![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hijasdejesus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/carmen_premio4.JPG\")
“We would go out to the streets of Vigo to pick up children”<\/strong>When Carmen arrived in Vigo in 1958, she dedicated herself to the school and to the Teacher Training School that her community ran in the city. However, a pupil’s father opened her eyes – and her heart – to a reality that would eventually take up her vocation as an educator totally: “That father was complaining about the large number of neglected gypsy children in the neighborhood, and asked us if that did not call our attention,” she admits. “And he told us so clearly that we could not refuse to do something for them.” Thus, the congregation, aware of her abilities, offered to Carmen the possibility of hosting them in school.
A project that, little by little and with the help of the community, grew until the Puente School became reality. The immeasurable work of Carmen is a palpable fact in the streets of Vigo. However, her humility and her fraternity transcend the reasons, the prizes and the accounts: “I have never been alone; I have always been supported by my community as well as by other religious congregations and volunteers.” And she admits being “proud” because so many people, both in Vigo and in La Coru\u00f1a, have been led “to work with the Gypsy ethnic group”.<\/p>\n
The Abandoned: Her Best Prayer<\/strong>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hijasdejesus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/carmen_conpremiados2.jpeg\")
<\/strong>“Solidaridad con G” prize<\/strong>
From the beginning, she continues, “our entire community has been totally dedicated to these children.” From the day we took them into our school, “on Saturdays and Sundays we would go to Vigo, all over the city, to pick up children”. A work that, in Vigo, first developed only with gypsies. Then, in La Coru\u00f1a, “we opened ourselves to all,” she says. “Because there is no doubt that we want integration, that they be all together”.
This Thursday, in her individual capacity, she will receive the “
Solidaridad con G”, awarded by the Fundaci\u00f3n Secretariado Gitano. An award that, as she confesses, “is a recognition, but not in my personal capacity, but to the Church, our congregation”; because “it was the congregation that began all this.”<\/p>\n
When I speak to her about Jesus of Nazareth, she is quick to say what she lives by heart, feels, and believes: “I see Him in them, and when I sometimes find it hard to pray for any reason, I go out into the street”. And not just to the gypsies, she says, “but to so many people who need to talk and have you listen to them.” And for those who, in the midst of despair or when the storms of life challenge their faith, find it difficult to believe in his words? I ask her. “I see Jesus in them, deep within the children of the street. And I, fully embodied, try to do the best I can and know.” But “He helps me a lot, there’s no doubt about it.”
About to end the conversation, I ask her if, after so many years, she still keeps alive the love she gave herself to and for which she has served 61 years as a consecrated woman. “In love? Maybe I should be more, although it is true that I have been dedicated to Him all the days of my life and that I keep hugging Him in each of those I hug in the street. I only know that if I were to start living today, I would recommend and be a Daughter of Jesus. I would not change it for anything”.<\/p>\n