I would be nowhere in this conversation without books. Thus, rgurleyrevolution.com will feature a book for each podcast season. This season is focused on Bolivian Women and their revolutions. No book, in my personal opinion, captures the plight of Bolivian women more than Lenny Sempertegui’s Promised Hope, available in Spanish and English. Promised Hope tells the story common to women born in Eastern Bolivia. Sempertegui’s character is raised in a violent household in rural Bolivia only to be sold at a young age to a middle-aged man on a horse. The character, who has never seen a car, encounters two tourists one day in a Volkswagen. She, desperate to leave her abusive husband, asks them to take her to another pueblo. They take her to Santa Cruz de la Tierra, one of the fastest growing cities in the world. What unfolds next is nothing short of a true testament of survival and hope. Promised Hope is a must read for anybody interested in the plight of women around the world especially in Bolivia where gender-based violence afflicts over 70% of its women.
Lenny Sempertegui Daza was born 3rd January 1971 in the town of Samaipata, Bolivia, where she grew up and studied until finishing high school. She studied Biology for three years in the Gabriel René Moreno University in Santa Cruz, after which she moved to Germany, raised a family and set herself up in gastronomy.
Living with the German culture coupled with the nostalgia of her native land inspired her to address the needs and suffering of the forgotten women. This was a crucial time where she experienced a deep spiritual change that altered the direction of her life. She committed herself to write of the experiences and enlightenments of this transformation. She returned to her country of Bolivia after 10 years. She now lives in Samaipata with her family and works as a chef in her own restaurant.
For the last 7 years she has been the founding member of the ASAC group (Samaipata Cultural Association) which is run by women, whose objective is the advancement and development of culture through a variety of cultural events.
Pursuing her goal in life, she studied at the Louise L. Hay Argentina Institute of Philosophy in Buenos Aires where she trained with Professor Cecilia Tofanari as an instructor and workshop facilitator for “Heal your Life”. Since 2014, acting with an international licence, she has been an active coach and consultant for “Heal Your Life”.
Join us next week for an interview with Ms. Sempertegui as she discusses her book Promised Hope and her thoughts on being raised in the country that promises hope, Bolivia...this book is a must read...I could not put it down...availble in Spanish and English.