Portraits of Resilience

Bonnie Klassen is the Area Director for Mexico, Cuba and South America. 

Bonnie Klassen.

I have read many books about resilience in contexts of trauma and stress.  I know the top-10 tips and I have practiced all kinds of ideas while staring into the face of sudden devastation or analyzing cycles of violence that never seem to end.  But nothing inspires me as much as resilience incarnated in every-day people.  Since I met José Antonio Sanchez Gonzalez last year in Cuba, he has been a portrait of resilience for me.

I first visited José Antonio four days after Hurricane Irma flattened or uprooted 90% of his crops and fruit trees.  He offered me half a dozen of the roses that he grows, after spending the day before lifting each of the hundred devastated flowers up and patting the soil around them.

When I visited again in February, 2018, he held out an abundant bouquet.  His face beamed in gratitude for the life that had sprouted up again around him, which he reflects back with generosity. After six months of hard work, he has 120 varieties of plants and trees growing on his 2.5 hectare farm!  He proudly showed me all of the “first fruits” since the hurricane.

José Antonio has the wisdom to find the gifts that come mixed with pain and loss.  “The hurricane has given me experience.  Afterwards I noticed which guava trees stood their ground with the 200 km/hour winds, and which avocado trees held onto their fruit.  Now I am grafting from those trees to have stronger fruit trees in the future, to resist the next hurricanes that come.”

Grafts of resilient avocado trees. Bonnie Klassen.

When we walked through the rows of sunflowers and roses that he has planted, Jose Antonio mentioned that many people have told him that he should sell his flowers at higher prices.  But he just shook his head and reflected, “I can’t do that.  Beauty is more important than money.  I want beauty to be accessible for everyone.”

With watermelon juice from the slice José Antonio offered me from his garden running down my chin and arms (after days of not eating any fruit – it is very scarce on the island since hundreds of thousands of fruit trees were destroyed by the winds), I thanked José Antonio and told him that I admired the fact that he had not given up.  He just tilted his head with surprise and remarked, “Give up?  Why would I do that?”

Gratitude.  Generousity.  Life open to learning.  Beauty.  These are the colours in a portrait of resilience.

Bonnie Klassen.