Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

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Carol Decker

Carol
Decker

PROMOTING RESPECT FOR CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Honored June, 1992

Carol Decker

"In all of the experiences I've had, I've seen over and over again that unless you can talk with people about the fundamentals of life--of spirit, image, connectedness to the universe--then you are just tinkering," said Carol Decker.

Describing herself as "an old New England Yankee," Carol was the oldest of three children born to Scott and Alma Paradise in 1927. Her father taught English at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. "1 was a sickly, asthmatic little kid who found solace in books, particularly about the West, where dreams of health and adventure expanded the walls of the bedroom," she recalled.

She started studying Spanish at Abbot Academy. A summer with the Experiment in International Living, spent with a family in Mexico, prompted a major in Spanish and anthropology at Connecticut College. "I went on to work on my master's in Spanish at Columbia, but my real education came from the New York International House, where I lived with people from all over the world," she said. Afterwards, she spent a year in Mexico City's Xochimilco neighborhood with a Quaker community development project.