Magdalena was born in Ecuador, educated in Canada, France, Guatemala and the USA. She attended Wakefield HIgh School, Arlington, Virginia, and holds a Magna Cum Laude B.A. from the University of Maryland University College. She also holds a post-graduate qualification in Spanish Archives and Genealogy from the University of Cordoba, Spain. Magdalena is a member of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and of the British Historical Society of Portugal.   Since1980, a member, now retired, of AIIC - International Association of Conference Interpreters - Geneva, where she associated her profession as a simultaneous conference interpreter with her activities as a specialist English language translator of legal documents, medical research papers, and other works from Portuguese, French and Spanish, which she also speaks fluently.        Widowed in 2002 from her husband Bruce Guimaraens, a renowned British Port Wine shipper, she has four children and five grandchildren .