Maria | The Brook, Nelson

“My partner is Kiwi, and we settled as a family here in New Zealand, and we have two children. I think it was very hard for me to feel at home in New Zealand for the first three years we lived in Auckland.

It’s absolutely different and different from the culture I used to know. I think when I connect with a Spanish playgroup, like with mums with kids, and we speak the same language, it was a very good opportunity to connect with the country in another way, because I feel more at home. I can speak my own language. I can connect with a lot of mums. Probably when I have nothing in common if we meet in the same country, but speaking the language was a very relaxing moment, and we can share in that meeting. Laughing with the same kind of humour or like I feel comfortable. This was a very amazing moment, when I feel really at home. This was not here in Nelson. It was in Hamilton, but since that experience, I feel like it’s very good when I connect with another mum or parent from overseas, and I speak their language. Sometimes it’s good too, you have a little knowledge to say Ola or say Bonjour or whatever language they speak, and I can feel more comfortable. I feel like I’m more familiar than at home. Home is here now. It’s Nelson. I really love this town, and this city and the community. It’s very special to me, because the people are more open to knowing other people. I feel more comfortable when the people look at me in the street. I don’t look like a Kiwi, because I’m South American, but the people are very kind.

Probably yes, in another city. Like, I feel like they’re more racist or when the people don’t really want to understand you or give you any opportunities because you are from another place and you are a stranger here. I think I feel that feeling more in the big cities in New Zealand like Auckland or something but I feel in Nelson, the community is very open to receive, so for me it’s home. Now, I have two kids. My kids have settled at school. They’re very happy to enjoy the sunshine every day, and play lots of sports. We are really open as a family, to connect with different cultures.

I think when I met the parents at the Spanish playgroup, we were so different, because we are a very multicultural Spanish playgroup, people from Argentina, from Chile, from Peru, from the Philippines, from Mexico, all different countries and different social classes. Most are Chileans but maybe if we had our own country group we would never meet. I think the connection for me, with those people was of course, the kids. When you come back to your roots, you come back into your native language, the kids are so natural and so simple, and it doesn’t matter, the kids have the knowledge of their mums language, you speak in Spanish, and they catch the language, and then we realise they are not the only ones. There are other kids the same, they can understand the same language. They’re just playing together, and realise they have something very important in common, it doesn’t matter if we look a little bit different, our accents are different but this was my connection I want to give to my kids, the language. From that experience, when I moved here to Nelson, I realised how the people are  interested to know more about our culture, learn a little bit of the language, or have fun in different ways. The music, the food, the dancing, the games, or just trying to get the community together, integrate everyone like how they are.”