You, uh, so what made you decide to leave Argentina and go for America, and come to America in the first place? Oh, um, things after the military dictatorship, um, there was a democratic government, and that was in the early 80s, and we thought that things would change, but things didn't change, and the, um, the economy was really bad, and I had recently married, and my husband had lived in Los Angeles, and he wanted to come back here.
And I said at the beginning, I didn't want to, but I said, okay, if I go, I'll apply to a university to do a PhD program. So what, that's what I did.
Came here with a two-year-old, two and a half year old, and, uh, a nursing baby. So it was really hard for me to do my PhD with these two little girls, and, and an addict. My husband was an addict.
So it was really difficult. Addicted to what? Um, well, he, mostly pot and, um, and alcohol, both things. Oh, man.
That is, that is rough. Um, I can't, I can't imagine that made a very good, um, uh, those two habits made him a very good husband. He was not, but it was my mistake to have chosen him as a husband and a father for my children.
Now I realize. Wow. But, so, so you moved, you moved to America because of him.
You're still, um, you're still influenced by the liberation theology and Vatican II, uh, that you, uh, that, that came, that came around you at the time. And so you, you naturally brought all that with you. What, what, what do you, what do you study? And I forget, apologies if you mentioned this already, but did you study when you, um, when you, when you came to America and pursued a degree? Um, I, I was actually in the Department of Hispanic, of Spanish and Portuguese at UCLA, and my PhD is in Hispanic languages and literature.
My main, um, my main focus is Latin American popular cultures and politics. I was always interested in politics. My two books are on, um, the popular theater, popular ethnic theater of Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th century.
