Saturday, September 18, 1999

Honduras' first lady, Cincinnati native, asks help

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BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Enquirer Contributor

The former Mary Flake in the 1967 Colerain Hich School yearbook.

        It's been 30 years since she walked the halls of Colerain High School in bell bottoms and platform shoes.

        Friday was a homecoming of sorts for Colerain and its favorite daughter. Known here three decades ago as Mary Flake, she's now recognized around the world as Mary Flores, first lady of Honduras and owner of that soft voice broadcast around the globe last year, asking for help.

        While Hurricane Floyd looms in the lives and minds of Americans, Mrs. Flores returned to thank Greater Cincinnati for its help in the aftermath of Floyd's stronger brother, Hurricane Mitch. After a tour of her alma mater and a football game Friday, Mrs. Flores will attend a fund-raiser tonight at the Peterloon in Indian Hill to help to raise money for Honduras' recovery efforts.

        “I think the American community was exceptional in providing aid and support in the first weeks when it was so urgent,” she said. “But there are disasters all over the world. I think people have for gotten about Mitch, which is natural.”

Mary Flores is visiting Cincinnati to raise money to help her country recover from Hurricane Mitch. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

        The international community has continued to help Honduras, which lost 70 percent of its agriculture and 60 percent of its infrastructure.

        Like Floyd, Mitch chased millions of people from their homes. But many Central Americans had little warning and nowhere to run when Mitch turned its 180 mph winds their way in October. In Honduras, the worst hit, more than 5,600 people died and 1.4 million lost their homes. About 9,000 were killed in the region.

        Mitch, one of the worst natural disasters to hit the Western Hemisphere, crippled the economy, robbed thousands of jobs and reversed decades of development.

        Who better to lead them out of their muddy misery, Hondurans say, than their wildly popular Dona Mary.

        “She is more popular than her husband,” said Mariano Planells, executive director of the nonprofit AssociationSave the Children of Honduras, from his office in Tegucigalpa. “For many years she's been doing this type of (humanitarian) work,” he said.

        Mrs. Flores, 49, is honorary president of 20 humanitarian and cultural foundations. Most of her work dates back two decades. Through nonprofit Fundacion Maria, founded in April 1998, she is planning to build the country's first public hospital for children.

        Her gentle manner and genuine interest in the well-being of Hondurans have earned her the trust and respect of its residents, Mr. Planells said. That made the post-hurricane recovery smoother.

        “With the problems Honduras has because of Mitch, the country was lucky to have a pair like them,” Mr. Planells said.

        Long before Hurricane Mitch catapulted Mary Flores onto the world stage, she was a quiet, unassuming girl with a knack for cooking and sewing.

        “I am just floored, I really am,” said Virginia Brown, Mrs. Flores' former home economics teacher at Colerain, when told Friday that her former student is the first lady ofHonduras.

        Ms. Brown teaches math and algebra at Fairfield Freshman School.

        “She was always dressed very nicely and very neatly, not sloppy at all,” Ms. Brown said. “She was quiet, she was never one you'd have to say anything to. Just a really good student. ... She'd be a perfect first lady.”

        Mrs. Flores called her former teacher an inspiration. “I felt a little more secure with her because she cared for me and showed me attention,” Mrs. Flores said. “That's why I went into home economics.”

        Born in Memphis, Tenn., Mary Flake moved to Cincinnati when she was in second grade. Her father, a Procter & Gamble engineer, was transferred here.

        She graduated from Colerain High School in 1967 and later obtained a degree in textiles and marketing from Louisiana State University.

        There she met Carlos Roberto Flores. They married in 1973 and moved to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where she became first lady when her husband was elected president.

        Though long involved in humanitarian programs, the scale of devastation left by Hurricane Mitch lifted her efforts to new heights. As Hondurans sat trapped on rooftops, she appeared on ABC's Nightline asking for help.

        Donations poured in from around the world.

        Shoulder to Shoulder Inc. of Cincinnati worked with Loveland-based Matthew 25: Ministries, Chiquita Brands International and others to ship 28 semi-trailer-sized containers of food and medicine to three unserved areas of Honduras.

        Officials at Shoulder to Shoulderhope to raise $60,000 at tonight's $200-per-plate dinner for its work in Honduras.

        Also Friday, Mrs. Flores visited the house in which she and her six siblings were raised.

        “It's amazing how Cincinnati has been able to maintain its downtown area with department stores ... and a nightlife,” she said. “I think it's very cosmopolitan.”

        She leaves Tuesday to join her husband in New York, where he will address the United Nations and try to attract investment in Honduras.

        “It takes a long time to rebuild,” she said. “We had big challenges before the hurricane.”

       

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