Interview: Agustin Diaz Cristerna Generational Dream: From Mexico to Heidelberg
How did you END UP in Heidelberg?
When I was 4 or 5 years old, my father, Dr. Agustín Díaz Esparza, who was a physician and professor in public health, had the opportunity to represent Mexico as an expert in a series of events by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Germany. During his stay, he had the chance to give a lecture at the ‘Alte Aula’ of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (RKUH), a university he admired since he was young due to its history and academic prowess, even before reading The Student Prince. My father bought a postcard with the University’s image at the end of his lecture and sent it to me in Mexico. His message read: “Son, I hope one day you have the opportunity to come study at this great university”.
The time passed, and I studied medicine at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM) and began my specialization in pediatrics at the Instituto Nacional de Pediatría de México (INP).
When I was approaching the end of my studies, I wrote to Prof. Dr. Otwin Linderkamp, asking for an opportunity to do a subspecialization in neonatology at the University of Heidelberg. The response took years to come back – my letter had been mistakenly archived. In the meantime, I trained as a pediatric clinical immunologist, also at INP.
My father passed away in 1988, but just as I returned home from putting his ashes in the crypt, I found, to my greatest surprise, my acceptance letter to pursue my studies at the Kinderklinik at RKUH.
My father’s dream, which had become mine, would become a reality thanks to a generous scholarship from DAAD. Sadly, my father never knew, just by a few days. I’ve always had the feeling that my father, from wherever he was, intervened for this to become true.
This is how my journey at RKUH began – it’s a bit of a romantic story, you could say.
How did you meet your wife?
The scholarship that the DAAD granted to study at RKUH included a German language course at the Goethe Institut in Mannheim. There, I would meet my wife, María. Specifically, we met at the mensa of the University of Mannheim. My wife is originally from Madrid, Spain. She had studied to be a translator and interpreter from German and English to Spanish at the University of Granada, and she was at the Goethe Institut to improve her German. We’ve always said that for a Mexican and a Spaniard to meet in Germany, it had to be written in the stars.
Therefore, I would travel frequently between Heidelberg and Mannheim to visit her so, in some way, “Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren”, as the song says.
Did you return to Heidelberg after your studies and before your current visit?
At the end of my term at the Department of Neonatology of the Kinderklinik and its Frügeborene Intensiv Pflege Station (FIPS), I went to Madrid, where I married my wife in May of 1992.
We moved to Mexico the following day. Since then, I had not been back to my dear German Alma Mater. I tried many times, but it took 31 years before I could come back.
When and how did you find out about the trip that your son organized for you?
Me and my wife’s experiences in Germany generated in my children a certain desire to study abroad and to get to know different cultures, languages, and customs, and thus grow as people, opening their minds to knowledge, sure, but also to tolerance and cultural richness and diversity. Thus, my son went on to study International Relations at the University of Rochester in New York, and my daughter to study digital animation at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) in Ireland and at the University of Technology and Digital Arts (UTAD) in Spain. My son continued his studies at the University of Oxford, England, where he did diplomatic studies, and then to Sciences Po in Paris, France, where he pursued a masters in human rights. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, my son’s graduation in Oxford was rescheduled within a few weeks of his graduation in Paris. With two important events so close to each other, we organized a big trip to Europe so that I could attend both graduations.
My son, in total secrecy, had contacted the Alumni office of RKUH, and organized a surprise visit to Heidelberg and Mannheim, so that my children could visit the places where our family was born. Suddenly, at the end of the dinner we held to celebrate his Oxford's graduation, my son gave me an envelope: in it was a copy of my registration file at the RKUH. I did not understand what was happening! How did we get this document – which I had never seen before – and why was he giving it to me? Then he told me about the plan to come back to Heidelberg – I must confess I could not contain my emotion. That is how, 31 years after my departure, I had the opportunity to come back to Heidelberg, and me and my wife could share with our children the extraordinary memories of our time in Heidelberg and Mannheim.
How did you like your visit to Heidelberg? How did you spend your time there?
Our visit to Heidelberg, and particularly to my dear university, was fantastic, to say the least. We had the chance to attend a concert by the choirs of the University of Heidelberg and the University of Notre Dame at the Alte Aula, and to re-live in my mind some of what inspired my father to send me that postcard all those years ago. Furthermore, the welcome we received from Kristiina Iso-Kokkila from the Alumni Office was extraordinary, and we are all very grateful for her hospitality.
To be able to walk again through Heidelberg’s streets, so full of history; to visit its castle; to see the place I lived, but to do it with my kids and my wife, was very touching. It reached the deepest parts of my soul.
Once in Heidelberg, I couldn’t wait to see the old Frauenklinik (where the FIPS was) and the Alte Kinderklinik, and I discovered that there were two new facilities, which I did not know. It was sad to see the old Alte Kinderklinik building abandoned, a building I had dreamt of many times, but I guess it’s part of change and growth (it’s been 31 years, after all).
I was very happy to see that the people I had met, with whom I had studied, had continued their journey at the University (to give an example, the current director of the Kinderklinik). I always wondered how my life would have been if I had stayed at RKUH, maybe working with Prof. Linderkamp and Dr. Zilow?
The city of Heidelberg, particularly the University, is with me daily. They are and always will be an important part of me and have contributed to who I am as a person and physician.
Much of what I learned there, I was able to then pass on to the neonatologists I helped train upon my return to Mexico. Now, as I approach my retirement from medicine, I hope to be able to return more often to my beloved RKUH. I am sure it remains and will remain forever open to me and all its alumni, as its motto says, “Semper Apertus”.