May 19, 2001 - Arizona Daily Star: Peruvian stands on brink of presidency - and has 2 Tucsonans to thank for it

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By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, March 23, 2002 - 8:53 pm: Edit Post

Peruvian stands on brink of presidency - and has 2 Tucsonans to thank for it





Read and comment on this story from the Arizona Daily Star on Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the two RPCVs, Nancy and Joel Meister (shown in the photo above during their visit to Peru last year for President Toledo's inauguration), who helped him come to the US to study at:

Peruvian stands on brink of presidency - and has 2 Tucsonans to thank for it *

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Peruvian stands on brink of presidency - and has 2 Tucsonans to thank for it

May 19, 2001 - Arizona Daily Star Author(s): Tim Steller

Alejandro Toledo was a 17-year-old slum dweller with ambition but little opportunity when he met Nancy Deeds and Joel Meister in 1963.

The Peace Corps volunteers knocked on his family's door that year, looking for a place to live. Two years later, they were picking Toledo up at the airport in San Francisco, where he would start an education that launched him toward the presidency.

"Without the help of Nancy and Joel, I probably would not have got very far," Toledo wrote in his 1995 autobiography.

Now he finds himself leading opinion polls in the South American nation by 10 percentage points 2 1/2 weeks before the runoff election.

It's a much rosier scene than Toledo faced last May. He was running against Alberto Fujimori, a sitting president who had assumed almost dictatorial powers.

Fujimori beat Toledo in a runoff election denounced as fraudulent by independent observers. After international and domestic protests, Fujimori resigned last year, precipitating this year's election.

"We always thought he would go far," Nancy Deeds Meister said last week. The Meisters married in 1965 and moved to Tucson, but have since divorced.

She and Joel were unmarried when they arrived in the coastal town of Chimbote, assigned by the Peace Corps to carry out "community development."

Chimbote was a fishing village that swelled to a small city overflowing with migrants from the impoverished Andean highlands, many working in the city's fish meal factories.

"There was no electricity, sewer or water," said Nancy, a social worker at University Medical Center.

Among the newcomers to Chimbote were Toledo's parents, who had 16 children, of whom Alejandro was the eighth. Only nine survived infancy.

Toledo's family squatted on the land that became their home. Nancy and Joel knocked on the door of the small brick house in the fall of 1963.

Since the pair were unmarried, living together was not an option in the local conservative culture. Neither was living apart, since young women were discouraged from living alone.

A dozen family members were living at the Toledo home, so it seemed impossible to add another resident - until Alejandro figured out a way, said Joel, an associate professor of public health at the University of Arizona.

"His mother had this little tienda," Joel said, using the Spanish word for store. "Alejandro, being very smart and clever, had already figured out that it would work out better if they shut the tienda."

The rent would pay better than the meager income from the 7-by-7- foot store, he said.

"With the passage of weeks and months, Joel and Nancy became close friends of the family," Toledo wrote in his book, "The Cards on the Table." "Whenever I could, I would enter her room and converse with her. They were long talks that covered practically everything."

The pair helped residents gain title to their land, advised a youth group Alejandro set up and established a summer camp on the beach for neighborhood kids, where Alejandro worked as a counselor.

The Meisters said they saw Alejandro's potential - he was the only child in the family to make it past primary school. Still, they decided not to encourage him to go to the United States.

"We thought if he came here, he would never go back," Joel said.

In 1965, Toledo won a scholarship to study in the United States for a year. Faced with that reality, Joel and Nancy decided to extract a promise from him: In exchange for their help in America, he would return to Peru.

"My ignorance of the system I was about to enter was absolute," Toledo wrote. "That's where Nancy and Joel, the two gringos from the Peace Corps, played a huge role."

Before returning to California in 1965, the pair taught Toledo English every day. The Meisters had been in Berkeley, Calif., for a few months when Toledo arrived the day after Christmas carrying a suitcase.

"Everything reeked of fish meal," Nancy said. "We took him over to Sears in San Francisco and got him some new clothes."

With the Meisters' help, he got into the University of San Francisco and earned a bachelor's degree, then two master's degrees and a doctorate from Stanford University. He then pursued a career in economic development that took him around the globe, working at such places as Harvard University, the World Bank and the United Nations.

Toledo's first run for the Peruvian presidency was in 1995, when he was one of several challengers vanquished by Fujimori. Then, this April, Toledo took the highest percentage of votes. That sent him to the runoff next month against the runner-up, former President Alan Garca.

In 1998, the Meisters visited Toledo's native village, a trip that included a 12-hour van ride from the coast 12,000 feet into the Andes, retracing a trip they made in the '60s. Only this time, Toledo represented much more than a departed native son.

"In 1998, when we returned, we were like the visiting heroes," Nancy said.

Added Joel: "We went back to the village where he was born, and there was no electricity - still."

* Contact Tim Steller 434-4086 or at steller@azstarnet.com.



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By Admin1 (admin) on Thursday, November 29, 2001 - 11:02 am: Edit Post

Read this story from the Arizona Daily Star on Alejandro Toledo and his run for the Presidency of Peru at:

Peruvian stands on brink of presidency - and has 2 Tucsonans to thank for it

Peruvian stands on brink of presidency - and has 2 Tucsonans to thank for it

May 19, 2001 - Arizona Daily Star Author(s): Tim Steller

Alejandro Toledo was a 17-year-old slum dweller with ambition but little opportunity when he met Nancy Deeds and Joel Meister in 1963.

The Peace Corps volunteers knocked on his family's door that year, looking for a place to live. Two years later, they were picking Toledo up at the airport in San Francisco, where he would start an education that launched him toward the presidency.

"Without the help of Nancy and Joel, I probably would not have got very far," Toledo wrote in his 1995 autobiography.

Now he finds himself leading opinion polls in the South American nation by 10 percentage points 2 1/2 weeks before the runoff election.

It's a much rosier scene than Toledo faced last May. He was running against Alberto Fujimori, a sitting president who had assumed almost dictatorial powers.

Fujimori beat Toledo in a runoff election denounced as fraudulent by independent observers. After international and domestic protests, Fujimori resigned last year, precipitating this year's election.

"We always thought he would go far," Nancy Deeds Meister said last week. The Meisters married in 1965 and moved to Tucson, but have since divorced.

She and Joel were unmarried when they arrived in the coastal town of Chimbote, assigned by the Peace Corps to carry out "community development."

Chimbote was a fishing village that swelled to a small city overflowing with migrants from the impoverished Andean highlands, many working in the city's fish meal factories.

"There was no electricity, sewer or water," said Nancy, a social worker at University Medical Center.

Among the newcomers to Chimbote were Toledo's parents, who had 16 children, of whom Alejandro was the eighth. Only nine survived infancy.

Toledo's family squatted on the land that became their home. Nancy and Joel knocked on the door of the small brick house in the fall of 1963.

Since the pair were unmarried, living together was not an option in the local conservative culture. Neither was living apart, since young women were discouraged from living alone.

A dozen family members were living at the Toledo home, so it seemed impossible to add another resident - until Alejandro figured out a way, said Joel, an associate professor of public health at the University of Arizona.

"His mother had this little tienda," Joel said, using the Spanish word for store. "Alejandro, being very smart and clever, had already figured out that it would work out better if they shut the tienda."

The rent would pay better than the meager income from the 7-by-7- foot store, he said.

"With the passage of weeks and months, Joel and Nancy became close friends of the family," Toledo wrote in his book, "The Cards on the Table." "Whenever I could, I would enter her room and converse with her. They were long talks that covered practically everything."

The pair helped residents gain title to their land, advised a youth group Alejandro set up and established a summer camp on the beach for neighborhood kids, where Alejandro worked as a counselor.

The Meisters said they saw Alejandro's potential - he was the only child in the family to make it past primary school. Still, they decided not to encourage him to go to the United States.

"We thought if he came here, he would never go back," Joel said.

In 1965, Toledo won a scholarship to study in the United States for a year. Faced with that reality, Joel and Nancy decided to extract a promise from him: In exchange for their help in America, he would return to Peru.

"My ignorance of the system I was about to enter was absolute," Toledo wrote. "That's where Nancy and Joel, the two gringos from the Peace Corps, played a huge role."

Before returning to California in 1965, the pair taught Toledo English every day. The Meisters had been in Berkeley, Calif., for a few months when Toledo arrived the day after Christmas carrying a suitcase.

"Everything reeked of fish meal," Nancy said. "We took him over to Sears in San Francisco and got him some new clothes."

With the Meisters' help, he got into the University of San Francisco and earned a bachelor's degree, then two master's degrees and a doctorate from Stanford University. He then pursued a career in economic development that took him around the globe, working at such places as Harvard University, the World Bank and the United Nations.

Toledo's first run for the Peruvian presidency was in 1995, when he was one of several challengers vanquished by Fujimori. Then, this April, Toledo took the highest percentage of votes. That sent him to the runoff next month against the runner-up, former President Alan Garca.

In 1998, the Meisters visited Toledo's native village, a trip that included a 12-hour van ride from the coast 12,000 feet into the Andes, retracing a trip they made in the '60s. Only this time, Toledo represented much more than a departed native son.

"In 1998, when we returned, we were like the visiting heroes," Nancy said.

Added Joel: "We went back to the village where he was born, and there was no electricity - still."

* Contact Tim Steller 434-4086 or at steller@azstarnet.com.


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