Tales from Colombia: The Deeds and Misdeeds of 41 Peace Corps Volunteers Who Answered President Kennedy's Call to Serve - Paperback

by Amanda C. Hackmeister (Illustrator), Pauline J. Peterson (Editor), Emily L. Mack (Editor)

Reprisal killings, terrifying bus rides, cock fights and lady matadors, rescuing imperiled missionaries, Amazon jungle adventures, death on high mountain glaciers, brutal jails, romantic weddings, Christmas in the Caribbean, a Peace Corps baby and touching gifts from simple people who have so little themselves are some of the stories related by the members of Colombia '64. This book chronicles the adventures of this group of forty-one Peace Corps Volunteers who came from across America to train at the University of Nebraska in 1964, only a year after President Kenney's assassination. These young men and women were from every level of society, from share croppers to Harvard graduates. They were farmers, teachers, mechanics and Marines. Some had only high school educations, many had college degrees. This diverse cross section of American youth received training in agriculture/nutrition and educational television in Nebraska and Puerto Rico, then were scattered across the dense jungles, rugged mountains, deep valleys and tropical plains of Colombia, South America. Here they worked in the big cities and in the smallest, most primitive villages. They worked with educated, well-to-do Colombians and with high mountain Amerindians who retained their native customs and dress. They served among the alegre (joyful, cheerful) predominately black population of the Caribbean coast, the mixed races of the interior valleys and the taciturn populations of the high mountains, descendants of the warriors of the once powerful Chibcha Empire. There were the costenos (coastal people) and the llaneros (plainsmen, the cowboys of Colombia). These young Americans came to know Colombia intimately and were themselves changed by the experiance. This book tells the story of these Volunteers, much of it on their own words, the training, the two years in Colombia and how those two years of service affected their lives. Included are biographies of the forty-one Volunteers who became ranchers and teachers, college professors, engineers and bank executives, even an FBI agent and a Broadway producer. It is the story of an evolving Peace Corps, instituted as a more effective means of providing foreign aid and as a weapon in America's arsenal to fight the Cold War. It is also the saga of a country striving to modernize while combatting civil war, communist insurgents and drug cartels, a country that seems, so often, to be on the brink of progress and prosperity. It is a country and a people these Vounteers came to love and appreciate, a country to which they will always feel a special bond.

Author Biography

Gary Dean Peterson was born in Lincoln, Nebraska during the early days of WWII. He grew up on a ranch in Montana attending grade school in a one-room schoolhouse. After graduating from Montana State College, Gary returned to Lincoln - the University of Nebraska - for training with the Peace Corps. The next two years were spent in Colombia, S.A., first in the high mountains that had once been the seat of the Chibcha Empire and later in the heat and humidity of the Cauca Valley south of Cali in a town founded by Spanish gold miners. Working with the people of Colombia as an agricultural and nutrition extension agent left an indelible imprint on Peterson's memory. Follow the two years on Colombia, Gary Peterson picked up degrees in engineering, meteorology (thanks to the Air Force) and an MBA. He served five years in the Air Force as a meteorologist during the Vietnam War. After the war, Gary worked for Ford Motor Company, a Midwest power equipment manufacturer and finally the Air Force as a radar engineer. Gary Peterson began writing magazine articles while working for the Air Force, then retired after his first book, Warrior Kings of Sweden, was published by McFarland in 2007. Coincidentally, that was the year the Colombia '64 Peace Corps group met for a reunion which prompted Gary to search out the rest of the group and uncover their stories of service in Colombia and how it had affected their lives. The investigation resulted in the present book, Tales from Colombia. Gary is married to Pauline Peterson who has assisted in the editing and rewriting of the two books. They live north of Salt Lake City, Utah and are the parents of four daughters and seven grandchildren.