My first impression upon meeting Ricardo was that he was intense and somewhat guarded.  I cannot blame him, as he was meeting a complete stranger to whom he was considering entrusting his life story.  However, within a few minutes and after some perfunctory introductions, I found myself sitting on his plush sofa in the living room, holding the manuscript of his memoirs, while he rushed around the house grunting under his breath as he passed me by that he was in the process of printing something.

A few moments later, he appeared with a copy of a screenplay titled, ILLEGAL CROSSING, which was an adaptation of the manuscript that sat on my lap.  Ricardo looked at me with curiosity and asked, “So, what do you think?”  Never mind that he had only now given me the screenplay and that I had been at his house for all of 10 minutes.  He wanted to know what I thought of the manuscript, and I considered quipping that the cover page looked very pretty, but I sensed that this was not the appropriate time for joking.

Ricardo’s wife, Nidia, arrived home, apologized for not having been there in time to greet me, scolded Ricardo for not having offered me anything to drink, rushed around the house for a few minutes, and then finally joined us.  Nidia is a very astute and often funny person, who is Ricardo’s Rock of Gibraltar.  While he may be king in his castle, there is no doubt that it’s the queen who runs the show.

Ricardo has a tendency to hold an intense scowl on his face when he is deep in thought, which can often be disconcerting, giving one the impression that he is dissatisfied with something one has said or done.  In reality, he is very open and affable and when one gets to know him, one realizes that he is as human as anyone else.

Which is how we progressed into a discussion of the potential for turning his life-story into a film.  Over dinner that included platanos fritos (fried plaintains), we talked about Ricardo’s close relationship with his younger brother, Tony, the current President of El Salvador.  Ricardo embodies the American Dream while President Saca embodies the Salvadoran Dream.  I very quickly became convinced that there was indeed a story to be told cinematically, but I wasn’t sure whose.  This was in March of 2006, and President Saca’s term had only recently begun.  Ricardo’s admiration for his younger brother’s success often pulled the focus of the story away from him, re-directing it toward Tony.

I considered the possibility that the film could be about the two brothers, but that eventually would prove not to be the best creative path to take.  Regardless, at the time, I had not yet read the manuscript or its screenplay adaptation, so this was an opportunity for us to simply get to know each other.

One amusing anecdote about that evening is that I wondered who had written the manuscript and the screenplay.  Ricardo told me that he had worked with a journalist on the manuscript of his memoirs.  However, when it came to the screenplay, he had had no connections to anyone in Hollywood, so he bought himself the book, Screenwriting for Dummies, and read through it.  Somewhere in this bible of screenwriting brilliance, there is mention of a ghostwriting service available to those who want to contract a screenwriter as a writer-for-hire and own the copyright of the work that is created.

Ricardo found himself a ghost screenwriter via this service, who adapted the finished manuscript into a screenplay.  The writer was paid an hourly rate or a rate per page–something like that–and a few weeks later, Ricardo was in possession of a finished script.

I like sharing this story not just because it shows Ricardo’s innocence about how screenplays are developed and written and how the film industry works–why would he know, he is a fantastic internist–but because it reflects how he thinks.  Ricardo is very methodical about breaking down tasks into all of their necessary steps and absolutely driven to complete each one of them, in order to achieve his goals.  This trait of his is precisely why his life story is so remarkably inspiring and engaging.  The fact is that he would not be a doctor today, if he were not completely determined to see all of his dreams to fruition.

Next up, the screenplay and the manuscript, oh my….