The road of life

There are times when you choose the road; other times when the road chooses you. But whatever road you choose, drive it well my friends! ©Ileana Gutierrez

My Memoir

In response to my work in progress, my memoir is in its final stages. It all began when after twenty-one years, I returned to my native country of Nicaragua, only to discover a new world, far from the one that had settled deep into my memories. A distant but palpable paradise, where as a child in that heaven, I enjoyed a world most people only dream of: endless days of riding horses through forests of warm rain…adventures on moonlit nights to the sound of distant jaguar cries. The forest was heaven and home, until one day that childhood ended. In in my new life I would witness one execution after another, pass corpses displayed in the streets, and watch as day-by-day, the paradise I had known and loved became shattered, first by the evils of war and currently by the plague of deforestation.

A Pedal Away

Great news my friends. My short story "A Pedal Away," has been published. After returning to my homeland Nicaragua twenty-one years after exile, I met a special boy. At that time the boy was one of the many homeless children that lived in one of the largest landfills, La Chureca. The day I entered the landfill of eternal despair, my life changed and I made a promise. "Tourists come and go, take my pictures and say they will tell the world about me, but I know they don't," the boy said while telling me his story. My throat knotted at the impotency of sitting next to him and not being able to relieve his hunger, fear and overall sense of abandonment. It was then that I made a promise. " I will write your story for the world to know," I said to the boy not knowing if I would be able to keep it--the publishing part that is. Now my story is out in Spain and I will soon receive my copy to share with all of you. A life well-lived is one where our hearts reach out to others without expecting a return.