He Thought He Was Graduating from AA University – Como T.

Spanish international convention 1995 my name is guilivaldo and I am a alcoholic it may be that someone is here with us who is not familiarized with our tradition of anonymity at the public level our policy of public relations is based more on attraction than promotion we always need to maintain our personal anonymity before la prensa, la radio, la televisión y el cine. Por esto, les pedimos respetuosamente que oradores de AA y miembros de AA no sean fotografiados, videograbados o identificados por su nombre completo en audiograbaciones, publicaciones, reportes o transmisiones de nuestras reuniones. Asegurar nuestro anonimato es esencial en nuestro esfuerzo en ayudar a otros tomadores problema que quieran compartir con nosotros nuestro programa de recuperación. Y nuestra tradición de anonimato nos recuerda que los principios de alcohólicos anónimos vienen antes que las personalidades. Por favor, no use su apellido o el apellito de ningún otro miembro durante su compartimiento. Y como una cortesía para los aquí presentes, Por favor, absténganse de usar palabras obscenas o groseras y chistes de mal gusto. Finalmente, como esta es una reunión de Alcohólicos Anónimos, si le piden que comparta y usted no es un alcohòlico, por favor diga paso. Alcoholicos anónimos es una agrupación de hombres y mujeres que comparten su mutua experiencia, fortaleza y esperanza para resolver su problema común y ayudar a otros a recuperarse del alcoholismo. El único requisito para ser miembro de Alcohólicos Anónimos es el deseo de dejar la bebida. Para ser miembro de AlcóhlicosAnónimos no se pagan honorarios ni cuotas, nos mantenemos con nuestras propias contribuciones. AlcoholicosAno no está afiliada a ninguna secta, religión, partido político, organización o institución alguna no desea intervenir en controversias no respalda ni se opone a ninguna causa nuestro objetivo primordial es mantenernos sobrios y ayudar a otros alcohólicos a alcanzar el estado de sobriedad le he pedido a gonzalo que lea los 12 pasos del programa de recuperación de doble a Good afternoon, people in Alcoholics Anonymous and people who are in this room who are not alcoholics. My name is Gonzalo and I am an alcoholic. The 12 steps of the recovery program of AlcoholicsAnonymous. Admitimos que eramos impotentes ante el alcohol, que nuestras vidas se habían vuelto ingobernables. Llegamos a creer que un poder superior a nosotros mismos podría devolvernos el sano juicio. Decidimos poner nuestras voluntades y nuestras vidaz al cuidado de Dios como nosotros lo concebimos. 4. Sin temor, hicimos un minucioso inventario moral de nosotros mismos. 5. Admitimos ante Dios, ante nosotros mismos y ante otro ser humano la naturaleza exacta de nuestros defectos. 6. Estuvimos enteramente dispuestos a dejar que Dios nos librase de todos estos defectos de carácter. Siete, humildemente le pedimos que nos librase de nuestros defectos. Ocho, hicimos una lista de todas aquellas personas a quienes habíamos ofendido y estuvimos dispuestos a reparar el daño que les causamos. Nueve, reparamos directamente a cuantos nos fue posible el dañó causado, excepto cuando el hacerlo implicaba perjuicio para ellos y para otros. Diez, continuamos haciendo nuestro inventario personal y cuando nos equivocábamos lo admitíamos inmediatamente. Once, buscamos a través de la oración y la meditación mejorar nuestro contacto consciente con Dios como nosotros lo concebimos, pidiendo solamente que nos dejase conocer su voluntad para con nosotros y nos diese la fortaleza para cumplirla 12 habiendo obtenido un despertar espiritual como resultado de estos pasos tratamos de llevar este mensaje a otros alcohólicos y de practicar estos principios en todos nuestros asuntos Now, I would like to introduce our first speaker with the theme in action, Comrade Temo de la Paz, Mexico. Good afternoon, comrades, my name is Cuauhtémoc y por la gracia de Dios, soy un alcohólico anónimo. A mí me habían dicho que el quinto capítulo, ¿verdad? Pero qué bueno, quinto o sexto. Esto de estar dentro de los grupos, ¿Verdad? Me da a mí la oportunidad de estar familiarizado, ya no digamos necesariamente compenetrado de lo que es el programa de AA, but definitely I think that within the 11 chapters of the Blue Book this is the most beautiful of all. That's my very particular opinion. And as for the participation time, the 10 minutes, well, the group took care of that, right? In our group there are 10 minutes of participation. And it is that in 10 minutes the individual, as in my personal case, can express his very particular opinion about any topic. I believe that one of the most interesting aspects that attracted me more to this program is the training that is received within Alcoholics Anonymous to lead a useful and happy life. This topic of action, in it appear the 12 promises of AA. It is a very popular chapter. And well, this is what I never imagined. This was what my godfather constantly told me, don't go, don't leave, wait for the miracle to happen. Y bueno, decía yo, ¿a qué milagro se referirá mi padrino? Ya llegué a un grupo de alcohólicos anónimos. Estoy sin beber. ¿Se referiría a este milagre? No, no, no. Es que el milagrio no ha ocurrido todavía, Cuauhtémoc. Espérate. Después, por ahí, por la gracia de Dios, my godfather invited me to participate in the structured services and there was the miracle, comrades, there was the miracle. It was when I understood my purpose as a human being because Alcohólicos Anónimos had been in charge of removing that obsession for the drink but definitely not complemented the most beautiful of all, to perceive that I had been given a privilege, the privilege of sharing, of sharing a sense, a sense of belonging, of being useful. And for me, an individual who could not necessarily be classified as a healthy person, I have been given the privilege of telling another person that there was a solution that could be stopped drinking. The program of alcoholics anonymous our basic text tells us that it is a practical program this is not a theoretical program, it is one practical program that since 35 has has worked in such a way. And in this chapter we find the true manifestation of that higher power when an individual of my characteristics is telling the other, grab this hand, take it, because they put their hand on me too as I am putting it on you, because you know what? Because you don't need training to recover, Because everything is completely made in Alcoholics Anonymous. And the truth is that I couldn't buy another idea. When I got to Alcoholics anonyms, here are some of the people who watched me get to Alcoholic Anonyms here in a group in the United States. Today I'm a militant in La Paz, I've been living there for 5 years now but I was born into the program here in the U.S. And how curious, right? I had to come to a group that was in charge of telling the newcomers that there was a solution. And I remember that in this group there are many, there is an herbivore, to use that term, of servers. And you know that where Pinocho falls, Narizón comes back. And the truth was that I began to perceive that there was precisely the equation, that formula that my godfather told me, don't go before the miracle happens. When I stopped being bored in a chair because someone else passed by and he's going to talk to me about his own problem. When I looked for some different manifestations that were not those stories so repeated and repeated by my companions. When I began to see that they had the right, that they were entitled to make mistakes, that they have the right to recover as I did. And that if they didn't have the disposition to serve, it's good that they didn´t have the disposition to be served. Do you know why, comrades? Because that was given to me. It is good that I came to a group, I remember that there they told me, no, it is that in this group you have to have two years to serve. I had to leave that group to look for another group, because I needed to get involved with the people who practice the program of the Alcoholics Anonymous. Those who say, giving is how you receive. Those who taught me not to be sitting in the chair asking or guessing what my partner was going to say. For the grace of God, today that I am here, I would not lie to you if I told you that I do not deserve to be in this microphone. Of course I deserve it. I'm an alcoholic anonymous. And it's just a matter of a little ticket, nothing else. I took a little card out there, among other things, already trying to be more honest, I had like seven little tickets and I fell. But it was the higher power, eh? It was the superior power. It is what the program says, right? To God, to God begging and with the mazo giving. It's that the service will not arrive and it will tell you, you know what, go tell that person that there is a way for him to recover and don't tell him, I can go with you, to whoever wants to go, right. It is that this action program is so subtly effective within the Alcoholics Anonymous that I have heard, the true awakening that the alcoholic has when he feels, feels that it is useful. When you act, when you start to see immediate results because this situation of the recovery program of AA's has a characteristic outside of all understanding, right? As soon as you feel that one is useful begins to transform an incredible metamorphosis in the alcoholic like me how is it possible that I can say yes raise my hand and say yes i want if I never had any disposition for nothing and there really the miracle and there when that kind of personality has taken another turn completely different and out there said one of our speakers over there that we are condemned to be happy and it is true it's true because because today I understand that I had to arrive at this time I had the time where I could with all with all honesty sit in a chair of any meeting I do not I want to know which one and know exactly that they are going to read me they will read that fifth that fifth chapter they will talk about different companions and the best of all, speak my language. Why? Because some were in charge that those groups were open, that those service centers were working so that Cuauhtemoc could arrive and sit down and wait for the miracle. And this, by the grace of God, has been manifested. I want to wish you those companions who still do not discover the true miracle in AA, read very carefully that sixth chapter, there is the equation of sobriety. I want to wish you all have the best of conventions and wish you many 24 hours. Thank you. Thanks to Comrade Temo. I will allow myself to invite Compañero Jesús de Mexicali, México. Buenas tardes compañeros, compañeras soy Jesús y soy alcohólico y por la gracia de Dios por estas 24 horas no he bebido Tercer capítulo en acción que interesante para mí ese tema verdad acción ¿Qué tuve que hacer yo para dejar de beber? Me empezaron a hablar en Alcohólicos Anónimos de las paradojas que existen dentro de nuestra literatura. Y no necesitaba irme muy lejos, simple y sencillamente yo fui una paradoja. Alcoholicos anónimos ha funcionado en mí de una forma muy curiosa. Cuando yo ando yo en los últimos días de mi actividad alcohòlica, llegaban y me pasaban el mensaje en mi oficina, en mi cama bien crudo, in different parts, and I did not accept that he was an alcoholic. One of those many times, already to get to Alcoholics Anonymous, two people arrived, one alcoholic who is non-alcoholic and another who is not. That person who was not alcoholic told me, he told the other colleague, this one is not going to make a case, he is a lost case. He came in here and left me here. That same situation happens again with that fellow, but there were already two alcoholics, how curious to see there that gift that exists in the alcoholic anonymous to pass the message. The same thing happened and he tells me partner says this is not going to be lost completely but I I managed to listen carefully and my mind did not react On the contrary, I'm going to show you that I can. How curious y asistí como escuché ahorita por necesidad a mis grupos a la asistencia mi grupo dentro de alcohólicos anónimos llego para me toca compartir en tribuna y decir que soy jesús y soy alcoho lico pero de los dientes hacia afuera nunca al corazón adentro tuvieron que pasar ocho meses para aceptar que yo realmente era un alcoholico qué bonito ese día que yo lo acepte al mi corazón adento sentí que algo se abrió dentro de mí una libertad una liberation, those prejudices that I felt when I recognized that he was an alcoholic. And they start suggesting the way to work in the program, action is the magic word. And I did not understand, these witchcraft issues and those things that I do not know what this is, right? So I started analyzing it and giving myself and really realizing after that I already accepted my alcoholism, that I had a lot to work on in me, that things were not going to happen with just wishing them not waiting like that person who is waiting for the fruit fall from the tree that I had to go for her that I have to act I got to see the strata of my life what was it that had damaged me the family social position work so many things that are mentioned so much here I had a lot to work but the most important thing for me was not the other the fact of working on myself I came to my second year in Alcoholics Anonymous and for me it was a tremendous suffering to start getting to know myself, I didn't like it, this is who I am. And it was very difficult. And start working within the program, get into the steps and those things. Something curious happened, as I told you. I thought that when I celebrated my fifth anniversary within Alcoholics Anonymous, I was completely like at university, they are going to give me my I'm going to leave and they're going to give me my license so I can go to piss because I am already healed when I completed my fifth anniversary I went out with a partner we went to eat and I said you know what I think I'm ready now I don't have problems and these things goodbye guys and these things he told me you are completely wrong you have not finished you are just starting thanks to that suggestion I started again to stick to the program I did not want to let time pass to cool down true to to become immune to the therapies, I had to keep working and keep fighting. And I just finished my fifth step and then the program gives me the sixth. No, the sixth is really easy! To be willing for God to eliminate my character defects. Oh, but that being willing, it's not that I wait for God to come and free me from my defects, I have to take action. And I come and present myself to myself again, that denounced struggle for freeing me from those defects of character. But I could not free myself yet because I had to repair in part those damages where I had caused them. I had a separation of three and a half years from my family. Thanks to the program, I already have four, I am going for five years, reintegrated again to the family. I give thanks to the program and I tell many alcoholics or non-alcoholic people my question of my anonymity, as they say it is very personal, it does not interest me. I tell them that I am really happy because Alcoholics Anonymous has given me the feeling of love really. The love towards that wife that I did not appreciate in her moment. Feeling better than when I had just got married. That struggle to reclaim the love of children, that tremendous action, I still wanted to be Father Capataz and impose my ideas. The older kids already rebel with me and I didn't like it, I don't accept it yet. But they told me to be humble, you have to accept it. You are raising adult children, they are no longer children that you have to be telling them, surrender yourself, let them be, you already lived your life. And how curious, I wanted them to be like me. Dad says, do you want us to be just like you? No, I say, if they were like me, beautiful things would come out. So I had to analyze all those situations and work on it. In the matter of work, a very curious thing happened to me. Ten years ago, when alcoholism began to spread, once I had the need for a job a job. And they connected me with the person, right? So he says here is the work, take it, feel it, what battery do you want, your study, here is everything that you want. And I did not accept it because I felt very sick, that was the reality. I was already causing many medical injuries and curious thing, it will be a year in September, the first day of September, that same job after 10 years they gave it to me again in the same place exactly the doubt that it is a manifestation of that higher power one this today that I always came from the superior power puts me this certain problems certain acid tests of what they are for me to see if I have so interest in coming as in this thank you I am sharing with you I started with time to talk to my wife and Estela Lanón about coming here. And I had problems with the car. I started fixing it, I had a problem with a trailer over there. I came to try it here in La Rumorosa, a very sinuous highway, very high, a thousand meters high because I came with my wife alone. And I said, let's go and try it because it is necessary that the car turn around and that for the question of the trailer. We went, we returned, an area of ​​the living room, a very large straight line, it was 85 miles to test the stability of the car. I get home and tell my daughter, my wife, Mom, lend me the car, I'm going with my boyfriend here to the other section right away. Taking out the car at 5 o'clock, a tire comes out. When they told me, my spouse told me. I don't know, I don´t believe in telepathy issues, those things, but there was a communication of thought that seemed like we were talking. to give thanks to that higher power that we didn't have an accident. We arrived, we gave thanks to the higher power, we went to our church to give it thanks, and all those things that are being presented, I told him, what more indications do I want, Lord, to my higher power? What more indications I want your manifestations to be more palpable? And here they are, and an experience. I, within my religion, respecting that of all, the question of communion, the bones are small. Well, I think the Lord wanted to give me more. He gave me, I believe, what was left to the father of the bone so big that it barely fit in my mouth. He said, my God, even more, I want more proof of this still. And yet, as an alcoholic, I become demanding. Being many times that the program and my superior power ask me a lot. Simply and simply a little bit of action. but not quantity, it asks me for quality of action and that is what has given me Alcoholics Anonymous to work in all the strata of my life and I hope today and as long as I have my lease contract current and the Lord does not tell me you already fulfilled your term because be here with you and many 24 hours Gracias al compañero Jesús. El tema de esta junta es en acción. A continuación, el compañero Jorge de Ensenada, Baja California, México. Buenas tardes, compañeros. Mi nombre es Jorge y soy alcohólico y adicto. How are you? I'm very happy to be here. I didn't imagine this, this surprise of being able to go up here. I always get very nervous and more here. But I'm realizing that it's a great joy to be and be able to share something with them. About three years ago, at a dinner in his house, a friend of mine invited me to attend the groups and I didn't want to I didn´t listen to him, I was driving them crazy that if you come back you can die those things they are crazy or the first cup And that's what happened to me. Not to die, but that's how it was. I had a stroke two and a half years ago and I lost a lot of things. with my wife I was separated too and I was almost at the edge of debauching my family. Now at the beginning of this year, at the end of December some of my colleagues arrived and told me that they had the solution so that I could get rid of all this because last year I was trying everywhere to try to put an end to my addictive career and alcoholic and total that I told them no no no right now I don't have money I don´t have money and in the end he said to me I lend you so that you can enter there and well let's go and I went to Mexico there I was the program of five months and when I was there they asked me for another two I said that when I left, I was not going to stop drinking a cup or something like that. I said my worst problem were the drugs, but I didn't realize that alcohol was a drug. I think it's the worst. And then I ended up accepting that I shouldn't stop drinking a glass of beer. Because as I repeat, many times it happened to me that I went to some places and I just arrived and I drank a beer and from there came the consequences, the months. After the first cup, the next day or the next week there were two. And that's how it happened to me and from there I went to marijuana or other things. And I could never finish that curse that I felt inside. In December my partner told me that I was going to double A in Mexico and there I started to see things well and I accepted that I could not take a single cup because from there my problems will begin to come again, as it has happened to me many times. y pues cada día estoy más contento. Hace como dos días cumplí seis meses de no tomar y nada. Gracias, gracias. Y pues pienso seguirle, seguirle más y más porque también al principio dije I had to wait six months for my wife not to bother me so much and calm me down. I said, well, I've always drunk and all that, but no, as I repeat, until the time I joined this group of Double A in Mexico, me di cuenta de la realidad del peligro que significa esa primera copa y pues aquí estoy bien contento bien alegre estar aquí con ustedes y muchas gracias por sus 24 horas por mis 24 gracias al compañero jorge nuestro siguiente participante es de from Ciudad Cárdenas, Tabasco, Mexico. His name is Beto. Comrades, good afternoon. I'm Adalberto. I haven't drunk, I'm an alcoholic. For me it's something incredible to be here and that word action was something I thought it was going to be very difficult for me to start practicing because I have always liked the easiest things. And when I got to Alcoholics Anonymous, I listened to the first steps and I said, well, it's simple and simple acceptance. And that's how I was practicing the program until through the chapters I began to realize I realized that by practicing the first three steps I had to realize that the obsession with drinking had already disappeared in me. And at that moment, I realized I had other problems apart from my way of drinking. And that was when I started to get stuck, to feel bad, and to see that I definitely had no case for being in Alcohólicos Anónimos and continue suffering. I mean, I no longer drank, but in my house, in my home, with my family, I could not integrate because I did not want to sacrifice anything. Simple and simple, I was in the group and when I tried to listen to the experiences of my colleagues, when they talked about passing the message to the colleague who is suffering, well, I reflected there because I was part of the group, I didn't take it, but I continued to suffer because my selfishness, my inability to express love, did not allow me to sacrifice myself or integrate myself into my home. For me it was easy to pass the message to a person who was in activity, have tolerance according to me in the group because no one got involved with me. There I did apply it, but definitely when I arrived at my home, well there I could not and I started going to the stands, starting to reflect the same thing, the same that I could n't, that it was something I couldn't overcome, But I wanted to simply and simply, with acceptance, without starting to put action on it, to overcome those things. It was necessary for me to fund without taking, for my wife to come to me and say, you know what? Well, I don't think it makes sense that we stay together if my daughter, who has just turned one year old, says, she didn't see you take anymore. But it doesn't make sense that she keeps making us suffer. Our children, I have three, the oldest of them is a child with problems with neurosis, retarded, and the second, shortly after I entered Alcoholics Anonymous, they gave me the news that he had language and learning problems. Initially, they told me that it was a mental disability, and there I started to practice the third step, the prayer of serenity and to accept it, thank God, because my son has been recovering but part of that I owe to you and Alcoholics Anonymous because if I had continued drinking I would not have been able to give my family and my children what they needed at least in terms of responsibility pero en cuanto al amor a poder sentir ese cariño eso eso que aquí desde que llegué me enseñaron de que la finalidad del programa es aprender a vivir y lo primero que me dijeron fue siéntate y escucha es algo que nunca nunca había podido aplicar en mi hogar a mis hijos no los escuchaba según yo lo que me they said because I took it to nothing more when he answered by inertia with my wife could never have a dialogue and through starting to see where was my problem try to put him already action start to see my personal inventory in what was wrong because I did not forgive myself nor I could accept him as the other companions the defects of my children and my wife I started to see that through trying to free myself from that egoism, I started to really feel what love is. I started, at that moment when I started this dialogue with my wife, well, as if it was re-engrained again, that relationship, as it has allowed me to fall in love with her again and that has also allowed me try that with my children, I already listen, it's not what my children ask of me, just minutes of attention, of understanding and y que nunca se los pude dar, y que ahora al tratar de ponerle acción por lo menos en eso, en mi hogar, empiezo a ver que las cosas son diferentes, empieizo a ver that here in the program, the purpose of the program is to teach me to learn how to live, and through a service which is part of the action that the Alcoholics Anonymous program asks me for, it also allows me to integrate myself in part with my colleagues. If I can't integrate myself into Alcoholics Anonymous, I won't be able to integrate myself in my home. Things that simply being present here at this convention is something of the small action that I have applied to the program since I've never been a constant person. I've always been a person, because of my fears, my insecurities. yo jamás en el tiempo que estuve en la escuela, jamás pasé a dar una clase, jamás participé en un bailable. Siempre me ganó el temor, siempre me ganró la inseguridad. Y esto que me regalan el día de hoy, pues yo se los agradezco. Felices 24 horas. Gracias al compañero Beto por su participación y pues seguimos estando en acción, compas. A continuación, tenemos al compañero Ramón de Paracho, Michoacán, México. Compañeros, buenas tardes. Ya escucharon mi nombre. Yo soy Ramón y soy miembro más de Alcohólicos Anónimos. When they started a moment ago to raffle here who are the companions who were going to participate, I was looking at my ticket, my ticket and said hopefully it comes out, hopefully it goes out and for two it does not come out and from one down and two up and finally it came out and I came fast and they pointed me out and then when I said well what am I going to say Well, why did I want my number to come out? But in reality, listening to the colleagues who are faithful reflection of mine because I understood that what I can give what I can say is precisely what I'm doing in Alcoholics Anonymous when he drank that the common denominator of all alcoholic when he was drinking he had problems problems with my family problems mi trabajo en todos lados en fin del alcohol era una parte importante dentro de mi personalidad si no es que lo era el todo verdad fue la persona que crecí sin personalidad con imitaciones por lo mismo pues algún día afortunadamente en ocasión yo llegué alcohólicos anonymous to my first meeting a curious thing not to keep drinking I was drinking and I ran out of money and he said good now what do I do no I remembered that in my house I had a little bit of money there I said I am at my house to be able to take out and continue drinking but I already knew the problem that I expected and with my wife And I say, how do I do it? How do I make it? 30 meters from my house was the group of Alcoholics Anonymous who had never seen it, had never thought about being in Alcoholics anónimos. And that day I got drunk, the focus caught on me and you say, with that pretext I'm going to my house. I arrived at my house and I tell my wife, look, some members of Alcoholic Anonymous have invited me to the meetings and I don't even know what it's about, and between talk and talk and talk I was getting closer to where I knew I had the money, right? I got there, grabbed it and said, my wife, without her seeing it, she says, well, you should have gone, excited, right?, she, I think, knew better what anonymous alcoholics were about than me, she said, you had to go and, well I don´t know, maybe you take advantage of something, it helps you with something, I'm going to go, I said. And I left feeling his gaze on my back, right, like the group was 30 meters there from the door of my house because I had to enter the group companions entered the group I do not know how they would see me that I remember that they did not offer a coffee or tea or anything I arrived and I was I think about 15-20 minutes and the weird thing is that I saw a friend there a friend who already had like four or five months that he did not see him in the drunkard with the other friends I missed it, I saw it and calculated maybe it would be ten minutes I said my wife no longer at the door of my house, he already entered and I went out to follow the drunkard, but that little thing stayed with me. I said, well, I went there and there is fulano and sultano because no one had ever told me about Alcoholics Anonymous, never. And the other day I returned and began to understand that in reality there was what I was looking for, what I longed for so long in the drunkenness and I did not know what, the one who wanted to feel understood, the crying with some people without knowing why, right? Only out of desperation, for not finding myself. I really found it in Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm going feeling calm and I understood within AlcoholicsAnonymous that the difference between being outside of Alcoholics anonyms and inside, is that outside of alcoholics anonymous, I lived in the past and lived in future but never in the present. I lived in the Past regretting things or plans that I I had proposed that I did not have managed to fulfill, regretting things that had gone wrong and opportunities that I had let go and futuring me like a whole sober alcoholic, futuring myself say but one day I'm going to do them Someday, someone will discover the capacity I have and then I'll make all my dreams come true. Anonymous alcoholics arrive and tell me that I have to live the present and that whatever I learn from my colleagues' knowledge and experiences, I must put them into action and not wait for those opportunities that I expected. In the first place, I had to take action, I needed to form my own personality, which I had always lacked. I had that understanding that I had formed a home, if it was called a home. That I had a marriage, that I have two children and I had something to do for them. them. I started to know the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, came a day in which I had the humility enough as to sponsor me, that is enough for me because it's little, right? I had that humility to sponsor myself and be able to get down and tell some partner, I need your help. That was action for me, I think when I started acting. They began to give me help to the companions whom I heard in the stands, those who had a problem like the companion who preceded me, who was almost talking about me. And I started walking and they began to help me, these disinterested companions, but I had to put something on my part, it was not possible for me to get to Alcoholics Anonymous and learn the steps and traditions because I knew them from memory, but up to there I had what to do something. I knew, I knew internally that Alcoholics Anonymous was going to give me nothing but the weapons for me to fight for myself, it was not going to help me fight, it would give me the weapons so I can develop outside, because really I think that's Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics is a recovery program, but it will give me elements and is giving them to me to prepare myself and to be able to live happy outside, to be able to move forward as I say outside. But for all that I must put a lot of action and I have to put it because in the problems that I have, the problems that make me complain, said the colleague of problems in children, as is my case too, I have a girl with that problem and curious, I had two children when I drank and they are both healthy and I have one daughter now that I do not drink, that we have another daughter with my wife and and have mental problems too. So to all that I must put action, where I can not, companions, I leave things to God, I leave the things because I know that He is going to help me. If any partner from here, from the present, from my group cannot help me God will do it at all times. I no longer carry with that cross as loaded when I arrived at Alcoholics Anonymous, of wanting to load all my problems and feel that no one had the capacity to guide me, now no, I remember someone said that if there was not a God, there would be the need to create one and it stayed well recorded and now I take his hand and resort to him when I feel that the problems are not I will not be able to solve them with the suggestions of the companions or with the support from the companions, I know that Existe un Dios bondadoso, un Dios que realmente me quiere. Y lo siento compañeros, y esto tengo poco tiempo yo sintiéndolo. Ahora sé que me es necesario. Y para mí eso es estar en acción. Para mí eso is estar en accion, en el aplicar los principios de Alcohólicos Anónimos a mi vida. No soy algún compañero que tenga facilidad de palabra, a lo mejor es un orador profesional. Si yo quiero ser como él voy a sentirme mal. Yo debo de comprender realmente, Alcohólicos Anónimos me enseñó a conocerme y a saber cuál era mi capacidad y cuáles eran mis limitaciones. Y hasta ahí es hasta donde yo voy a poder acceder. Yo, compañeros, les agradezco realmente que me hayan escuchado en mi primera convención internacional. Ni creí que me fuera a tocar participar, pero dije, bueno, pues algo tengo que decir, ¿verdad? Me escuchen o no me escuchen. Yo ya puedo decir que participé en una convención internacional. Les deseo 24 horas a todos los compañeros. Gracias al compañero Ramón. A continuación tenemos al compañero Paco de la Ciudad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. Gracias. Gracias, buenas tardes compañeras y compañeros y personas que nos visitan. Mi nombre es Francisco y soy un alcohólico. And thank you for the opportunity that you give me to share what I feel. I was remembering, because when I was listening to my colleagues, it's like an ant is coming to me, like I'm starting to remember many things, right? And I remember, well, since I was little, I hated alcohol and the smell of a cigar. Because I was with my father, and he went into a canteen there in Guadalajara, in San Juan de Dios y yo me tenía que sentar afuera de la cantina, lloviera, hiciera sol o estuviera la luna, estuviera haciendo calor como un perro tirado afuena de la cantina. Y alguien me daba un este, ¿cómo se llama? Camaroncito, una torta y yo me lo comía. Yo decía, yo nunca voy a ser alcohólico, jamás voy a volver, voy a alcohol I hated how my father treated my mother and it turns out that one day I was studying and working and I was sitting outside the door of your house and my father arrives and this and I studied I was in high school and I didn't want to have any vices or anything and once he comes my father and as if I did not want to follow his example and he tells me you are going to What are you going to do? Knife. Let's see, let's see how. Don't drink, don't smoke, no woman. What are going to... No! Right now. And it turns out that I go like this with my friends and I start drinking. I remember my first glass was a caguama and I remember I drank it in a bar and so on. I didn't realize all of my flaws and all the things I had inside me, all my complexes And the moment I drink a glass and look at myself in the mirror, like this, I'm looking at the mirror in one way or another. And inside of me it was like, you're black, you're bald, you have shoes on, you come from Jalisco. That's how I started, right? And then when I started drinking my first glass, I looked at myself through the mirror and said, I don't think you're that ugly. I mean, you are more or less handsome, right. It seems to me that right now you are going to throw yourself out to dance. And so, the moment I had contact with alcohol, my way of thinking changed. Yes? And I realized that there was alcohol! And the race began, beautiful! They were divine drunks who passed me by. I was one of those people who said that alcohol needed a degree to make meat. Yes? That is, it's wonderful to drink. When I started to heal myself and in the mornings like this, And I said, at 10 in the morning, and I saw normal people walking, I already with two or three like that, came, and then I said... Why don't people drink? This is beautiful. Yes, this is the best thing that can happen. And I wasn't realizing the problem I had. It turns out that, to not make it long, comrades, one day, my penultimate drunkard, because I can't say it was the last one, I remember that it was five years old. I always worked. I never stopped working, thank God. but always with my breath that they gave me, I covered my mouth and they gave it to eat mint gum and it turns out that once I started to feel those things that I heard that they said that monkeys were seen on the walls, I began to get into celotipia I started having a lot of problems and so I remember that one day of the times that I could no longer because I got into religion too, I gave Bible talks, pre-marital talks, yes? and after that when the prematrimonial talks were over, I already had the relationship to go a hotel, giving advice and solving my problem. When the time comes that I start to suffer because I got to Alcoholics Anonymous, thank God for the suffering, so I remember that I go arriving like this to sleep because I leave the bedroom and when I enter, the smell of alcohol, I say, oh it smells so bad! No, well, it's me, yes? And I lie down like this in the recamara de mis hijos y cuando veo a mis hijos con los calzones rotos, los calcetines rotos y me veo en el espejo y digo, ¿qué has hecho? ¿Qué has hecho?, y voy y le digo a mi esposa, Susana, Susanna ya no voy a beber, está bien duérmete, tantas veces que le había dicho que iba a dejar de beber y nunca se lo había cumplido, cuando llego alcohólicos anónimos y empiezo a darme cuenta que se puede dejar de vivir a través del sufrimiento, Empiezo a dejar de beber y creo que la recuperación es andar bien boleado, bañado y cambiado Y estar atacando a los compañeros Otra vez empezó el proceso dentro de Francisco Pero para esto siempre tocando el tema de ser infiel Porque a mí me fascina ser infial, a mí no me fascinan los chismes, a mi me fascinas todo Porque soy un rebelde contra el principio de autoridad Y cuando llega el momento que yo empiezo A caminar, que yo empieza a darme cuenta Dentro de AA, ¿qué está pasando? Porque me empieza a doler, me empieza a dolar lo que yo estoy viviendo. Yo soy de las personas que cuando tenía tres meses de llegar a Alcohólicos Anónimos, tuve una relación con una compañera. Y el sufrimiento, el suframiento, cuando llegó mi sufrimiente, cuando mi esposa que tenía ocho meses de embarazada, cuando se dio cuenta, cuando viví todo este sin fin de cuestiones, compañeros, para esto yo me tuve que refugiar. Me tuve qué refugier en el servicio. Yendo a las prisiones, yendo a los hospitales, Empecé a trabajar dentro de mí y a mí me costó mucho trabajo poder entender a través de mi propio sufrimiento, a través de darme cuenta lo que me estaba regalando AA. Recuerdo que en una ocasión compañeros estaba yo traía un problema muy pesado con uno de mis hijos que tiene 17 años en la preparatoria y recuerdo que yo ya así como no sé si alguien se enrolla así pues o sea que empieza una cosita y luego no ya la veo, la veo la veo y ya And I said, now that Edgar is coming, my son, he's going to pay for it. Now! No, now we're going to fix it. And it didn't arrive. And then a colleague came and invited me. He says, let's go to the psychiatric hospital. No, I have a problem. Come first. No, no, help me. And so the alcoholic, when they ask him for help, he gives it to others. But when it's for one, he doesn't. So I go to a psychiatric hospital and the colleagues come out and the meeting begins. When the meeting is over, a 17-year-old guy comes up to me and says, Hey sir, I have confidence in you and I want you to give me some advice. Tell me, he was upset, he said, I'm here at the psychiatric hospital because my dad hit me and one day he beat me and hit me and they say I'm not well. But my dad is an alcoholic and he's in this group of people and he says he has recovery and he started talking about me. O sea, como que Dios se acomodó en él, ¿sí? Y cuando me platicó estábamos llorando. Cuando llego a la casa de ustedes y veo a mi hijo, ¿si? Me doy cuenta de que Dios había obrado. Cuando lleto y estoy en acción, recuerdo el regalo que me dio Dios de ir en tres meses, dos ocasiones a las Islas Marías, de caminar en los campamentos, caminar por la noche, caminar para la mañana, comer iguana, comer lo que comen los presos, vivir, convivir con los colonos allá. We went to Papelillo, my friends. This is an experience that I will never forget. Walking from Papelilo to Laguna del Toro, my friend. I couldn't walk anymore. That time when I went to the islands, I had 320 of cholesterol. I couldn´t walk, I felt exhausted. I couldn' do anything with skin-flower depressions. And start walking because I said, I'm going to work, I´m going to be in action. I´ll practice the fifth tradition and start walking, my freinds. Empezar a caminar a través de un campamento a otro y sentir la presencia de Dios. Renegar de que, ¿qué estaba haciendo? Darme cuenta de las personas que están en una isla, ¿sí? En esas Islas Marías. Darme cuanta que ellos con toda su vida, compañeros, quisieran estar con su esposa. Quisieran estar com sus hijos. Quisieron estar en un evento como este. Y yo que lo tengo, yo que los puedo disfrutar. Darle gracias a Dios que está mi esposa, mi esposo vino conmigo. Compañeros, yo, para terminar, Dios me ha regalado más, me ha dado más de lo que merezco. Cuando me fui a la convención de Seattle, pedí prestado. Y ahora yo no iba a venir. Y dije, Dios mío, si no voy a ir, no hay problema, pero ayúdame. Y así escuchaba a mis compañeros que me antecedieron. Así, pide prestado, no le hace que pidas arredito, pero esto que vas a vivir va a ser hermoso. Compartirlo con mi esposa, escuchar a lo que se habla acerca cuando se abre el corazón. So it was very difficult for me to tell my wife, I love you, I want you, it was very difficult and now I love her, I don't feel ashamed anymore, I no longer feel ashamed to tell her what my heart feels, I do not feel like that anymore. Once, comrades, I was about to fall back again and someone approached me and told me, as if God had settled it in my path, compañeros porque yo iba a tener una relación. Ese ha sido mi problema y se me quedó viendo y me dice, ¿estás dispuesto a ver a tu esposa de frente o agacharle los ojos, agachar la cara? No. Por hoy quiero practicar mi programa y por eso quiero ser honesto conmigo mismo y por este día puedo ver a mi esposa defrente y decirle que estoy cambiando gracias a Alcohólicos Anónimos. Gracias y 24 horas. Thank you, Comrade Paco. It looks like we still have a few minutes left and we're still in action. I'm going to invite Comrade Oscar from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Well, it looks like he's not here, right? Afortunadamente tengo a otro compañero aquí anotado y afortunadamente también es Oscar, nomás que este viene de la ciudad de Garden Grove, aquí en California. Buenas tardes compañeros, yo soy Oscar, soy un alcohólico drogadicto. And I'm very happy, because this is my first international convention. I went to another one last year, in the Orange County, and I've been there for 18 months. And I never thought of being in a convention like that, trying to change my life, to start living a different life. The partner was already saying it, my problems are also with women. Al estar dos meses en una casa de recuperación, ¿verdad?, ahí en Garden Grove, me tuve que enredar con una persona, con una compañera, porque yo oía que esto era de cambios. Dije, voy a cambiar a mi vieja, ¿no? Me tuve qué enredad, fue muy difícil separarme de esa mujer, pero lo tuve qué lograr, porque me dijeron, ¿qué estás dispuesto a hacer para no volverte drug whatever I already had five months in the program and I had to leave it but I denied my wife I denied my own son and my own mother too I didn't want to see them I said because they didn't love me that because they did not understand me fue algo muy difícil no a tratar de cambiar mi manera de pensar a tratar ser una persona diferente me ha costado pues cuando estaba en esa casa de recuperación me dijeron cuando salgas de aquí y reintegra te un grupo ya agarra un grupo base y lo tuve que hacer Lo tuve que hacer y esa base pues de seguir yendo a las juntas diariamente, los fines de semana, dos o tres juntas al día. Subirme a la tribuna diario que estoy en las juntes. Y los fines of the week, up to three times I went to the tribune. Tener que empezar a sacar todos mis remordimientos, todas mis frustraciones, mis corajes, mis odios, mis venganzas. Para poder encontrar un alivio dentro de mí. Fueron épocas muy duras, pues, ¿no?, al estar ahí. Empezar a cambiar mi manera de pensar. Yo decía, ya tengo tanto, ahora sí puedo vender droga para vivir una vida feliz, ¿No? Yo pensaba que con dinero iba a ser feliz. Pero a base del tiempo me he dado cuenta, pues. Que nunca pude ser feliz con dinero. Nunca pude comprar tranquilidad. Nunca puede comprar una conciencia. Y aquí gratis, ¿verdad? Me la han devuelto para atrás, una conciaencia. Un poco, pero de perdida la tengo. Una tranquilidad que nunca había existido. Decir, y esto está maravilloso. Está muy maravillo todo este jale, ¿no? y a veces digo ha valido la pena esto es como yo hubiera querido verdad pero eso yo pensaba antes porque llegué a conocer el programa cuando tenía 18 años pero no me quise quedar porque mi vida loca verdad estaba más suave andar fumando marihuana andar con mis homies no me gustaba trabajar porque decía que era se veía mal una persona que trabajaba. Fui baquetón, huevón, ¿verdad? Muchas cosas, todo el tiempo pretextos para no vivir honradamente. Todo el tiempo a lo fácil. Y después de un tiempo, no hasta ahora, empezar a trabajar honrademente. Y es algo que nunca había experimentado, pues. Yo quería ganar 10 dólares y yo le decía a mi madre, y me decía, ¿qué sabes hacer hijo? tienes un título has ido a la escuela tienes algo que quieras ganar ese dinero no pues no entonces confórmate con lo que te van a pagar que es el mínimo y tener que doblegarme a eso no y seguirle poniendo más acción a mis juntas hablar de mi aunque muchas veces en el programa no, que dicen muchas personas no, esto es nomás para alcohólicos pero si yo ya he pagado mi precio de allá de sufrimiento para pertenecer a una confraternidad como esta pero digo, bueno, eso cosas pasa ahora no me voy porque a mí me dijeron que era la persona más importante hasta aquel día que yo quisiera y mirar pues que en mi grupo, verdad, he encontrado mucho apoyo de mis compañeros que me digan, sigue adelante, no hay bronca tú sigue, tú eres la persona que vas a empezar a vivir una vida diferente allá en tu casa, si tú quieres. Tú puedes hacer la excepción a la regla para que empieces a vivir feliz en tu caso. Y me ha sido de buena voluntad, lo he hecho todo pues. Y gracias a esos compañeros que iban a pasar el mensaje a esa casa de recuperación, si no yo no estuviera aquí. Por eso he oído mucho de esas casas de recuperacion y todo eso de servicios. A mi como me encanta andar en la calle. Haciendo servicio. Voy a esa casa de recuperación, me llevo a mis amigas, los compañeros que están ahí a las juntas, ahora levámonos, así me enseñaron a mí. Muchas veces sin comer. Digo, ay, después cómo, después de la junta. Porque las juntras son de día y de noche y pues ya que llegue a las 11 de la noche, cómo. La comida va a estar ahí. Y yo estoy muy contento de estar aquí con ustedes, de haber conocido mucha gente y que el día de ahora he empezado a querer a mi madre, he empezando a querer a mi esposa, aunque tal vez no se lo digo, pero ya siento algo por ella y a mi propio hijo. Que yo lo tuve que prender de la heroína desde que nació hasta después de dos años. Muchas veces me tocaba la puerta del baño diciéndome, hey, mochate, ¿no? Pidiéndome esa dosis, pues. Y yo me sentía orgulloso este hijo va a ser como yo, un drogadicto, que yo sentía ese orgullo pues ese orgulho falso y ver ahora pues la diferencia no ya voy a los compañeros no es un completo para que les digo verdad muy inquieto para arriba y para abajo una persona muy inquieta también por la gracia de mi esposa está embarazada le empezaba a tener un poco de cariño Y digo, qué bárbaro. Yo no me la merezco. Y digo pues no me queda más que otra que seguir aquí pues. Donde he encontrado pues una hebrita. Una hebrida para vivir una vida útil y feliz. Compañeros, yo les deseo muchas 24 horas y muchas gracias por escucharme. Gracias Oscar. Quiero agradecer a Temo, Jesús, Jorge, Beto, Ramón, Paco y Oscar a mis compañeros y compañeras que se encuentran aquí ahora a las personas no alcohólicas al comité organizador a Gonzalo a Efren que me hayan ayudado a llevar esta juntas verdad este de la mejor manera para todos aquellos que quieran ponerse de pie y unirse a nosotros mismos con la oración de la serenidad que dice a la letra dios concédenos serenidades para aceptar las cosas que no podemos cambiar valor para cambiarlas que si podemos y sabiduría para conocer la diferencia Do your will and not mine. And let's keep coming, friends. And don't get too far away because in 15 minutes our party continues. Thank you, Paco. all right now I'm going 185 come on come on come on come on don't go because we're going to have a raffle of the tickets that they gave you at the doors so you can have an opportunity to participate for 10 minutes and let's start Rafael Garcia First we are going to ask for Rafael Garcia and Maria C. Rafael Garcia? He didn't come. Maria C? They didn't came. Where are they from? They're not here. Where are you from? Colombia, no. From Spain. Maria C. is from Spain, right? Colombia. Okay, okay. His name is Pedro Cerno. I forgot. Pedro Cerna. Aren't they here already? No. Pedro Serna go through here please ok, so let's start the raffle let's begin with the last 3 numbers 6, 8, 5 Seis, ocho, cinco. Okay. Cinco, tres, cuatro. Cinco tres, quatro. No está. Next. Cuatro, cuatro, nueve. Cuatro. Cuatro nueve, no está. Cinco, tres, tres. Órale. Ya es turno. ¿Ya lo tienes? ¿Ya tienes dos? Ya tiene dos. Ok. Siete, once, once. No, siete, uno, uno. Perdone. Siete. Siete uno, one. Ok, bien ya. ¿Qué número tienes? 7-1-1 Did you say 5-3-3? 5-2-3, yes You have 3 left Ok You said 7-11 7-6-7 7-7-7 Next 570 570 635 635 Come on! How many do you have? Another one? You have four? Pass it, pass it. Pasale. Pasale compañero, pasale. Quieres compartir? Siete cincuenta y uno. Siete cinco uno. Tres cuatro ocho. Next. Uno cinco tres. Uno cinco Two-five-three, two-five zero, two fifty, two five zero, two fifty. Another one is coming. One seven one. 418 418 762 762 663 663 Cinco Nueve Seis Cinco Nove Seis Cinco Noventa y Cinco Cinco Nuove Cinco Cinco Cinco Seis Cinco Sinco Seix 6-4-3 6-2-0 6-20 8-0-6 8-0-6 3-8-4 3-9-3 0-93 1-1-6 3, 2, 9 3,2,9 4, 8, 2 ok 4.30 No se vayan compañeros, a las 4. 30 empieza la otra junta