Betzaida Montero Ulate

Betzaida was born on February 21st, 1973 at Hospital de la

Mujer Carit. She has lived in San Pedro, Barva de Heredia all
her life. She has five siblings. When she was a child, she had to
struggle with a lot of family difficulties. Her father was an
alcoholic; for that reason, her mother had to work as a
seamstress in order to raise her five children. Since she was 7
years old, she had to collect coffee and clean houses to help
her mother.
At the age of 14, Betzaida had the opportunity to go to the
United States with a scholarship; however, her parents did not
let her go. She feels that experience changed her because now
she can see life through a different perspective. She knows that
in some moments she made mistakes, but she has had the
maturity to recognize them. In that way, she has been able to learn and grow.
Some of her nicknames were Ojos Bellos and La Macha. She considers that she was an excellent student
regardless of the poverty she went through in her childhood. Despite of the economic limitations, she was an
active teenager and got involved in many of her high school activities. After she graduated from high school,
she got a secretarial degree in Instituto de Educacin Comunitaria (IPEC).
Betzaida wanted to the study at Universidad Nacional, but she could not because she was facing a tough
economical situation. She could not study there, for she had a full time job and did not match with the
university schedule. At first, what she desired to study was forest engineering, yet life had another fate.
She made the decision to enroll in human resources in a private college called Universidad Monterrey that was
located in San Jos. In the 1990s, this university had one of the most remarkable educational plan.
Her first job was working with a lawyer where she worked for a year and a half. It helped her to finance her
studies in human resources. Now, this is her current profession with 24 years working on it. In 2010, she began
to work at UTN as a professor.
She has been married to Orlando Guerrero for 18 years. Betzaida and Orlando met when a friend of her
introduced him during a coffee break at work. Then, he asked her out on an unusual skating date. They have
two beautiful daughters. Mariana is the oldest daughter with 17 years old, and she is studying her third
language in Germany. Jimena is 15 years old and is in the ninth grade. Both are really obedient and have an
assertive communication with their parents.
The word family has a strong meaning for Betzaida. After God, she believes her family is the most important
bond. She admires several members of her family, such as her grandmother Elba, her Uncle William, her
mother Maria Lilliam and her husband Orlando.
If Betzaida had the opportunity to meet a famous person, she would like to meet Jeffrey Preston Bezos. He is
the owner of Amazon Corporation, and Betzaida considers him as a genius and an interesting person. If she
had had the opportunity to meet a personality from the past, she would have liked to meet Mother Teresa of
Calcutta. She really appreciates the capacity that Teresa had to share her own things in order to help needy
people around the world. Betzaida believes that selfishness does not enable us to act in a kind way.
Happiness is found in simple things. Betzaida says.