Celina

Five Years In Shackles.

Celina

This story begins in the summer of 1947.

Lady Celina de Monette or Celin as her mother called her was a beautiful young woman who lived in the expensive Parish.

She had just finished her studies in Journalism there.

Now she wanted to find a new exciting job opportunity that would help her career to rise as a journalist.

She was just twenty three and she had finished her university with excellent grades and recommendations.

Not all the women had the opportunity to attend the university after finishing school.

But she was from a wealthy family of France from her father side and her difficulties was far less than the other girls in her age.

Although the university wasn't the only interest that she had .

She loved Parish.

It was so alive so full with challenges and things to do if you were bold enough !

She was already columnist in two Parisian newspapers with strong connections with the socialist and feminist movements in France in the middle of the 20th century.

The clever young woman was in fact an active member of the socialist party there, despite her parents disapproval .

Women had won the right to vote in several countries since the end of the 19th century.

Many women like the suffragettes activists in the recent past was known to her .

They had been imprisoned while campaigning for votes and went on hunger strike earning the public attention with their determination.

They had chained themselves to railings, smashed windows, set fire to postboxes and empty buildings to make their demands heared by the authorities.

Some went so far and even try to set bombs in order to damage property but not human lives at least !

Their efforts fascinated the young girl and she wanted to become an idealist, a true idealist !

But Celin wanted also to travel and see the world with her own eyes.

At first she moved in the United States where she had some relatives already and soon she started her career working as a journalist for a local newspaper in Chicago.

Of course finding a job in a foreign country and especially in a male dominated working environment wasn't very easy.

And definitely ,as every educated woman that had a job that wasn't relating with the housekeeping ,she faced at times, the ironical comments of her boss and some of her colleagues.

Sexism and all kind of discriminations was not unknown in the middle of the last century.

But this made her even more eager to prove them wrong.

However the opportunities to accomplish that from this position was few.

Her everyday tasks was boring and soon lost any interest for her new job.

Thoughts about the exotic Latin America was now in her mind.

Her mother Danielle was from the elegant Parish in France ,but she born in Spain and knew the language very well.

She had also traveled for many mouths in South America during the time after her first marriage.

Daniella frequently told her interested stories about that adventurous journeys that she made in this continent and especially Mexico.

Celin was so jealous and eager to learn more about this exotic lands far away beyond the great Atlantic Ocean !

Celina knew the some of the language already from her mother and wanted to practice her Spanish with the locals.

How the Mexicans look like ? she often thought alone in her few free time.

The women was beautiful like her or her mother ?

She will be able too make friends there if she eventually desided to go ?

But despite all that her relationship with her mother soon became worse after her involvement in the political activities of her party and soon she stopped any contact with her.

She not even opened her letters when they saw them in her letter box.

And she of course she didn't inform her about where she was.

Her father a nobleman from Amien of France always pressed her to marry since the age of eighteen.

But she really didn't want it.

She never felled in love with anyone in her life until now.

She believed that she didn't needed someone to love her.

Even her friends were few.

Her half sister and in the past inseparable companion Sienna had stopped to talk with her since last summer.

And she knew why.

Sienna was always honest and open hearted girl.

But every relationship is somehow tested one day.

When Sienna met a comely young man from her university she felt neglected by her sister.

She couldn't accept that someone else was between Sienna and her now.

She tried everything to separate them.

But when she lied accusing her sister lover that he had tried to seduced her , Sienna decided that she could no more accept her jealousy.

She never forgave her for that lie that almost cost her future marriage.

Celina wanted a new start now.

An adventure, something more interesting than the normal boring office work that she could found with her family connections in Europe.

Soon she started corresponded with a promising larger newspaper ,with office's in Mexico and Panama.

It was a very popular newspaper at this time and notorious for the criticism that often did towards the political system and existing social structures.

After a while with the unexpected encouragement of her previous boss she was invited to work for them for a short time contract as they said.

The newspaper owners was sometimes exchanged their employees to serve their current needs.

She was told that she will quickly become a promising young journalist at their newspaper.

Celin was brought from Chicago with the expenses of her employers who accommodated her in a large comfortable house in Mexico city without asking her to pay nothing !

Everything seemed too good to be true !

One day the editor called her to his office and told her about a great new idea that he had got.

The newspaper was to do a big article about the chain gangs in Guerrero.

It wasn't easy to send some of their reporters there.

The owners never allowed that in the past and the communities was small and easily a stranger could be spotted from the locals.

To get some inside information he was looking for a volunteer who would commit a minor crime in Mexico and get a short sentence on one of the factories or farms.

He thought that she, being both young and intelligent (and pretty), would be the right person for the job.

And off course she told him that she knew the language too ...

She knew very little things about this female chains gang's.

But eventually she accepted.

But for the rest of her story we can best follow her steps reading her small diary that she always kept with her.

It was the only thing that they allowed her to keep until the end.