bathing I finished bathing in the place
in which I train every day and I left
my bathing suit hanging on the hook
the shower just to start me
approach and dress and do my
activities every day and in a
given moment he heard a scream out there
who says who is this swimsuit
and someone answers mariel and before
it can be said is mine here I am
that same person screams and who is that and
they answer him that nothing much
effectively the swimsuit was my
blue swimsuit
my favorite is that he knows me he knows
Storms have lived with me that
nothing much is I say nothing much has
an origin has a deep history
my name is Maria today I share with
you what my life has meant in
the water because at that time
reflecting on zoila who swam
a lot
that’s how he has only won a lot and I remember
that instant in which he had nine
hours and a half
swimming in the channel of the spot had
started mined at 8 45 in the morning
I was only two minutes away from
I will hear a whistle from the
vessel that indicated that it should
stop and float drink
moisturizer that I took every half hour and
however, every stroke hurt me and I
Weighed more than the previous one had a lot
cold the water was at 16 degrees
centigrade the last three or four
hours the wind had increased every
once I turned my head to breathe
I swallowed water every time it turned to me
head to breathe swallow water
it hurts the mouth of my stomach hurt me
the throat the tongue had so
swollen by the salt that I did not fit in
mouth and in that he heard the whistle of
the ship
which indicates that I must stop and in my
mind is that phrase by phrase that is not
hold it and shouted it and I can not anymore
I can not anymore I can not be here I have
very cold I can not continue
when I realize that from my mouth
came out this sentence resolved crying full
of courage and impotence york of pain or
of frustration
I cry because I’m realizing that
I’m giving up and throwing the
I drink a bottle that contained
warm drink that had to be taken
floating in the water and I take it like that with
Both hands as if to hold me
that bottle doing a double effort
I take the content of that of that
bottle that content that supposedly
would give me the gas to continue
ahead
I have nausea, I can not, I can not pass
liquid at the same time is warm is
warming up
I drink the drink that contains the
bottle and decided that I’m going to swim
half an hour more I do not know what happens after
that half hour because from the moment
from the point where I am
I do not see land I’ve been nine and a half hours
swimming and I do not know how much time I’m missing
to come but at least I will try
half an hour more in that half hour
I remember the first time I heard
over the channel of the spot
that story that my grandfather told me
my grandfather’s life or without him he told me
ariel I crossed the channel of the spot
many years ago and when I was in the
vessel that was taking me from
england to france
my eyes did not stop seeing the coast
english
my grandfather osteen was a soldier in
First World War
he knew the meaning that the
land that was in front of him in front of
his eyes
he knew that if he saw the coast again
english
because he returned victorious because
I survived that war is the war that
he had four years in the trench that
probably celebrated this Christmas
four years every day he promised that
every hour was a blessing that every hour
I was alive to move on and then
I decide at that moment that I do not know how much
time but I do not know how much time I’m missing
to come but I’m going to keep swimming the
number of half hours that are
necessary to leave the other to
walk out and so I do after
14 hours 33 minutes and save from water
walking in a short time
a year later I’m trying to make a
crossing in the catalina canal and
three in the morning again that
ask in my mind what are you doing here what
meaning has what you’re doing
I’m swimming in the darkest night that
I saw that it has touched me in all my life
where all I see is a lighthouse
green that is put on the test the
guide boat that is accompanying me
and again I wonder what are you doing here
and I remember the moment he does not
many years in which I had a baby
newborn and a one-year-old baby and
medium and life drowned me
I felt that life was
escaping with two babies crying where
that professional woman was left
where my preparation had been where
Everything that I fought for had remained
to make a woman free to do
a determined woman who could take
the decisions I wanted to make in the
life and what happened if he’s going to give every day
I was drowning and then I remembered in
that instant
mariel you’re finding here in the middle
at night on the catalina channel that
space is for you so that you enjoy it
that space that a few years ago with
two babies
you decided that you had to strengthen yourself and
I had to find yourself again
not to strengthen yourself more
but to be able to strengthen these two beings
and give them all the love and all the love and
if there is a preparation and a path
very long after it but you decided
this life being a mother
give is love to these people and that
I do the same in the catalina channel
enjoying that space that I
I found 11 hours 27 minutes
I take a swim from the island catalina to the
coast of california and when I left the
Water
Midmorning reflection around this
moment and I realized that the essential
of life is not seen with the eyes with the
heart and today I would give anything for
recover five minutes of that space
in that time when I felt that I
drowned with two babies so today
hold on as hard as you can the
moment that you are living because no
come back , life goes by fast and
still today feels a chill very
deep chill when remembering the phrase
that the doctor told my husband
you have a cancer tumor in the brain
when I heard this phrase it was for me
an order as if the doctor told me and
you
get ready for a war and just like my
Grandpa prepared to spend four years
in the trench
so I prepared myself to contribute to my
dad to strengthen my family for
be a shoulder with husband to hold
to my children in that war in which
we won many battles but that at
final we lost her holding hands
we accompanied my husband in his last
breathe so that he could today have
a star
up there that bears his name but
here we lost the war and in that
sadness in that desolation in that in that
moment of terrible suffering
a road appears in front of me
that was called the Strait of Gibraltar and
Lalo told me and I
we swam the gibraltar strait together
with my daughter Andrea from the boat
guide taking care of his brother and his mother
to honor the memory of my husband
because with every stroke we were giving
in the Gibraltar Strait and we’re going
demolishing that sadness the pain that we
had left the departure of a very
dear husband and his father after
four hours with 23 minutes we left the
water in a fathom in an infinite hug
together with two friends who spoke with
us and that hug meant in my
life that life goes on and that life
follow and what is relevant about this trip
what is called life is with whom
you share and nevertheless life follow the
Life goes on in some way after
a war comes that process the power
to know what will happen
that the world somehow
it fell on top of us that we’re not
sure if we can move forward or not
because you have to work the things of a
way different from what one knew
it seems like you’re swimming against
current it seems that you are swimming with
wind against all the time
it seems like the mud wave rolling
every day
Believe me the worst waves that has
wallowed in life have been out of the
Water
and yet there I am with this idea of
that life goes on
I’m in the middle of the subaru channel in
Japan trying to keep going
trying that path that is called life
that we must keep taking steps forward
and that in my case and from my trench
you have to keep doing arm strokes and when
he has done me the dive to start
swim in the subaru strait there is a
storm touches me one day with storm and
in the middle of this storm today swimming
at the same time I say it’s not the first
Once I have a storm
this is one more in my life and at 4
hours with 46 minutes
the authority of the boat tells me
until here you came out of the water
and I answer here I do not leave and
I’m not going to leave this channel
until the other side arrives
walking and tell me this time your
security is not the first thing is the
security of all
do not isolate yourself and get on the boat and
do not isolate yourself like I’m isolating myself
and I realize that in this period of
Postwar as it insulates me and
been swimming against the current alone and
been trying to support my children I’ve
been trying to get ahead against
current isolated and alone before
get on the boat immerse my
head in the sea and I realize that
up here is the storm
the wind the waves but the heart of
sea in peace
and reflected and today I can say that I
make is able to take away the peace of your
mind and your heart independently
what storm is going through your
mind and your heart in peace and when I get on
the ship
so he breathed deeply and I say mariel
in peace I fall because it is difficult not
it means that peace
automatically give it to work
you have to breathe you have to live it
have the will to decide
I want to live in peace regardless of the type
storm that you are going through
but also give you this opportunity to
lift after the fall because
it hurts but you have to get up and I
I get up with the idea of moving forward
to go ahead with all this that has
meant my life in the water and
so
this year I am part of a group of
swimmers who swam the first swim
cross-border from San Diego to Tijuana
when I’m swimming
hiromi head breathe in and away from
a wall that enters the waters and reflection
today I say there should be no walls that
divide countries that put borders like this
nor should there be walls
to divide us human beings because
just as in the ocean there are no borders
so we humans would have to
have that freedom
that communication that channel to know how
it happens at sea that in the background all
we are equal and I celebrate because that
that it seems impossible to swim from a country to
another is achieved is achieved then I am
ready to move on in this
path and it comes in my life
the strait of molokai in July this
year
swim from the island of molokai to the island
wahoo in Hawaii and has a meaning
very special to me because the island
molokai was the island they were carrying
to all those people who were
sick women who have some disease
contagious leprosy plague or any other
that would put at risk the lives of
other inhabitants of the islands of Hawaii
you know what molokai meant
illness sadness deterioration death
left suffering and there I am ready
to swim from the island of molokai and leave
back there all that has meant in
my life and swim towards the southern tip of the
Guajo Island which means plenty of life
and blessing and swam all night
with a guide in front of me that is the lighthouse
under that they leave me that marks me
the way and out of the middle of the
night the first bad water and hit me
the bad water I have a deep pain and
I have to remove the bad one because it
is stuck to the body and as soon as my
hand touches the uam to the burning my hand and I
I have to remove it if this deep
pain starts to be the effect on me
effect of saying what are you doing here but at
another time arrives and it stings me and a
cement in the face because in the face
because in the face and I realize that
there are many situations that look like
what we live out here because not
we know where they come from many times
the blows but that does not distract you and
that you go ahead and finally when
dawn
when it finally dawns in a appears
the spectacular
We ‘ve been swimming for twelve hours
Of course there is not much left but I also
it is clear that what that means
molokai has been far and far behind
The worst is over
the best is yet to come and he heard a
shout Mary lund and buron as shark not
It can be if we already have the worst for him
a shark and at that moment I want
to walk on the waters to get on the
boat and say up here I came and
I’m scared and I have an attack of
say that I’m doing here and listened
a phrase that the kayaker tells me
it comes with me, it continues to swim and it does not
you distract yourself how I’m going to continue giving
a shark
how am I going to do anything else there is a shark
under me it keeps swimming and you do not
distract and continue swimming without
distract me and finally after 14
28 minutes
I walk out of the water and then yes
I have many kilometers in the water and
Misná dos have meant a lot of life
nothing but a life that strengthens me
but he reflected on which
nothing much and today I share with you
that each of my nothing has
meaning surgeries for children with
Cleft lip and palate
as well as oncological treatments for
children with cancer and just like that warrior
like that soldier who was in the war
knows what I read fear iza knows what
It makes suffer what hurts what it
puts in doubt what questions it if it is
able to move forward or not
so I also had to swim by
these seas of emotions for these seas
of strength giving arm strokes to go
knocking down each day each with each
stroke those walls that appear in front of
me to be able to say I too have
I walked the path of the little warrior
hurt that I know today that gives me that gives me
fear
today I know what it means to suffer today I know
also that each of my strokes me
has been strengthening and today I can
share with said that that path has
taken to leave the water walking
to finally be able to get to the other side
and after having crossed that sea of
kilometers not only with strokes
but with all the emotions that have
gone through here and around here I can go out
of the water
walking thank you very much
[Applause]
”
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