Leonor Varela was exotic from birth: a blend of French and Chilean genes, she inherited the fiery spirit of Latin Americans with the brooding elegance of the French. And though she was born in Santiago, Chile, on December 9, 1972, her family fled to Costa Rica, leaving behind the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

They stayed there for only one year and settled in Colorado for a few more, where the jagged peaks of the Rockies reminded them of their home by the Andes. As a little girl, Leonor got to see her homeland another time when her family returned to