My story, told by myself.

I was born in 1947 on the outskirts of Rome, in a village called Rocca Priora (the highest hill) in a well to do and deeply religious family. At the age of six, my younger sister (Lucia, 1950-2011) and I lost our father Emilio Andrea (1916-1954), after a prolonged illness. With great regret, my mother Maria (1924-1999), who never remarried, accepted that I continue my studies in religious and secular boarding schools.

At the age of fourteen, I returned to live with my family to successfully complete my secondary studies at the Classical Lyceum of Villasora, at Frascati, which was administrated by the Salesians. Then I continued my higher education at University of Rome, in the Physics department. In that period, I matured a personal vocation, religious and lay at the same time, following the seeds that are in Salesian spirituality, the praxis in pastoral service in the community of my parish and the maturity in attending services at the University Chapel, in charge of Jesuits who were also professors at the Gregorian University.

After finishing my university studies and short experiences as a researcher and as a didactic experimenter, I decided to carry out a period of at least two years of volunteering and technical cooperation in Latin America.

I arrived in Bolivia in 1973 and I have stayed there to this day (more than 50 years), first in El Alto, working in the social and religious spheres for three years, then in La Paz, with multifaceted activities. Soon my services were also required at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, where I served for more than 40 years in teaching, as well as doing research and social interaction.

Among my milestones, I could mention that I was in charge of the foundation of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, the 1994 Eclipse and 1996-2015 Ultraviolet Radiation campaigns. Also, I could point out that I actively participated in the university reform of the 1980s.
In 1975 I married Sonia Chevarría with whom I had three wonderful children (Darío Andrés, Mariberta and Lucía). She tragically passed away in a car accident in 2011. In 2015 I remarried with Ana Carola Lara, merging our two families into a mature love that encompasses six children and ten grandchildren.

I never stopped serving, in different ways, to the Catholic Church, that brought me to Bolivia, as well as to my second and definitive homeland (I became a Bolivian citizen in 2004) and served in the government from 2004 to 2005.

Nowadays I am a retired emeritus professor dealing with energy and hydrocarbon issues. I continue serving God and the Church, taking care of a large family, and dealing with a very aggressive illness. I also contribute with opinion columns and other writings, waiting to be “examined in love” by God.

La Paz, April 2024