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Fernando Salazar
1961

Fernando Salazar fernando salazar
2010

Fernando's Website

For the 50th Reunion

October 28, 2010

To my class mates in Little Rock,

                When I was a little boy, about seven years old, I kept thinking what it would be like, in fifty years, the turn of the century. When the year 2000 arrived, and I was 57, I wondered how much longer I would live and experience the new millennium. In our 45th class reunion, again, I pondered if I would be lucky enough to assist to our 50th class reunion.
I guess, like most of you who are reading these lines, I have been blessed with the opportunity to, once more, experience the joy of being able to reunite myself with the dear people who contributed to my American upbringing of which I am so proud of.
            Fifty years have gone by since our graduation. It is said that you only value things when you lose them.  Obviously, I haven’t lost your friendship; but time and distance have a peculiar way of resembling something like a loss.  Although I have been in touch with some of you, the last time I had the chance to see you and savor your friendship face to face, remembering and having a good time, was on our 45th reunion and I am more than ready –enthusiastic and exited– to do it again.
            Life has been good to me and I am grateful to the Lord for 44 years of being married to Sylvia.  We have five children, four lawyers and an architect. We have five grandchildren, four Bolivians and one Mexican.  One of the Bolivians was born in Washington D.C.
            I started my law firm back in 1980 after a career in the foreign service and as a UN staff member which took me to places like Washington DC, New York, Quito, Mexico, Havana, Lima, Santo Domingo, Katmandu, Beijing and Bangkok, places where I worked and enjoyed life.
            Bolivian politics attracted me and I was elected a member of Congress, I was a member of the cabinet of the first woman president of Bolivia and was also Ambassador to the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
            I am now semi retired and living in the Eastern part of Bolivia –Santa Cruz de la Sierra–, and I am a Member of the International Court of Arbitration of The Hague.
            As I look back to my years in Little Rock –September, 1956 to June, 1961– I can only smile and be grateful for having forged there my lifelong cherished values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
            I urge all of you, on 29 May 2011, to be in Little Rock to rekindle, together, our memories because as, William Faulkner once said, the past is never dead, it is not even past.

Fernando Salazar
[email protected]
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

May 9, 2011
Dear friends:

It is with great sorrow that I have to inform you that I will not be able to attend our 50th. Class reunion, as I had planned since so long time ago. I have been advised that I have to make an oral presentation before the Bolivian Supreme Court on a very important case which I am defending. I have today been summoned to appear on Friday 27 May at 10:00 am. I cannot ask for a postponement because we have been insisting on a date for our appearance since last year.

This most unfortunate circumstance frustrates my plans which, as you know, I was enthusiastically entertaining since I received the initial invitation.

I hope you all have a grand time. I will be there in spirit. Best regards!

fernando salazar logo
             

 

 

Fernando's Pictures

What a Distinguished Leader


We all knew he was really just a Cowboy

1961 Trip Home with Ted Reutz, Norvell Plowman and Del Schmand