Grateful for Sister Support
Sister Ana Luisa Cespedes, OP
I think my vocation began in my mother’s womb because God chose me in the early stages of my life. After four months of pregnancy, my mother had a miscarriage, a baby girl, and five months later I was born without any problems. I am the eighth of nine children born into a low-middle-class/poor family.
I was baptized at the age of 16. Due to my special birth, the doctor who assisted my mother asked to be my godfather. Our move to another city and the busy schedule of the doctor caused the delay in my baptism.
At the age of 21, I had finished my college education, started my PhD work in Havana, and became a teacher. I belonged to a Catholic youth group and was very devoted to my faith. I participated in retreats and assemblies, attended daily Mass, etc. I was a teacher in public, private, and Catholic schools. During this time, I felt some attraction to religious life. After thinking long and hard, I talked with my spiritual director, a Franciscan Father. I later decided to talk with the Dominicans of the Holy Rosary and after some months I entered the convent. In 1957, I started my religious life.
In 1961, I celebrated my first profession and one year later we, the Sisters, left Cuba because the government had been taken over by a communist dictator. My congregation went to Colombia, South America, where I lived until 1973 when I came to Miami, FL.
My ministry in the USA began as a Director of Religious Education with the Hispanic communities, and later I became a Migrant Pastoral Coordinator in Naples, FL. There, I met the Sinsinawa Dominicans. Sister Patricia Caraher, OP, and Sister Beverly DiStefano, OP, worked with the Hispanic communities in Ft. Myers, FL. The relationship with the Sinsinawa Dominicans grew over the years. After fulfilling the canonical requirements of transfer for both congregations, I became a Sinsinawa Dominican.
My decision to transfer was due to the exile from Cuba and difficult circumstances involving my first congregation. I am very grateful and thankful to my initial community for their support and for the many gifts I received from them.