war had just finished. There were some funny things that happened, but they are very sad. I was a guest in the house of a very famous painter, Rosie Lopez, and when I arrived at her place, she said, "Lucia, you have to sleep with me." I asked why. She said, "Lucia, that window there—at any time somebody can come because they want to kill me.” So she put the pillow up and she had a gun there. And she said, "This is to defend you.” Compared with any police, any military, that compassion came from inside. It was a humanistic approach to whomever went to visit them in a civilian war.

One day we were having lunch at a restaurant and someone said to me, “Compañera, this is my daughter, she’s six years old. Things are going to be dangerous because of our enemies, they know that we are going to be here. Anything can happen. Can you take my daughter and take her around the lake?” Imagine yourself, living your peaceful life, and somebody puts the life of a six-year-old in your commitment. But anyway, I took the little one and I started walking around the lake. And suddenly, I saw someone moving behind a tree. I knew it was what they called contra, the enemy. I knew it was the contra, but I didn’t want to scare the girl. I shielded her with my body and said, "Listen, let's go play something. We’re going to do a dance over there.” I went to the mother of the girl and I told her what happened, and in two minutes, the whole packed place was empty. People jumped from this, that window, car engines roared and kicked up so much dust, it was all over my hair. The girl disappeared with the mother, and I was left alone. I said, "Well, I'm going to die here." And then my friend, the one who I was staying with, she called and said, “I'm coming to pick you up, Lucilla.” You see, what you have seen in that piece of life, you have seen a friend, in a political and personal way. With friendships, you can be super popular and have many, but when you have a real friend, they will give their life for you, and you for them. Something also very positive, in my opinion, comes from the influence of Christianism. To love without limit. That philosophy, religion of faith, is going to help you all your life.

I married a Canadian while doing some studies in psychology in Panama, an arrangement between the embassy in Argentina and me, and I came to Canada. Where I am now, in this kind of institution, seniors are very lonely. I may say 99, 98% are lonely. One of the two in the marriage passes away, the children don’t always come, you know? And I can see the loneliness. So what I do is I sit over in the dining room in the afternoon when they come from outside. And once one of them said something to me. It was cold, it was raining, and one of the tenants here came when he saw me sitting there and he said, "Oh, thank you, Lucia, because you remind me when I had a home.” So now every day I am there most. It's simple, it's connection.