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Vivian and her husband, Carlos. Miami, Florida, 1977.

Carlos Pellas: My Destiny

When you cross paths with someone, you never imagine how long they will remain in your life, what role they will play in it, much less, which part of the path they will walk with you.

The day I met Carlos I was with my friends Maria Enriqueta, Rogelia, Mariel, and my brother. Carlos and Mike Wood, his best friend and partner from Stanford University, were at another table. Carlos called Ernesto, who was at another table, not knowing that he was my ex-boyfriend, to ask if he knew me. He repeated my name several times, since he had never heard it before. At that moment, I heard them spelling out “V-i-v-i-a-n” and commenting, “The Cuban girl this, the Cuban girl that . . .” Then I saw him wink at me as he walked by as a flirtatious sign. He kept inquiring about me. Some people told him they were going to introduce us. I got his name through Mariel and also found out that we lived very close to each other.

Vivian and Carlos at Lake Xiloa Lagoon. Managua, Nicaragua, 1972.

There was no need for such an introduction. Carlos came to my house the day after he saw me at the Drive Inn. He knocked on the door and my grandmother answered. He immediately asked to see me. She told him that I was not there. Then, when I got home, she said, “Vivian, a boy came looking for you. He was wearing a Spanish beret. He is very handsome!”

Carlos came back later. He found me sitting on the floor at the entrance to my home. He asked me on a date, but I told him I couldn’t go. Actually, up to that time, I had never been allowed to go out alone with a male friend, despite the fact I was seventeen years old and several young men were courting me. So, a few days went by, until one day Carlos came back, and said to me: “Well, you’re like a lawyer: if you don’t win, you confuse the case.” But since I did like him, I decided to ask permission to go out with him and I got it . . . on the condition that a “chaperone” went with me!

Vivian on her graduation day. Managua, Nicaragua, 1974.

Carlos mesmerized me from the moment I saw him. He was open-minded and different from everyone I had ever known. I was still quite young, but from that point on, he changed my life. My grandmothers adored him. He has always been a person of contrasts, outgoing and open to the world. He had had many girlfriends, but his relationships didn’t last long with any of them.

He says that when he first saw me, he was struck by my eyes and felt as if life was coursing through his body when he looked at me. In fact, when we met, he would just stare at me. Later on, he told me that the sensation he felt was like a kick in the chest and that his heart sped up until it felt like it was racing. There is no doubt: I married the love of my life.

It was 1971. Carlos was eighteen and I was seventeen. We lived in the splendor of old Managua, a developing city with an identity, deep-rooted customs, and picturesque spots. Being steeped in that Managua was beautiful.

From his childhood, Carlos’s life unfolded in a family environment. He lived in the San Dionisio coffee farmhouse with his three siblings, Alfredo, Silvio, and Lucia, and his twelve first cousins. The origin of his family went back to the days when his great-grandfather, Francisco Alfredo Pellas, a Genoese merchant, facilitated commercial navigation on Lake Cocibolca with the acquisition and operation of the Victoria Steamboat, a legend in the country’s history. Francisco Alfredo Pellas invested in the historic and renowned Compañía del Tránsito. Then in 1890 he founded Nicaragua Sugar State Ltd., a company that recently celebrated its 129th anniversary.

Carlos’s life in the countryside vanished when he moved to Managua to attend fourth grade at the Instituto Pedagógico. His father, Alfredo Pellas, saw the need for his children to start another way of life and to cultivate other relationships. Carlos completed his first year of high school at the Jesuit Centroamérica de Granada School and then transferred to a high school in northern California, the Woodside Priory School, where he completed this stage of his education.

He then enrolled at Stanford University in California to pursue a degree in Economics, but not before taking his first steps in Engineering. That was his father’s career and he wanted Carlos to pursue it as well, forgetting about the skills test that Carlos took at the Centroamérica de Granada School at the end of elementary school, where his great business skills were discovered. His father learned this when he received a note from the Jesuits explaining why Carlos should pursue a career in Administration, Economics, and Finance.

The summer that we met, Carlos was on a vacation in Managua. He has always said that, ever since he saw me at the Drive Inn, he thought: This is the woman of my life.

Vivian at the age of seventeen. Managua, Nicaragua, 1972.

Vivian’s thoughts recorded in the Colegio Americano Nicaraguense’s Yearbook. Managua, Nicaragua, 1974.

My brother Alejandro was no stranger to anything that was happening to me. He was always extremely jealous and protective. He frightened off all the young men who pursued me. He would pull me out of parties and take me home. The last time he did this to me was before the earthquake. He embarrassed me so much that when we got home, I hit him with a shoe. After a few days, we forgot all about it.

My brother graduated in 1970. Sometime later he moved to Miami, where he got married and had two daughters: Vanessa and Yamilee. My brother’s absence from the family always hit us hard. We were extremely close. Forced separation has marked my family all my life.

I must have exchanged those nostalgic moments for my desire to grow and develop as a person. I graduated from high school, where I received a degree as a Bilingual Secretary.

My desire to work waned as long as my father clung to his philosophy that I didn’t need to work as long as he did, since I would never want for anything. All my friends were working and began to develop as professionals. But he, with his overprotective mentality, thought it was enough that I had studied. However, I wanted more. I realized that dependency was not conducive to anything.

My dad was a noble man, a gentleman, brilliant, and endowed with a tremendous ability to persevere in life as a great professional and human being, just as he demonstrated throughout his career, overcoming all sorts of adversities.

I accompanied my mom to the supermarket and everywhere else. I loved to spend time with her. We enjoyed being together, we laughed a lot, and it felt as if I was spending time with a girl my own age. She had a great sense of humor, and that’s essential in life. In short, I was her driver.

However, I had many aspirations, and those were reflected in my yearbook back then. My answer to the following question was written under my photograph:

What do you want to do in life?

“I want to be happy and try to make others happy.”

I expressed what I was feeling. I didn’t say things at random or just because I had to say something. Perhaps at that moment, even though I was still a teenager, the strength and desire to help the less fortunate were manifesting in me.