diplomaticloungeblog

I was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1952. Our family name is of remote Portuguese origin, but our closer ancestry is from Andalucia, Spain. I worked as a career diplomat first for Belgium and later for the European Union. I have lived in Ethiopia, Jamaica and Cuba for extended periods of time, but in various stages between 1985 and 2010 most of my work was in and with the United Nations in New York. I have published about twenty books, both fiction and non-fiction, in Europe. I retired from active diplomacy in September 2017 and am now a full-time writer and occasional traveler, based in Andalucia but staying in close contact with New York and Havana, my two spiritual hometowns. My blog is meant to share insights I gained in politics and culture both as a diplomat and a multicultural writer.