Cristina Zouvi (photo) was born in the Brazilian city of São Paulo and lives in San Diego, California, USA, where she works as a paediatric nurse. She is also the vice-president of the Allan Kardec Fellowship Society of San Diego, where she is the coordinator of children groups, study groups for adults and public talks, as she explains in the following interview.

When and how did you become a Spiritist?

When I still lived in Brazil, in 1997, a friend of mine who was a medium mentioned Spiritism to me for the first time. She invited me many times to join in, but I declined because I was a bit scared of “seeing” Spirits. But I read a Spiritist book at the time, O Matuto, and I liked it. In 1999, I moved to San Diego, where two weeks later I met my future husband, Márcio. He was taking part in weekly meetings to study the Gospel According to Spiritism at the surfboard factory he owned, but I didn’t know then. We were going out for about three months when he first mentioned the meetings and I asked him if I could join them. The following week, April 1999, I officially entered a Spiritist Centre for the first time in my life, and I’m still here.

Was the adaptation to the new reality in the United States easy for you?

I was still very young, only 24, and that’s probably why it wasn’t difficult to adapt. Everything around me had a curious and enchanting aspect. I’d never been abroad and I arrived here to study English for six months. That was my plan, but God had something else prepared for me. I missed my family and especially my mother, who cried her eyes out when I left, as though she knew then I wouldn’t return to live in Brazil. My biggest challenge was the language, as I didn’t speak a word of English. But I have always been a good student. I worked hard and in three months my English was already OK. The easy part was really becoming part of the Spiritist Movement here.

What is the profile of the people who attend your activities in the Spiritist Centre?

Most of those who attend our meetings and courses are Brazilian migrants of various age groups, especially between 20 and 30. They came from different regions of Brazil and from different backgrounds, but generally they have very little, if any, previous knowledge of Spiritism. We are one of the biggest Spiritist Centres in California. Our open meetings are attended by anything between ten and 40 people. We offer courses, mediumship groups and all the main services provided by Spiritist Centres across the world. We also have our own social project, which began 15 years ago. We help families in need across the border from San Diego, in Mexico, providing them with food and hygiene items every month. And every Christmas we organise a big party with them, when we hand out more than 1,000 toys for the children in the community.

Was your husband a Spiritist before leaving Brazil?

Mário was brought up as a Spiritist, but he only became seriously involved in Spiritism in the 1980s when he moved to San Diego. We didn’t meet at the Spiritist Group, as I’ve said, but certainly the fact that we were both at the meetings had a very positive impact in our happy relationship.  

Are there many Americans attending the Spiritist activities?

There are only a few Americans in our Group. Most of them are married to Brazilian men or women. They can relate to our belief in reincarnation and to the spiritual aspect of Spiritism. But they don’t necessarily want to study the Teachings. They like receiving healing, the blessed water, they really enjoy our Group and the open meetings. But they are not consistent and miss many meetings. The future of Spiritism in the US is in the hands of the second generation of Spiritists, who attend or have attended our children and youth groups and who were born here.

What strikes you the most from all these years in the Spiritist Movement in the US?

What amazes me really is the number of Brazilians who had no previous connection with Spiritism and found the Teachings here. They initially come to our Group for counselling, or fraternal assistance, as they feel lonely, missing their family and Brazil. They also struggle with the language and often with money. We then recommend that they attend one of our activities. Then they begin to feel better, as they meet other Brazilians who’ve been here for longer and who are able to give them support. Eventually, they start studying and practicing Spiritism and become active members of our Group.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

It all began in 1995 at the home of Ivone Moura, a friend who is still one of our directors. That's when that group of people held the first Gospel in the Home. A few years later, they began attending a weekly meeting at a Spiritist Centre in Los Angeles. We then received a message dictated by a Spirit, through a medium, who advised us to move to a neutral location. In 1998, the group began meeting at the offices of the surfboard factory, where we didn’t have to pay rent. That is the official date of foundation of AKSD. In 2002, we moved to our own location and in 2014 we moved to bigger facilities. That’s where we are now, but in 2016 we needed to expand again and we doubled the office space we rented. In two years’ time, we intend to offer more activities in English and we are planning to begin two social projects with the homeless and the elderly living in old people’s homes here in San Diego. It’s important to have projects here in the city to get more Brazilians who live here involved, as many of them are often worried about going over the border with Mexico.