If she behaved she was allowed to come back to San Blas during school breaks, but she admits being a trouble-maker from an early age, so her visits to Caracas were reduced to a minimum.
That was until she graduated and came back as fast as she could to her beloved San Blas where she studied to become a nurse, got married, raised 3 children, and then started working for the city hall.
“ I raised my children, fighting for my barrio, [...] I adore my San Blas, and even though some people do as they wish, I love my San Blas.”
She arrived back in San Blas to a cheap rental home alongside her husband in order to work in Caracas, as most people started out back in the day. San Blas had changed by then, there was now a market, the school had gone a long way, there was a basketball court and even a doctor’s office.
During her absence the first sewage line was installed, and the road was paved by the late 1970’s. Water pipelines were installed but were not concealed underground, so people would have to walk over these huge pipes. It was then that the community began to organize themselves and created the civic associations and neighborhood associations in order to propose improvement projects to the municipal council, a process led by Yolanda’s late mother.
The first of these projects was, of course, the concealing of water pipes and repavement of the streets of San Blas, it was the same neighbours who paved their streets with the support of the municipal council. Then came electricity, the closest standing electric post was in the Pomarrosa neighborhood, so little by little they lit the way from Pomarrosa to San Blas, until the municipal council finally built light posts and later installed meters in each home.
By the time Norys Corozco, one of Yolanda’s friends moved to San Blas in the early 1980’s all public services were functioning. Norys moved into a rental home in San Blas, her husband started a carpentry shop, and what initially was his workshop grew into the home they live in today. Waste management services started closely after Norys’ arrival. Yolanda remembers that they would knock on neighbors doors to take away their solid waste.