Juan, Civil Service
The day that mattered most to me was the UN General Assembly in New York in 2007.
Every year the Secretary goes up and has meetings related to the UN General Assembly, but also, has several meetings on the margins with their counterparts.
I accompanied our Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs to New York and participated with him in all of his meetings, with the Secretary coordinating meetings that he had with the President. And the highlight of the day was actually a meeting that the Secretary had with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
I was born in Colombia, I'm a Colombian American, and it was really special for me to actually coordinate the event, put all the work and hours in, and then at the end actually participate in a meeting with the President of the country I was born in, representing the country that I am now a part of. My responsibilities were to basically coordinate the meetings, but also report back to embassies and to the Department on everything that was discussed, from energy to military relations to kind of elections and, and just issues between the two countries.
It's been really special for me. I've only been here for five years and if I were to sum it up, I feel like only in the United States does somebody born in Colombia actually represent the United States in its bilateral relations with a country like Colombia. So it's been an amazing ability to opportunity to interact with leaders in different countries to participate in policy-making. It's very exciting.