A reunion 34 years in the making

In 1987, Begona Sanchez Parras met Basin resident Cindy Schlattmann in Ciudad Real, Spain. Schlattmann was touring Spain with a group of American high school students as a chaperone.  Parras was 17 at the time.

Parras and Schlattmann started talking and soon, Schlattmann invited Parras to Wyoming. She would go on to spent two months in Wyoming and a story about her visit was published in this paper on Aug. 27, 1987. This year, Parras returned to Wyoming to visit Schlattmann. 

Recalling her first visit, Parras said she thought all of America was like Wyoming. 

During her 1987 visit, there were trips to the hot springs in Thermopolis and Yellowstone. She also went to her first rodeo, the National High School Rodeo Finals in Pueblo, Colo. Schlattmann’s son, Dean, had earned a spot in the bull riding event. She loved it, but not enough to want to be a cowgirl. She did, however, enjoy meeting real cowboys. 

That summer she became close friends with Kara Herman: they cruised Main together in Kara’s car and spent three days with Herman and her mom, Neda, in Montana. Parras enjoyed seeing Montana, especially from an Airstream camper; the Tippet Rise Art Center was a highlight. 

Over the years, Parras and Schlattmann have kept in touch with Parras saying she looks at Schlattmann like a mom. 

In 1990, Parras came back for a second, weeklong visit. It’s taken “only” 34 years for her to reunite with Schlattmann for a third time. Though Parras has been asking Schlattmann to come to Spain again, which Schlattmann considered, they ultimately felt it would be better for Parras to come back here again.

Schlattmann said Parras became teary-eyed the first time she walked into the Schlattmann home on this trip. “It was home for her.” 

Parras agreed it was emotional, “The house was the same. My room was the same.” 

Schlattmann took Parras shopping in downtown Greybull. They bought a Crazy Woman T-shirt for Parras’s 17-year-old daughter, Natalia, and texted her a photo. Natalia replied that she couldn’t wear it to school because it says, “Crazy Woman” and people might take it as an advertisement about her. Schlattmann explained that, “In Wyoming, we know Crazy Woman as a place. They wouldn’t in Spain.”

The journey to Wyoming from Spain is 20 hours and three flights. Parras flew from Madrid to Washington, D.C., then to Denver and, finally, to Cody. She said it was worth it to be reunited with her second mom and see Wyoming again. 

Parras’s impressions of the state from her original trip are the same: Wyoming is the genuine and real America. Even when there’s nothing to do, the people are friendly.