Foreign Service Personnel in L.A. : They Take Their Homeland With Them

He has been in Los Angeles more than two years, far from his homeland, and he holds memories of his country in his mind. He sees them as delicate black and white brush paintings.

At the age of 22, Toshihide Kawasaki left Tokyo for his first job. He was sent to Jordan to work in the foreign service of his country.

Now, at 27, he lives in Alhambra in an apartment with his wife and 18-month-old daughter, who was born here. As an administrative staff member of the Japanese Consulate, Kawasaki is considered to be on call 24 hours a day to help his consul general handle the affairs of Japanese citizens here.

“I was very curious about foreign countries,” Kawasaki said, to help explain why he chose this way of life. “Japan is a very closed country. Europeans can see their borders, and the difference between two countries, but we can’t.”

Isolation Factor

He does not have much interaction with the general public in Los Angeles. “We try not to bother or interrupt the people here,” he said quietly. His wife is isolated even more, because she speaks little English. He is thankful, however, for their apartment manager. “She is a very good person, and helps us very much.”

Foreign service for staff level employees is often an attractive job package. Though secretaries and aides may not be in the prestigious position of consul general or vice consul, it’s a chance to see the world in a way no tourist can.

Many consulates subsidize all or part of the housing for their staff here because the cost of living is high. But the standard of living is high also, and is appreciated by staff who have been posted in dangerous or isolated countries. Working abroad usually pays a higher wage, which is appealing to many.

Zaleha Hamid of Malaysia misses her family, but not the hot and humid climate of her home city of Kuala Lumpur. She’s been at her secretarial post here for four months, after having spent two years in Holland. Hamid, 35, chose Los Angeles because her husband is working on his master’s degree at USC.

She brought a little bit of her country with her in the form of spices, such as curry powder. Her government will pay for her housing while she is here, and for now they live close to downtown where she can walk to work in the World Trade Center. She has seen little of the city because they have no transportation, but she’s found a place to make friends. “We joined this aerobics class,” she said, laughing.

Gabriella Martin, also 35, is far from Concepcion, Chile. Fluent in four languages, she was a translator for the minister of foreign affairs in Chile. After five years of marriage ended in divorce, she wanted to do something different with her life.

She joined the Chilean foreign service as a secretary. After a year, Martin is still enthusiastic about her choice.

“I wanted something else,” she said. “At my age I wanted to do something before it was too late.” She shares an apartment near Redondo Beach with another woman from Chile. They often invite friends to sample their favorite Chilean food, empanadas, a flaky tart with meat filling. Separation from her parents and sisters is difficult, but home leave will return her to Chile soon.

70 Foreign Governments Here

There are more than 70 foreign governments officially represented in Los Angeles, according to Bee Canterbury Lavery, chief of protocol for Mayor Tom Bradley. Many have only diplomat-level positions open here, and hire staff locally from citizens of their home country who are already living in the United States.

This is the first year Norway has posted a staff-level position here. Grethe Knudsen, 30, is from Oslo and is the office manager and accountant for her consulate. She had worked for her foreign ministry in Brussels and Bonn and applied for this post when her other job closed so she could continue living abroad.

“I didn’t even consider getting the job,” Knudsen said. “Then they called and said, ‘How soon can you leave?’ I said, ‘Yesterday.’ ” She arrived in September and spent 40 nights in a hotel before she found her West Los Angeles apartment.

Knudsen of Norway is unusual in that she has family support here. She has two aunts who live in the United States, one who is an American citizen. Her tour of duty will be two to five years, which is common. “If I don’t stay more than two years I have to pay my trip and furniture back to Norway,” she said. She will be sent home on vacation to Norway for medical and dental treatment since she is covered for such costs under Norwegian social security.

Knudsen, who speaks English, French and German, besides the Scandinavian languages, said she feels like she represents Norway while she is here. “If anybody asks about Norway I try to give them the best impression I can. In that way it makes you very, very patriotic,” she said.

A Difficult Time

Some consulate staff have had a difficult time meeting ordinary American citizens because their consulate work keeps them somewhat isolated. Knudsen’s cousins have helped her to meet people, however.

“Also, the Australian Consulate is very good about that,” Knudsen said. “They invite all the other countries about once a month. They have lots of staff and they’re really good at arranging things.”

Danielle Mondon, 36, of the French Consulate has lived far from her original homeland for many years.

Mondon began foreign service in 1968 and has worked in Scotland, China and England. For the past seven years she has been posted here and now works as her consulate’s archivist. The Southern California climate and relaxed way of life appeal to her.

“It’s not like Paris or New York, where the people are running around all the time. You can talk about anything to anybody,” she said. She lives near Santa Monica so she can be close to the ocean. She has been away from her roots in Champagne and Brittany for so long she does not miss it anymore. “I like it when I go back, but it doesn’t matter (to be away) anymore,” she said. Like most of the others in the foreign service, home is wherever they are.

Traveling Light

Some consulate staff travel light. “I never thought about buying furniture and carrying it with me,” said Paola Piazzardi, 36, of the Italian Consulate.

Piazzardi had just spent a year at the Italian consulate in New Orleans when he received the posting here. He put everything he wanted to take in his convertible on a Friday night and arrived here on a Sunday. “That was the end of the engine in my car,” he noted.

He speaks three languages and has been in charge of cultural activities for his consulate for five months. He lives in a Brentwood apartment, which is convenient to UCLA where he is a professor of Italian literature.

Piazzardi misses the restaurants of Rome and “the spirit of our people.” But he said he feels a great excitement in the air in Los Angeles. “I feel challenged here,” he said.

Like Kawasaki of Japan, Piazzardi’s first foreign post was in Jordan. “We are posted the first time to a very difficult place. You are to prove that you are able to cope and face many problems. But Jordan was a wonderful country for me.” He feels he is doing something useful with his life. “I am a connection point, in very small terms, between the States and my country.”

A Nomadic Life

It is a feeling that is shared by many in the foreign service of their country. They bring a part of their homeland wherever they are. Most have found the people in Los Angeles friendly and outgoing.

Some will choose to stay in the foreign service, and others will tire of the nomadic life and move on to something different.

Kawasaki hopes in the future to be at the vice-consul level. For now, he holds the images of Japan in his mind, knowing that if he stays in the service of his country much of his life will be spent far, far from home.

Shade is a North Hollywood writer.