Family Portrait
A Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Project.
I was born into a family where my dream of becoming a journalist was encouraged.
My parents taught me by example the value of leaving one’s comfort zone, emigrating from their hometown of Zaragoza, Spain to Miami, Florida in their 20s, with only each other and their limited English.
January 2000
After attending college in Miami, my father founded a telecommunication service provider.
My mother had always wanted to become a journalist.
Unsurprisingly.
My mother is intellectually curious, a news junkie, with strong writing abilities. The extrovert in our family.
But she ended up in business school, following a path similar to my father’s.
And yet, at 23, she landed her dream job. Without even knowing it at the time.
It was a business role in her hometown’s Committee for Cultural Affairs.
Instinctually, my mother was fulfilling her journalistic aspirations.
She served as Michael Jackson’s translator during his HIStory World Tour. It was his only show in Spain in 1996 — which meant that my mother would be disseminating information across the country and shaping the public’s perception of Jackson.
Meanwhile, my father was living in Miami, growing his company into a mature market.
This is the first photograph of him driving to work.
Nervous, but fueled by his entrepreneurial spirit.
Although, professionally, I relate more to my mother’s interests, I see a lot of myself in my dad.
Determined, unafraid, and reserved.
Probably workaholics, too.
But opposites attract, they say.
In my family, opposites attracted more than once. Or perhaps… similarities attracted.
My mother’s sister married my father’s brother in 2005, eight years after their marriage.
***
My parents don’t call it fate; it’s a nebulous concept. Whether destiny or convenience, they consider it luck.
It’s the twist in my family that we deem a blessing.