Committed to Her Country Wife of Peruvian Envoy Uses Sociology Background to Help Impoverished by Gail Scott As you pass through the gates of the Peruvian residence, you think you’re “driving into the woods,” said Veronica Ferrero, wife of Peruvian Ambassador Eduardo Ferrero Costa. “We’re the only embassy property with deer-crossing signs.” The impressive 22-acre estate adjoining Rock Creek Park seems a million miles away from the hubbub and noise of the nation’s capital. During the Civil War, a Union fortress sat on this high wooded hill, defending the city of Washington. In the late 1920s, when Washington builder Charles H. Tompkins decided to convert the land into his own family estate, he was careful not to compromise the historic site. The handsome three-story stone Georgian home and grounds then became the property of Peru in 1944. “We are lucky—this is just like living in a forest,” Veronica said as we sat together on the terrace, totally surrounded by woods, while embassy chef Jose Luis Herrera proudly gave out samples of his innovative dishes. Veronica, a magna cum laude graduate of Bryn Mawr College who received her master’s degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, interviewed 50 chefs in Peru to find just the right one. “He is only 32,” she said, “but he helps us demonstrate that Peru today is at the top of the world in food. Our food is contemporary art in dining. We are a box of surprises: pisco sours, music, and luscious fish and shrimp from the coast, grains, lamb, potatoes, wheat from the hills and a totally different cuisine from the jungle. The northern part of our country is known for mangoes, tangerines and asparagus. Today if you buy asparagus in the Giant here, it probably comes from Peru. “This is a wonderful opportunity to tell everyone about Peru and its great history. We are proud of the Andes and Machu Picchu, but we want everyone to know what else Peru has to offer,” Veronica explained. “For instance, we have promoted Peruvian culture through events like the National Geographic’s recent ‘Indigenous and Viceregal’ exhibit and the performances by the Peruvian National Choir singing 17th-century music here and in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” She added, “My husband and I are alike, united by the same ideals. We both have loved Peru since we were very young. We knew each other at home, but we fell in love in Madison when we were both graduate students. I got my MS in sociology and my Mrs. at the same time.” Ambassador Ferrero, a lawyer and professor of international law, has written and edited 19 books and more than 50 scientific articles. After graduate work in international law at the University of Wisconsin, he went on to get his doctorate in Peru, later becoming Peru’s foreign minister in the late 1990s. Most recently, before becoming Peru’s ambassador to the United States in March 2004, he served as Peru’s permanent representative to the Organization of American States. Throughout their 32 years of marriage, Veronica said she knows that her husband’s support and understanding in her career path has made everything possible. “My wife is very important in my work and I am lucky to have her,” the ambassador said. “She is my wife, my companion and the mother of our children, but she is also thinking with me on how to fulfill our goals for Peru.” This mother of four said she is proud to showcase Peru’s ancient pottery and other Inca artifacts in the residence. In addition, she uses her professional background as a tenured sociology professor at the Catholic University of Peru and her more than 15 years of experience with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help her home country. Back home, she had been extremely active in professional organizations, promoting the importance of the social sciences and supporting programs for her country’s disadvantaged citizens. As a sociologist working with USAID/Peru in 1980, she said, “I touched poverty. I worked with women and children, saw the shantytowns, the community kitchens and helped the marginal women’s organizations. I know what the contrast is. I always ask myself, ‘What else can I do?’ “We have tremendous talent, a beautiful country, natural resources like mines, agriculture and a great potential for foreign investments. Peru may not have financial resources, but our country is a treasure of history. We value the family and we are trying to develop our democratic systems,” Veronica said. However, she concedes that many problems remain. “We are a country with 50 percent of our people living in poverty,” she said. “What a challenge we have. With this tremendous poverty, you can’t be indifferent. “Our government under President [Alejandro] Toledo is working hard to improve the living conditions of our people. We look forward to a free trade agreement with the United States, which would make a tremendous difference,” she added emphatically. During the late 1960s, Peru had a program similar to America’s Peace Corps called “Cooperation Populaire Universitare,” in which each Peruvian university student was invited to go into the poorest communities and build roads and schools and help children learn to read and write. But according to Veronica, by the 1980s Maoist-led terrorism had become one of Peru’s biggest problems. “Terrorism in developing countries is related to poverty,” the sociologist said. “People are in despair and some groups capitalize on that. As long as we don’t overcome poverty, the threat of violence is always there. “Only after I left the classroom, first as a student in the [United] States and then as a professor back in Peru, did I get in touch with reality,” she recounted. “I too had spent too much time in an ‘ivory tower.’ When I went into the field, that’s when I had encounters with my people. We created self-help programs for women especially.” At one time, Veronica was in charge of a $5 million scholarship program that offered Peruvians educational opportunities in the United States under USAID/Peru. Whenever Veronica toured her countryside, she often took her family with her. “We came face to face with poverty and my children saw their mother working with the communities, the poorest of the poor, helping to improve their daily living conditions,” she recalled. “One time we traveled to an isolated rural community to inaugurate a portable water system…. I had my 5-year-old Javier and 8-year-old Veronica and my husband with me. The villagers welcomed us with bouquets of flowers and we celebrated together. Suddenly my children had a new awareness of poverty and realized how privileged they were in their charmed, little balloon of life.” Today, her eldest son Eduardo, now 32, is an Australian banker, 29-year-old Veronica is a lawyer in Lima, 26-year-old Javier is a lawyer in Washington, and 20-year-old Angelina is an architecture student at the University of Virginia. “Now as I am growing older, our children are developing their talents, working to improve Peru. My daughter who is studying architecture wants to design hospitals and education centers for poor people. And my older daughter is now saying, ‘Mother, I need something else in my professional life, like starting [a nongovernmental organization.]’ “It’s my philosophy that each of us must develop our own talents and that it’s up to each person to find an opportunity to serve our society,” said Veronica. Education has always been foremost to this ambassadorial spouse. “I love to learn, discover,” she explained. “I am a permanent student. My oldest sister went to Oxford and the Sorbonne, my brother is an agricultural engineer, and my other sister has her Ph.D. in education.” Veronica thinks her grandparents, who came from Spain, were “visionaries,” promoting higher education for women. “They didn’t believe only in the traditional roles for women, that women should stay at home, marry after high school and raise a family,” she said. “My mother was also a pioneer for her generation. We always had classical music playing in our house and it was mandatory that we study piano. I still play.” But her closest Catholic high school chum, Teresa Pinilla, now UNICEF’s Latin America and Caribbean desk officer in New York, remembers a lighter side of Veronica. “She was an extremely good student who won all the awards, but Veronica was also very friendly, funny,” Pinilla said. “We were always singing together, trying to imitate the latest pop singing group. She and Eduardo firs t met at my big 15th birthday party.” After graduating from the two-year bachelor of art’s program at the Catholic University of Peru in Lima, Veronica won an academic scholarship to study at Bryn Mawr College, a prestigious women’s college nestled in Philadelphia’s wealthy “Main Line.” “American hospitality, how you open your hearts and homes to foreign students, made my four years of being a student in America an unforgettable experience,” she said. “I was really lucky. My academic years here were beautiful and warm, and I came back from the United States much more independent and eager to apply what I had learned in my graduate work.” This devout Catholic believes that her inner strength comes from her religion. When the Ferreros miss mass during the day, they sometimes go to the 10 p.m. service at Dahlgren Chapel on the Georgetown University campus. “Beliefs are very important,” Veronica said. “You need to have a spiritual dimension to your daily life. “We all have to do the best we can every day because time does not return,” she concluded. “La vida es un puente entre dos eternidades. Atraviesalo pero no fijes en el tu morada—life is a bridge between two eternities. Cross the bridge but don’t think you are forever here.” Gail Scott is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.