In a house at the skirts of Water volcanounder a clear sky, little Luis quietly left his room in the middle of the night. With a telescope among his little hands, he sat in the garden and directed his gaze to the stars.
“What are you seeing, my love?” His mother asked when discovering it.
“I am seeing the stars,” he replied with the innocence and curiosity that characterized him.
That child is today the Guatemalan engineer Luis Zeaone of the researchers, who, in 2022, was chosen by NASA to implement a project within The unmanned space mission Artemis I.
His mother, Flor de Lis González Argüello, remembers that moment as One of the many indications that his son had a special connection with the cosmos and science.
A curious tireless
“One of dad often does not realize in the details that are important in a child,” says González as he recalls his son’s childhood.
With a smile, he remembers when an uncle gave Zea a toy cart for his birthday. Hours later, the same uncle came alarmed to say: “You went to see Luis. He already disarmed the cart that I just gave him!”
Instead of scolding him, González’s response marked what Luis’s future would be: “What happens is that he is a very researcher child.” This parenting philosophy allowed the child to explore the world without unnecessary restrictions.
“Success is not putting so many limits on the little ones”says with conviction González. His parenting philosophy was based on allowing his children to explore the world, provided that he would not represent a danger. “If it is something that children can play and review what it is, you have to leave them. Children are curious, they want to know, and when one limits them too much, it is quoting them,” he says.
This freedom did not mean absence of rules. Firmly, but without shouting, González established clear limits when necessary.
Zea recognizes how this way of educating it was fundamental for its development. “If I had the doubt of how something worked or what something meant, instead of telling me the answer, he told me: ‘Go look for the tame donkeys’ – Dictionary,” and thanks to this action, I learned to investigate for myself from an early age. “
Values that transcend science
“Not only have to be honest, you have to appear,” is one of González’s advice that Zea considers more valuable in his career. The scientist explains that this principle goes beyond knowing that one is doing things correctly; It implies doing nothing that can give the appearance of dishonesty.
“In Latin America, with the problems we have of corruption, if all people had been instilled in this way, including people in power positions, things could operate better,” Luis reflects.
The pride of a mother
For González, seeing his son become a recognized scientist full of immense pride. “I am superorgullosa. I feel like I am Queen Elizabeth of England,” he says with a smile.
But its greatest satisfaction does not only come from the professional achievements of Zea, but of the human quality it possesses. “He is not a good son, he is an excellent son, independent of the intelligent and how good professional he is.”
For his part, Zea acknowledges that everything he has achieved is due to the platform that his parents built for him. “The whole platform on which I have been able to do what I have been able to do is based on my mother’s efforts, my dad, my brothers,” he says. Access to education and nutrition was fundamental, but more important was love at home.
Despite not having financial resources to send their child to study abroad, their parents never allowed that to be a limiting for him to explore opportunities. “When I said that I wanted to be a aerospace engineer, something that at that time did not exist as a career in Guatemala, they never told me: ‘Look, that cannot be’,” Zea recalls.
A message for today’s mothers
Both Zea and González have a Clear message for mothers who are raising curious children and passionate about science: let them be.
“It is very important that they do not limit them, let them play, investigate and try to do things for themselves,” Gonzalez advises, emphasizing the importance of not giving the children a cell phone.
ZEA adds a reflection on the importance of allowing children to explore the professions they are passionate about, without limiting them for gender stereotypes. “When you have the opportunity to do something you are passionate about, you can do it much better,” he concludes.
For his part, González ends by providing advice to the mothers of Guatemala: “They want their children a lot, show it taking care of them and letting them be, that needs children.”