FROM THE PUBLISHER’ S DESK
‘ Policy shaped me, but so did science fiction’
Retired ambassador Carmen G. Cantor launches her memoir
Growing up, Carmen G. Cantor imagined herself in a spacesuit. She wanted to become an astronaut at NASA. Being a diplomat never crossed the mind of this self-confessed sci-fi nerd. She was a fan of“ Star Trek,”“ Star Wars,”“ Space 1999,”“ Battlestar Galactica” and“ Superman.”
“ Such entertainment allowed me to dream of what might be possible, sparking curiosity in young girl with limited means,” Cantor writes in her newly released memoir,““ The Ambassador: Two Hats. Two Presidents,” published by RMPStudio.
While her dream of going up in space didn’ t come to pass, she found herself in high places just same, landing a career that she thought would be a pie in the sky for somebody who grew up in a coastal town of Puerto Rico.
Cantor served as the U. S. ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia from 2020 to 2022 under the Trump administration’ s first term. The Biden administration later appointed her assistant secretary of the interior for insular and international affairs, a position she held until her retirement this year.
“ FSM was just the beginning of a longer relationship with the Blue Continent,” she writes.“ What began as an assignment quickly became a calling. In the FSM, I found not only diplomacy but also kinship, shared values, and common histories and a collective future
shared by trust.”
Throughout these years, Cantor became a key figure in this part of the world, and played a key role in the renegotiation of the economic provisions of the Compact of Free Associations with Palau, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.
“ The Ambassador” notes the complexity and laboriousness of the negotiation process, but it does not delve much into behind-the-scenes details that were not publicly known. Cantor reserved her thoughts on China’ s alleged orchestrations in the FSM, writing in her characteristically“ diplomatic” fashion.
Although politically inhibited, the book gives intimate narratives of Cantor’ s humble beginnings, from her hometown in Mayagüez to the powerful landscape of the nation’ s capital.
As a young girl, Cantor didn’ t own a Barbie doll, but she got to play sports. She was raised by parents who highly valued education.
Cantor executes simple prose, highlighting the authenticity of her voice and the clarity of her intention— to inspire“ all audacious dreamers.”
Centered on the theme“ Si, se puede”( Yes, we can),“ The Ambassador” reveals Cantor’ s refusal to be defined by her gender and ethnicity. She navigated challenges and defeated prejudices after being bypassed for promotion in the early years of her foreign service career
“ because of her accent.”
“ It turns out, succeeding in a career isn’ t just about how hard you work; it’ s also about how you manage your journey. It’ s a dynamic process with multiple phases and movement back and forth, up and down, and sometimes sideways,” she writes.
“ Si, se puede,” Cantor says, is a“ guiding principle” behind all her endeavors and the“ shining reflection of resilience.”
“ In the end, it wasn’ t just policy or protocol that shaped me. It was also science fiction, soccer cleats and rhythm of job,” she says. They taught me that harmony isn’ t found by standing still but by learning how to dance between all the roles we hold before the music stops.”
Publisher / Editor-in-Chief Mar-Vic Cagurangan publisher @ pacificislandtimes. com
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