The Story of Lacho

I was the great joy of my parents. Probably the first memories that I have was when I was three years old, not earlier than that. But at three years old, the most I remember is everybody was saying how white he is like milk. So I was always a smiling little boy and the joy of everyone. As I grew up, well, started interaction with my older brother. The eldest that we got into fights may have been at five years old. For one reason or another, we'd get in the fight and I would run after him. I could never catch him because he was older.

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We would just get into fist fights until we both would be on the ground. My parents, when they would realize that, well, my mother was screaming, "Hey, guys, you're going to kill yourselves." My father would just take the belt and run after us. We would be running. He could never catch us, running to the patio. Then after everything, we are all friends again. But that's usual story for were most kids when you have siblings that are ... we've got two years difference in between us.

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When we were fighting. I remember that my thoughts were, "When I grow up, I will be a policeman to get my brother, to just catch him." So this is the earliest that I can remember. Well, my older brother is Cacho, and my name, Haracio. I would assume that when they started sayin g Horacio, Racio, Lacio, Lacho. They say, "How is your name Haracio? Lacho?" So Cacho y Lacho. That was the only explanation that I have. But in Rosario, there have been couple of other Lachos that I have known. So it's not totally unusual.

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Well, we went to school, it was a school in a little town where we were living. I know with all the other children, there were no Jewish kids. It was all the locals. The teacher was Jewish, and the director of the school was Jewish. They were husband and wife. Well, next to my house, there was a church. Then we just go to ... There was a sidewalk. Then the next block was the school. All the kids going with white coats. Yeah, long coats. There was a general store that was owned by a family by the name of Shreyer. They had three children, the daughter that was older and then one in the middle and another younger one. I was friends with the young boys. We played. Actually, we spent a lot of time together, the three. It was also close by, walking. The family was very good to me and my brother, and they were good people.

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Then there were younger people, young kids from another Jewish family that they were related to the school, where the father was director of the school, and the mother was a teacher. I had this girl that we used to play and i was playing the doctor by the hill. We were discovering things, very innocent and naive. But looking at each other, showing things. Then when I was eight years old, my younger brother came to this world. Did my primary school where I was born the first few years. Not first few years, probably the first year, because when I was five, we moved to Rosario.

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We were initially in a small town called Santo Domingo, where is the place where I was born. Next to my house was a church where they would get together every Sunday and would show movies of how Hitler was advancing in Europe. There was a percentage of German population in Santo Domingo. That was, let's say, the most powerful financial viewpoint, German descent. They were pretty much Nazis.

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There was another Jewish family, the Merkins, that they were very good Jews. I wouldn't say Orthodox, but he was very well read. He had a library of all Jewish books and Jewish history. He was very good one. The wife was also good, and they were good with us and with the goyim, too. She was very, very social with the kids. The kids loved her because anybody then would be even going to the store, she would be, there was a kid and said, "Oh, come and have this cookie." All this, they talk Spanish and English, of course. To me, they will love her, and they wouldn't say a cookie. They would say a pletzel.

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MOSESVILLE

This is where we are all from in those days. Two, three generations up, they were the first immigrants to Argentina. When the girls were old enough I said: What we have to do is go to Argentina, and we'll visit Moisés Ville, and you will see what it is. And we did. We got the three girls. We went to Argentina. We got to Rosario, all the cousins that they were born in Argentina and they lived in Argentina and they have never been in Moisés Ville. Kids. My brother's children, they didn't know what Moisés Ville is. It's just unthinkable.

But anyhow, I got them all together. We were 19 in all, and I rented a bus with a driver and we went to Moisés Ville. We had few connections in Moisés Ville. Moisés Ville has the museum of the colonization. Director of the museum was a lady, Eva Gelbert, I think, that was the director of this museum. We contacted her. She was a distant relative of Rosie. We came as a surprise. She said, "Well, you want to know your Jewish roots? First thing you have to go is to the cemetery."

So she arranged so they could open the cemetery and we just walking and we saw the relatives that we already hear all the anecdotes. They were in this cemetery. We saw these seven people tomb. Life, let's say, in the immigration was interesting. My great grandparents, my zaide's father was a Shershefski, orthodox and truly orthodox. My father's grandfather, these were the immigrants. Well, they lived one across the street from the other. They had to walk a mile to get to the shul. So this Shershefski, he was religious, but he had a bad temper, a guy that gets upset and he's fighting already, fired up easily.

So they would go talking very friendly to neighbors, walking to the shul. In the shul, they would get into fights in between them. They would just get upset one to the other, and then were coming back to the houses, one on each side. We say Moisés Ville, but was the whole area. My zaide Shershefski was in another little town close by, in Las Palmeras. In Las Palmeras, where my mom was the oldest daughter. They had very primitive ways of working the harvest. Nowhere, no nothing. Weather didn't help. So they were not wealthy. They didn't speak the language.

My mom was born in 1914 and was at the time of the First World War. She was educated locally in primary studies. There were no kindergarten. Then five years later, they had another girl. She was born in Las Palmeras. My grandmother died from the childbirth. So my grandfather was left with one newborn, one that was five years old. No language, no means, nothing. Okay? So he arranged the relatives came in, trying to help.

There were relatives in Buenos Aires that were wealthy, had all the means to help. One of them took my aunt, and she grew up in the other family basically, but close to everyone. She became a dentist. She married a good guy, an ophthalmologist in Buenos Aires. They had two daughters, the family. He has these stories that are interesting. But my mother ended up with some uncles, aunts in Buenos Aires, and she been a few years there. Then she went to Cordoba, where she did dental school and became also a dentist.

Then she met my father and they got married and they went to Santo Domingo, which is my birthplace. They must have known each other from, I will assume from the dances in the community room or with the holidays probably at some point, even though there was not a lot of traveling then. They had a lot in common. Families lived one in front of the other in the early days. They had in common, the history of the Jewishness in that area.

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SOCIAL LIFE IN MOISESVILLE

In the community room, they had dances because they were youngsters. They were the older couples, too. They would go, and that was the recreation besides the holidays and with shul, community room, whatever was everything. Eventually, they formed a band that was called the Orquesta Katz. These Katz musicians, they would play. There was no time limitation over there. If they were coming around, they would continue to play, and the young people kept dancing

. These guys were old guys, older musicians, but they would play for hours, to the point that they get tired. They will be sleeping and playing on the trumpet or just sleeping.

People continued to dance. There were mostly foreigners over there dancing and in these parties. So these guys will play and all of a sudden, the repertoire is finished. So they will play the national anthem and even over there, dancing at the national anthem, the foreigners didn’t even know and still they would dance. There were some other areas in Argentina that were also promoted by Baron Hirsch in the province, Buenos Aires province, Santa Clara. There was another third one, Entre Ríos, also organized some Jews. There are many that originated from those areas.

In Entre Ríos, we have a relative that sailed over there, that is the father of one of my nephews. They have a lot of children and they are all ... What happens is this, these people were the first generation. Second generation, they just moved to the cities. Some became business people. The ones who went to study, my father became a physician. Mother, a dentist. The first selection of who will have the opportunity to go out and the community will help. The first selection was done by the teacher.

There was, let's say one teacher for all grades. He would point to who had the ability to learn quickly and to be the smarter guy, and he would just pick him up and say, "Okay, well, this guy, we have to help him" and send it to him. My father went to Buenos Aires that way. Some of the people, they became very good businessman with the agriculture and cattle raising and all these things. Many of these were smart people, poets, good writers, the descendants, the second generation.

One that married one of my, I would say, great aunts was a famous writer, Carlos Grünberg. He wrote books and was an editor of all the Jewish magazines. In fact, his son, two, three years ago called me because he's writing a book on the Shershefski family. Then we talked. Daniel Grünberg is his name. We talked and we met and all this, but I remember this guy because when we came to United States, we didn't know anybody. The only thing we have as a contact was this Daniel Grünberg in Washington, DC.

So when we came to the United States in 1970, one day talking to Rosie, he said, "Well, we have to call this guy, Daniel Grünberg." He started with questions and this. He didn't want to talk to us. He didn't recognize who we were. He didn't know. Of course, we never knew him. So basically, we said goodbye and that's it. So it went like 30 years until he called. So we got together and I asked him, "Do you remember the call in 1970 when I wanted to connect with somebody in the family?"

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He said, "Yes, I remember." Well, in those days you didn't pay attention to me at all. He said, "Well, listen, at that time, I was," he said, "40 years old, was going through a divorce, had working problems, job problems." He's an engineer that worked for the government for many years, probably nowhere to stay and a divorce. He said, "The last priority for me was to find another relative." It was a good explanation.

I get all the time emails from the Shershefski family that is so numerous, every part of the world, every part of Latin America, every part of Europe, Israel, South Africa, you have a Shershefski, and they are all connected through email. Every holiday, well, you get all these beautiful congratulations to everyone and wishes. They send documents of the family, things that they wrote. Just to follow the Shershefskis is a job.

Now, Carlos Grünberg was a very known poet, and he was also influential in the government and an open Jew, despite governments that were not very friendly with the Jews. The first generation that arrived immigrants, it was their dream. They found the difficulties. They sorted all the problems. They survived all the difficult situations. Then the children, some stayed over there and became far farmers or whatever, ranchers, and some went out and became businessmen in the cities or professionals. Then my generation, we had a little easier because we didn't have language problems. We didn't have financial problems. So it was pretty good.

The third generation were, there are many that went to Israel, land in Israel and their families grew up over there and we've seen them. We got to know them in Israel because they got no other relation. Now it's only since we are not traveling that much, the only way is the internet. Argentina has been an unstable country from the standpoint of government. So there were times where the Jews were not accepted very nicely, times in which the economics of the country, these up and downs, created a lot of poverty. So many Jews said, "Well, why should we be here? Let's just get out." Israel was the target. So they went to Israel.

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Then once they had a lot of relatives in Israel, it was attractive for some more to come in, and a few went to Israel and came back to Argentina. It was not for them exactly as what they expected for a promise land. My father ... not my father, my younger brother of my father, Moishe, he went to Rosario in medical school. Then all my cousins, all my brothers, everyone went into the same school. It was called in those days, University National de Litoral. Litoral means that region, but then it changed to University of Rosario. There were many of the institutions because the Jewish population of Rosario were probably ... oh, I think it's 250,000 in my days.

So there were many Jewish institutions, and some had the name of Baron Hirsch and they were in different sections, temples, shuls. We do have a book that talks to the immigrants to Argentina that is way before that stream. It is said that some of the famous people in Argentina, the heroes that fought for Argentina, many of them were Jews. Who knows? There's another people that said that even Columbus, Cristóbal Colón, was a Jew. It is likely because they had to, when they lived in Spain, they had to find way to get out of Spain alive. By him offering the queen the possibility of gold coming from South America, from new lands, she says, "Okay, here is your sail boat. Just go." So it is said that he might have been a Jew.

LACHO THE BUS DRIVER

When I was about 12, 13, was the revolution, the revolution that ousted Perón. They had several attempts to get rid of him. They all failed until one was a very organized revolution. There was a revolutionary organization that got him out of power. He left the country, went to Paraguay. Perón was a dictator that had been for many, many years, 40, 50 years of dictatorship in Argentina. When he was ousted, there was a command that took care to manage everything in the cities and all the government offices. The Peronists were a significant number. So from time to time, they would have ways of disturbing the new government that was military. On one occasion, they organized a strike, a general strike in all the unions. Mostly, the most important was transportation because if they didn't have public transportation, many people could not get to work. So they figure out they put the lot of emphasis on transportation.

So when we learned this, a few buddies of mine and myself, we went to pick up the buses from the city. We didn't have even a driver's license. Pick up the bus in the city and right there, and drive them wherever they were supposed to go in the city and carrying people, because we were to make several task to strike, to defend the newly established military government. So I didn't face any resistance, let's say, people throwing rocks to me or shooting at me. But some of my friends did. But I was driving a big MAN, M-A-N, the German buses, big one going through the city. I drove pretty well through the city, and I drove pretty well. We’d stop, load people, we didn't charge tickets. Take them, do our... When they say stop, we stop. I think it would've been successful actually in making the strike failure. We were just one factor in this failure of the strike, but we contributed. But of course, the Peronistas were in many different areas, and they were still powerful in numbers, like Trump here. Still powerful, he has a lot of people.

When I got home, I found outside waiting for me a next door neighbor that was some big shot in the union, and my father, and they were talking and they saw me. "And what did you do?" And this and that, they knew. Well, I had to hide for a few months, because I said, by doing what I did, I was on a black list. So somebody will shoot me.

Well, I stayed away from the light, and everything went through, and the revolution was successful, successful in taking power, but not successfully in making the country any better. Okay. Anyhow, it was good to get rid of Perón. Perón did a lot of good things for the very poor people, but was a very dictatory government. They pushed people to do whatever they wanted, and it was not always the right thing. They had influence in education, and every aspect of life.

There used to be an organization that was a union of high school students. This union was in every city that had a high school. And this union was mostly sport events. And every student had obligation to participate, to be member of the UES, Union of Estudiantes Secundarios. We had to belong to this. If you did not belong to the high school union as a student, you're arrested from school, it was obligatory.

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And there were a few meetings that they had, that from time to time that you had to go. They directed what you had to do in accordance to government. All this disappeared with the revolution. So it was the time of revolts here and there, shooting, people being killed, fighting for one side or the other and this kind of thing. And eventually finished. They had a schooling. They had a medical school, medical school was very politicized in those days in the sense that there were groups that were leftists that were always creating difficulties in school, And their goal was to interrupt the normal functioning of everything. It took a long time to stabilize the military that came at that time. They remain in power until 1982, so for many, many years.

And the one that won the election, the first election that was done to bring democracy to the country, was the father-in-law of Eduardo, Raul Alfonsin. He became the president by acclamation. He had his popularity, he was phenomenal. He came to power 1980. I was already in United States. We were here. In fact, we came to United States in 1970. For some time, this guy Raul, Alfonsin, came to visit Eduardo and it was more than a visit, he was just hiding because they were wanted to kill him, because he was preaching democracy and he was military government.

He came to visit them in the United States, but just hiding, trying to hide because he was sleeping every night in different place in Argentina, so nobody would know what he is. He was a great guy. He's been this place here sitting many times. And we had great time together, drank a lot of wine. When he used to come to then being president, he used to come to the United States, the first thing "Take me to Lacho," because we always had a great time.

For number of years, there were changes, but within the same military rule, and then came Alfonsin, and Alfonsin had the first democratic government in many, many years. He was not successful though in economics for the country. And they banished the Peronists. They managed to get together and eventually take over the unions, and created a situation, economic situation that was very difficult for the country, and Alfonsin had to resign before finishing his term. So that was very unfortunate, because that was probably the only decent man that we could tell. Think he got sick. He came here for treatments, chemotherapy for lung cancer, become metastasis and eventually died. And when he died, he had all the honors of a burial in Recoleto in Buenos Aires.

So the years of high school, in Rosario, have been very happy years. We have a lot of friends. Yeah. We still keep the friendship over the years. We don't see each other very frequently, but from time to time, they come here or we go over there, and we always had fun together. They are professionals now, some of them, some of them now, most of them retired.

Well, we had these gathering, the nice people who get together in homes. And as you know, the homes in the single homes in Argentina, they have a terrace, the roof, is like a big area where you could, so the dances were always in the homes. And with lights, color lights and loud music, and people dancing. And one of the music that I remember was very popular was The Platters. And then over the years, well, I like the romantic music, Boleros, some of the Cubans and Xavier Cugat mambo. We were not too much into tango in those days. The story of my love of tango started when I was 24, 25, when I became interested in tango, because there were many situations that I would just consider really personal, and I just identified with some of the tango.

OPERA

The first time I was exposed to operas was in Rosario. There were no places like you would say I go buy a suit when I was a kid. So you had to go to the tailor to get a suit. So my father would take myself, would my older brother to the tailor. And he will measure us for a suit. And the tailor, he will take the measurements wherever he has to do. And for every suit we have to go probably four or five times, to try to do this and correct... Okay. So since we were three people going, we went many, many times Diloreto's, the tailor, Italian guy, Diloreto. You imagine. And he always had operas playing, always opera playing. And we went so many times when I was a child that, well, I just started to enjoy it. This is why listening, you get to enjoy it.

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ROSI ENTERS THE PICTURE

The first time I put my eyes on Rosie, I was 18 years old in Tucumán, and she was 11 years old. And she came to visit the aunt that we gather. She had, and I had different wave of relatives, but we did have, and I said, "What cute girl?" I thought she impressed me and really impressed ever since. Then over the years, she came to Rosario with no idea who I was, but I met her, and we went out and then we went dancing, and we got things going. That was the beginning. And a couple years later got married, came to the United States. There was a time that when we got married, see, I did not have an Argentina formal residency, surgical residency. That was not the way of training then. You train just by working in a surgical ward, or in the operating room in hospital, but there was no organized residency in Rosario.

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That's the way I learned, and by the time that I was 23, 24, I felt myself that I could do anything. I got an association with the internal medicine guy that was very good, we put both some money and we set up like a little hospital, and we would see patients there, and we would operate on patients. And if the patients would come from Rosario, that was like 40 miles from Rosario in peripheral place, and we had a practice over there. I had good friends during my single times over there, and then got married and Rosie came over.

So eventually when we decided to come to United States, Rosie was a senior student in chemical engineering in Tucumán. And when we got married, she came to Rosario, and we didn't know have chemical engineering in Rosario, so she was frustrated, she was a very good student. And I was always with the idea of getting formal training, that had to be the United States, because there was no other place unless Europe. And since I had the contacts, the previous America field service, and got a little bit of everything with the United States. And I always put my eyes in the United States, I always been a student at the Argentinian English Association.

After awhile, when we got married, we said, "Well, we are going to United States," and I passed the exam, and when I was all ready after the exam, I started getting invitation from hospital. One hospital was in Massachusetts. And to me, Massachusetts was like a one little place. I said, "Oh, Massachusetts, United state, must be good." So I contacted out of the different places that were offering positions for me to go in for training. The one in Massachusetts, I answered, and they put me in contact with the director of medical education. They were one Argentinian guy that was a resident over there in medicine, that he talked to me. He was not very helpful because he hated the United States. He was doing the residency, but he was just longing the day that he would just getting anxious to get back to Argentina. There are guys that never get adjusted to the new life, and everything that I saw that was phenomenal from here, her said this was garbage. So depends on how you look at things. He was very unhappy here and he left. He finished his training and he left. I asked the medical director where there was chemical engineering any place close by, said "We have one of the leading places in chemical engineering," the place where the guy that invented the jet system, the retro-propulsion, Goddard.

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Well, there is a monument to him, because he was a professor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. So he told me, we have a Worcester Tech chemical engineering. It's very important. And here is where Godard gave a name to Worcester Tech. And I said, "Well, this is what my wife needs." And this is what we did. We came here to Worcester Massachusetts. Came to Worcester, get settled, I did my residency. Of course, the first two weeks, I said, "Why the hell did we come here?" Didn't understand the word of a Massachusetts English. Got to go. I don't know.

And Rosie went to apply to school and they said, "Well, get all the information together," and she did. And they looked at the curriculum, what she had done, and said, "Well, you need a year or two to finish, but you need to really use the time you need to improve your English." So she studied a little bit, and watching the soap operas, 'All My Children', was the beginning of all my children. And she continued seeing life long until it ended a few years ago. At home, Rosie with the girls. And Rosie will anticipate what will happen next. And the girls will all watch- there was a lot of excitement with  'All My Children'.

 Anyway it was a family, and the years went by very quickly.

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ROSIE REMEMBERS:

We learned from experience. We were not very good readers in the sense like my kids. Even for the kids growing up, they talk to people, they get ideas, we didn't have the English, and we didn't talk to anyone. I married when I was 20, and things, even when I had kids, it was just a matter of trying to day by day, because we moved here. I didn't have kids when we moved to United States, Sandra was born six months later, and I wanted to start college. I wanted to finish college. It was very hard with the baby. So my mom sent me a lady that she had in the house to help me out, and we didn't know that she was pregnant. So we ended up having two babies, in the house in a very small condo. So it was not really enough to keep two babies, but she stayed until I graduated, and then she went back with the kid.

I think I'm hands-on and mathematics was always easy for me. We don't know in the schools in United States, I realized that what I did was the same as United States, because I got into a school that was kind of exclusive, because they didn't have that many kids, but the director brought plans from France, according to her. And what she did, which was not, and still now, I don't think they using other schools. The elementary school was from first grade to sixth grade. So she took the sixth grade and made it what is here now middle school, made the second part, sixth, seven and eighth, which I didn't realize that that was really actually middle school, but it was in the same school. But it happened to be like middle school, sixth, seven and eighth. And after the eighth grade, the were enforcing new plans. You had to pick which branch you wanted to go in. And one was technology or math, science, the other was English, and the other was like commercial. And I picked science. We had professor from college and we had physics, chemistry, pretty advanced, and mathematics.

So when I graduated from there, at that time, you didn't go to study any place else, you would live at home, and you didn't have that many choices either. I wanted to be teaching mathematics or in science, there was not that many choices. So I picked chemical engineering. I like chemistry and I like math. And there was a pre-course to get into college for a month, and then you had a test in chemistry, math, and physics. And there were like 80 candidates, and I got number one in all three. Competing with other kids coming from other school, I had a background in science. So I was ahead of the game.

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And I studied until met him. He wanted to get married, I was in the third year of college, and there was no chemical engineering in the city he lived, Rosario. So we decided to come to the States. And when we came to the states, the first thing I did, I went to college. The college, we had close by in Worcester, and I said I need to finish. And they didn't understand me, so they sent me to study English. Actually I went outside, it was the snow, it was January, and there was snow up to here. And he actually went out the building and showed me where to go for English, because I couldn't understand what he was saying.

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So I would start English, and go every day to... It was like English for immigrants, I guess. I went every day to English. And then I went back in the summer, and he said, well, okay, they took me in and I started, but then Sandra was two months old, and then I couldn't keep up with the English and the school, and I didn't have the babysitter yet. So I went back to college, and I said, "Look, I can't do the full that I need for the semester, all the credits. I can take two subjects." And they say, "Well, we don't have part-time students, you have to come at night. I said, "No, at night they don't have the courses I need. I need to come here and take two courses now until I can get help." And they say, "Well, you have to go night." No, no. At night, no, it out of the question. Said, okay, we'll take you this semester, but the next semester you have to be full time. I said, okay.

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So everything was a negotiation, and even getting in college with negotiation, because I didn't take the test to get into college. I say, "I have to come here because my husband is here. I can't go anywhere else." So I got to study here. So they took me in. So everything was a negotiation for me. And they did. I did two subjects the first semester, and then I got into full time. I got help, and then I started full-time. They tried to explain me, but because I didn't understand the English, it was like, "I don't understand what you're saying. I need to come to this college." Maybe they tried to explain me that I had to take a test, that it wasn't that simple, but since I didn't know about the test to get into college, I didn't know anything about that. And I say I had to come here. So I guess they couldn't explain to me, so finally they said okay.

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And then a professor, with whom we became very good friends, came out from the room he was teaching, and I was there with the director of the college. And he heard me, and he convinced him, "Just take her in. She will be fine," whatever. So it was a little bit like the good willing for the people, and me insisting that I didn't have any other choice. This is it, I don't have any other choice. And then in college, it was funny because I couldn't talk too much, so I kept up myself apart from the students.

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And one student felt, I think he felt sorry for me because he saw me in a corner trying to study or whatever, or waiting for the next class. And he invited me to go out, and I had to tell him, "Look, I'm married. I have a baby," but I wasn't talking because I didn't have the English. ... I was not part of the students because I wasn't living in college, and I was going back home. So they didn't know anything about me, and I kept a little to myself. The taking on material was fine, the only problem I had was English. And they were very good with me, and I had to write it. See, I didn't even know you could have someone to write for you, but I tried to write, it was terrible. And then I had people help me, but people that were also immigrants. I managed, and they were nice to me, and they had passed the English, but the chemical part, no, that was fine. It was okay. Chemistry or physics, thermodynamics, or these things like that.

Actually, I help Benny with his homework one time in physics, and he couldn't believe it. And he went back to school and I said, "My grandma helped me with the physics problem." I used to stay until three, four in the morning studying at night.

I couldn't do it,  But when you were young, I think you put your... I promised when I got married, my mom said you're never not going to graduate, because my brother and sister didn't graduate from college. My brother went into business and that's it. And I say I will graduate. And it almost was like a goal. I told her I was going to graduate. I will graduate.

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And I graduated with honors, I think I got, not honors, distinguished or whatever. I got a three out of four. So anyway, but I finished. And throughout my career, it was a way to say, I'm not that stupid, it's the English, but look, I'm a chemical engineer. It was kind of more like a background type, and also for the kids. Because it's interesting, I used to work in Maryland, the assistants were talking. "And how did you do for your kids to go to college?" Someone said they had to convince their kids to go to college. And I said, "I didn't do anything." It was understood they were going to go to college.

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EDUARDO MILA, LACHO”S FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE

Well, Lyndon Johnson was president, and the Vietnam war was at it's peak of everything. They realized they needed physicians, because the medical school schools in the United States don't fulfill all the need for physicians. So he signed an order for the next 10 to 15 years, to bring to the United States about 25 Southern physicians at that time. And that's how we got in, because of that, because not only part of the problem with Argentina is there is lot of production of doctors. So doctors are so many, that their value goes down. So you are not needed in Argentina, no matter where you go, unless you go to a place far away from everywhere that nobody wants to be there, but in a city like Rosario, Buenos Aires, you're not needed. Instead, in the US, you are needed, and they want you and they respect you. So that's how we got in here.

And we also owe to Lyndon Johnson, he's not one of my idols but I like him, and we owe him Medicare, which now we are using almost on a daily basis. So he played a very important role in our lives. And the other thing that I learned a few years, at least I went to the University of Buenos Aires, which is very well known in Latin America and all over the world, and it's respected. That single university graduates more physicians than the entire United States. Now, on top of that, there are about another 25 to 30 medical schools in Argentina, like the one he went, and in other cities, and other big cities and so forth. And in Buenos Aires there's at least four or five medical schools, some private, some public and so forth.

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So they produce so many doctors, the same goes for dentists, the same goes for lawyers, that there's no need, it's overcrowded, and that's how you find doctors and dentists driving taxes, because they can't find a job. And what that does, it brings quality of whatever you do down, because you don't like it, get the hell out, we'll get somebody else that will replace you. And there's a long line of guys behind you, and everybody wants your job. So in a way, for us to leave Argentina, it was almost the need. We needed to go somewhere, because it was so saturated. What could you do? You were not wanted anywhere. Maybe in a small town, where there's nothing there. And like Haracio says, you go there, Rosie didn't like it, the small town he went. And how long would he have stayed there? Maybe a little longer, but there's nothing on those small towns. There's nothing to keep you there. So, life is not only your job. Life is a lot of things, and you can have a job, but you don't have a life.

LACHO:

But you have to consider that the number one situation where you work, is because you have to make a living, number one. And then the rest is a quality of life. Well, I remember when I was finishing my fellowship, I talked to my mentor, Dr. Dunlop, and he was a serious guy, he knew what was doing, he had been president of the American College of Surgeons. And I said, "Well, I'm facing a situation, what to do now? Where to go and practice?" And this and that. He said, "Haracio, you go find a place that they need you, and they will treat you well." And he was right. We're treated well in Oklahoma.  In Oklahoma. And we were the only two that were foreigners, in town.

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EDUARDO:

Well, there used to be an oil distillery in town. So with the oil boom, everything was flourishing and growing. And there was a lot of activity and so forth. Now that lasted a few years, until the oil went bust, again. So everything closed down, and the town became [inaudible 01:01:52]. Until, when I, for different reasons, I moved out, if you moved out the same year I did, because really, the future was terrible in that town. Up to the point where the hospital we used to work, it's closed now. There's no more hospital. And we could envision that after the oil went bust, that things were only going to get worse and worse. But fortunately, we were able to move out. Because that's another thing we learned, that it's very easy to go to Oklahoma, but it's very hard to get out of Oklahoma, because you know, you are nobody, and everything is far, and you've got to go here and there and everybody will say, "What the hell were you doing in Oklahoma?" And you have to explain yourself. And that was horrible. Yeah.

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LACHO:

But it was useful for me to spend a few years to get my visa straightened out.

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EDUARDO:

Oh, that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time in our own ways. I had the best... We, we both had probably the best houses we ever lived in the US. He had a huge, very modern house, that you only see in Miami Beach.

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LACHO:

Took 12 years to sell the house.

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EDUARDO:

And I had a home that was so beautiful. I think when I bought it, was the most expensive house in town, but the bank gave me all the money. So I didn't have to put down any money. And when I left, I couldn't leave for a while, because I couldn't sell the house, until I made friends with a lawyer. And I explained my situation that I wanted to get out of town, I was stuck, I couldn't leave the house empty.

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So he said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of you. You buy your tickets tomorrow, and you go anywhere you want." And I gave the house to the bank, and got rid of it, and lost money. Okay. You make it, you lose it, you spend it, or whatever. But it was horrible. A horrible feeling that you feel you're at the bottom of the hole, there's very little help to get out of there. And once they know that you want to leave, that makes it worse, in town. Some people don't want to talk to you. Some people don't want to do this and that, but it was part of our life. It wasn't bad. Our children were young. They grew up in a peaceful town. So, you always have something positive. This was a particular town which was divided in three. Blacks, Indian and whites. They even had three rodeos, one for each one, which they all participated in. Whites and blacks and Indians, they would all go, but they would have three rodeos. Everything was divided in three. So it was kind of fun and interesting, for some time. Some of the best patients we had, were the ones that came from the Indian reservations, because they had money from the federal government, and they will pay in full, your charges and everything, which was not the same with insurances or other people that had no insurance, and so forth, which was very hard to collect. But my best patients were the Indian.

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LACHO:

No, that was a good source. Dr. Bowen, remember Dr. Bowen? He was a friend of ours. And he was the chief of the Indian service for all the area. Yeah. He referred to me all the surgical cases. So I've been good with the Indians.

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EDUARDO

And the other thing is, it was such a small town, you have nothing to do. You have no way of spending money. There was only one good restaurant, and one Walmart. And that was it. You couldn't do anything. So we didn't mind it, because once again, we were young, we were trying to get along, build a future, and so forth. But there was nothing. Nothing there. The only thing close was Tulsa, which was about an hour away, and it's close, but it's far. You couldn't go for dinner and come back the same... You had to have something else to do. It was a good time, we were young, the kids were young, it was peaceful. They could go anywhere at any time.