It has been ten years since Live & Life in Palmas came to be and eleven years since I moved to Palmas del Mar! I can’t believe it! It seems like yesterday when many of my San Juan friends told me I was crazy to move to Palmas full time. Little they knew that I was not only going to love my new life, but that on top of that, I was going to start a magazine about my new home community. But how did all this start?

For those of you who don’t know me, I had been in the advertising world for more than 30 years, including having my own agency, Rosado & Morales, in which I handled international accounts such as Elizabeth Arden & Monet, among other brands. This is an important fact because, having an advertising and promotion mindset, led me to think on all the wonderful activities and events planned by PHA, and other Palmas organizations, and on how to effectively communicate those. A communication tool could also bring people together as a community and be used for sharing information. I was interested in also letting the world outside Palmas know how wonderful this community was. This is what I strongly believe, that Palmas should be used as an example of a community (almost a town) that addresses problems and situations assertively and efficiently. There is no place in Puerto Rico like Palmas! Our quality of life and diversity can’t be compared to any other place in Puerto Rico.

THE BEGINNING…
Once realizing that we needed this communication tool, I requested a meeting with Mr. Julio Bagué, PHA President at the time, and with Mr. Tony Maldonado, our Executive Director, to present them the concept. They both received the idea positively and quickly presented it to the Board of Directors. The rest is history. Mr. Julio Bagué, as well as Mr. Tony Maldonado, deserve a lot of the credit because they had the vision to understand the magnitude of this project and were very open. They believed in the project and backed me up. But then what?
How was this ambitious project going to be financed? I didn’t have the money, but did have the will and enthusiasm which I transmitted to the Palmas Business Community and other sponsors, including our printing shop, Model Offset Printing (MOP), owned by long time Palmeño Carlos Colón. Carlos immediately told me “the first run is on me” and printed the first edition for free. And, since I strongly believe in the magic of perseverance and hard work, 10 years later we are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of our magazine which recounts the history of our community. Live & Life has seen our kids grow into young adults. As part of putting together this edition, I went through each one of themagazine published to show how the kids of the community have grown into young adults.

The history

I have also seen during the review of old magazines, the evolution of our community, the many improvements, changes, crisis (like Maria Hurricane and the bankruptcy of our 

Country Club by PCCI). Among the most significant happenings we find: the construction of the Yacht Club, the Pterocarpus Forest’s board walk, the new Palmas Academy school, the Catholic church, the Palmas Athletic Club creation and its rescue, the beach conservation program, the Children’s Park, the Skate Park, the roundabout with the Gaviotas en Vuelo

sculpture, the PHA building, new and renewed landscaping, and many other wonderful programs of this avant-garde community. To be honest, this magazine’s outcome exceeded my expectations in every way. The need was big, the time was right, our leaders were bright people with vision and synergy happened. The magazine has become not only a way to document our history as a community but has promoted initiatives and social interactions.

One of my biggest satisfactions is when the magazine comes out of the press and kids run to grab it. I love to see their faces when they see themselves in the magazine or see people they know. I also appreciate deeply when our ‘snowbirds’ write me or stop me to share with me how much they appreciate the magazine when they are in the States. «It keeps us connected»,  I hear them say over and over. And that’s the point, the magazine has been able to connect us!! We have become a tightly knitted community of «PAL

MEÑOS» a term I started to use in the magazine and now everybody has adopted. Yes, I am proud of our
magazine and, more than anything else, proud of our community regardless of the differences or debates we may have. In the end we are all Palmeños!

Zenaida Sanjurjo Rodríguez
(787) 506-1103
“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer
serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.” – Robert Tew