I am from coffee
from the salty Caribbean.
I am from fridge magnets,
fish—colorful and playful.
From ruthless.
From mami
and Señora Linda
from aloe vera.
from cayenne.
I am from totuma,
drinking,
arepas,
pilea peperomioides,
and Disney movies.
Hi everyone! This is Daniela 🙂
I’m a fourth year student in the combined literature and language English major and I’m originally from Colombia! I was born and raised in Barranquilla (a semi-small city by the Caribbean coast) and I moved to Vancouver after graduating high school in 2016. I currently live in Burnaby with a friend from El Salvador and I work at COBS Bread~
✩ I wish I could say I have cool hobbies but I’m really a simple gal. I love Disney movies, road trips, painting, drinking beer and reading Alan Watts.
✩ I attended a German school my whole life and even went on exchange to Germany when I was 15, but sadly since I graduated high school and stopped practicing daily, my German has deteriorated drastically and I can’t say that I’m fluent anymore 🙁
✩ My parents’ apartment in Barranquilla is located just down the street from the school Shakira attended
✩ I just came back from Tofino last weekend and tried surfing for the first time and absolutely loooved it! It’s funny that I had never tried it before since I spent half of my childhood at the beach, but I will definitely give it another shot as soon as I get the chance
I’m really excited to get to know everyone and I hope we can make the best of this (strange) semester! 🙂
Thrilled to have you in the course, Daniela! And now I’m wishing we had done poetry and mini bios in SPAN365… it’s lovely to find out these fun facts about you!
Your poem is beautiful. The contrast of aloe vera and cayenne is striking, complex. Gabriela Mistral would be proud your poesía regional 🙂
Thank you Tamara! I’m super excited about this course and I have to say I looove the podcast format! Everything is so well organized and I really appreciate all the effort you put into it 🙂
Hi Daniela, nice meeting you! I totally relate to how hard it is being apart from your culture and missing it despite loving where you live. When I was living in the states, I missed Latin America so much all I wanted was to move back. Looking forward to seeing you in class.
Nice to meet you Estefania! yeah it’s always tough for immigrants to adapt to a new culture, especially for us since we’re used to the warmth of latino cultures. But I always say the more we explore and the more we promote our culture, the warmer the world will become! 😉
Hi Daniela, Alan Watts is awesome! I listen to his youtube videos once in a while as meditation. Surfing sounds awesome and Tofino is just lovely! I only surfed twice in my life and it’s definitely one of the most exhilarating experiences. I would love to get to know you more and excited that you are in this class!
Hi Shadow! It’s so nice to meet you 🙂
I have to say Alan Watts is the only thing that can get me through tough times. I highly recommend checking out his books as I personally find he tends to ramble a lot in his lectures! I’m currently reading “The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are” and I quite like it, but my absolute favorite is “The Wisdom of Insecurity.” Feel free to shoot me a message on IG (@dpgm99) if you ever wanna talk philosophy, surfing or anything at all! 🙂
Hi Daniela, I really enjoyed reading your poem! My family also comes from a land of coffee in Cuba, I feel like its a hidden secret how good the coffee is in Latin America compared to here, Im sure the fact that it doesn’t have to be shipped to North America makes it better in a sense. I also feel the same way about trying to connect with Latiness, I feel like theres not a lot of latin fever in Vancouver and not too many people like me who is part latin. However, since you like drinking beer and are a Latina I recommend the Red Room nightclub downtown, its like going to a dance party in Latin America!
Hi Roberto, its so nice to meet you 🙂
Coffee is definitely a big part of my culture! My grandma started giving me straight black coffee before I even turned 10, and despite not being a coffee lover anymore, it still reminds me of my family and childhood.
I love Red Room! I used to go quite often before the pandemic hit, but it seems like it’s still gonna be a while before it’s safe to go dancing again 🙁 In the meantime you can catch me playing salsa records in my room lol.
Thanks for leaving a message! 🙂