THERESA: “We met in Colombia where I had gone to teach for a year in an all-girls school, and we just connected from day one. Five years later he moved here and we were married. He had never lived in the United States before, so he wanted to try everything. He made me go to a monster truck show! [*laughs*] He said, ‘This is America. We have to go.’ And I was like, ‘No. We don’t have to. We don’t do this. OMG, I was so sick from the fumes.’ He was like, ‘Okay, check. We did that.’ He wanted to experiment and try all the stuff he had seen on TV, the Americana. He did the same to me when I was living in Bogota: he wanted me to experience everything Colombian. He took me to bullfights and all that crazy stuff. I tried the food, the travel. We had a great time.”
CESAR: There were cultural differences when we got married, for sure. For example, men don’t do housework in Colombia. I never even knew where the kitchen WAS in my house. When I first came here, I didn’t know how to do laundry, how to iron. I remember loading the dishwasher and putting Dawn soap in it. Then we left for a while, and when we got back, the whole floor was flooded with bubbles. And I would get tired of speaking English. When we disagreed, I would say, ‘I don’t want to argue with you because I don’t have the language to tell you you’re wrong! [*laughs*] But my English is good now, so I can win!”
THERESA: “Even today---and we’ve been married 11 years and have two daughters---he makes all of us sit down and have breakfast together. There’s no grabbing a granola bar and eating it in the car on the way to school or work."
CESAR: There were cultural differences when we got married, for sure. For example, men don’t do housework in Colombia. I never even knew where the kitchen WAS in my house. When I first came here, I didn’t know how to do laundry, how to iron. I remember loading the dishwasher and putting Dawn soap in it. Then we left for a while, and when we got back, the whole floor was flooded with bubbles. And I would get tired of speaking English. When we disagreed, I would say, ‘I don’t want to argue with you because I don’t have the language to tell you you’re wrong! [*laughs*] But my English is good now, so I can win!”
THERESA: “Even today---and we’ve been married 11 years and have two daughters---he makes all of us sit down and have breakfast together. There’s no grabbing a granola bar and eating it in the car on the way to school or work."
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