SFV Bromeliad Society Meeting w/ Speaker & Program on Argentina

The San Fernando Valley Bromeliad Society                                          meets on the first Saturday of each month at 10:00 am   

10:15 Speaker: Nels Christianson (program approx. 45 - 60 minutes)

“Culture and
Plants of Northwest Argentina”  

This travelogue program will include digital photos
featuring a variety of plants, mostly Bromeliads, landmarks, landscapes
and towns people. 

Nels said Hobby is his middle name! He collects
stamps, postmarks  and Zuni carved fetishes.  He enjoys ceramics,
photography, travel, hiking and gardening. Nels has more than 500 cacti,
succulents and Bromeliads and many are growing in his own pottery.  He has
traveled to most of the countries of Latin America but favors Brazil.  He
is an active member of several local Bromeliad Societies and Cactus and
Succulent groups.  Beyond plants Nels has interest in literature and has
had poems published in several journals.                 

Merced, California is hometown to Nels who was born of Norwegian
and Basque heritage.  He grew up there with two brothers, two sisters and
a lot of relatives.  His maternal grandmother was from Spain and only
spoke Spanish, which gave him a great opportunity to learn a foreign language
and second culture at a young age. His mother was a native Spanish speaker and
his father was a native Norwegian speaker who also spoke Spanish and
French.                    

Currently Nels lives in Santa Monica, CA. USA, and recently
retired from the UCLA Medical Center after after working more than 37
years in the International Relations dept. where he was usually the first
contact for an international patient from Europe, Canada or Latin America.
Speaking fluent English, Spanish, Portuguese with some French and Sign Language
is a great asset enabling him to meet and help people from around the world.
Many UCLA international patients became his personal friends.  He
said he stayed on the job for so many years because he liked his job; he
found it was very rewarding to be able to help people; it made him
feel good when he went home at the end of the day where he looked
after his plants, cats, ducks and chickens. 

He has a BA in Political Science and Hispanic Civilization from
UC Santa Barbara.  During the summer of 1972, as a recipient of an NDEA
Title VI scholarship, he studied intensive Portuguese at Georgetown
University.  Nels did graduate work in Latin American Studies at UCLA in
1973-75.  For 18 months he attended classes in Brazilian literature at the
Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1976-77 on a
Rotary Foundation scholarship.  Since then he has traveled to Brazil
around 20 times visiting friends, studying the culture and plants. 

Come
visit our meeting; we are a small friendly group.  The SFVBS holds monthly meetings at
the Sepulveda Garden Center.  Speakers feature travel and a variety of plants. 
Visitors are welcome, we serve refreshments, hold discussions on Show
and Tell Plants and we have a dollar plant raffle you can participate in if you
would like.  The meetings are free and so is parking.