We continue our special Envision series looking at San Diego leaders and leadership. Tonight we focus on eighty-three year old Deborah Szekely. She is the woman best known as the founder of the internationally recognized spas Rancho La Puerta and The Golden Door. We'll find out what moments have helped shape and change her life and what motivated her to improve her community. Envision producer Sarah Rothenfluch interviewed Deborah Szekely recently.
Deborah Szekely: "Rancho La Puerta was founded in 1940. Real shoestring. We had no money. We were undocumented aliens because we were living illegally in Mexico (laughs). Working and nobody cared. And we were welcomed. We started it as a health camp, 17.50 a week, bring your own tent. And it is hard to imagine now there are 3,000 acres. Eighty beautiful colonial style buildings. And the ranch according to my guests is heaven on earth.
"The Golden Door is a jewel. I started that in '58. I had been already 18 years knowing. And it was really made originally for a group of movie stars that used to come to the ranch and say I'd like to be able to exercise and do all of these things without people sort of looking at me. So we started in a motel in Escondido five miles away with 12 guests. And we now take 40 in a beautiful Japanese inn. And both of them are very satisfying. Mondays I'm at the Ranch. And Tuesdays I'm at the Golden Door.
"I like to tell my guests at the spas, every day you have either performed life-enhancing acts or life-diminishing acts. I decided a long time ago there's a lot of things I want to do and I'd like to live a long life. And so this life-enhancing you know. I am a vegetarian. I eat fish a lot when I am out. I don't eat fish at home because you know I'm a single lady and I'm not about to do anything complicated so I eat tons of salads and I am an expert at salad dressings. And fitness is not an option. I do Pilates twice, sometimes three times a week, I have a treadmill, and if I am not walking I use it. I mean I'm really conscious I'd like to stay healthy and I like this machinery and I need to take care of it.
"I think now because I'm 83 I have the opportunity of talking with great experience. And knowing how important that was in my life is that feeling of what did I do today that made me feel good. That I know I helped someone. That I made a difference. Even though we had no money back in the early '40s I started the first deaf and dumb school in Baja California because I saw a need. And then I started again in the '60s, late '50s, '60s, I started a children-to-children clothing drive here in San Diego for children in Baja California. So you know you see a need and you start a little thing and it becomes this huge thing. And it is being persistent, perseverance. You get an idea you don't just drop it and go to another idea. I think my stubbornness helps. I'm not going to see my time wasted so I get involved with something and I just stay with it.
"Now I am very much concerned with immigrants. I think it is unimportant whether they are legal or illegal. And we have started a new immigration museum and learning center with a few friends. We are just doing an abysmal task. Nothing is done to welcome, to educate, to help the immigrants. We use the term museum because it seemed to be a respected term but it is a museum and learning center. And it is our learning as well as their learning. They try to retain their culture which is beautiful and all based on the same living truths. And us to learn from them, preserve their culture. And for them to understand how it works.
"Everyone is an immigrant to San Diego. There are very few San Diegan San Diegans born of San Diego parents. And people need to take ownership of San Diego. People need to say this is my home. And if you spoil your home... You know, animals know better. Puppies do not do their business in their kennel. They will do everything to go outside. And we're spoiling our kennels. We're not looking ahead. And people need to enjoy the responsibility and then they can enjoy the achievement. Enjoy the success. If they don't take the responsibility they lose a lot of pleasure. I quote a lot when I lecture Jean Paul Sartre. To choose is a choice and not to choose is a choice. I hope people who listen to me will keep that in mind. That they weigh equally. We are a totality of everything we choose and everything we don't choose, and that awareness that we have options and opportunities. And we in the United States have more opportunities still today. More options than most people. We are very lucky. We should be grateful."
