By Eli Weiner (LACIS Social Media/Outreach Intern, BBA – Marketing, BA – LACIS, ’16)
**Cameron Perra is an IIP alum who interned in Chile during the summer of 2014**
LACIS alum Cameron Perra is currently working as a contract interpreter, but his relationship with Latin American culture started years ago, when he took a gap year after high school to live in Venezuela. We wanted to learn more about Cameron’s experience in Venezuela, his work as an interpreter, and to find out what his future plans are. Here’s what he had to say.
What was your experience like living in Venezuela? What made you decide to live there, and in what part of the country did you live? Do you have any plans to go back?
As I finished high school I had a desire to learn a bit about the world, to explore, to learn to speak Spanish well. I decided that putting off college for a year would be a worthwhile adventure. I lived in a city of about 2 million people called San Félix, a working class town across the river from the slightly more secure and economically vibrant city of Puerto Ordaz, located in the southeastern part of the country in the state of Bolívar. The two cities straddle the Orinoco River, very much like my native Twin Cities, a parallel I’ve always enjoyed.