At 48 he was able to get a space as a teacher, a promise he made to his mother, with whom he worked as a candy seller from a young age
Portoviejo
At the corner of Sucre and Olmedo streets, in the center of the Manabi capital, it was known by the nickname of Caramelize. With that word he sought to attract the attention of potential customers who were circulating on the street to buy him candy, pacifiers or water.
Carlos Alfredo Rivas Vera, 48, had been doing this activity since he was 15 in that corner. The business knew him from a young age, when he began to accompany his mother, Wilmira Luz Vera, in sales.
The fans of the Portoviejo League also knew him when he went to sell in the stands of the Reales Tamarindo stadium and used a pun to sell his products among the fans.
With the drive of his mother and his desire to get ahead, Rivas began studying education at the university. He was already an adult when he returned to the classroom. Financial complications prevented him from continuing his studies for a professional career on time.
He was 40 years old when he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Educational Sciences from the Technical University of Manabí. It was 2013. That year, his mother fell ill and passed away.
Before that happened, Rivas remembers that he promised that he would not only achieve the goal of graduating as a teacher, but that he would seek to practice the profession.
The first thing he did, with good grades, but he had to wait eight years to be able to practice the profession and be in front of the students, teaching, as was his dream.
“I always sought to participate in these competitions (to fill a vacancy in the teaching profession); but, I don’t know for what reason, I couldn’t access it. I insisted a few times, I participated, but I had no answers, ”said Rivas.
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Waiting for an opportunity, he continued to sell candy and water. He did not want to lose the focus of being able to enter the magisterium. During the months of the pandemic he had hard times. The business declined sharply due to the reduction of people on the streets.
He insisted again on an application, to knock on the doors, first of the Education district in Portoviejo and in the zonal coordination 4 of the Ministry of Education.
The answer came on December 7, when he was informed that he had a vacancy in the Cayetano Cedeño educational unit, in the San Ignacio de Colón community, the urban-peripheral sector of Portoviejo.
“I was only asking for a job opportunity, not for someone to give me something,” he says while thanking the authorities.
He began by giving classes through virtuality to boys who are in the fifth year of basic education.
“One must pursue their dreams, fulfill goals and in my case fulfill my mother, who taught me from a very young age the value of work. If it weren’t for her, where would I be right now, ”says Rivas, who remembers her mother as her mentor and confidant.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
