- President: Anne Franks
- Co-VPs for Program: Alexandra Wesleysmith and Laurie Frey Baquedano
- Co-VPs for Membership: Bettina Hirschi and Christine Angeles
- Co-Secretaries: Lisa Johansson and Viviana Ramos
- Treasurer: Connie Burk
- Scholarship Chair: Claudia Amaro Casteñada
Anne Franks, President
I was born in Montreal, Quebec, and lived there for the first 30 years of my life, the seventh generation in Quebec. My passion has always been languages and foreign cultures, and while doing my undergrad degree in Linguistics, I met my Yucatecan husband and the rest is history. The only thing I knew about my husband’s birthplace, at the time, were the sleeping sharks of Yucatan as described in Jacques Cousteau’s Undersea World, but I would soon drink the “agua de pozo” and now consider myself “orgullosamente yucateca”.
I have worked with languages all my life first as a terminologist for IBM, then as professor and teacher trainer at the UADY, and finally running my own children’s language school. When I retired a few years ago, I decided to become more active in the Club I had admired for so long. So in 2012, when Margaret Wedge sent out a request for an editor for the Backyard Fence, I accepted the challenge and moved on from there. Since then, I have served on the Board as Secretary and Treasurer and have had the pleasure of working with some amazing, beautiful and intelligent women. I love the camaraderie of working together to achieve our goals of friendship, self-improvement, and community service. Let’s make 2025 a memorable year for the Club!
Alexandra (Alex) Wesleysmith, co-VP for Program
I was born in New Orleans. My family immigrated from Argentina. I grew up in two distinct worlds: Anglo Argentine and US. I always had friends from Latin America, so I decided to move to Mexico to rediscover/ experience Latin culture.
I arrived in Merida on Thursday, March 2, 2023, with my two dogs. Not knowing a soul here, I saw a posting on Facebook for the First Friday at the Fiesta Americana, the next day. My sister and I attended specifically to meet some IWC members. Soon afterwards, I connected with Christine, who cheerfully and graciously shared the IWC activities with me.
I am a planner by nature and profession. I have 40 years planning experience as an urban planner and special event experience ranging from youth group activities to The Tennessee Williams Literary Festival and university events in New Orleans, and later community and disaster planning.
Thank you for welcoming me into the IWC and providing this opportunity to support the membership and broader community by nominating me as co-VP for Program.
Laurie Frey Baquedano, co-VP for Program
Bettina Hirschi, VP for Membership
I was born in Switzerland, went to school there, graduated in law and worked for almost twenty years until I married my husband Rolf and moved to Montreal, QC, Canada.
There I started a second “career” in tourism, something that is perfect for me since I really like to be around and work with people. I used to accompany groups on long haul tours which I don’t anymore but I still enjoy doing City Tours in/of Montreal by bus or walking during the summer months.
Since I’m not working in the winter I happily agreed to spending the cold season somewhere in the south when Rolf retired about 15 years ago. Through friends who lived here for a while and I had visited, we decided to come to Merida and spend a month here. The following year we came for three months. A couple of years later we stayed for 5½ months and in 2016 we decided to purchase a house. We still spend over 5 months in Merida over the winter.
We have a great circle of good friends and look forward every fall to coming back and getting together with them again. I joined the IWC the second year we came here and found many of my friends in the club. I enjoy their different backgrounds, life experiences and stories.
I thought I could never take on an office in the club since, I am and will always be a “snowbird.” Since we now have co-positions I can. I’m happy about that and am looking forward to working with the board and its members for the upcoming term.
Christine Angeles, co-VP for Membership
I am from upstate New York. I lived in Elmira until I went off to college. My life has taken me around the United States, and now Mexico. I have taught in North Carolina and Texas. As a strong union leader for the National Education Association I was called to work exclusively for the NEA for several years as a union organizer and representative.
For the last thirty years or so I returned to the classroom, and organized in my building. I worked until I was almost 70 years old, and then started to plan our new retired life in Mexico.
I have been very impressed with the International Women’s Club of Mérida. I have met many friends here, and I look forward to meeting many, many more. As co-Vice-President in charge of Membership I will work to continue to involve more and more interested women in our organization. Thank you.
Elizabeth (Lisa) Sofía Johansson Ballote, co-Secretary
I was born in Sweden close to 70 years ago where I studied to be a secretary. I met my husband, who is Yucatecan, in Sweden and we traveled together for 7 years in Mexico and the United States, before returning to Sweden where we married and had 2 of our children. We then moved to Mexico where my 2 youngest were born and all 4 were raised.
All in all I’ve been in Mexico for about 40 years.
Since I was always fond of exercise, I studied to be an aerobics and jazz instructor, and have taught classes in both for the last 35 years. Starting in 1994 I began working on the choreography and training for the yearly Red Cross Dance. In 2000, I was queen of the Red Cross dance and it was in that year that the IWC participated dancing as Vikings.
I’ve been an active member of the IWC for over 30 years; more active once my children were grown, and have loved my time here. I have participated as a member of the Board on several occasions: once as VP Programming and once as President.
Viviana Ramos, co-Secretary
In 1980, I left a very unstable and not so safe country. I thought Vancouver was going to be my forever home, but after 3 years of cold winters, I visited Los Angeles and fell in love with the weather, city, traffic and all! I lived there for more than 36 years. During that time, I visited Mexico many times. Every long weekend there was, I would take 2-3 extra days and will visit different places in this beautiful country. I visited Merida in the 80s, 90s and for the change of the Millennium.
After the sudden death of a very dear friend (I considered her the sister that I never had) made me start thinking how short and unpredictable life could be, I decided to stop working and travel more, as this is one of my passions. Merida came to mind. So I quit my job, sold my house and came to Merida. I found “my paradise on earth” and couldn’t be happier.
I started volunteering at MEL, where I met Fiona W. and she introduced me to the IWC. I have been a member ever since and have served the club in many ways. I look forward to the opportunity of sharing the secretary position with Lisa Johansson.
Connie Burk, Treasurer
When I was young, I traveled the world as a backpacker for several years, then entered the work world for about twenty years, during which time I raised a daughter, met my husband, Jerry, and built a wooden house, largely with my own hands. Then Jer and I retired and moved to Belize for six years, where he farmed and I ran a computer lab in a Kekchí Maya village. I love the IWC, and walked out of my first brunch in 2008 with administrative projects, and have been a background administrator for the Club since then. I enjoyed serving as President and really looking forward to this year as Treasurer.
Claudia Amaro Casteñada, Scholarship Chair
I was born in Mexico City and studied Biology at the Faculty of Sciences at UNAM university; then l began to study at the Marine Science and Limnology Institute of UNAM. While studying there, I traveled to Jamaica to study ascidians (sea squirts) at the West Indies University.
Later, I met Gildardo at the UNAM, and we got married. Gildardo was just hired by the Mexican Navy as an officer, with focus on marine environment, so we were sent to Yucatan a couple months before we had to go to Aberdeen, Scotland to do his Masters. lt was there that we had our first child. Then we came back to Mexico City where our second child was born; we lived there for 3 years.
My husband was transferred again to Yucatán in 1996 to set up a Marine Research Center for the Mexican Navy in Progreso. Our family moved to live at the navy officers’ housing, just in front of the sea. We raised our children educating them with the love and care that we have for nature, and of course teaching them to always look for marine creatures during our walks at the beach.
While living in the navy officers’ housing, an American wife of a Mexican navy officer arrived to live there. As the only one of the ladies able to speak English, I got the assignment to welcome her and to make her feel at home, because she was living in a foreign country, with a different language and, in addition, she was pregnant. Jane and l became very good friends, but I soon realized that she needed more friends. While doing research, I came across an international group of women who spoke English and got together. So the next meeting I brought her in. I was ready to leave the room and come back later to pick her up, when Jane and Tila Parks (the VP for Membership at that time) realized I was going to leave the room. Both told me “No, no, no, you stay too!” I said “no, thank you. She is the one who needs to be here,” to which Tila responded “You are going to gain a lot, in many ways belonging to this group. If you do not, then come and complain to me”.
She was right! l met a lot of wonderful women and made very good friends that are like my family. Two years later, l was invited to be Secretary of the IWC and then I was honored being elected as President and reelected for another year. During that time l was very interested in the Scholars, and after my term l began to help looking after them. I have also been helping the Club, as a Mexican, to help understand the education system here, at the college level. I believe that Education is really important, especially for women, because it has a positive impact on society, giving a better future to women, their relatives and their children.