I was born in Uruguay 38 years ago, exactly in the year 1973 when the military dictatorship began there. Some members of my paternal family were involved in the opposition movement (called the Tupamaros), so at that time my family diaspora began, some of them simply to save their lives (an uncle was not fortunate enough), and and others, like my father, because he suddenly lost his job and without the possibility of finding another … so in the year 1976, my father, my mother, my little brother and me were in the middle of the jungle in Formosa, Argentina. That was a turning point, where my family ceased to belong to the middle class and began a journey of about 10 years, knowing the vulnerability associated with poverty across Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. One of the memories that I will never forget from those times, is of myself, a lively squirrel with the shape of a skinny kid of 10 years, selling cakes in the hot and dusty streets of Asunción to help with the household economy.
For my parents the experience was devastating, especially for my mother, who from that time began to suffer serious health problems, but for me the situation was normal, as I basically didn’t know other. Paradoxical as it may seem, those were good years for me, my world view and my personality too, were formed in an unstructured and chaotic environment made of the interactions with all sorts of people, situations and landscapes. I was also lucky enough of having parents educated and with taste for reading, so in that period, they took care of my education and handed me passion for the books … and more importantly, they give me a lot of love and the conviction that the future can always be improved through our actions.
From the experiences of those years, a seed was planted inside me … but it took some time in order to begin to grow … when we returned to Uruguay, life slowly began to normalize, well, normal by the standards of my parents, for me it was a strange period, where I had a hard time adjusting to all the new rules I was suddenly exposed, but the human being is extremely flexible, so I went adapting again … the time passed, I finished university as an engineer, and started a normal life of middle class in Uruguay. But really in my heart I was not satisfied. Safety and comfort are good, but the price paid for them is too high … high for the people that is outside of this “comfort circle”, but their resources and hands are used to build the others comfort … and high for the people inside of the “comfort circle”, where many of these people should be conformable with “insane” rules (such as working in jobs with non sense), to keep this comfort. For this reason, in the year 2006, on a typical day in a good “no sense” job, as the IT manager for Shell Uruguay, the seed planted in me, fruit of all my past experiences, started finally to grow.
I decided that I wanted to help myself in being more human … human in a subtle sense, i.e. someone who spends its vital time growing in meaning and helping others to grow. When for example, I was selling cakes on the streets of Asunción, I was like the other boys who were with me at the streets, they were my peers … now, they are not my peers anymore … cause currently I have a greater degree of choice than them … and that’s a shame, because the only real difference between them and me, is that I had the chance to receive more education than them, and some small opportunities to use this education … and this is in fact the only real reason for which I have right now a “voice” here. So, in the 2006 I decided to steer my life in a different direction, a direction focused on developing and contributing to solutions that help people to get motivation, education and access to opportunities … the very same things that time ago helped me.
Because of this decision, in 2006, following my own path, I came to Europe not knowing anyone here. There are several reasons for this decision of coming to Europe; first, here is one of the places where decisions are taken and the changes occur, so if you want to help in a real change, nothing more effective than going to one of the centers of action and getting involved there. Second, I wanted start to study again, because in my mind knowledge is essential for change, and Europe is again a hotspot in the knowledge arena. Third, I’m also European, in fact I have the Italian citizenship cause my mother, that made me easier to come here for the first and second reason, and also gave me a cultural and historical reason to be here.
And now, in the 2011, I’m finally a researcher (being completed a master and finishing my PhD), and I started to use my new knowledge and contacts on developing and contributing to solutions that help people to get motivation, education and access to opportunities. For this reason I started a project like Every1Tutor , and I’m involved in Edgeryders … cause I’m dreaming with a world where we all are peers … and for that we are needing peers to help to build the solutions to make that dream closer to reality …
