Between Inca Walls: A Peace Corps Memoir
By Evelyn Kohl La Torre
Reviewed by Mark D. Walker
After writing my own memoir, “Different Latitudes, My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond”, I began paying more attention to this genre and have reviewed several books of fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. This book interested me as well because I’ve traveled through Peru several times over the years and my Son-In-Law is Peruvian.
The book is well written as the president of the National Association of Memoir Writers, Linda Joy Myers describes, “Evelyn LaTorre creates a masterful portrait of place―from the Montana hills to the peaks of Perú―and illustrates how place shapes us. The many lovely metaphors and descriptions throughout the book invite the reader to see through the eyes of an innocent girl as she discovers exotic, lively cultures; absorbs the colors, sounds, passion, and intensity of that new world; and allows it to change her life path.”
One scene in Cusco, Peru provide a myriad of details which gave a real sense of this exotic community, “Scores of small dark, leather-skinned Indians ran up and down the cobblestone streets carrying huge bundles. They carried market merchandise, food, or wood on their bent backs. The women wore several calf-length skirts, one on top of another, made of bright blue, black, or red homespun wool…My eyes widened in amazement.”
I could identify with this twenty-one years old volunteer who was naïve about life and love. Although the author arrived in country ten years before I did (64-66), the circumstances were similar and we both received training in Puerto Rico. Although her training initiated in Cornell University in New York and her field training in Puerto Rico was more focused on physical stamina which included repelling up a dam. The training must have been rigorous as 23 of the initial 102 trainees dropped out.
I especially appreciated the negotiation process of her site in an isolated community in the Andes. She told the Peace Corps Director, “We’d be nine hours away from a doctor, not the required seven…There’s just a dirt trail up the mountain. No road. ”We’d pestered our boss for half a month about a place in which to do our community development work. Now he seemed tired of us.” He finally broke down and allowed Evelyn share the site with another female volunteer.
This resonates as my initial site was in the highest Department in Central America in Ixchiguan at over 10,000 feet and I almost froze the first several nights in a stark office with just a candle for heat at night. I eventually learned that the volunteer who had done the site survey had never actually been there…
The author was raised in a small Montana town and would move to California with her devoutly Catholic family and she was drawn to the Latino culture based on her interaction with migrant workers and on a college work project to a small Mexican town. She’d have a real head start once she joined the Peace Corps based on her appreciation of the culture and some basic knowledge of Spanish.
Once Evelyn and her roommate, Marie finally did find an acceptable home base they work for eighteen months in a hospital, started 4-H clubs, attended campesino meetings and taught PE in a rudimentary school with a dirt floor. A number of black and white photos and a map help bring the author’s story to life.
The author does an excellent job describing her struggle to resist temptations as a good Catholic girl and dealing with her sexual desires with a local university student. I didn’t write much about “feelings” at all in “Different Latitudes” but by the end of this novel when the author realizes that she’s pregnant I was turning the pages quickly to learn if they’d eventually get married.
One of the more humorous and touching stories was when the author explains her predicament with a local Priest as part of the sacrament of confession. “Then you are only doing what comes naturally,” Father said. “Say three Hail Mary’s and three Our Fathers and go in peace…Father’s words were a revelation. A load of guilt lifted from me. I couldn’t believe I’d heard. Father O’Brien reinforced what my sister Charlene, had written in her letter months ago…? But her parent’ response was very different.
Life changed quickly towards the of the book—pregnancy test, writing a final report for the Peace Corps and figuring out if she would marry her boyfriend Antonio. As was the case with my Guatemalan wife, she’s be married in a civil ceremony followed by a religious ceremony with a few of Antonio’s family members and friends. As they emerged from a fifteenth-century Spanish chapel a new life awaited them as they ran laughing down a centuries-old cobblestone street “between the sturdy granite Inca walls that supported the big stone cathedral and the chapel behind it. “
The marriage ceremony resonated with me as I had actually married my Guatemalan wife before leaving the Peace Corps—unbeknownst to them of course. But I remember the feeling of having the room filled with Ligia’s family members (over 80—immediate family…) and wondering what the future would bring. And my parents wouldn’t get the low down until much later.
In the end, this relationship with Antonio would prosper and author is working on her next book about bicultural marriage as she’s now gained a good deal of expertise. The following phrase at the beginning of the book explains not only what the author learned from her Peace Corps experience, but afterwards as well, “This book is dedicated to my sons, Tony and Tim. May you value your origins in love—discovered in the blending of two cultures.
About the Author
Evelyn Kohl LaTorre grew up in rural Southeastern Montana, surrounded by sheep and cattle ranches, before coming to California with her family at age sixteen. She holds a doctorate in multicultural education from the University of San Francisco, and a master’s degree in social welfare from UC Berkeley. She worked as a bilingual school psychologist and school administrator in public education until her retirement. Evelyn loves to travel; to date, she and her husband have traveled to some 100 countries. You can view her stories and photos on her website, www.evelynlatorre.com. Her writing has appeared in World View Magazine, The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, the California Writers Club Literary Review, the Tri-City Voice, Dispatches, and Clever Magazine. Evelyn lives in Fremont, California.
Product details
⦁ Publisher: She Writes Press (August 11, 2020)
⦁ Publication Date: August 11, 2020
⦁ Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
⦁ Language: English
⦁ ASIN: B083BFTCWX
⦁ Text-to-Speech: ⦁ Enabled
⦁ X-Ray:Not Enabled
⦁ Word Wise: Not Enabled
⦁ Lending: Not Enabled
⦁ Enhanced Typesetting: ⦁ Not Enabled
⦁ Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720,044 Paid in Kindle Store (⦁ See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
⦁ #2328 in ⦁ Love ⦁ &⦁ Romance (Kindle Store)
⦁ #889 in ⦁ Friendship (Books)
⦁ #1313 in ⦁ Travel Writing
Reviewer Mark Walker:
Walker was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world. He came to Phoenix as a Senior Director for Food for the Hungry, worked with other groups like Make-A-Wish International and was the CEO of Hagar USA, a Christian-based organization that supports survivors of human trafficking.
His book, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, was recognized by the Arizona Literary Association for Non-Fiction and, according to the Midwest Review, “…is more than just another travel memoir. It is an engaged and engaging story of one man’s physical and spiritual journey of self-discovery…”
Several of his articles have been published in Ragazine and WorldView Magazines, Literary Yard, Literary Travelers and Quail BELL, while another appeared in “Crossing Class: The Invisible Wall” anthology published by Wising Up Press. His reviews have been published by Revue Magazine, as well as Peace Corps Worldwide, and he has his own column in the “Arizona Authors Association” newsletter, “The Million Mile Walker Review: What We’re Reading and Why.” His essay, “Hugs not Walls: Returning the Children,” was a winner in the Arizona Authors Association literary competition 2020 and was reissued in “Revue Magazine.”
His honors include the “Service Above Self” award from Rotary International. He’s the membership chair for “Partnering for Peace.” His wife and three children were born in Guatemala. You can learn more at www.MillionMileWalker.com and follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/millionmilewalker/ and www.Guatemalastory.net