What motivated you to become a Salesian?
I studied at the Salesian school "Anahuac Chapalita" in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was there that I met Don Bosco, and I was attracted to him, his style, his dreams. At 15, I experienced an Easter Youth Camp thanks to which I started a journey of closeness and mutual intimacy with Christ, which I still live today. That relationship led me to gestures of generosity, such as teaching catechism, visits to a retirement home, juvenile prison ... Then I started a relationship that would have marked my whole life, the one with street children.
When I was 18, I spent a year volunteering in the Mixepolitan Prelature in Oaxaca, animated by the Salesians. Happy with the encounter with God in Nature and with the simple people of the villages, I thought: "Why not for a lifetime?" And I made my first profession on August 16, 1989, in Tlaquepaque.
I am a Salesian of Don Bosco because I feel freely loved by Jesus and, with the desire to reciprocate, I wanted to follow Him in the style of Don Bosco.
What do you bring with you from or of GC28?
An obedience that was not in my plans! (laughs).
It was a wonderful experience to have lived it in Valdocco; it seems to me that, with all its peculiarities, we have experienced a unique GC28.
What has remained with me is the desire to make Don Bosco current today, in his style, in his love for young people, in his intention to bring them to God. What's remained is the choice of the charismatic style of living the community, the ministry and the mission. I understand that we have to do even better, without fear of innovating.
In these first few weeks, what have you learned about this new job? What do you expect for the future?
Since 16 March I've been in the Provincial House of MEG, in Guadalajara, as immigration prevention policies do not yet allow me to reach Rome. But this is not an impediment to participation in ordinary sessions. I have already been able to do some things proper to my ministry. I have frequent communication with the Provincials of my Region, and I am perfecting my Italian and English.
In the future, I hope new ways can be found to accompany the ministry of the confreres in the Region. It seems to me that there are opportune prospects for renewing the meaning of the presence of a Salesian community and I ask the Spirit to help us find the best ways.
What do you dream of for your region six years from now?
I think of a Region that has been able to make progress in defining its charismatic identity, and I hope that we will grow in our closeness to young people, in our joint involvement as Salesians and lay people, and in the new vocations of the charism.
