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A letter from Washington

A chance encounter finds a Mauritius-Guatemala connection

There are Mauritians living all over the world, and many have interesting stories to tell about their "parcours" to foreign lands. But the story of Georges de la Roche du Ronzet stands out as a particularly fascinating one, as his family landed in a very unusual place for Mauritian migrants: the Central American country of Guatemala.

Georges came to my attention totally by accident. The American husband of a Mauritian friend of mine who has worked in Guatemala met him during a business meeting at the Embassy of Guatemala. Georges serves as the Deputy Chief of Mission, the second in command after the ambassador. At that meeting, my friend was curious about Georges' long French surname and thought there was something distinctively Mauritian about it. He asked, and Georges said that yes, he has very direct ties to Mauritius, as his ancestors were among the original settlers on the island during the French period.

We met on a recent Saturday afternoon at Georges' office at the Guatemalan embassy. He rolled out a copy of the extensive family tree, and pulled out a book on the family's history, published in France.

The history of his family in Mauritius starts in 1737, when Claude de la Roche de Roznet, carrying the title of count, arrived on the naval ship, "La Reine," as an Officer of the Troops of Isle de France and Chevalier de Saint Louis. Claude had acquired from his first born elder brother Etienne the noble title as Etienne had fallen in love with one if his own slaves. In 1741 Claude married in Mauritius and had 11 children. He was one of founders of the Bel Ombre Sugar Estate when he and Simon Remirac were granted a concession of 2,200 hectares of land in 1765. Georges descends from this family branch. And it's a long and complicated genealogy.

Georges has a lot of information about his great-grandfather, Armand the Marquis who was born in Mauritius on Jan. 13, 1886. He shipped off to France to fight in World War I, and there met and married a well-to-do Frenchwoman, Therese Rozan. Their first son was Guy, Georges' grandfather, who was born in 1913 in Mauritius, and they had a second child Irene also born in Mauritius in 1916. Armand took a second wife, Therese Chiris, in London in 1919. The family at that time had a chateau near Auvergne, where the de La Roche family is from, but they did not return to Mauritius.

Young Guy attended boarding schools in France. Later on, he met a wealthy Belgian woman, Lucy, whose father was one of the first explorers of the Belgian Congo. They married in 1937. George's father, Claude, was born in Brussels in 1939, almost nine months before the outbreak of World War II.

When war erupted, Guy and his father, Armand, joined the fight. Armand was killed by a German U-boat in the English Channel, and Guy became a parachutist and trained with the U.S., British and French free forces. He was part of the allied unit that liberated Tarbes, near the Pyrenees.

Looking for a safe haven out of the flames of Europe, Guy sent Lucy, baby Claude and Lucy's family to Guatemala. "They chose it randomly," Georges said, "because it had nice weather, cheap land and they could grow coffee and sugar cane there." Georges is not sure why they didn't choose to go to Mauritius.

In Guatemala, they found new frontiers and much opportunity, a safe place untouched by a world war raging thousands of miles away. This was where Claude and his sister Beatrix grew up, learning Spanish, while speaking French at home.

Guy was quite the bon vivant, Georges said, traveling often to France and New York, and booking American bands to perform in Guatemala. "He always found something to do," Georges said. He separated from his wife and in the early 1950s married an American woman. They had two children. After a divorce, Guy moved to France, where he died in 1980 at the age of 66.

Claude, meanwhile, spent his early years in Guatemala before attending high school in Mexico. His university studies were at the University of Maine, in the United States, and then he returned to Guatemala, where as a youngster he had met Sonia Plihal, the daughter of a Czech immigrant married to a Scottish lady from Belize. The Plihal family established a large shoe factory in Central America. Claude and Sonia married in 1960, and had four children: Marc, who now works for Chevron in Houston, Texas, Georges, Christophe-Guy, who manages a call center in Guatemala, and Desirée-Louise, who recently married and lives in Canada.

Georges, like his siblings, had an international education: primary school in Guatemala, a private secondary school in Scotland, Tufts University in the United States, and military school in Brittany, France. He then entered the family shoe business in Guatemala, working as plant manager in charge of production of leather, vinyl and textile shoes, chief financial officer and chief executive officer.

His entrée into government service began with national elections in Guatemala in 1995. "A new president had been elected, and a friend of mine told me that the government was looking for new people to join the Foreign Service, so I did," George said. His first assignment was as first secretary and consul in charge of passports, visas and political and economic reporting in Warsaw Poland. The main task was to promote tourism from Poland to the "Mayan Riviera" and "put Guatemala on the map through cultural and social events." He then served in the same capacity in the Netherlands.

In Washington, Georges is the Deputy Chief of the Guatemalan Embassy, in charge of the administrative running of the Guatemala embassy. He is also top adviser to the ambassador on political, economic and social issues. Before that, he worked as the embassy's liaison to the U.S. Congress, tasked with promoting friendly relations between the two countries, especially in the area of bilateral trade.

As a Guatemalan public servant, Georges often has a lot of explaining to do because people are not used to seeing a Caucasian person in that role. "Guatemala is 60 percent indigenous, 30 percent Latino and a mix of 10 percent Caucasian, from all parts of Europe" Georges said.

One of the biggest issues in his job is immigration, as there are roughly 1.5 million Guatemalans - 12 percent of the country's population - living in the United States. These immigrants send some $4 billion in remittances a year to family back home. "That is almost the size of the government's entire budget," he said.

Georges said he has not yet visited Mauritius, but feels that he knows the island because his grandfather, Guy, always spoke about it. "He would say how the flora and fauna were so similar to Guatemala, so I could easily picture the place."

Now, Georges said, it's time for a real visit - to show his English wife and his three young children the island of his ancestors. "I still have to get there," he said. "I am - and always have been- interested in reconnecting with family roots."

a m e r i c a n   s c e n e

WEEK-END --- dimanche 4 mai 2008