How did you discover your Salesian vocation?
At 14 I started working and attending an evening school. On Sundays I attended the oratory with friends; about 5 km by bike to reach it. In the morning there was Mass and games and in the afternoon other games, catechism, a blessing and a film or a play performed by the students and the oratorians. I have come to love the life of Salesians by "osmosis". I particularly liked the way in which the Salesians were friendly and were close to us. At the age of 20 I felt ready to enter the Salesians.
How did you become a missionary?
When I left the family to join the Salesians, I already had the idea of becoming a missionary. In this choice, the Salesian magazine Juventud Misionera had a great influence, as did the visits of Spanish missionaries, like Father Jose Luis Carreño, a missionary in India, who conquered us with his accordion and the missionary songs. Some of them I still remember! During the novitiate I volunteered to go on a mission and, after my first profession, I was sent to the "Saint Philip Apostle" Province of the United States East. I have been here since 1956.
How do you live your missionary vocation now?
Some members of the provincial council of the time, preceding the first profession, had an interview with all of us novices. When it was my turn, the one who had been my Director when I was a candidate, asked me with a smile, "Santa, what are you going to do in America? Convert all of them?" I replied, "Father, I will do anything they tell me to do."
During my life I have served in various communities of our Province. Now, at 85, I am for the third time in our house in Belle Glade, in the 24th year of service, adding them all together. I am the first Salesian to have arrived in Belle Glade in 1980. As vice- parish priest, I collaborate for the Masses, confessions, marriages, baptisms, oratories, visits to the sick ... Particularly happy to fulfill my duty as a priest, to work without administrative responsibilities. A good part of the time I spend praying for vocations to Salesian life because "some" Salesians are getting old - although this is not my case!
