About Me

Hi, my name is Andrea Pamela Vielma. In my first post I talked about having Chilean and Costa Rican Heritage. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and my parents are from Latin America. My dad is from Chile and my mom is from Costa Rica. According to my 23&Me ancestry report, I'm 44% Southern European (I think they meant Spain?), 43% Native American (largely from the Southern half of the entire American continent) and 6% undefined. Everything else is a hodgepodge. I'm a very light brown skinned woman with dark curls that I'm still learning to care for. A large percentage of the travel blogs I see don't feature people who look like me, so it's my goal to make sure future brown skinned woman have a growing set of resources when it comes to travel.

Growing up, I was very immersed in the Chilean community - I'm more familiar with the traditions from South American than I am with Central American traditions. At the same time, I got to meet my mom's side of the family and grew up with my maternal cousins. I was 18 when I traveled to Chile for the first time and met my paternal side of the family. I was 23 when I traveled to Costa Rica for the first time and really got to immerse myself in my Central American heritage. I wish I could speak more about Costa Rican folk dance, but in my entire life, I've only had the one lesson. Still, it was a very special day to me. I will say, though, Costa Rica is the first country I got a tattoo outside of Seattle. I will always carry my memories with me, literally now!

For me, dance has always been a part of my identity. I explored my culture through dance and music. For example, northern Chilean dances are heavily indigenous: the music is more upbeat, the costumes are derived from Aymara traditional wear and the dances are a bit more ritualistic in nature (I refer you back to the Cacharpaya, which I explained a bit in my first post). The dances from the southern zone, on the other hand, are more reflective of farming lifestyles. The dances look a bit more like American style square dancing. Finally, the central zone (where the capital, Santiago, is located). These dances have a heavy Spanish influence - from the more upright postures to the more somber music. I have always seen dance as an expression of joy and a celebration of life. I love being Chilean and I loved experiencing my culture through dance. 

Of course the music and lyrics are also in Spanish, which helped strengthen my language skills. As a baby, my parents only spoke to me in Spanish so throughout my early childhood, I spoke English with an accent and attended ESL classes (I think now they're called EFL - English as a Foreign Language). At this stage in my life though, my language abilities have reversed. English is now my dominant language although Spanish will always be my mother tongue. My family used to speak Aymara, too (my ancestors, really) until my great grandmother decided that we needed to assimilate to better survive. And just like that, we lost an entire language and part of our identity. As a self-proclaimed linguistics lover, our family's story breaks my heart and it hurts even more to know that this is not a stand-alone occurrence. 

My parents came from very humble backgrounds - my paternal grandparents didn't finish high school and my mother grew up with an incomplete roof. That I, as a Latina-American have the confidence to claim my place in the world and to be fiercely and proudly happy is to me, my greatest success. 

And with that last thought, chaito! 

Follow me on Instagram! @laleonaluminosa