Who am I?
I am a journalist and filmmaker who decided to write a novel based on my years of research about people who are new immigrants to the United States, and specifically about a young woman from south of the border who crosses into El Norte.
WHO AM I?
I am a journalist and filmmaker who decided to write a novel based on my years of research about people who are new immigrants to the United States, and specifically about a young woman from south of the border who crosses into El Norte.
I was born in Chile, and am now a U.S. citizen. I am an immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years.
I consider myself a LATINA.
In Michoacán the Day of the Dead.
MY LATIN AMERICAN ANCESTRY
I was born in Chile to Chilean parents. My grandparents and their ancestors mostly came from Spain and Portugal, arriving in the Americas during its Colonial period (mid 1500´s to 1700´s). Some of these ancestors settled in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Others made their home in Peru and Bolivia, before migrating to Chile.
I have relatives in Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Mexico, and of course hundreds in my native Chile.
My Lithuanian/Belarussian/Polish ancestor arrived in Chile in 1838, marrying my great grandmother, Enriqueta Sotomayor Guzmán, a Chilean woman of Spanish ancestry.
Like most Latin Americans whose ancestry dates back hundreds of years, I acquired indigenous ancestry along the way.
Our family discovered concrete knowledge of this recently. We learned that in the XVI century, one of our Spanish male ancestors married a member of the ancient Yupanqui family in what is now Peru, and the couple traveled to Chile, and settled there. Our DNA bloodlines also go back to indigenous people in Chile and Bolivia, and to the Pueblo people of New Mexico.
BILINGUAL
Before I came to the U.S. I lived in both English and Spanish speaking countries. This contributed to my being completely bilingual. As many of us Latinos in the U.S., I carry my cultural heritage with me wherever I go. I now feel fully integrated into this new melting pot of a society.
However, this assimilation didn't happen overnight. If you want to know more about my arrival experience in the U.S. read the blog post called CULTURE SHOCK. If you're an immigrant, you may find something there you can identify with.