Daria Doering

Memories of Isabel Tercero: I met Isabel through Friends of Nicaraguan Culture, a group that Tanja Winter started, and always admired her. Later Isabel was taking a class at SDSU, where I was a student, and I was giving her a ride every week. Then I had an, um, unfortunate incident in my life. A boyfriend whom I had broken up with became very angry with me. He snuck over during the night and defaced my beige VW van, painting “bitch,” “slut” and other derogatory words all over it with black spray paint! I felt like I’d been painted with the scarlet letter, and was in shock. I couldn’t get the paint off, and didn’t have the money to get my car repainted, so I was contemplating an unhappy future of driving around like this! I called Isabel, and tearfully explained what had happened, ending with, “I don’t know if you want to keep getting rides to school with me, with my car looking like this.”

Isabel laughed, as if this was the funniest thing in the world, which immediately broke the spell of doom hanging over me! She said, “Daria, this doesn’t bother me at all! In fact with my history, we can be the two sluts!” We both laughed and laughed, and I felt so much better! (Then my boyfriend Mike, whom I had reunited with [thus setting off the spray-painting boyfriend] took some rubbing alcohol to my car and got rid of all the offending expletives!)

Another memory of Isabel was visiting her at her family home, in Jinotepe, when I was in Nicaragua. She made us some punch out of pitayah, now known as dragon fruit. It was so delicious that I never forgot it, and that got me started on my quest to grow my own pitayah. It now lines our fence along the alley!

My other memory is just seeing her sing … such a force of nature … a torch singer is what I always called her! Gorgeous, sexy, powerful, unforgettable! Mike and I can hardly believe you are gone, Isabel. Te amamos!