CHASING HOPE Her Old Life Vanished in Flames
Jacqueline and Amadeo CHASING HOPE Her old life vanished in flames. Now, guided by a tenacious will and her father's devotion, Jacqui fights every day to recover Story by David Hafetz ❖ Photography by Rodolfo Gonzalez © 2002 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN Jacqueline and Amadeo CHASING HOPE Children always look. They always turn around to look. eyes, an only child who refused to take no for an answer. Some kids shout. Some ask their mothers what happened. When Jacqui speaks, old friends know it’s really her. Her voice Some follow. Some hide. still bites. Once in a supermarket, a boy came near. She whines like a spoiled child, bosses like a foreman and teas- Monster, he said. es like a schoolgirl. It’s even worse when children cry. There’s joy in her voice. “I feel like a normal person inside,” Jacqueline Saburido says. When she listens to merengue and Spanish ballads, she still Some days, she stays at home, lying in bed, visiting the past. sings off-key.Love for songs, Jacqui believes, comes from inside. Her last hours in Austin. The islands where she swam with “Life without music wouldn’t be life,” she says, “and the best friends and family.Dancing flamenco. Racing her car through the way to live it is singing.” chaotic streets of Caracas, Venezuela. Watching the stars from her father’s boat. THE JOURNEY For a while, she rests in the memories of her old life — the life that disappeared in the flames. Jacqui and Amadeo Saburido are on a quest. They’re trying to It would be so easy now, at 23 years old, to just fade away.
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