Tales along the Way from Granada, Nicaragua to Washington, DC
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...I was so awed by such a super grocery that I had forgotten that I had to use the restroom so I told Chunchy “I need to go to the toilet.” She asked me back “number one or number two?” Of course in Spanish, but I have never had heard of this “one” or “two” thing, I repeated “pee” and with my hand signaled to my crutch, “Oh!” Chunchy said, “that is number one.” I had begun my “melting” into the so called “pot.” I thought I would “number one” myself on my brand new pants or in the aisles of the grocery. The “toilet” was way back in the rear of the grocery, just picture the distance in this monster of a grocery store. ...When I reached the restroom I had to make a decision, I thought, “this country is full of decisions to make,” one sign read “Colored” and another “White.” I did not know what this meant, too soon for me to grasp but I knew the words, I had learned a few words in my English class at the CCA. I looked at myself and coming from the tropics my skin was tanned so I figured I am “colored” and started to go in the direction where the stalls for “colored” were, but a security guard stopped me and told me “excuse me sir, you are going in the wrong direction, you go that way, this side is for Negroes, black folks” and pointed towards the “White” sign. I understood what black and Negro meant especially the Negro one since it is spelled the same as in Spanish and its pronunciation is about the same. Despite this interruption, I managed to get to my destination and do “number one,” but I almost did not make it, what a relief. So soon, very soon, I had been introduced to racial discrimination in this country...
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About the Book
When my father set out to write a few tales to answer some questions his children had about his life, he realized there was much more to tell and decided to put the stories together in a book. The process of compiling all these stories about his journey from Granada, Nicaragua to Washington, DC became a journey in itself. Months of research, reaching out to unknown family members, and navigating the publishing world was all new to him, just as moving to the United States had been when he was nineteen years old. The stories not only answer the questions he was trying to answer, but gives his children a view into his life before they were born. As he would say, “life is story.”
—Carolina M. Calonje
About the Author
Armando J. Calonje M. was born in Granada, Nicaragua in 1941 and graduated from the Jesuit high school Colegio Centro America in Granada. He left Nicaragua in 1960 to pursue university studies in the United States of America at Louisiana State University in New Orleans. He completed his educati on at George Washington University in Washington, DC, where he obtained a B.A. in 1971 and an MBA in 1975. He worked for the Embassy of Nicaragua in Washington from 1966 to 1974 and for the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States from 1974 to 2000. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife Silvia; has three children and two grandchildren.