Elia Fleta is a singer-songwriter, but also an artist specialising in iconography. She trained in Vipassana meditation in India and has also studied music education, history and theology. Her curiosity has led her to take part in various social projects run by the TA, which she first encountered at a very young age in Lima, Peru. She was motivated by a calling that emerged when she was five years old after watching the film Marcellino, Bread and Wine. In this interview, she tells us about her life as a member of the Teresian Association, now and in the past.
When did you first feel you had a vocation?
Although it may seem a bit early, when I was five and a half my mother took us to see the film Marcellino, Bread and Wine, and it made a huge impression on me because the boy was my age. What struck me most was how he spoke with Jesus. After seeing the film, I felt different because I wanted to be friends with Jesus just as Marcellino was. I think God called me at that moment.
When did you first hear about the Teresian Association?
My father was a broker and we were always travelling, going from one place to another, and on one of these trips we ended up in Peru. There was a school run by the Teresian Association there which the ambassador recommended to my father, and we managed to get admitted.
I was still feeling that vocational restlessness, and it was at that Teresian Association school that I discovered I really liked their teaching style. It was a more open school than any I had known before. Some of the TA members worked there while others were doctors, lawyers, etc. who worked in various professions in different places. That really struck me. I told myself I wanted to be part of all that and began my training to become a member at the age of 16, though without my parents knowing anything about it.
During that time, you had a brief stint in the music industry – what was that period like?
Shortly after I started in the TA, we travelled again and lived in different places, so I could not continue. We ended up in Barcelona, where a programme was broadcast on Radio Televisión Española that talked about my grandfather (the tenor Miguel Fleta) and in which my sister and I appeared singing. The composer and music producer Juan Carlos Calderón saw us and got in touch with my family.
We ended up recording a 45 rpm record with two songs, but we could not promote it there because we went to Colombia. However, it was easier to do so in that country, and we did. I am talking about the 1970s, between 1972 and 1973. We were called Elia and Elizabeth, and we sang as a duo.
The TA was in Colombia; did you try to get in touch?
One day when my mother went to visit some friends in Bogotá, I took a bike and went to the TA school there, the Liceo Segovia. I told them I wanted to continue my TA training. I got a scholarship and carried on singing while balancing my studies and training with the TA. We learned from life.
Back then, it was not considered normal for a member to be a singer and appear on television, so the director in charge of that area told me I had to choose. I was absolutely certain that my vocation came first. My mother did not see it the same way, but in the end, various family circumstances persuaded her to give in, and I gave up my music career to devote myself to the TA.
You have never really given up music, and you also formed the group Al-Haraca – how did that come about?
I realised that I wanted to continue working more on music within the TA, and that is how the group Al-Haraca came about. We recorded two cassettes with our own TA songs and performed in various places. It was very well received.
However, I am a restless soul and, as I wanted to have a ‘jungle’ experience, I went to Chocó in Colombia where I spent a couple of years. Meanwhile, the group carried on for a few more years, but then could not continue for various reasons.
You have been to many places, and you have now been in Rome for several years. How would you describe what the TA has brought to your life?
The Teresian Association has helped me to channel, organise and make the most of my full potential.
One aspect I experienced at a very young age is the social side, which has always appealed to me – hence my time in Chocó working with very poor people. In Madrid, I worked at the Asociación Ciudad Joven in Vallecas, a neighbourhood which at that time was full of young people on the streets who had dropped out of school and turned to crime. It is lovely to see how the youngsters get excited and start to see a different world.
Furthermore, I also like painting. I applied to do a course in iconography and since I have been living in Rome, for eight years now, I have continued to ‘write icons’. I have often written songs while praying, but I had never learnt to paint while praying.
TA Info.
Published in News