Promised Hope by Lenny Sempertegui sheds light on what life can be like for women growing up in rural Bolivia. The book consumes the reader as Semperegui focuses her lens on a girl raised in a misogynistic household is sold in her early teens to a middle-aged man on a horse. She escapes by jumping into a Volkswagen driven by two German tourists. She tells the reader she has never seen a car before but it is better than her current situation. Sempertegui’s story sheds light on the generational violence that exists and offers understanding and forgiveness as a solution.
“Growing up, I saw the relation between man and woman or husband and wife, already in adulthood, that the husband mistreats his woman, the woman has to shut up, and she has to be peaceful to keep up the appearances that they’re leading a normal life as a couple,” Sempertegui comments in a recent interview. Her book is, “has been like a therapy, because there were stories, things that I kept watching and were filling up in my heart, not in my mind, but in my heart, then you see how the others suffer, how can you help these people?”
Her story helps break the silence that allows situations like this to exist. She says, “Raising awareness starting in nursery school. We, mothers, have to be much more aware of how we rise our children, we have to listen to them, listening to our kids and expressing with our partner, the same, what we are doing with our children, sometimes we don’t realise, as adults, that we are subjecting to violence the children’s innocence just with phrases, sometimes when battering happens, then the kids see… We should try to increase the communication among the couples, try to organise more talks to the children, at the schools, for them to know how to protect themselves, take care of themselves, I think that would help a lot.”
Her hope is stories such as hers will pave the way for a more peaceful future. “Nothing can keep as it is, if we change our way of thinking for the better, then we can change many things, can’t we, about our reality, about our future, and that is the biggest hope that we have, that things change, and that they change for the better.” To see how she illustrates how her character changes her situation into victory, please read Promised Hope by Lenny Sempertgui. It is a promised great read. Available in Espanol and English at https://www.vivirenbolivia.net/tienda/productos/the-promised-hope-lenny-sempertegui-epub/