Colombina Searching for Happiness... is the real life of a young girl filled with incest, rape, loss, murderers, unfaithful marriages, abandonment, torture, and life-changing incidents, all woven amongst the political background of Colombia during unstable times. Most powerfully endured were her incredible persistence and strength, love and forgiveness. Nohemí empowers us with her wisdom and fortitude which carried her through many challenging periods of her life. She teaches us to capture our own strength... to forge ahead in life in order to create a positive atmosphere for our body, mind, and spirit and most important to never give up. Poetry adorns the beginning of each chapter and in her own words she states, "I traveled from south to north, east to west... the sun drying my clothes, which were soaked with my tears." Nohemí, as a Renaissance Woman remind us, "Yes, we can do it." COLOMBINA Searching for Happiness by Nohemí Molano Lewis is an exceptional novel we all need to keep in our personal bookcase. It is a very exiting read, taking you through Colombia, where you taste exquisite national dishes and hear the popular and classical music of a culturally rich Latin-American country. In COLOMBINA, we find extraordinary and sentimental poetry at the beginning of each chapter, speaking with love to mothers, to children, to prairies and mountains, to orchids and to rivers. Through these poems travel unforgettable people, triggering emotions from the life experiences of each reader. Nohemí is COLOMBINA. Nohemí describes more than one hundred years of Colombian Conflicts, including One Thousand Days War (1899-1902); she witnessed the horrors of violence during 1948 and 1960 and the Bank Robberies by the ELN's National Liberation Army that challenged Colombia's government. She let us know the Doctrines of Che Guevara, the Rebels of ELN's New Doctrine of Liberation, emerging in 1964, the Pries Camilo Torres aimed at the United Front, the group LAS FARC's Revolutionary Army Forces and their Controlling the Medellin' Cartel, etc. Before 1974, the Roman Catholic Church exclusively performed marriage, until the government of Alfonso Lopez Michelson (1974-1978) approved civil marriage; and could only end after a legal divorce. It was only after the Colombian Constitution of 1991 that Colombian lawmakers admitted divorces for marriages performed by the Catholic Church. She cites the Dilemma between past Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa sending troops to the Frontier in Colombia, LAS FARC's Revolutionary Army Forces conspiring to Assassinate Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos now the elected President of Colombia; the well known bustling activities of the Colombian Mafia and Much, Much More! All in full detail. She wishes her dear Colombia could soon be able to live in peace. COLOMBINA Searching for Happiness reminds us, "YES! WE CAN DO IT!", "The words won't be carried by the wind!", and "Positivism and hard work will get us in life to where we want to go!" "Through life, we store information collected from experiences and try in some way to make sense of it. When we are not able to understand events occurring in our lives, we often externalize the information. By doing this, we present different perspectives, allowing us to think more clearly about difficult or perplexing events and emotions. Writing an autobiographical action adventure novel full of excitement, successfully overcoming many overwhelming obstacles and challenges are some of the ways in which people choose to externalize their thoughts and pass on hard-earned wisdom and positivism to others." These were the reasons why Nohemí wrote her novel Colombina Searching for Happiness. To show others from her personal life experiences "They Can Accomplish Tremendous Challenges, if they Never Give Up!"
About the Author: Nohemí Molano Lewis, one of twelve children was born in Colombia, SA. A child prodigy on a scholarship, she learned music at the prestigious Alberto Castilla Conservatory, earned membership in their internationally famous Choir, studied poetry there with famous poet Luz Stella, traveled the world singing and dancing folklore, and sang with the Vienna Boy's Choir. After working as many as three jobs at a time to earn her College Education, she worked hard to become Special Assistant to the President of El Tolima Superior Court, where she experienced the atrocious behavior of the mafia, drug dealers, kidnapping of innocents, and assaults on poor farmers. Her strength, perseverance and dynamism, succeeded very well in the United States, teaching English and Business at various colleges in California. She was Spanish Media Liaison for FEMA and the OES during the tragic San Francisco Bay Earthquake, Anchor and DJ for Radio Express in LA, Columnist for various Spanish Newspapers and Publications, Television Director, Talk Show Host and Anchor simultaneously for two TV stations in Costa Rica, and TV Anchor and Talk Show Host in Sacramento, CA. A guest lecturer at Sacramento State University, she was honored at their International Poetry Symposium reading her poetry along with José Montoya of Cesar Chavez fame. In the United States Nohemí wrote her autobiographical adventure novel Colombina in Spanish, English, and French and many bilingual children's books educating children how to succeed in establishing positive relationships in our very complex, diverse and challenging world. Her poetry book Semblanzas y Recuerdos published by Sacramento State University and her many poetry books, novels, bilingual children's books, and music were recently praised at the Miami International Book Fair, The Colombian Flower Festival in New York and at The New York Book Fair. Honored on different occasions by the International Society of Poets, National Association of North American Poets, and the International Poets Museum Hall of Fame from whom she has received many awards for her 13 copyrighted books and song Chiquilla Loca (Ojai Music Festival), she is also honored as a Contributor to the Library of Congress. She recently published more poetry A Journey Through Life with Wisdom to Share and is working on COLOMBINA II Born to Succeed. She founded The Island Poet's Society and is a Columnist for Para Todos magazine. Nohemi has resided in the United States since 1963.