Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1053644
By Laurie Larson "Sometimes when we move into Four Seasons, magic happens. It must be magic. How else can we explain how six people, each one an artist, discovered their talent only after they moved here? "Or is it the beauty we are surrounded by and immersed in? Soaring mountains, endless azure skies, huge puffy white clouds, dazzling sunrises and fiery sunsets enrich our springs and summers while slate gray skies with menacing dark clouds promising torrents of rain or a powdering of snow enhance our winters. These must touch an artist's soul. "Or could it be the wind? Playful or fierce, welcoming or infuriating, cooling, bracing, or tempestuous, it affects us all. Does it blow ideas toward us and swirl inspiration around us? "Maybe it's all three. And it seems like magic. "Of course, as we all know, what seems like magic is really a combination of many things including hard work, persistence, vision, and opportunity." I wrote the above words several years ago as the introduction to the first of two articles in which I profiled six newly minted artists who were residents of Four Seasons Beaumont. And here I am again introducing two more previously unknown, even to themselves, artists. This time it's a couple: Enrique and Waltraut (Wally) Enguidanos. They are fascinating, charming, educated people who personify my explanation of magic: a combination of many things including hard work, persistence, vision, and opportunity. Both of them spent childhoods in Europe - she in Germany, he in Spain. Both came to the United States knowing not a word of English. Both were admitted to schools where they excelled - she to the prestigious and extremely competitive Bronx High School of Science and he to Abilene Christian College on a four-year scholarship although he spoke no English, despite the need to overcome almost unbelievable obstacles and hardships. Both attended Pepperdine University which is where they met and eventually married. And both have had rich lives, separately and then together for over 59 years, and both continue to immerse themselves in activities that add texture to the already fascinating tapestry of their lives. I wish there were space in this magazine to tell their stories. You would find them as fascinating and inspiring as I do, I am sure. However, the two of them did the hard work of chronicling their lives in a published memoir that they wrote for their future generations of grandchildren, great grandchildren and on. In the introduction to their memoir they endeavored to impress upon their now and future generations what made it possible for the two of them to overcome crushing impediments and mile high hurdles and to succeed. It sounds simple. It isn't. To quote: "The main reason was working hard, being responsible, and making the best of every opportunity that was presented…" Look at their artwork. The first thing that impressed me was their use of color. It's rich and vibrant, just like their lives. And to me it seems cheerful. Just like them. When I first met Enrique, I was struck by his charm. There's just something about him… so I was not surprised to find he was considered a ladies' man. In fact, his brother Julian who had preceded him to the United States, tried to keep him from getting acquainted with Wally when they were both students at Pepperdine. Julian invited Wally, who had just been named "the best student with the highest academic record for the year 1954" at Pepperdine to Thanksgiving dinner. Enrique was also invited, but told to keep his distance from Wally, and he was seated at the opposite end of the table from her. An obviously failed, or maybe foiled, plan, as they got engaged during Enrique's last semester before graduation. I read the Enguidanoses' memoir, and I sat and talked with both of them at their home, and I still cannot comprehend the entirety and complexity of their lives. On the way home from a bullfight in Valencia, his mother went into premature labor. Enrique survived his premature birth in a hospital with no incubators and then a five-hour train ride to their home in the small farming community of Uriel. He was so tiny he was placed in a shoebox stuffed with cotton for bedding and holes punched for air. That was just the beginning. There were a few good years, even a time when he and his siblings decided to baptize some newly born chicks. The good intentions failed, the chicks died, the kids were punished, and yet a burial ceremony for the poor chicks was held the next day. Enrique never went past the third grade in Spain. He was just a child during the Spanish Civil War, when most of the schools were closed. A few years later the family fell upon hard times. The war devastated much of Spain. The three Enguidanos brothers and their friends spent their free time picking up bullets and ammunition in the empty fields. But the brothers' parents discovered this pastime and made them stay home while their friends continued to roam until two of them found a live grenade which blew up in their hands, killing them both instantly. The rest of Enrique's time in Spain followed suit. There were promises made and promises broken. He enlisted in the Spanish Army when he was 18. There he saw atrocities he has never forgotten. His brother Julian had left the Catholic Church where he had been studying to become a priest, and had eventually moved to America. Enrique was going to join his brother in Texas through a scholarship from Abilene Christian College. Enrique was an oboe player, and the college needed one. He was ready to emigrate until his visa was denied by the US Consul in Spain because he spoke no English, a requirement to start as a foreign student in the United States. 12 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | DECEMBER 2018 Enrique's hummingbirds Waltraut's windmills Resident Couple's life of tRial, tRiumph & Beauty "