The Standard Rules: A Short Tour :
María Cristina Sará-Serrano Mathiason,
1943-2004
New York, July 15, 2004. María Cristina Sará-Serrano Mathiason,
President of Associates for International
Management Services, Ltd., passed away today in Kingston, New York,
from complications of her illnesses. She is survived by her husband, Dr.
John Roland Mathiason, two sons, John Michael and Pablo Andres, and their
families. She was 61 years old.
María Cristina Sará-Serrano Mathiason was born on
February 8, 1943 in Santiago, Chile, the fifth child of Ismael Sará-Garcia
and Elena Serrano-Ahumada de Sará. Her father was an industrialist who,
from 1952 until 1964 was the Consul-General of Bolivia in Chile.
She was educated at Santiago College, the American
school in Chile, graduating in 1962. In 1964, her father was exiled to
Venezuela as a result of a break in diplomatic relations between Bolivia
and Chile and a coup in Bolivia.
María Cristina joined her father there along with
several sisters. While there she met and in November 1966 married John R. Mathiason, a United Nations technical assistance expert who was working at
the Central University of Venezuela. Their first child, John Michael, was
born there.
After her husband finished his doctorate at M.I.T.,
they moved to Seattle, Washington where he was on the faculty of the
university. María Cristina worked as a volunteer with the
Foundation for International
Understanding Through Students (FIUTS), an office that helped foreign
students adjust to the University.
While living in Seattle, their second son, Pablo was
born. Shortly thereafter María Cristina was diagnosed with rheumatoid
arthritis, a disease she battled for the next thirty-four years. When she
left, she was given FIUTS annual service award for her work.
In 1971 she moved to New York City when her husband
joined the United Nations Secretariat.
In 1974, the family took an assignment with the
United Nations Development Programme in
Pakistan. During the assignment her health worsened and she had to be
medically evacuated. Over the next 11 years she underwent a long series
of surgeries that left her disabled.
In 1987, she and her husband moved to Vienna, Austria
where he was assigned to the
United Nations office
there. María Cristina was named representative of
Disabled Peoples’ International, a major
non-governmental organization, to the United Nations. There she worked as
an advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities. She participated
in many meetings, organized a seminar on women and disability that led to
agreements that were included in the
Beijing Platform for the
Advancement of Women. She also participated in the negotiations of
the United Nations
Standard Rules
for the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.
She returned to New York City in 1993 and
participated on behalf of her organization in the negotiations on the
Beijing Platform and the World Summit for Social Development. She moved
to Mount Tremper on a full time basis in 1996 and became President of
Associates for International Management Services.
Over the next several years she participated in
training for NGO advocates in Mexico, Sweden, the Dominican Republic and
Venezuela. When her health no longer permitted her to travel, she
participated in seminars and expert group meetings organized by the United
Nations over the Internet. In recent years, her health continued to
deteriorate and she spent her time supervising her garden and doing
crafts.
She passed away as a consequence of her long illness
on July 15, 2004. She is survived by her husband, John Roland Mathiason,
her sons, John Michael and Pablo Andres, her daughters-in-law Amy and
Elyse, her grandchildren Cristina Elena and Miles Andres, her mother, four
sisters and four brothers, as well as many nieces and nephews. |
