mi abuelita
My grandmother, Guadalupe, was a first generation American born in Vermont in 1918 to Spanish Immigrants.
Over 100 years after my great-grandparents, mis bisabuelos, came to America through Ellis Island to the quarries, cows and creameries that made Barre somehow Basque-esque, I’m bound for our origin with the intention of pursuing citizenship through my ancestry.
I’m not the first in my family to return to Spain from the new world, though. The triangle slave trade is, in fact, written in my blood. My DNA provides evidence of a gene that traveled from Spain to Northern Argentina AND BACK TO SPAIN.
In addition to my Indigenous American genetics, my double helix picked up 3% of its info in the West African countries of Mali, Benin and Togo. I long imagined myself content in the Canary Islands as my final home, before I understood why my cells were drawn there.

Compelled to travel to 150 countries, so far, and committed to the remaining 180, the knowledge that over 600 years ago a mystical map was made in me, for me to follow, from the matter that manifested me, is…humbling.
Are epigenitics responsible for my calling? There is scientific evidence that the descendents of survivors of events like the Holocaust and the Trans Atlantic Slave trade are prone to depression, their genetic marker altered by the events. Is there evidene to support a similar effect from other elevated experiences? Is THIS the scientific explanation of Karma?
Free will is largely non existent, I’ve determined, so I’m surrendering to my nature.