Think Creative Fall 2023

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Sara Benavides A fascination with countries in transition Staff Spotlight

Sara Elisa Benavides was born into Guatemala’s civil war—however, throughout her childhood, she did not realize the precarious situation of her country. “A curious thing is that I never noticed that we were at war,” she now recalls. “It wasn’t until I moved away fromGuatemala that I really kind of began to understand that I had grown up in a civil war and what that impact looked like and howmy life was different. But frankly, living Sara believes her life in Guatemala is like a Ga briel García Márquez novel, full of “magical re alism,” conflict, love, myths vs. modern reality and more. Some of her family members were in the military, others sided with the insurgents. “When I was in Eastern Europe, I met a person who said he didn’t like Gabriel García Márquez’s books. And the reason was because he couldn’t imagine that those places could ever exist. So, the story about my family is as fantastical and as crazy as a Gabriel García Márquez book,” she says. Though Guatemala signed a peace pact on Dec. 29, 1996, it did not immediately translate into a better life for her family. Sara’s family moved from rural Chimaltenango to Guatemala City’s Zona 3, which was nestled between two rival, violent gangs, continuing an environment of conflict in her life. The family migrated the United States where she graduated from high school and college. Applying lived experience to development Today, as a Senior Project Manager, she traces her interest in development and supporting at risk populations to her life in Guatemala. Be sides the struggles of everyday life in Guatema la, in her youth, Sara traveled with her dentist there, it was just everyday life.” Growing up among conflict

“The story of my family is as fantastical and as crazy as a Gabriel García Márquez book,” says Benavides.

mother on medical missions to disadvantaged communities. “To be frank, at that point, if you would have asked me then if I was going to work in devel opment, I would have said, ‘no’,” she says. “As I grew older and I came to the United States, it became very evident to me that I wanted to learn about people from different cultures and different countries. And looking back, it was probably a way of understanding myself because I was from a different culture and a different context.” She earned a B.A. in International Studies from Pepperdine University in Southern Califor nia and a M.A. in International Relations and European Studies fromCentral European University in Hungary. “My fascination had always been what happens to countries in transition,” which led her to study in Eastern Europe, Sara says. “Part of the reason of doing a master’s in Hungary was understanding a society that had to transition from the Soviet Union to become part of the

European Union. What did that look like? How do people kind of make sense of their past?” After completing her advanced studies, Sara took a job with Chemonics and spent nearly eight years in its Washington, D.C., headquar ters and its Liberia office, eventually running a 35-person, $12 million annual operation in Monrovia. Finding global perspective The combination of being a Guatemalan immi grant to the United States, studying in Eastern Europe and then living inWest Africa gave her a new perspective about herself. “Moving toWest Africa, it was really funny because it’s the first time that I have ever been ‘white’ in my life,” she says laughing. “One of the great parts of being an immigrant is that you had to learn about yourself and how you interact with others. And you also learn to un derstand others, not just by what is being said, but by social cues, by interpreting different movements.” n

Photo by Amanda Smallwood

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