{"id":1321,"date":"2018-12-06T12:54:29","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T11:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/?p=1321"},"modified":"2019-06-24T10:52:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T08:52:47","slug":"ximena_gonzalez_of_venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transitophile.com\/chango\/ximena_gonzalez_of_venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"Ximena of Barquisimeto, Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucky ol’ me meets many people in Madrid: moved-to-the-big-city Spaniards from Extremadura, Andalucia, Asturias; EU-wandering Erasmus students; watchful-eye-on-Brexit Brits; young Auxiliares de Conversaci\u00f3n<\/em>, often from the States; expats for hauls long and short, from Australia, China, Bulgaria, hither, yon, beyond.<\/p>\n

They talk to me. (The fools!) Some chats are guarded, surface-y. Others far less so. New conocidos share perspectives, tell stories: impressive stories, often, of childhoods far more wide-ranging than my own, of hardships endured in disintegrating countries.<\/p>\n

A shame, I have often thought, that their stories don’t have a platform, that others can’t hear them, too.<\/p>\n

I can share this one. Ximena worked as a Venezuela journalist during the Hugo Ch\u00e1vez regime before deciding that life in her native Barquisimeto had become untenable. She sought asylum in Spain, lived for seven months in a Madrid refugee center before striking out on her own. She was wise to leave when she did; I see her as one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

Ximena and I have parsed sentences at each other in intercambios for a year or so. I asked if I could interview her. She agreed.<\/p>\n

The resulting video, in Spanish:<\/p>\n