From Chiclayo (and West Virginia) with love
My name is Ana Lucia (she/her). I’m a 30-something year old mom, public health professional, evaluator, and avid seafood lover. I was born and raised in Chiclayo, Peru, where I recently learned over half of my genetic make-up is from. The map showing my ancestry was bright red only in the North- and not one drop from anywhere else in Peru. This is why I say my love of ceviche is inherent. The smoke show next to me is my husband, Nick. And that little bundle of sunshine is our son, Ale.
Immigrant child
When I was 8 years old, my parents moved my sister and I to the United States. For years folks would ask me how a Chiclayana ended up in Huntington, West Virginia. Every year I had a new answer. Sometimes it was “the American dream” and later it was “not sure, ask my parents.” The short answer of course is Huntington, West Virginia is the site of Marshall University, where my father came to graduate school, and, well, after almost a decade of walking through opened doors and opportunities for growth, we became permanent residents. Five years later, we became citizens. Wow, I just summarized the tumultuous, traumatic, dramatic, and intense 15-year immigration journey of a family of 4 in two lines! Was that the short answer?
The long answer, of course, is beyond what a post can say. Why do we move to other places? Within the same town and county, or to another state? Or to another country? Immigration is complex and painful and also a little miraculous. It’s probably why you are understanding this in English and not in German or Spanish. It’s why I am moved to tears when I hear a charango, and I why I will never truly enjoy cold weather. My parents decided one day that life would be better for us in another country, and so they came. Leaving behind 30+ year old friendships and connections, all of their family, our house, our dog, and the little city that brought them together in 1981. Life has now placed me in a similar position…
A love of travel
Around 2016, the stars aligned and I met the most incredible human I’ve ever met (matched only by the one we would create 5 years later). On our first date, Nick casually told me how he had, in the early 2000s, sold everything he owned and embarked on a no-end-date journey, backpacking/biking through Europe all by himself. My eyes widened. Simultaneously I thought “oh, this guy is nuts,” and “oh, this guy is the most incredible human I’ve ever met.” That journey lasted 6 months, and he would later continue to travel the world here and there before studying medicine in the middle east, training in tropical and wilderness medicine in Ecuador and Malawi. Needless to say that the word “travel” became an integral part of our story. This Nick guy would become my best friend, through inevitable long-distance, challenges, and cultural divides, and 3 years later (although if it were just up to me it would have been 3 days later) he became my husband and life partner. When I met Nick, I learned about travel in a new way, and my entire philosophy of a good vacation changed.
A series of unexpected and fortunate events
Our life together began with adventure. We explored parts of my country I did not yet know, with a beautiful trip to Cusco and Sacred Valley (a place that would make a lasting impact in our life). We drove cross-country from Huntington, WV to Monterey, CA when he started an attending position in what I still consider the most beautiful town in the USA. We took an amazing winter trip to Tuscany and I learned I still do not like red wine even in Italy. And, 2 short months after saying “I do” we sold everything and embarked on an adventure that would be a pivot in our story: we moved to Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru in February 2020. Great idea. Poor timing.
But no timing is right, they say, and parenthood made this even more real. Because getting pregnant during a global pandemic while not having a home base, then going into labor in the middle of “the worst ice storm I’ve ever seen,” as most of our neighbors put it, brought a new sense of what is truly most precious to us now: time.
We never intended to make Huntington, WV our home base again, but here we have spent almost 4 special years. We bought our first house, created a community of parent-friends, and watched our son, Ale, go from pepita-sized in my belly to a climbing, running, music-loving toddler. We got through the pandemic here, I got through post-partum depression here, I re-connected with old friends here, and we learned more about what we need in a home here…
But it never quite felt like home, you know?
Where to now?
Isn’t that an immigrant’s eternal dilemma? Ni de aqui ni de alla. Not from here or from there. In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted something different for my son, a different way of life. Much like my parents, I believe that way of life can be different somewhere else. But where?
Where?
If we go to a place with roots (for me, Chiclayo, for Nick, northern California) sure we have connections but is that the only thing we need? What do we need? Where do we go?
Well, here we are.
I’m here to explore these answers with you, alongside my two side-kick besties, as we take on the journey of our lifetime, as digital nomads, seeking out what grounds us, seeking community, seeking a…home. Maybe home really is what you carry. Maybe it looks different in different times in our lives. It definitely has access to ceviche and aji de gallina. Let’s find out together?
Thanks for joining,
Ana Lucia