My contact with Latin America was not established through being in and having a relation with issues pertaining to Central America. It's true that I was aware, like many other people, of the conflict in the "80s, especially in El Salvador. We knew it was extremely cruel and brutal, that there was a Civil War, that there was a very strong U.S. presence, and then of course came in the "80s the victory of the Sandinista uprising over the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.¹