At an early age, I read about the exploits of others in far off lands. During long, boring car rides, I imagined ominous figures lurking in the hills near my Southeastern Montana home and wrote stories about them. At sixteen, I moved with my family to California where I explored real foreign cultures.
During college, I spent weekends working with Cesar Chavez and the California migrant worker population. That motivated me to volunteer in a small Mexican village for a summer. There I helped start a school and a library. After graduation from Holy Names University I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to the Andes of Perú where I performed community development work in Abancay, near Cusco. My roommate, Marie and I taught indigenous children in schools with dirt floors, trained students for marching competitions, and founded 4-H clubs. I fell in love with my town, my pupils, and a local university student.
Upon returning to California from Peru, I earned an MSW from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco. I worked for 32 years as a school social worker, psychologist, administrator and university professor. My husband and I raised two sons. After retiring, I worked part-time as a travel counselor.
My passions are traveling and writing about my travels. My writing has appeared in World View Magazine, Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Dispatches, clevermag.org, and the California Writers Club’s Literary Review. My website is: www.evelynlatorre.com.