Clemencia, the runner who raised her children without knowing how to read or write

When she was just a girl, Clemencia Cruz’s parents sent her to look after the sheep of one of her uncles, a job that prevented her from studying. At some point they wanted to register it at school, but it was already too late.

Then it was her turn to accompany her parents to Bermejo and, finally, she crossed over to the Argentine side, already older, and there she met her husband. The couple did not have things so easy either, in that country they got up very early and returned late from work. The reality is that Clemencia never had a moment to learn to read and write.and her husband only reached third grade.

He did not want that hard road for his children. For this reason, with all the limitations of country life in the Saire community of Tarijeña, ways were given to make them professionals. Today, the oldest, Leandro Arce, has a degree in Physical Education who lives in the capital of Chapaca, and the youngest, Angélica, She has a degree in Auditing, with residence in Cochabamba.

Leandro remembers the sacrifices that Clemencia made, the same ones that, involuntarily, forged an athletics champion. “She always supported us, told us that we had to be someone, so that we are prepared for life when she is not. She kept telling us that she didn’t want us to suffer like her,” says Leandro.

When Leandro and Angélica started attending school, they stayed for a while at their paternal grandmother’s house, but things got complicated when it was time to move up the school levels. For a time, both Clemencia and her children walked from Saire to Padcayabut it was too far for each day, seven kilometers there and seven back, 14 in total.

Clemencia realized that it was a difficult task for her children, so she rented a room for them in Padcaya. Now it was her turn to visit them practically every day. “He came from there almost every day to leave us things, money or whatever we needed. He spent almost a day walking, arriving at four or five in the afternoon, leaving in the morning. He was just heavy, ”says Leandro.

Clemencia’s eldest son says that she was always very clear that she was going to get them ahead, despite the circumstances, “she has always fought”, she is moved. For that reason, when he and his mom signed up to compete in the 15-kilometer footrace, the opening of the holidays of the Virgin of Chaguaya, Leandro did not mind leaving his own challenge halfway, to take care of his mother.

“Imagine that you sign up your mom, you can run, that you are in good shape, and when you are walking away you see her at the end of the queue, of all. How are you going to feel, are you going to want to keep running, or are you going to wait for her?”, she wondered.
Instead of looking for a podium he decided to stay because it was 15 kilometers that he had to run at 58 years old, he feared a cramp, that something would happen to him, and being far, far away. “I just wanted to see that she did well. From kilometer 9 I have gone with her, it was nice to see my mom cross the finish line, and apart from winning, it was a nice emotion thator I will forget easily”, says Leandro.

athlete of life
Clemencia’s son assures that she never trained, not in the conventional way, in gyms, etc., but simply that her routine made her a strong woman. He says that her mother gets up at four in the morning and starts to cook and get her things ready for the day, that in the early hours of the day she lets her animals go, he milks them, takes them out to graze, and only returns home in the afternoon to leave prepared the most urgent of the next day.

“It is true that he cannot read or write. His days go by among his goats, sheep and cows, that’s how he spends his days. When she needs meat, or potatoes, corn, etc., everything comes from what she herself produces. It is a simple country life that she leads, ”shares Leandro.

Clemencia had never participated in a competition, when Leandro told her that he had signed up, he asked her to write it down, leaving everyone baffled. Leandro confesses that he did not think he would win, because in addition to his 58 years, he did not want to accept the shoes he bought him, he told him that he was going to run with flip flops.

He doesn’t have WhatsApp, but he knows everything that’s going on. On August 18, the Mayor’s Office of Padcaya recognized him. Almost all the tributes have been to his ability as an athlete, but at home they know that her quality as a mother is not far behind.