A flight from Venezuela to a rewarding landing in West Orange

Family facts:
Name: Alexandra Sanchez Vega DeRonde
Country of origin: Venezuela
Language: Spanish
Been in the US since: 2001
Family: Daniel DeRonde, Alexa-Sarai (6) Daniel (5)

Have you ever thought about how it would be if you left your comfortable life here in West Orange and had to go to another place, another country and start all over?

You didn’t speak the language and you didn’t know the culture; didn’t even know how to properly greet someone their way. Your life would never be the same … you would never be the same.

Well, in West Orange we have many foreigners and we have all gotten here for different reasons and under
different circumstances. One of West Orange’s residents, Alexandra Sanchez Vega DeRonde, came here in a very unique way.

Alexandra lived a comfortable life. It is safe to say a very comfort­able life with boats, villas, vaca­tions and nice houses. She was mayor of a town in Venezuela; actually the most voted female and youngest politician at the age of 31. Due to the political stands, she was kidnapped and held for ransom. She had to pay her
money and was freed. She went straight to the air­port and took the first flight out of Venezuela.

She opted for the U.S. since her estranged father and brothers and sisters already lived in here. She left behind her material things, all her possessions. But most importantly, she left behind her true person, her true self.


‘ People think we [ Spanish speaking people] don’t have any education. When we come here, with a nonlegal status, we might be cleaning houses and doing odd jobs. We might be very well edu­cated but due to our legal
status we can’t do anything but odd jobs.’ She had to go back to school for a master’s degree here, her third, since at job interviews she kept hearing that all her experience was in a Third World country. She got her degree here and worked as a case manager specializing in HIV diseases for a nonprofit organiza­tion in Newark. It was hard being a successful, highly educated person that now had to start from scratch, ‘I came here without knowing English at all. I have an accent and my English is not at the level where my Spanish is, far from it. Some­times people are rude about it. It is my biggest insecurity. In order to get better, I try to talk and talk and talk. That way I get better and bet­ter. I can’t care less if people are rude. I know what I can. I am a well educated person.’

Being a respected person in your own country and coming here and not being understood and regarded is hard. “We are people in our coun­try but we are nobody here.”

Imagine yourself in Alexandra’s shoes. It might have been a task too tough to handle, a venture too scary to embark on. But with the back­ground that Alexandra had she was determined to make a difference wherever life took her and not let people or language barriers hinder her.


If you want to find Alexandra today you better be out and about in West Orange. She is a commissioner on the Human Relations Com­mission, president of PASSE (Par­ents Advocating for Special Services in Education), a translator for Spanish speaking parents in the school system, involved in the HeartHaiti organization and an active part of Liquid Church.

With all this going on she still manages to run a household and take care of her family, husband Daniel DeRonde and children Alexa-Sarai, 6, and Daniel, 5, and keep a part-time job as a lunch aid at Gregory School.


Being away from your country and, for security reasons, never being allowed back (at least until the current dictatorial government ends) is hard for anyone and there have been some though times when it comes to adjusting and fitting in.

"It was hard in the beginning because of the way people here relate to each other. It is so is dif­ferent from home where people are much warmer toward each other. Here you have to know someone to be warm and
friendly. I feel that especially here in the tristate area people are not open toward each other. We [in Venezuela] are very interested in what is going on in the world, not only in our country. I don’t see that as much here. Life back home is easy-going. Here you are rushing for the dollar.”


Even with cultural differences and language barriers, Alexandra has made the U.S. her home, probably for the duration. As it is now she cannot go back to Venezuela. She makes the best of it and loves where she has landed — West Orange.