Elio Pajares
Photojournalist and black belt Judoka, Elio C. Pajares Ruiz, was born in the Incan land of Cajamarca, Peru, October 06, 1972. He is the last son of ten of Hilda Ruiz Vda. de Pajares, a hard-working livestock farmer, and Cesar Augusto Pajares Arana, a truck driver.
Pajares left his home in the Andes Mountains to study college in the capital, Lima, at the age of 18 years old. He spent his twenties working in various odd jobs with the hope of pursuing a career in Engineering. During this time he experienced the complex struggles that the Peruvian society suffers due to a poor education system. These include the discrimination of Andean people in the capital, the indifference of the government to protect the environment, and the lack of prevention for Peruvian children against consumption of alcohol and cigarettes.
In 2004, Pajares came to the United States of America where he received a major in Photojournalism and a minor in Computer Science at Western Kentucky University. During his freshman year, April 21, 2005, Pajares met his beautiful wife, Christian Victoria Rogers de Pajares, and they wed on December 13, 2008.
During his time in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Pajares has been working as a teacher in programs to prevent alcohol and drug consumption for Latino children and in social service programs for illegal immigrants, as a volunteer.
Now, Pajares is working as a Web Developer and a Counselor of Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health.