Cecilia Marte, Luis Daniel's mother, was sure that her child's autism diagnosis would not prevent him from being an active person in society. She had a completely normal pregnancy and birth. It was five (5) months into Luis Daniel's life that he began to notice strange behavior: he was too restless and broke everything. Around the age of two, Cecilia was left alone with the child, which represented a great challenge to, as she says, “get him out of the way.” He arranged for evaluations to be carried out where he was diagnosed with the conditions of: Autism with Severe Hyperactivity. He didn't speak, he didn't go to the bathroom, he didn't sit in the chair for even a minute. He kept himself locked up in his room, away from everything around him.
At four (4) years old, Luis Daniel entered Head Start and taught himself to read; The psychologist couldn't believe it. When he turned five (5) years old, he began receiving speech therapy for three (3) consecutive years. In addition, he had to be medicated to control hyperactivity. Already then, he was accepted into the Víctor Parés Special School and then started in a regular school in a contained classroom. At the age of 12 he was evaluated and it turned out that he was qualified to attend the Ninth Grade. He still had difficulty communicating and was placed at Nemesio R. Canales School in a regular classroom with an Eighth Grade Assistant. From then on, a significant change was noticed in Luis Daniel, which neither the doctors nor his mother expected. He had the opportunity to participate in drawing and mathematics competitions at the district level; winning awards in both.
For Cecilia it was not easy; There were many tears, but he never lost faith, he remained persevering and because he knew that he was going to achieve a lot with Luis Daniel, despite the adversities and setbacks. Cecilia felt that she had to prove to herself and to the Educational System that her son was going to succeed. For her, it was not an option to stay at home with him and say “oh…I have a handicapped son and he is not going to be anything in life.”
Luis Daniel manages to graduate from Ninth Grade with excellent grades and goes on to High School for the Commerce Course, where one of the classes is Computerized Accounting. Then he found a teacher who did not accept him, because he understood that an Autistic person should be in a special classroom. Through a COMPU meeting requested by the mother, the teacher was able to change his mind and give the space to Luis Daniel. Thus, as part of the graduation requirements, he had the opportunity to do an internship at APNI, where the Executive Director, at that time Doña Carmen Sellés de Vilá, welcomed him with open arms.
Once graduated, the APNI work team decides that Luis Daniel can continue working in the organization. Luis Daniel has been working at APNI for 19 years. Their work is an important part of the organization's functioning. He relates to everyone, is very organized in his routine and is, without a doubt, one of the best employees that the APNI has ever had.
Neither Doña Carmen nor her mother were wrong. Today Luis Daniel is an independent, hard-working young man, he uses the public bus, and does many other things that are not necessarily expected of a person with disabilities. He lives with his mother in an independent apartment, manages his own money and goes to the supermarket alone. Luis Daniel is an integral part of our society, contributing his talents and abilities to his own life and that of others through his work at APNI.