Berta Mexidor
By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – The Offices of Communications and Vocations welcomed Berta Mexidor to the staff on Monday, July 31. A native of Cuba, Mexidor has been in the U.S. for 13 years. She will be managing Spanish-language content for Mississippi Católico as well as doing administrative work for the Office of Vocations.
Mexidor has a variety of experience, including being a co-founder of the “Libertad” – Freedom Free Press Agency and the Independent Libraries movement in Cuba. She moved to Mississippi in 2005, one month before Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the state, to continue her work with libraries in her home country. She has also worked as a Spanish teacher, economics teacher and translator for several agencies in the state.
Her treasure is being mother of three and grandmother of two.
She is a member of Flowood St. Paul Parish, where she found a welcome even before she knew enough English to understand the whole Mass. Her experience growing up in Communist Cuba strengthened rather than weakened her faith.
“Jesus finds you even where you need to deny him, in a communist island, under an atheist regime” she said. She was baptized Catholic at birth, but as a child witnessed the image of Saint Francis intentionally drowned in the ocean of her small town as a demonstration of the community’s rejection of faith. Having children and encountering her own cross in life reconnected Berta with God and she found ways to quietly pursue her faith before she immigrated.
She has a special devotion to Our Lady of Charity also known as Our Lady of El Cobre or Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre, she is grateful for all her experiences in Cuba and Mississippi. “Jesus found me a long time ago,” she said. She now recognizes that he was sustaining her during the storms.
