Searching for Paradise: An Unexpected Event Will Mark out a Family’S Destiny. a Story That Takes Place in Modern-Day Mexico.

By Sara Aceves Giacinti

Searching for Paradise is a novel that has been inspired by the thinking of Eduardo Galeano: Our courage is born of our fears, and our certainties of our doubts. Dreams point to another possible reality, madness to another kind of reason. We discover things in the place or places where we become lost; one has to become lost to find her- or himself again.

It is a story about the creation of large biotechnology plants in Mexico, and about Eva, a young, single woman from a provincial town who manages to become the owner of such a business. She searches for love from her partner, the father of two of her children. She is forced to suffer because of the nasty behavior and selfishness of what is supposed to be her family; also because of an opportunistic society.

Eva founds, in the small city of Aguaclara, the first plant of its type, with its research labs and creation of patents. It becomes the first Mexican business to become registered in 50 years.


During her earlier years, Eva turns to one of her uncles who has an export assembly plant. There, she learns about entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, clothing plants, like all Mexican export products plants, begin to feel the effects of investors going to China, after they stop investing in Mexican business ventures.

Eva finds that she is forced to work as an employee at one of her uncles plants, and later on, at her fathers construction company. Five years later, when she is only 21 and divorced, and has a three-year old son, she meets the man who will become her partner, Juan Blanco, and falls in love with him. The birth of a new business era, and a love story between two people from different social classes, makes Searching for Paradise a great classic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palibrio
• Release date: Feb 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781506517872

Sara Aceves Giacinti

Sara Aceves Giacinti, originally from Mexico, is an entrepreneur, lecturer, life coach, philanthropist, and writer. She is a business expert and also an expert when it comes to leadership and personal transformation. In 1991, she founded, along with Edgar Arroyo, Grupo Industrial Aguascalientes (GIA), the name of which was later changed to the GIA Company. In 2001, she became a founding partner for the Protengia Institute and Gialive, which is a social project of the organization that sponsors Andy Project. In 2005, she lent her support and advice for the book En el nombre de mi hijo, which was published in 2006 by Random House Mondadori, where she worked in collaboration with the writer, Elena Poniatowska, and journalist Arieli Quintero. In 2006, she moved to the United States, where she ventured into different research studies on markets and communication media. She took part in business development courses at Stanford University, where she had the opportunity to learn from Condoleezza Rice. She is a founder and active member of the Andy Project Foundation by GIA, which promotes intensive programs targeted at creating healthy lives and massive social assistance in several countries. In America alone, it supports more than four thousand children stricken with cancer. In 2015, she joined the Latino entrepreneurs’ program at Stanford University, which is the first national initiative for Hispanic and Latino businesspeople who live in the United States. In 2016, she collaborated directly with John C. Maxwell in the Leadership and Intentional Living Program, which was carried out in conjunction with President Horacio Cartes and the government of Paraguay in different sectors of Asunción’s population. Sara is the mother of three sons. She lives in the United States and spends as much time as she can with her children and her little dog, Tato.

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Copyright © 2017 by Sara Aceves Giacinti.

Translated from the Spanish by Barbara R. Cochran

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Rev. date: 18/01/2017

Palibrio

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CONTENTS

OUR COURAGE IS BORN OF OUR FEARS

CERTAINTIES ARE BORN OF OUR DOUBTS

DREAMS POINT TO ANOTHER POSSIBLE REALITY, MADNESS TO ANOTHER KIND OF REASON

WE DISCOVER THINGS IN THE PLACE OR PLACES WHERE WE BECOME LOST

ONE HAS TO BECOME LOST TO FIND HER- OR HIMSELF AGAIN

SEARCHING FOR PARADISE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The words of Eduardo Galeano have inspired me. He has said: Our courage is born of our fears, and our certainties of our doubts. Dreams point to another possible reality, madness to another kind of reason. We discover things in the place or places where we become lost; one has to become lost to find her- or himself again.

Searching for Paradise started to materialize as a manuscript during one of those existential, difficult periods during my life, not just because of life itself, but because I was unable to find myself.

I have written this novel because my mind and heart inspired me to do it.

Searching for Paradise is a love story with a happy ending; it is not about blind determinism that leaves its protagonists totally defeated. Nevertheless, the usual reward of the virtuous woman is supplanted by what seems like never-ending heartache in this story but does ends up wearing the guise of one that comes about because of good judgment, which is seen as a healthy sense of truth and justice throughout the entire novel. It is just one more story in which the heroine who stands by her values gets retribution in the form of real true love.

I dedicate this story, with heartfelt love and gratitude, to my three sons, Alejandro, José Andrés, and Diego, because of the deep love they feel for me, and because they helped keep me calm throughout the process of writing it, and for being my best friends, my motivation, my light, and my source of inspiration and support at every moment.

My thanks also go out to my dear sister, Tanyveth, for her support, and for the knowledgeable help she gave me when it came to revising and editing my manuscript.

Sara Aceves Gianciti

Our courage is born of our fears,

And certainties of our doubts.

Dreams point to another possible reality,

And madness to another kind of reason.

We discover things in the place or places where we become lost;

One has to become lost to find her- or himself again.

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OUR COURAGE IS BORN OF OUR FEARS

Eva was walking from her grandmother, María Barragán’s house, to her Uncle Pablo’s export assembly plant, which was called Raboj, after his last name. It was after 2 in the afternoon and she had to report, after she had something to eat, at 4. It was very hot and Eva began to think about how as soon as she was born she had been wrapped in silk sheets but now found herself walking along a road to get to a job. She was just a simple, normal, everyday worker who was pulling in a minimum salary that only allowed her to pay for her books and public high school tuition, which she now had to attend, after she had, ever since she was little girl, gone to the best private schools. Eva had had to leave her parents’ home and move in with her paternal grandparents, where she thought they might end up showing her a little charity. Aunt Clara lived there in the company of her entire family, her husband, Carlos, and her two children, Paula, a very happy 12-year old, and Leo, a serious 14-year old. She had been suffering with cancer for several years already; because of that, her temperament was not at all uncomplicated. It was felt throughout the house. She was very strict when it came to spending money on some things, but it didn’t matter if she wasted it on certain other things. She knew it was the way she could control all everyone else in the household. Eva’s uncle, Pablo Raboj, and his family lived two doors away from her Salem Barragán grandparents. A garden and orchard connected their country homes at the back of their properties. Because of that, it was common for the members of the Raboj family to go and visit the Salem grandparents’ home.

Eva was aware that her grandparents’ house wasn’t really her home. She was reminded of that, every single moment, whenever she crossed paths, which seemed to happen more and more frequently, with the oldest of her female cousins, Amanda. She seemed to harbor a great deal of resentment and anger towards Eva. Amanda used to look down on her as if she were some kind of inferior being; she acted as if the family did not really want her there. In addition, Eva, in a certain kind of way, was working for her because she was her Uncle Pablo’s oldest daughter.

Eva kept walking and asked herself why it was that things had had to end up this way. It had only been a little more than a year ago that her parents had put on one of the best and most costly parties in the past 15 years in the city.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when someone honked their car’s horn and shouted:

Hey, girl! Watch where you’re going! I almost ran you over!

Eva looked, but right at the same moment, found herself in front of the door to the Raboj plant, which, as of then, seemed as if it was where she was going to spend her entire working life; the thought of that did not seem the least bit encouraging. She waited until she saw the big gate open and her cousin, Javier, entering the premises in his luxury automobile. He looked at her and smiled. Javier was only a year older than Eva. When they were small, they used to play together with María, Javier’s sister, who was two years older than him. Eva quickly greeted Don Pedro, the caretaker, who, like always, said:

Go in, Eva, because it won’t be very long before your uncle, Don Pablo, goes upstairs, since he’s already here, and you’re late again. And you better watch out, because he told me to let him know when you arrive, because you’ve already been late several times.

Eva felt quite distressed and mortified. She knew that a strong reprimand was waiting for her because, even though she was the owner’s niece, that, far from helping her, had put her at a great disadvantage. She quickly went into the building, greeted Tania, the receptionist, and then started to head up the stairs, at the same time that Tania said:

Eva… Don’t run. You already know that it bothers your uncle, Don Pablo, a lot when you run up and down the stairs and through the hallways.

Once she got to the upper floor, Eva said good afternoon to everyone working in that area; her friends gave her their typical you’re late again look. Only Susana and Graciela smiled at her. Their presence at the plant made her days there more pleasant; from time to time, one could actually hear a few laughs in that place.

Eva acted very happy and was friendly to everyone. She liked to wear fashionable clothes but which were casual, just the same. But in the office, everyone dressed more formally than she did; because of that, Eva stood out. That didn’t take too long in attracting the attention of Amanda who told the director of human resources to tell her that she needed to change the style of the clothes she was wearing, and to fix herself up in a way that would make her look simple and demure, and to wear just a little make-up. That made Eva feel as if she were back at the Catholic nun’s school, where she had studied most of her life. She didn’t understand why she had to change her style when her cousin Amanda didn’t have to. They also told her to remove all the postcards of landscapes she had under the glass that covered her desk because it was supposed to look clear. Eva asked to review her contract and the work rules; they did not address any such issues. Because of that, she ignored her cousin’s whims.

Her Uncle Pablo had given her a job in the accounting department. Eva had her own desk; it was right in front of the company’s head accountant’s, so he was able to check on her all of the time. Fermín, the accountant, was nice to Eva. It seemed to him that Don Pablo was, to a certain extent, too strict with his niece, and that Amanda was capricious and unjust in her dealings with her cousin. In any event, he was an employee, too, so he had to comply with orders from above. Eva was given the task of learning Susana’s job; the latter was very happy to teach it to her, and she did so with a great deal of patience.

That afternoon, Eva’s uncle had her call him; he told her the following:

I’ve spoken with your father and have told him that you’ve been late too many times. After I confronted him with that, he offered to lend you a car so that the issue can be resolved. You will, of course, have to pay for gas and get it serviced if you want to use it. But don’t think that it’s going to be like the car you had before that your mother took away from you. This one is the old, big orange one your father has at his shop, the one that his mechanics use to go and pick up parts.

Eva was shocked; she felt pain in her chest. Her family, which had so much money, was treating her like this? Her family, inside of which she had grown up, with whom she had gone everywhere, and which had proudly introduced her to everyone, and had pampered and let her do everything, was now treating her with scorn. She then knew that her life with her family would never be the same again. It had all started two years before, with the death of her maternal grandfather, Andrés Giovanni.

Eva Salem Giovanni was born into two of what were considered the best families in the City of Aguaclara, Mexico. And although that might sound like something from the 19th century, it is not. We are talking about 1970; nevertheless, the habits and customs of this city, which were influenced by the Spanish and the Catholic religion, seemed as if they were, in many of its social aspects, the result of a blending of the era of the Holy Inquisition with that of the Porfiriato. Eva enjoyed the best of baptismal ceremonies because of her family’s status within the Catholic Church. But several years later, Eva would ask herself: And when did they ever ask me if I wanted to be baptized in the Catholic religion? That was when she was 6, right when her mother took her to visit the Lord Bishop. He was a very tall, very fat man whose hand she was forced to kiss, which, to her, didn’t seem very hygienic or pleasant. It even seemed humiliating and ridiculous to her.

Eva was a very curious and devoted little girl who was also a bit of a dreamer. But as far as her maternal grandmother, Beatriz Valdez, was concerned, she was a rebellious child she had to control. But with a grandmother like her, anything could have come about. Doña Beatriz was tall and blond and had green eyes. She was a very handsome woman, but very cold and hard-hearted, although Eva didn’t remember her being like that when she was a young child. She had been her favorite grandmother. Something had happened to her so that she suddenly changed into a cold, controlling, calculating woman. In any event, as far as her grandmother María was concerned, Eva was like a princess. As soon as she would see her, she would cover her with kisses, give her hugs, and in general, shower her with love.

Eva was the oldest granddaughter of Andrés Giovanni, who was an expert in radiology and a professor at the university he founded, beginning, of course, with the School of Medicine. Don Andrés had the most advanced team in the middle of the country. His patients and the medical community loved him. He was very tall and masculine and extremely charismatic. A man of strong character and values, he was also tender and loving; and like a good Italian, he enjoyed good food and life, in general, as well as traveling and going to parties. Don Andrés was extremely happy and very romantic. He was a true bohemian who like to dress as nicely as possible. Eva enjoyed conversing with her grandfather on Sunday afternoons. In the summer, she used to help him out at his office by welcoming his patients and handing over the results of their medical tests. Her grandfather paid her a salary for that. And when Eva collected her first week’s pay, her grandmother, Beatriz, took all of her money away from her, by arguing that it was family tradition that a member’s very first paycheck was to be handed over, in its entirety, to the grandmother. It was an unjust, stupid tradition that Eva, of course, didn’t approve of. One of the first things that Eva would honor in the future was the idea that the income of any employees she might have would be sacred; and if she ever had children, she was never going to impose such a thing on them.

On the other hand, her grandfather, José Salem, was a man who had been hardened by life; but had a great heart, as was evidenced by the way he helped disadvantaged people. He had ruthless-looking, deep blue eyes, and his skin was as dark as that of the Spanish Moors. José Salem was a very handsome and resolute guy, but had a great weakness for women and when it came to his family. He was a well known stockbreeder, crop grower, builder, and businessman in the region who bumped elbows with members of the country’s wealthiest families and the rotating president. Don José Salem was her paternal grandfather. He felt a special kind of affection for Eva even though she was not his first-born granddaughter. She wasn’t aware that, because she enjoyed the love of and was the favorite of both of her grandfathers was, she was, with the passing of the years, going to experience a great deal of bitterness because of the jealousy of some members on both sides of the family.

Eva grew up inside of a kind of bubble that her Aunt Clara was going to take it upon herself to break at a later date, between all the pampering, luxuries, capricious activities, and all the ambiguities that existed between a life of opulence and one of lack. Between the glamour of haute couture, make-up, jewelry, good appearances, and all of the compulsive purchases and other frivolous behaviors of her mother Elena, who was controlled by Beatriz, and the stones, rocks, and dust were produced as the result of her father’s, Alberto Salem’s work. He was a well known building engineer who also loved to work in the mines; he was determined to find any bed of gold that was still left in the region. Like Don José Salem, Alberto invested in ranches and cattle. That forced him to go away on weekends, which didn’t please his wife, Eva’s mother, at all. She didn’t like anything that had to do with the country.

On the other hand, Eva spent the greater part of her childhood being bullied by her older cousins, her Uncle Paulo, who was her mother’s younger brother, and by Geraldine, her Aunt Estela’s daughter, until her parents decided they should move out of the house. Mónica, her friend from school, ended up occupying her spot. Eva was barely 7 years old when the fear with which she had been living would offer her the opportunity to be born as a new person. She knew that she had been born to be who she really was and not what her family had decided she should be. Without having too much awareness at that moment about what that actually meant, she took on the role of rebel, which her grandmother, Beatriz, had already imposed on her. And after she heard the story of Don Quijote de la Mancha, she decided to fight for her freedom and honor, even though it meant she would be risking her life. And she decided she was also going to fight to achieve her dreams, in which she saw herself as a strong, successful, powerful woman. She was going to be more successful than her grandfathers Andrés and José, and her father, Alberto, and her Uncle Pablo. And she was never going to be as frivolous and controlling as her grandmother, Beatriz, or her mother, Elena, but cheerful and loving like her grandmother, María.

Eva finished her work, but like always, her uncle did not allow her to leave early. What’s more, he left her with the task of going, the following day at 7 AM, to pick up the car that her father was going to lend her, after which she would have to be at work at 8 on the dot. Eva returned home at 8 PM and then walked to her grandparents’ house so she could have a snack with her grandmother, María, who was already waiting for her with the traditional café con leche and pan, which she thought, like any good Spaniard, she would never be able to do without. After they were finished eating, she went up to the room that her Uncle José had assigned to her. It had been that of Aunt Ana, the youngest adult in the family. She had married and now lived in another city with her husband. It was the best bedroom in the house, since it was very big and decorated in the style of Marie Antoinette, the French queen whose head they cut off in the end. That made Eva feel extremely scared because she felt that if such a practice would still have been allowed during her time, her cousin Amanda and grandmother Beatriz would have certainly used it on her. Once in a while, Eva felt that her Aunt Clara did love her a lot, but other times she felt like she didn’t. She picked up on the fact that her Aunt Clara had a special kind of preference for her cousin María, whom she lavished with gifts, for any stupid reason whatsoever, while Eva did nothing more that watch them pass into her her hands, right in front of her face.

Two huge paintings, which were portraits of Aunt Clara and Aunt Ana, had been hung in her room, as if they were members of a royal family. The huge bathroom was covered, from the floor to the ceiling, with pink marble. Although it was ostentatious and luxurious, Eva didn’t like it. It seemed like an ice box to her; she felt awful whenever she took a bath in it.

Aunt Clara wasn’t all that happy that Eva was occupying Aunt Ana’s room. She often brought the issue up with her father, to which he used to respond:

Eva is my granddaughter. She is part of my blood. She’s one of us. I love her; you should, too. Besides, she hasn’t had a good time of it with a grandmother like Beatriz. You should be more loving towards her. I see a lot of me in Eva, and because of that she’s very special to me. If only just one of my children or grandchildren could have the same drive, character, and vision that she does.

You must mean her ambition, Aunt Clara responded.

It’s not ambition, Clara. It’s how she takes the initiative, which is something that you nor anyone else in this family is able to understand, no matter how hard anyone has tried to explain it to you.

It was obvious that Eva’s grandfather, José, did not like her grandmother, Beatriz.

Eva sat down and did her homework, like she did every night. The next morning she went to her parents’ house and picked up the car. She knocked at the door. Her father came out and handed her the keys, after which he asked her to come back to live with them, since it was still her home. In spite of that, her mother came back and glared at her with a great deal of resentment, which is the same thing her mother, Doña Beatriz, used to inflict on her, on a daily basis. Eva felt quite afraid at that point, so she did nothing more than take the keys from her father, after which she thanked him and made a half-turn. She quickly got into the car, which was parked outside of the house, and then sped away as fast as she could. She felt terrific pain in her chest. She wasn’t able to understand how a mother could be so hard-hearted towards her own daughter, that is to say, how a mother could be so egotistical and cruel by showing so much resentment.

When she was a young girl, Eva used to spend most of her time at her Grandmother Beatriz’s house. Her mother would go to social functions or out shopping every day, at which time she would leave her with her grandmother. Her first years were quite an adventure. Her grandmother used to read to her, every afternoon, incredible stories about Torquata, who according to her, was very much like Eva, although, in reality, that wasn’t the case. But, through the telling of those tales, her grandmother was trying to encourage and make it so that her granddaughter would go blindly along with everything that she and her parents told her to do, because, if she did, she would be thought of as the best and most loved girl by everyone, according to her. Torquata got nothing more than the best grades at school; she didn’t have any friends because all the girls envied her. And she never confided in her female cousins, and even less so, in her male cousins. Torquata never had a boyfriend, and she only would have one as soon as her parents and grandmother gave their approval. Torquata never told anything personal to anyone, with the exception of her grandmother. Torquata would marry an older man who was ugly, strong, sober, and very rich, and she would have two children whom she never held, but which she would leave to sleep in their cradles, which wasn’t good, since babies are supposed to get used to being being surrounded by their mother’s arms. What’s more, she never kissed them. Torquata never worked because high society ladies didn’t do that; only poor people worked. Eva grew up listening to these kinds of crazy, ridiculous tales. Until she turned 7. One summer morning, she was playing alone in her grandmother Beatriz’s garden when she ran across Goyito, one of her father’s workers. Goyito was a master bricklayer; he was there doing some remodeling. As soon as he saw her, he became so excited that he quickly came down off of the scaffolding and ran up so he could take her by the hands.

Eva! Eva! The engineer’s little daughter! Eva! You look so pretty with those big bows in your hair! And what a pretty dress! You look just like a princess!

Eva acknowledged his greeting. She was very pleased to see him. She remembered that when her father took her with him on Saturdays, when he would supervise the work, they used to see Goyito, Her father used to tell her: Eva, say hi to Goyito. He’s one of our best bricklayers. And then they’d sit around the firebox together where, for lunch, they would eat tacos stuffed with rich-tasting eggs and beans, along with the rest of the workers, and around which they used to tell stories about all of the dynamite that the engineer used to set off in the mines. Then suddenly, an exasperated Grandmother Beatriz, enraged, came up, and, at the same time that she pulled on Eva. She shouted:

What are you doing, Goyito? How dare you grab the little girl with your filthy hands! Don’t you know that you could make her sick? Let her go! I’m going to tell the engineer that he should fire you!

She dragged Eva away from there and took her to the bathroom so she could wash her hands, at the same time that she reprimanded her and let her know that a lady, a decent young lady, would never, but never, talk to, let alone makes friends with her family’s employees. And that Goyito was a bad man and that they deserved to fire him. That was the first time she saw her grandmother show her true colors; she was a woman of scruples but who was also cruel and egotistical. She was filled with so much bitterness, that far from scaring anyone, they ended up feeling pity for her. Eva could not stay quiet:

You are cruel and nasty. Goyito is my friend and he didn’t do anything bad. I don’t love you and I don’t want to be anything like you. I’m not like you or Torquata. I’m like my grandfathers and my father. And you are a really bad mother because you have made my mamma and my aunts into very nasty people, too.

Eva’s grandmother slapped her so hard that all she could feel was the pain on her cheek.

Let go of me! I don’t want to be with your anymore! I hate you! You’re bad! I don’t know how Grandpa Andrés puts up with you!

And she ran straight from the bathroom to the patio so she could look for Goyito and ask him to forgive her for what her grandmother had done. But Goyito wasn’t there anymore. She ran, crying, to the phone and called her Grandpa José. She told him everything that had happened and asked him to come for her and take her to the house of her Aunt Amanda, her father’s oldest sister, whom she loved as much as her mother. Eva hid behind one of the cars in the garage and waited for her Grandpa José.

Don José honked his horn; it could not be confused with any other. Eva immediately came out to meet him. Her grandmother heard him, too, and immediately looked out from her bedroom’s balcony, which looked out over the street, at which point she saw Eva get into the car. Enraged, she shouted:

What a capricious, foolish girl! If you get into that car, you’re going to regret it the rest of your life!

Don José looked at her and said, from the seat of his car:

It’s somebody else who’s going to regret it, Beatriz! Eva is my granddaughter, even though it might not seem like it to you!

Yes, I see that now. She’s as careless and as rude as her grandfather.

Don José looked at Eva and encouraged her to get into the car:

"Look, hija. There are women who should never be mothers, and Beatriz is one of them. You are a Salem, and you shouldn’t ever forget that. You are my granddaughter, and I won’t allow anyone to mistreat anyone who’s of my blood."

Eva got in and her grandfather pulled away in the car. Don José didn’t talk during the trip to his office. All he did was place his hand on Eva’s knee as he drove in silence; he remained pensive until they got to the office. He parked the car and then they headed towards the building as he held onto Eva’s hand. They went up the stairs of the large building together; it was in the city’s downtown, where his offices were. Uncle José, her grandfather’s oldest son, who worked with him, was there, and her grandfather two assistants. One of them, Marta, who had already been working for Don José for many years, and who knew many secrets about his business and family, immediately went up to them. Don José said to her:

Marta, please take care of Eva, whom Doña Beatriz is up to her old tricks again.

Do you know why my Grandma Beatriz is so nasty and says such bad things about my Grandpa José?

Would you like to hear a story?, Marta, gazing into her eyes, said.

Yes!, Eva exclaimed, at the same time that she was enjoying an orange soda that Marta had given her.

"Look, Eva. When your mother and father were sweethearts, everything was going really well. Until one day when something happened—your Grandma Beatriz came in through that door. Your grandfather received her and had her go into his office. We don’t know what she said to your grandfather while she was in there. Your Uncle José and I only know what we saw and overheard that day. Your grandfather ran your grandmother out of his office, after he told her that his son would never marry her daughter, that he wouldn’t allow his son to spend the rest of his life at the side of a woman like her, and