Our Project Coordinators, Patty and Alejandro

Beginnings

In 1986 retired diplomat Ike Patch visited Mexico to see the monarch butterflies. About the same time, Bill and Patty Coleman, authors and publishers, went to Cuernavaca in central Mexico to make a retreat. Since all three lived in the little town of Weston, Vermont (Population 500) it was inevitable that they would compare notes on their trips. Over coffee, they all lamented the poverty they had seen - the hungry little children, the twisted limbs, the depressed and hopeless women. All wished they could do something about it.

Patty with her ever bubbling enthusiasm suggested we form a non-profit corporation to help the Mexican poor. She said, "Let's do something even if it is something small. Better to help a few children than to complain about the poverty." Bill and Ike agreed and VAMOS! was born. Friends, family and neighbors joined in and a few years later Bill and Patty sold their house and business and went to live in Cuernavaca, Mexico to supervise the VAMOS! projects.

Now VAMOS! has 81 projects all of which are designed to empower the poor and has formed two non-profit corporations, one in the U.S. and the other in Mexico to ensure that VAMOS! will go on and on and on.

Why Mexico?

Mexico is our nearest Third World neighbor, a nation with close ties to the U.S. and the home of a large minority of our population. It is a poor country, not because it lacks the natural resources or the people with the will to improve it but because it was exploited by its Spanish conquerors for three hundred years, plagued by war for the next century and mismanaged for most of this one. Corrupt political leaders have destroyed most people's chance to support themselves and their families. According to a CIA document, Mexico has a larger percentage of poor than such countries as India, Santo Domingo, Algeria, Turkey, Brazil and Chile. Yet, it has more billionaires than any third-world nation. The U.N. has warned that such inequality can very easily lead to social unrest and Mexico is on the U. S . border. Mexicans are energetic and resourceful and have enough contact with modern technology to be able to work toward a better life. While the whole Third World is in need, here, more than in most parts of the world, there is the opportunity to make a significant difference.

Why Cuernavaca? This city of 1.5 million is typical of what is happening to the Third World poor. Rural people no longer able to support themselves in their rural villages are flocking to the city in search of food and work. Many neither read nor write, have minimal skills and often speak only their indigenous language, not Spanish, the official language of the country. Whole families must sell on the street and are homeless, hungry and totally confused by the demands of urban life.

Testimonials

Perhaps our Board Members or other friends could write a few words for this section.

VAMOS! and the Law

VAMOS! is an acronym in both English and Spanish.

The VAMOS! Boards

Mexicans who work in the various VAMOS! projects and are themselves poor people who have been recruited and trained by the VAMOS! staff.

Bill & Patty Coleman

Bill and Patty are the VAMOS! field representatives in Mexico and two of its founders. They come to their work among the Mexican poor with an unusual set of experiences. Both worked in the civil rights struggle of the 1960's in Georgia during the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. where they met and married. Together they have written an impressive array of books, multi-media presentations, periodicals, articles and poetry and have spoken all over the U.S. and Europe. At the same time, they were deeply impressed with the philosophy of activist Dorothy Day and helped found local soup kitchens in Connecticut.

They discovered the Base Christian Communities and the Liberation Theology movement current in Latin America at the time and realized its similarity to the black churches of the Southern U.S. before integration. Their study of this new approach to doing theology led them up and down Latin America. In 1989 they moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico to coordinate the work of VAMOS! which was already underway.

In Cuernavaca, they not only direct the many VAMOS! projects but are frequent speakers to visiting North American groups, write articles for periodicals in the U.S. and England and maintain the web of relationships on which VAMOS! depends. They have three children and nine grandchildren.

In December, 2002, Bill and Patty have relinquished most of the day-to-day supervision of the projects to Alejandro Lopez who is now the director of VAMOS! in Mexico but continue as the field representatives in Mexico. They give over-all direction and continue to visit all the poor colonias.

Patty's Bio

Patricia (Patty) Coleman grew up in Wilmington and graduated from New Hanover High School in 1954. Her 6th great -grandfather, Joseph Register, had come to the area in the 1740's and had a plantation on the Black River. Little did she realize in 1954 that she and her parents would leave Wilmington that year and Patty would not return until 50 years later after having graduating from the University of Georgia and receiving a Masters degree from Florida State University.

From an early age, Patty’s mother had pointed out to her the injustices in the segregated south and by the time Patty was in college she joined other students who were speaking out against segregation, not a popular thing to do for a southern lady. In 1974, she married an Irish Yankee from Waterbury, Connecticut, Dr. William (Bill) Coleman, and they continued to work in the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia until 1976 when they moved to Mystic, Connecticut where they wrote and later published Catholic religious education books and pastoral materials, some of which are still in print.

When their youngest child graduated from college in Vermont in 1984, Bill and Patty visited some poor women in Cuernavaca, Mexico with a group of Mexican Benedictine missionary sisters. They returned to Weston, Vermont where they were living and working at the time with the dream of starting an ecumenical non-profit organization to help the Mexican poor. In 1987, they founded VAMOS! Inc. with a friend and in1989 they sold their publishing business and moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico where they lived and worked until Bill became ill in early 2004. They returned to Wilmington for medical care and the doctors discovered that he had lung cancer. Bill died November 16, 2004 and Patty now divides her time between Wilmington and Cuernavaca where she serves as the field director of VAMOS! which serves over 370,000 meals a year to poor children, adults and elderly, provides education and health care, all free, funded by individuals, churches, groups and foundations.

Patty and Bill had three children, Lisa, Angel and Jim and Patty is very proud of their nine grandchildren. One daughter, Angel Pereira, moved to Wilmington from Mystic, Connecticut after her father died and is a member of Immaculate Conception Parish along with her husband, Cesar and their sons, Antonio, William and Lucas.

Here in Wilmington, Patty, now widowed and struggling with the loss of her beloved husband, attends daily Mass, volunteers at Good Shepherd Ministries homeless shelter with the clients and serves as an interpreter for Mexican patients at Tileston Clinic. When asked to write a biography, she said, “All I can say is that I’ll soon be 70 years old and I’ve been busy all my life. The example of Jesus has always urged us on.”