What’s the Story?

La Guajira is a peninsula in South America shared by Venezuela and Colombia that was inhabited by the Wayuu people. Our caste name, Apushana (meaning vulture) was a source of pride as the vulture is the only bird with no predator. The last chief, my grandfather Claudio, also a human-rights lawyer, led the dissolution of the caste system to offer his people a greater opportunity to a better life. He married my grandmother, Flor Emanuel, Venezuela’s first crowned beauty queen. My mother, their eldest child, looked east towards education and advancement, lured by western societies. She found herself in Pittsburgh studying dentistry and married my Italian-French, American-born father before settling down for family life in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Higher education was very important in my family, so I followed my brother to the Ivy League, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. I struggled for years trying to make it through college, but despite doing well in most of my courses, I never felt like it was where I was meant to be. While taking some time away from my courses, I booked a massage and was so impressed with its effectiveness, I followed my intuition and asked the therapist if I could apprentice with him. He had been in a car accident a few years back and was struggling with regaining mobility, as well as finding a therapist that could do the work he did. After three months of “trading” once a week, he was back to rollerblading along the Schuylkill River. In turn, I had acquired enough confidence in my ability to enroll in a course to obtain my license and grow my own practice.

Soon after, in 2008, my sister invited me to spend New Year with her and her boyfriend in Trasierra, Spain. One evening, I dreamt I found a four leaf clover and the very next day my sister’s boyfriend’s sister’s partner’s brother (!) arrived from Dublin. Colm was very nice, but I didn’t think much of him, or the dream, until later that evening when I saw him playing his guitar; it felt like I caught a glimpse of his gorgeous soul and my interest piqued. We spent a beautiful week together going for long walks and completing each other’s thoughts and, having the freedom of working for myself, I decided to close my chapter in the US and head to Ireland to hang out with my new fella; the plan was to keep traveling east, through Europe and Asia if things didn’t work out.

I’ve gotten used to the rain and the sun’s propensity to hide for weeks on end in the winter. I was relieved to find out that I was lighting my fire with turf, not turds; and generally, people and experiences here are grand and gorgeous.

I focus on what I really love about Ireland: the traditional melodies carried by the Clare air, the vast perfection of Ballysheehan Pass in Kerry when the sun is shining, the mesmerizing cliff walks of Howth, the sense of old-worldliness peace in Inishmore… and the people, purveyors of great craic! At this point, I feel I am at an age where I have amassed enough experience to reflect upon and I couldn’t imagine my soul feeling more at home, away from home, anywhere else. Ireland is the most magical place on Earth.