Time 0:02:53
I was born and raised in Mexico City, one of the busiest, most crowded cities in the world! A city that, today, I am proud to refer as my mother land!
When I finished my university I moved to Veracruz where I spent the best years of my early adult life.
I came to Canada as an international student to study a Masters' Degree in Montreal. This experience has been one of the most difficult yet rewarding experiences in my whole life. The language barrier, my first winter, my financial situation and the great loneliness of being so far and away from Mexico were all factors that really made me doubt on whether this decision had been worthy. After a very cold winter, a visit back to Mexico, struggles with finances and long hours of study I finally enjoyed the achievement of finishing my Canadian Masters Dgree. My plan, at the time was to get some experience, and after that go back to Mexico to my old life. This was my rational thinking, however life happens …
I know for a fact now that decisions are not always based on logical and structured thinking: Beth and I met in 2006 and a couple of years later we got engaged. I was now starting to become really hesitant to go back to Mexico … many things changed and my immigration process got into the toughest stage. There were many cutbacks and re-allocations at the company where I was working. My fiancé’s mother was very ill and moving away was not an option. My immigration status was tied to my employer – for the first time since I came here, I felt like a real alien. So, I had to move fast to get a new job in a different field, work on my wedding and get a proper immigration status and while I was doing all this, one more beautiful thing happened: Mateo, my son, was born.
Today I am a proud Canadian citizen who helps people with the finances in their lives, I am also a proud husband and father who strongly believe that anything is possible and we immigrants are really resilient. I also want to take the opportunity to tell my son that it wasn’t easy to come to Canada and leave so many memories, friends and family behind, but it has truly been the most rewarding overall experience of my life and he wouldn’t even be here otherwise!
I won’t ever forget Mexico! I am proud of my heritage and will always be, so let me put it in these words: I will never stop loving Mexico, Mexico will always be like my mother, but Canada… well Canada is now my wife!