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FELIZ DIA DEL AMIGO!! Happy Day of Friendship! Here in Argentina, we celebrate Friend's Day (July 20th) , it is a big holiday where amig@s gather and just spend time together appreciating each other and celebrating friendship over mate, asado, parrilla, and of course some sweets (dulce de leche and alfajores)! Over my time spent here in Buenos Aires, I have met so many inspiring individuals and I have learned that everyone has a story to tell and to share, and its important to take in account everyone's story. The back story to El Dia del Amigo is that on July 20, 1969, 48 years ago, a man stepped on the moon for the first time. For this reason, this date remained in the collective consciousness as an achievement of the whole world. That day Enrique Ernesto Febbraro had a sudden idea: the connection with the rest of the world through the sending of letters. Cultural Vistas provided me an internship experience in which I would meet so many new friends and make a connection with my one of my great old friends.
What is Cultural Vistas, may you ask? I asked myself this question too once. The person who provided me with an answer was no other than my best friend, Andrea. My best friend and I have been friends since freshman year of high school, a massive high school in which our younger selfs were clueless as to how much our friendship would grow and how many goals we would accomplish together into adulthood. To answer your previous question, Cultural Vistas is a fully-funded summer internship affording underrepresented U.S. university students with the opportunity to intern abroad for eight weeks in Argentina, Germany, or Hong Kong. Opportunity is key for someone like me, a first generation Nicaraguan American student, who despite ample tries was not able to achieve his dream of studying abroad. Until, Cultural Vistas came into my life through and offered me an opportunity, an opportunity that changed everything.
The Story:
My friend Andrea has always been such an inspiring gal. She is someone whom I admire a lot and not to boast, but she's one of the coolest young women I know. Andrea was awarded as a Cultural Vistas fellow in the year of 2017 and she was super excited to be embarking on a journey which she later said changed her life. Andrea was going abroad to Buenos Aires, Argentina. A journey which she would share with me her story, pictures, knowledge, and later nostalgia of this great city which allowed her an inspiring summer abroad. My best friend inspired me through our virtual webcams during her time abroad and even our phone calls during her grocery shopping trips in Buenos Aires. (Yes she would take me virtually grocery shopping with her haha).
I listened to her advice to apply to this opportunity, to pursue my dream of studying abroad, and to not give up. I took a leap of faith and here I am. A Cultural Vistas Fellow of 2018, my success was due not solely to luck but realistically to inspiring friends, determination, and perseverance in the face of adversity. Andrea loved her Cultural Vistas experience so much, that she even came back the next summer to intern for an International Education program and by chance found ourselves in Buenos Aires!
So here I am in Buenos Aires sharing amazing experience with 4 other amazing individuals and I am interning for two amazing organizations, Red Comunidades Rurales (a social organization whose mission is to improve the living conditions and development opportunities of rural people at risk or social exclusion. Acting as a network with more than 50,000 collaborators in Argentina and numerous countries around the world & ASDRA (Down Syndrome Association of the Argentine Republic, a non-profit civil association who advocates for inclusion and disability rights for individuals with down syndrome), and last but not least living a breathtaking experience in Argentina.
Feliz Dia del Amigo!!
Learn more about Cultural Vistas and the Cultural Vistas Fellowship by visiting their website @ https://culturalvistas.org/programs/abroad/cultural-vistas-fellowship/.