PABLO ALLISON

Nadia from Tegucigalpa, Honduras

I met up with Nadia in Tegucigalpa a few days ago to hang out and discover unseen places in the city.

Nadia lives with her Dad. She graduated with a degree in Psychology and conducted further studies in Psychodrama in Argentina where she lived for about 5 years. She currently works for various NGO’s as a freelance consultant, providing support and assistance to disabled migrants who return to Honduras. She opted to work freelance as there aren’t many stable job opportunities and salaries for the most part are pretty low which makes it very difficult to get by. Having said that, she says that she cannot complain as she receives love and support from her Dad who is always there to assist her if needed.

During her time living in Argentina she felt pretty safe unlike here in Honduras where she thinks that people here are sadly kidnapped in their own country.

After being away for quite a long time, Nadia decided to return to Honduras to reunite with her family and support them after her Mom sadly passed away. This tragic episode in Nadia’s life was due to medical negligence at the hospital, since the illness slowly intensified, hence an adequate treatment wasn’t provided in time to improve her health and save her life.   

I decided to shift the topic in order not to touch on any more sad memories. I proceeded to asking her what the area where she lives is like to which she responded that it’s pretty safe and peaceful. It would be regarded by Hondurans as a ‘colonia fresa’ which in english translates kind of like a ’posh neighbourhood’.

I suddenly picture her area in my head to be surrounded by fenced up houses ‘decorated’ with barbed wire all around them. This is not an unusual picture of course though due to the Honduran context it resonates even more so.

I had promised to myself before meeting up with Nadia not to talk about violence or injustices for once but the topic was inevitable. Nadia was curious to know how I have been doing so far so she asks the following question:

How have you felt in Honduras so far?

I internally laughed for a few seconds and then exposed a quick smile. I then responded that so far I have been ok, that I had slowly been adjusting to the stress of living in a dangerous country like this one. Bit by bit I had learned to live around fear without feeling too anxious about the situation.

I should in fact add that I don’t consider myself as a fearful person but being that I am in a place with such a bad reputation for all the bad things that occur one needs to be extra cautious.

Since we are touching on insecurity I proceeded to asking her the obvious:

Have you ever been robbed in Honduras Nadia?

She responds that never outdoors but once in her previous house. 

What happened was that two individuals who were carrying guns broke into her home to steal expensive items like jewellery. They were very specific about what they were after and did not force physical violence against anybody, fortunately. However, what they did do was to tie Nadia’s hands up to stop her from moving around. She kept her composure tight all the way and was even able to keep her friends calm as they were pretty nervous.

After two hours the robbers left the house and life continued as ‘normal’ for her though such event has obviously tainted her life a great deal. She tends to bring this episode up in conversations every now and again in order to alleviate the weight it has over her shoulders.

Finally, she concludes by adding that during that tragic episode she did not have any fear of dying.

I drastically turn the page over to talk about love, relationships, etc…

Like in all relationships, one can share similar things and have discrepancies as well. Even though Nadia and her ex boyfriend loved each other, they had ideological differences. 

Nadia tells me that it is not difficult for her to fall in love, nonetheless it is hard to find the right person to fall in love with.

Switching gears once again, I am curious to know how free she feels about express her ideas in this country. She bravely tells me that she won’t allow anyone to strip her off of exercising that right, although she has had to be careful about her thoughts and beliefs during some periods such as when the coup d’état was imposed in 2009. 

Overall she feels that their is a limited amount of freedom of expression in this country due to the State’s repression over its citizens.

Before wrapping up our conversation she finally tells me that as part of her artistic and creative skills she is particularly interest in intervening the public space as a mechanism for self awareness.

She recently recreated a performative act in partnership with a friend with the main objective of opening people’s minds about the immense value of their ancestry, the diversity of ethnic groups, the four elements of the planet (air, fire, water and earth) and culture.

Nadia is a strong person with a great personality, passion and strength who seems fearless, an element that one certainly needs to have in order to live in a country with high levels of insecurity but where lovely caring and generous people coexist in peace too…

Using Format