NOTHING HAPPENS BY CHANCE

How did I end up in Miami? If you’d like to know what brought me to Miami. The reasons that motivated me to stay in the Magic City for more than 30 years, and how come I love this city so much. Here’s my immigrant story, one of the hundreds of them. All of them so different, but all of them, propelled by the same promise; “the land of the free and the home of the brave”, like the last sentence in the National Anthem reads.

Early Years

Since childhood, I have dreamed of living in the United States of America, although Miami was not yet on my mind.

At the age of 6 I was already saying that when I grew up I was going to live in the United States and the truth is, in the home where I grew up, nobody spoke a word of English and the United States was just another country in the world.

But, not for me. Maybe the influence of the television series, the fact that the first words in English I learned were in an elementary school named after an English philanthropist who migrated to Argentina. That was the William C. Morris School.

Maybe having been raised in a Protestant home and not a Catholic one, as it was the norm at that time in Argentina. I don’t know, but all of these things were somehow related and they all were leaving a mark on me.

First Grade, Classmates and Teacher

Teen Years

As a teenager, I started to identify myself even more with the American culture through music and movies. I started to study English at an American Institute, I.I.C.A.N.A., and not a British one as it was also the norm in Argentina back then.

I used to say; “Why am I going to study British English if I’m going to live in the United States. If I study British English when I go to the US I will not understand anything they say?”

I started studying at that institute because at that time there were giving student exchange scholarships and my dream was to finish high school in the United States. Unfortunately for economic reasons, the scholarship program was canceled shortly after I started studying, but that was not a reason for me to quit.

Every time I went through the doors at the institute, I felt as if I was entering a dimension that transported me to the United States. Everyone there spoke English. They observed the American holidays; 4th of July, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, et cetera. There were signs in English. I was walking on clouds!

As it was natural to me, I spent a lot of time at the library, going through books, magazines, and newspapers printed in the US which could  be borrowed to be taken home.

So I used to borrow magazines like Time and National Geographic, just to spend a whole weekend translating just the titles with a dictionary  since reading the whole articles was out of my league yet because of the higher level of the language they used. But just doing that alone, enhanced my vocabulary tremendously.

Sharing with Friends and Family

When talking to my friends or family members about going to live in the United States, many of them said that I was crazy, or that I was daydreaming, or that I would come back home defeated.

But I didn’t care about anything they had to say. How was I going to achieve it? I had no idea, but I was certain I would.

At that time, Miami did not even cross my mind. I did not even know it existed. Almost every series I watched were shot in Los Angeles or New York. But actually, I did not really have any city in mind either, just the USA. Until Miami Vice showed up!

Here are the posters of my favorite tv series at that time:

Loved to learn languages

My interest and liking for the written words and everything that had to do with letters made it easy for me to learn languages. When I finished high school I already spoke English well enough to carry conversations with my school teacher in front of my curious classmates. Also in high school, I studied three years of French. So I also spoke a little bit.

At the Goethe Institute in Córdoba, Argentina I studied five years of German which I came to be very fluent at.

About that time, I had a classmate who later became a great friend. Her family was of Armenian origin and I was dying of curiosity every time I went to her house because they all spoke Armenian and I did not understand a thing.

One day I took my Level 1 English book, the one I used to learn English, and translated each lesson into Spanish so that my friend would translate them into Armenian and teach me. And that was how I learned to read and write Armenian.

Let me clarify that I only consider myself bilingual since the other languages; German, French and Armenian were lost due to the lack of practice.

But all this I’m mentioning here, is not to brag. Those who know me know that I am not that kind of person. I’m only telling you this to tell you that each of the languages I learned exposed me to different cultures. They exposed me to a world beyond the one I grew up and from which I had never left.

There was another world. A world that I longed to explore and visit. But still then, USA was still my favorite place where I would,  some day in the future, live.

The Big Chance – Miami: First Trip

In my early twenties, I got a job in a travel agency and after working one year, I was offered to make a trip as a group leader in a traditional Orlando-Miami trip.

What do you think was my answer?

And that was how I visited Miami and Orlando for the first time in 1984.

That trip confirmed my great desire to live in this fantastic country. Although I was offered different jobs on more than one occasion so I could stay here at that time, I returned to Argentina where I began to process my next and definite trip to the United States.

Finally! – Miami: The Second Time

That’s how I arrived in Miami two years later, where I was welcomed by friends I made on my first trip. Those friends helped me enormously to make my way in the new city and my new life. To them, I will be eternally grateful. They made my first years as an immigrant, which are the most difficult ones, more bearable.

Over time, I was able to travel within the United States and visit other cities such as Orlando, Philadelphia, New York, Houston, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, and many others. And I also had the opportunity to settle down in some of those cities but in the end, I always came back to Miami.

Miami had, and still has, something special that other cities don’t. Cultural variety, ethnic diversity, bilingualism, a great climate (specially in winter), green spaces, food, the near-by Caribbean, and an I-don’t-know-what, but here I stayed.

And here I am, now with much deeper roots after more than thirty years. Thirty something years that are actually much longer time than those years I lived in Argentina.

After more than thirty years is obvious that I feel to be more from here than from there…

Well, there you have it. In little more than a thousand words, the reason why I am here and how I ended up in Miami.

” In all things, God works for the good of those who love him” 

Romans 8:28

Before you go!

Do you know the meaning of the name Miami? Click here to find out.

Do you want to get a Free List of Things to Do in Miami? Click here to get your list! 

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Now let me ask you; Have you already been to Miami?

How was your experience in the Magic City?

Do you live here?

Which country are you from?

Are you an immigrant somewhere else on the planet?

If you want to share, you can leave your comments below.

*Note for those not living in the United States

4th of July: Independence Day

Memorial Day: We honor and remember those who died defending our country.

Thanksgiving Day: Time of the year where we thank God for all we have received during the year.

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