Interview with Enrique Muñoz Becerra from the community of LaValla200> Syracuse

Enrique Muñoz Becerra, from the Mediterránea Province, 31 years old, is a member of the Syracuse Marist International LaValla200>  Community (Italy) since September 2020. He is a former student of the Nuestra Señora de la Victoria Marist school in Málaga, he has been a catechist and animator of the school’s Christian Life Groups.

In the interview we publish below, Enrique (Kike) talks about what motivated him to follow the Marist charism, his experience of life in an international Marist community and what he has learned in his experience in Syracuse.

Kike, how did you find out about the Marist institution?

I am from Malaga. My father was a former student of the Marist school and I also studied for 12 years at the same center. For my father it was important that I study with the Marists. But, where I really met the Marists, where I began to be passionate about Marist things, is through the “Grupos de Vida Cristiana” (Christian Life Groups). In the Mediterranean Province we have these groups since the sixth grade of primary school. Between the ages of 17-18 I started as animator, and that’s when I really started to experience it as something of my own. This is how the Marists come to me.

How did you have the opportunity to become part of the Syracuse community?

In 2020 I worked in a law firm, and I felt a little burned out at work. But, first of all, I have to talk about the experience I had before as a volunteer in two SED Mission Fields. I spent two summers in Peru, in 2016 and 2018, the first time was for a month and the second for two months.

In 2020 I began a process of discernment and accompaniment with the Marist community of Granada, a mixed community. We began to have a series of dialogues that stopped a bit due to Covid. I was considering life in a mixed community, and in July 2020, Brother Juan Pablo told me that he had to talk to me. And that’s when he suggested I go to Syracuse.

Was it difficult for you to leave your job?

Let’s see, the security part was difficult for me, because I already had a permanent contract, and it was a secure job. But I knew I was going to feel more fulfilled here (Lavalla). I knew that God was calling me more towards what I live now, to live a shared mission with those most in need. Here I also have a lot of administrative work and I accompany people to offices, but it is not the same: I am accompanying a brother, a person who comes to me and who needs help. And although there are difficult days, because there is a lot of paperwork, a lot of procedures, and I don’t get to everything, I feel that every day I have to give thanks for this mission.

When did you first consider participating in a social project, before Siracusa? I am referring to what you talked about, the ONGD SED

At school, the first year of high school, we lived a volunteer experience within what is called Social Education Plan. Later, I was also a companion of that plan for other boys. And with the GVX, in the 2nd year of high school, during the summer, we lived the Service Camp, which was also a quite strong experience.

I was on two more occasions as a catechist in this Field. And then with SED. I had two friends who had already gone to Bolivia through SED. This had always caught my attention, and they passed on their enthusiasm to me.

What were your first sensations upon arriving in Syracuse?

At the CIAO (Intercultural Center for Help and Orientation), which is the social work that the Marist institution has in Syracuse, I found a reality that I loved. At that time, not speaking Italian yet, I felt a little limited in interacting with the boys, but I immediately began to take care of the door. Basically, it consists of receiving and welcoming everyone who arrives, writing down names, showing people to Domenico’s office, a lawyer who comes as a volunteer to offer legal advice, etc.

And a key day for me was the day of Rosa’s farewell, October 10, which is also my birthday. There was a farewell celebration, and at first, I was very nervous, with 20 people at home, having to speak Italian. But I felt like I did it and that’s when I said: “this is going to be good, let’s move on.”

In your daily life, do you have to work a lot with Italian?

All in Italian. And the language of the community is Italian too. Because we are a mixed and intercultural community. At the moment [July 2023] we are two Spanish people, an Italian and a Venezuelan. But our mission is in Italian and we all have to speak the language.

What does your work consist of?

We have two realities. The CIAO center, where we respond to the needs of the people who knock on our door. In the morning there are Italian classes for migrants, and in the afternoons, we have the “Dopo Scuola” (after school), which would be school reinforcement for children, especially second-generation migrants. In addition, there is legal assistance two days a week. And, later, apart from these activities that are organized, other needs also arise that we must attend to.

And the other reality, which I am passionate about, are apartments. We have 3 apartments, which are similar to the emancipation housing in Spain, for young migrants, who carry out an integration process with us from 6 months to 1 year.

If you had to choose a moment that was very important to you, during these three years in Syracuse, which would you choose?

For me, an important moment was, and I have also remembered it several times, accompanying two young boys who found themselves in a very difficult situation, with an expulsion decree from Italy, as soon as they arrived in the country. They didn’t understand things at the border, and well, they signed a document in which they rejected international protection. So, we began a process with the lawyer to be able to offer the children supportive care and notify the police that we were giving them supportive care because they were on the street. Accompanying them in that process was a moment of great stress, accompanying two fragile people in a moment of difficulty, but now it is a great joy to see how the situation has changed.

Speaking of feeling like a family, Kike, I’m sure you have many anecdotes about what community life means, in these 3 years that you’ve been living here.

Yes, I think so… The moments for me, personally, of sharing, living together and getting to know the community, and feeling more and more part of it, these have been the moments that we have lived outside the house: in community retreats, or like last year, when we went to celebrate Christmas in Giuliano, in Naples, with the Marist community that lives there. Or last Christmas, we spent a week in a house that the Marists have in Los Alpes. Of course, the day-to-day moments of working together and fighting for this mission to continue have been important, but always in community.

What would you say to a person who is thinking about living a community experience like this?

Well, on the one hand, he/she will be able to live the mission 100%, because the community is involved in the mission, it is our daily life. Although sometimes it is difficult, because it is difficult for you to disconnect, you live in a different way than if you were with your family or in a different living environment. And it is very beautiful, because it is a time of dedication to others, and we take this experience with us for our later life. This helps you lay the foundation for your future.

What place will Syracuse have in your future?

It will always remain there in my heart, and I think it will occupy an important place because, as I said, I have already changed with this experience. I would like to be able to visit the community again sometime, which I hope will continue for many years. Syracuse is the place where “my Marist being” has grown the most.

*This interview is a summary of the interview conducted by Anabel Abad, head of communications of Maristas Ibérica, as a volunteer of SED, in July 2023, in Siracusa, Italy. Read the full interview in Spanish.