Andree Salomon: An Introduction

Andree Salomon de Llanes is the daughter of Yvonne and Georges Salomon and the sister of Helene and Roberto Salomon. Andree married Juan Alberto Llanes, an Paraguayan diplomat in El Salvador and together they had four children. The family later moved to the Washington, DC metropolitan area where Andree still lives today.
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(What is your first memory from childhood? It’s a very complex question. If you think of your childhood, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?)

I have a lot of memories from photographs, so I’m not sure what’s the memory, what’s the vision of a photograph. (chuckles)

(That’s fine.)

I see a picture of myself as a baby giving a kiss to a stuffed animal. I think it’s purely a picture. I have a picture of Hélène and me. She had hair down to her waist. We were about five and three. I have a picture of Roby when he was born and Hélène and me bending down to look at him. Something about our first house on the Avenida Roosevelt.

(What was your home like in the early parts of your childhood? Were there a lot of people running around all the time? Was it a social life, or was it more of a calm home? I’m trying to get a picture of your home in words.)

Well, one thing that comes to mind is, my father wanted lunch at a very rigid time, so lunch had to be ready on the dot at 12:20. In that sense it was not Salvadoran, because Salvadoran people were not punctual. We ate food that was mostly European, so much that my mother still doesn’t know some of the Salvadoran foods. And there was a lot of bustle with three children within five years.

(What did you speak at home?)

With my mother I spoke French, with my father a mixture. He spoke a lot in Spanish to us. And when I went to the Escuela Americana with my brother and sister, we spoke in English.

(So by a young age you were already speaking three languages?)

Three languages, right. When I was seven, at the age of seven I was speaking (or understanding three languages.)

(Did you have a favorite language? Did you feel more comfortable in one language or another?)

Certainly not in French. I mean, French was just what I spoke with my mother for everyday matters. But I did not have a deeper knowledge until I studied it in high school and college.

(When you were young, were you aware that you were Jewish, was that discussed in the home? “Oh, we’re Jewish, so we go to synagogue.” Was it a big part of—?)

Oh, yes, it was a big part, my being Jewish. I don’t think that we went to the synagogue that often, but certainly food was very important for my parents. Friday night there was always a nice clean tablecloth and food that was more special or fancy. My father always went to synagogue, so we knew that. But we didn’t go that often. We always went for holidays.

(In school, did you ever feel left out because you were Jewish?)

Oh, yes, oh, yes.

(How so?)

Just very different. And my name, also. I remember, Andrée Salomon, I wished I was Ana María Hernández or something. (laughs) María Elena. Something. Nothing to do with María, but, you know, just a more common name. I was very, very aware of being Jewish and different. For instance, when we went to High Holy Days services, I was really embarrassed to be out of school. If the school bus passed, I wanted to just hide and not be seen "playing hooky".. (chuckles)

(Is it because you didn’t want people to know or you just—?)

No, I think people knew. I don’t think it was that. I just thought it was really bad to be out of school. (laughs)

(Did your classmates ever ask you questions about being Jewish or make comments?)

I don’t remember much of that. I had a classmate—Miriam Lewinsky was in class with me. Let’s see, Dicky Schoening was I think a year ahead, maybe.

(So there were a few of you?)

A very few. We were very, very few Jewish kids. Yolanda Rosenberg was a year or two behind me, and so was Ruth Baum and your mother. There were few of us. But I did go to first communions and later on to more Catholic weddings and christenings than Jewish life-cycle events.

(As time went on, did you feel more comfortable with being different, or was it always a challenge as you got older?)

We’re talking about ten, twelve years. (pause) I’m not sure.

(What about even older, adolescence?)

Well, I went away when I was about fifteen. At that point I was in the States, it was no longer so special to be Jewish, so different to be Jewish.

(And that was a good feeling?)

yes, yes.

(How did you like being outside of Salvador? Did you miss home? Did you want to go back?)

I was very, very homesick, very homesick to go back, so much that I rushed through high school and I chose not to go to college. I wanted to come back to El Salvador. I missed my family very much.

(In the Jewish community, did you have a lot of friends? Did you feel like it was a very close-knit group?)

Yes, yes, we were all very close, like I said, with Miriam Lewinsky, Yolanda Rosenberg, Dicky Schoening, Arturo Falkenstein, Ruth Reich, Ruth Baum, the Lewinskys. We also saw Raquel and Roberto Liebes.

(Would you say it was a very unique childhood, the things that you would do together? I’m comparing it to maybe a childhood in Europe or the States.)

I think we were very privileged. We had the Deportivo (Círculo Deportivo club.) For instance, I was a swimmer. After school my mother would often leave us at the club and we would swim. Just the privileges that we had, signed "vales"for the food that you got (on credit ). The piñatas that we had, the parties, the gifts, traveling. We were very privileged.

(And you knew that when you were growing up, or no?)

I did. Because I had a lot of awareness of the poverty around me. From a very young age I was struck—I remember one of the things that really just still moves me very much, is people’s shoes, people’s worn, worn shoes, or lack of, that really—and a certain style that the poorer children used that really made very clear to me the differences in economic status. Such as the food also. I just could not imagine that somebody could grow up and grow bones and become an adult on the little food that they had. I was very much aware, very much aware of people living in shacks, even very close to our wonderful home.

(Did that bother you?)

Oh, yes…..Oh yes.

Transcript by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC.