The Miami Herald brings us this engaging profile of Fox Business Network anchor David Asman who helped his future wife flee to the United States from Nicaragua. This past weekend, Asman found himself with real cause for celebration as Nicaragua commemorated the 30th anniversary of its revolution. Asman met his wife, Marta Cecilia, at a dinner party in 1984 when he was in Managua covering Central American politics and economics for The Wall Street Journal:
David had wanted to get rid of [his matchmaker friend] before they finished that first dinner. “It was love at first sight,” he says. “We were crazy for each other.” For the next four years, their relationship strengthened as life in Managua frazzled. As the country plunged deeper into civil war, the Sandinistas grew ever more estranged from Washington.
Like any good romance, there was a little danger and suspense involved too, especially when it came to actually extracting Marta Cecilia and her young son from Central America:
But sneaking out of Nicaragua was only half the battle. The American embassy in Costa Rica wasn’t granting visas to Nicaraguans. They had to lurk behind a tree outside the U.S. embassy. (“I’m sure if we tried that now, we’d be arrested on suspicion of terrorism,” says David ruefully.) When the senior diplomats left for lunch, they darted in to get a visa from a sympathetic junior consul — then raced to hop a flight to Miami before embassy bosses could catch on.