I received an email from my mom the other day that she sent to my brothers and I:
"Kids, below is a link to an article about the job your dad and Jose Maria are working on (of course, they called your dad Jose Reyes, dimwits!). Its funny how dad mentions that the “wives” ( I thought he was only married to me………) send paella so they can eat. So it happens I sent your dad paella, lentil soup, ham and tortilla so he wouldn’t have to cook. Anyway, tell your papa how proud you are of him. They contacted us from La Voz de Galicia and they want to do an article about stone masons from Galicia. Neat!"
Here is a link to the article:
La Voz de Galicia is a newspaper from the region of Galicia in northwestern Spain. This whole ordeal is really interesting to me because there is this show on TV about Spaniards who live in different parts of the world and I've always thought that it would be really cool if our family or any other Spaniard family that we know in the US were put on the show. Being interviewed and quoted in a newspaper article isn't exactly the same as being put on a television show, but hey, we'll take what we can get! Although there is an error in the above article (my dad's last name is Rey, not Reyes), it is exciting to know that the little things such as old family traditions still have some importance in today's society. And the fact that my family's roots are the traditions that have been chosen to be used as an example makes me proud.
My family is Spanish, but my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles went to the US for job opportunities years back. My brothers, cousins and I have been fortunate enough to be able to visit Spain during the summers and experience the culture, a culture that I would like to add that we have fallen in love with. Since I can remember, my dream has been to someday live and work in Spain. I had the privilege of studying abroad a semester in Malaga, Spain during my junior year of college. Now, I am proud to say that I am living and working in a town in the outskirts of Malaga. I applied for a co-teaching position through the Spanish Embassy, was accepted and moved here the first week of October. I am an assistant teacher to several teachers in the bilingual program of the secondary school that I work at. The day that I have class with these teachers, I teach their subject in English. This program is a year program; every year people apply for my same situation and every year a new person obtains the position. What I'm trying to say is that, although this job is only for a year, I am super excited for this opportunity. It feels good to have at least one foot in the door. This job is only the first step in the process of me going back to my family's roots and moving to Spain.
I owe all of this to my parents, my family and our Spanish origins. I am extremely proud of all of my family, who came from little villages in the countryside in northern Spain to now living in the outskirts of DC, for having made such a tough decision as to move to an entirely different country of which they did not know the language in order to create a better life for themselves and for their children. Thanks to them, now not only can we enjoy the benefits of having grown up and lived in the US, but we can go back to our roots and experience the culture that made our family what it is.
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