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Scottsdale woman’s memoir revisits Madrid
BY KRISTINE CANNON
Progress Staff Writer
Diane Lorz Benitez may be living a quiet life in Scottsdale but her life leading up to retirement is one for the books – literally.
Lorz Benitez’s memoir, “Without a Second Thought,” details the McCormick Ranch resident’s life and marriage in Madrid, Spain, in the 1960s and ‘70s, during the final decade of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
“I’m sure every beginning writer has heard the phrase, ‘Write about a subject you know.’ I knew something about Spain,” Lorz Benitez said.
“After living there for nearly 12 years, I knew quite a lot about it. So, even before I had a definite plan for a book, I had my subject, one I had fallen in love with years earlier – one I still loved.”
Ten years later, “Without a Second Thought” is now slated to release Oct. 20.
BY KRISTINE CANNON
Progress Staff Writer
Mountain in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in April amid a sea of blooming brittlebush blanketed with bright-yellow flowers, Tiffany Sprague found herself overcome with emotion. The Parsons Field Institute manager for McDowell Sonoran Conservancy and her team of stewards had just completed 12 field projects over two challenging months, during which they were walloped by unusually heavy rains and a global pandemic.
“It was an incredible feeling being out there with these incredible people, knowing that we had accomplished so much; and being able to see the results of that was definitely a highlight for me,” Sprague recalled.
Spring is the busiest time of the year in the field for McDowell Sonoran Conservancy’s Parsons Field Institute. The staff and stewards typically conduct 10 projects then, with results that contribute to invasive plant species research and mitigation, restoration of native flora and soil crust restoration among other issues.
“We have a lot of projects that occur throughout the year, but spring is when everything comes to a head,” Sprague said. “It’s when the desert really starts to come to life.”
This year, they added two more projects – RestoreNet and soil crust field experiments – as well as new plots to their trail
Scottsdale resident Diane Lorz Benitez’s memoir, “Without a Sec ond Thought,” tells the story of her life and her marriage in Madrid,
Spain. (Courtesy of Diane Lorz Benitez)
“No one – at least I never found anyone – had written from the viewpoint of an American woman married to a Spanish engineer living in Madrid during the Franco regime. I thought I could fill that void,” Lorz Benitez said.
Lorz Benitez grew up in the 1950s in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
After leaving college to work in a highend retail store in Cleveland, Ohio, she quit her job at the age of 24, drained her bank account and sailed away with the love of her life, Alberto Benitez – a civil engineer from Madrid 10 years her senior.
To write the memoir, she dug deep into her past and conducted years’ worth of research, including looking at maps and old photographs and reading her late husband’s unfinished autobiography.
“What I gained from it was Alberto’s voice. All I had to do was translate it,” Lorz Benitez said, adding that she was able to retell Alberto’s Spanish Civil War restoration project and a new treatment to their non-native plant experiments.
After eight months of planning and preparation, including hiring on two botanists and training stewards, they felt ready to tackle this year’s projects.
Mother Nature, however, had different plans.
“We’re used to handling weather events. If we get a rain-day or two, we can usually wiggle around it,” Sprague said. “This year, of course, it was relatively dry until we started our field work – and then the rains just hit.”
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, health officials began recommending limited social gatherings of no more than 10 people.
“We started to get really creative,” experiences verbatim.
“And when it came to creating dialogue or expressing my husband’s opinions about education or government, for example, I had no doubts. He had confirmed everything clearly in that stack of yellowing pages,” she said.
She said that without the marriage, she wouldn’t have had a book at all. “But what I really wanted to write about were my in-laws and their background,” she added.
“I wanted to write my husband’s story, the part lived before we ever met and the history of war as he told it. I wanted to write about the Spanish landscape, the smell and taste of food, and the culture. I wanted to write about a language that, for a reason I can’t explain, speaks to me more deeply than my native tongue. That’s what I put in the memoir.”
The hardest part about writing it, she said, was finding the invisible thread that
Conservancy undaunted by rain, pandemic
Standing on the side of Brown’s
see MEMOIR page 17 Sprague said. “We had to sit down and put on our thinking caps: ‘Are there projects that we can delay and should delay? Are there projects that absolutely have to get done? And if so, can we do them safely?’”
Maintaining social distancing was easy in the field; the stewards had plenty of open space to spread out.
The real challenge, however, was completing all of their projects with smaller teams.
“We focused on the projects that had to get done and the ones that we could do safely. Luckily, it turned out that all the projects that we had could be done safely with some modifications, and that included cutting teams down to the abso
connects the theme, plot, or idea from beginning to end.
“What I eventually found was a character – me, seduced by a country and a way of life but missing a vital element to hold that life together. And I found the chilling moment when the character admits that she may be at fault but resolves to make the best of things,” she explained.
The most rewarding part was “the writing itself, in searching for the right words to express a time and place and my emotions.”
“When my Spanish niece said, ‘You’ve brought my childhood alive in all its details,’ I felt rewarded again,” she added.
While abroad in Italy, studying Renaissance art in Florence with a group from Arizona State University, Lorz Benitez was encouraged by her instructors to write the memoir.
“By the end of our time a completed manuscript in Italy, the instructors and that she returned with I were friends and one of a five-page typed evaluthem suggested I attend ation of strength and additional writing workweakness of the work. shops or follow a course at Fortunately, she sprinkled ASU,” she said. her notes with enough
She took their advice positive comments that and signed up for a series I didn’t get discouraged,” of workshops and classes Lorz Benitez said. at ASU. Pohlman said, “I was
“Bit by bit my anecdotes immediately drawn to became chapters, and bit her and her story.” by bit the chapters grew She said Lorz Benitez into a book,” she said. was eager to sharpen her
She worked on the memwriting skills and was oir with the founder and ready and willing to do director of the Phoenix Diane Lorz Benitez’s book the hard work of bringWriters Network, Susan is available on preorder at ing the story to life on the Pohlman, whom she met amazon.com. (Special for the Progress) page. years ago at a writing event in Scottsdale. Plus, Pohlman had also spent time in
“I didn’t really have a clear plan until I Europe and could relate to many of the asked a writing coach for help. I gave her stories she told about settling in and find
MCDOWELL ���� page 16
lute bare minimum,” Sprague said.
After rain delays and a few long, six- to 10-hour days, they finished all the projects – and “we continued to collect the same amount of data as we did in previous years,” Sprague said.
Sprague attributes their success entirely to the Conservancy’s stewards and botanists.
“I’d say we engaged 40 to 50 different volunteers through those two months; and we continue to engage folks now,” she said. “It really is their tenacity and their interest and doing the best that they can.”
Among those stewards is Douglas Jensen, the lead for their butterfly survey and non-native plant removal projects.
“It’s very important to us to have these semi-annual data streams flowing in. We were very reluctant to give up these projects,” Jensen said.
Jensen, who moved from Seattle to Scottsdale in 2015 as a retiree, heard about the Conservancy through his neighbor, and he’s been a steward since.
“It’s a real privilege to be able to work with the Conservancy,” Jensen said. “They do a lot of really wonderful work, and it’s a great way to be out enjoying the outdoors.”
Jensen is most involved in the removal part of the three-prong project, which starts with researching and surveying.
McDowell Sonoran Conservancy steward Doug Jensen is the steward lead for the Conservancy’s non-native plant removal projects. He’s one of six stewards trained and certifi ed by the state to apply herbicides.
“We helped to develop a fantastic app that allows you to go into the field and indicate what type of environment they’re in. Once we have that information, then the removal people will schedule projects and decide what projects have priority. I’ll go out into the field and remove the stuff,” Jensen said.
Typically, the removal process is entirely manual.
But this year, Jensen, along with six other stewards, were trained and certified by the state to apply herbicides, allowing them to cover more ground, more quickly.
“Once the pandemic hit, we really start
(Tiffany Sprague) ed focusing on very large projects where we would send teams of three, four, or five people several days to work on a very large infestation. That way we can spread out very broadly across the landscape,” Jensen said.
And this was the highlight for Jensen this year: completing a major infestation removal. “When you finish a project like that, you can look back and see the result of your work. And it’s very extensive: We’re talking about an acre or more work,” Jensen said.
Jensen said he also enjoys “having people enjoy the experience ... it’s really fun NEIGHBORS 17 ing her way in another country.
“I enjoyed the armchair travel to Spain with a young woman intoxicated by love and adventure,” Pohlman said. “She deftly shares her ‘awakening’ from blissful innocence to wary wife and mother.”
“Her story reminds us that the wounds of war leave deep emotional scars that affect families for generations,” she added.
Lorz Benitez said she believes her memoir will appeal to readers who enjoy travel, history, “ex-pat life with all its challenges and rewards, and food—and to anyone who has ever looked in the mirror and said, ‘What on earth have I done?’”
Added Pohlman: “She has a brave and adventurous spirit and the courage it took to find a way to escape Spain in order to protect herself and her children was inspiring.”
“Without a Second Thought” is available for pre-order on Amazon for $27.
Information: dianelorzbenitez.com
to work with them. They’re wonderful people,” he said.
Amid the pandemic, steward and public engagement continues to be a challenge for the Conservancy.
After pausing all of their public-facing activities in the spring, the Conservancy introduced and transitioned their educational programs online, including Conservancy Kids. Geared toward third through fifth graders, Conservancy Kids takes students on a virtual educational tour through the Sonoran Desert.
“The Conservancy Kids program has been really inspirational, and I’ve been able to provide a lot of online opportunities to engage teachers and kids and parents. That’s been really exciting,” Sprague said. “We’re continuing to try to be creative and figure out what other things we can do remotely.
As for stewards, the Conservancy has paused onboarding volunteers and hopes to resume in the fall.
“The question is: Do we have enough ways to engage all of these new stewards that it makes it worth it?” Sprague said. “Luckily, all of the stewards are thoroughly engaged in this, and they’re looking for things to do.”
Jensen added: “We’re looking forward to the day when we can get back to our normal-sized crews and normal practices, but the work is getting done.”
