Hi bb,

You're officially on the interest list for my Ni de aquí, Ni de allá reconnecting journey 🤎

If you're new around here, I've been on my own reconnecting journey with my roots for the last six years.

And over the last few weeks, some of my videos about my experience returning to Ecuador, reconnecting with my ancestors, and living between worlds started reaching a lot more people than I expected.

And I've been blown away by the messages I've received.

People who have never been back to their homeland.

People who speak the language but are afraid to speak it because they're worried about their accent or what someone might think.

People who don't speak the language at all and don't know where to begin.

People who, like me, have sold their belongings and made the decision to move back to where their family comes from.

People realizing that so much of our culture was passed down orally—and wondering what happens when our elders are gone and the stories, recipes, traditions, language, and ways of knowing aren't documented anywhere.

And I've realized:

There are so many of us trying to find our way back.

For me, this journey has brought me back to Ecuador, back to my family, back to my papi, and back to parts of myself I didn't even realize I had left behind.

I've spent the last few years learning how to live between NY and Ecuador, between the world I grew up in and the world my family comes from.

Learning that I don't have to choose.

I can be both.

And that's what I’m creating with Ni de aquí, Ni de allá.

Not a basic ass roadmap for “reconnecting with your culture.”

Because your journey is going to look different from mine.

Instead, this will be a space to explore your relationship with your homeland, your ancestors, your language, your culture, your body, your family, and all the worlds that have shaped you.

A space to ask:

What was passed down to me?

What was lost?

What do I get to reclaim?

What do I want to carry forward?

And maybe most importantly:

How do I stop abandoning parts of myself just to become more digestible to other people?

I want us to get loud about where we come from.

Proud of our languages.

Proud of our features.

Proud of our stories.

Proud of the cultures that made us.

And also free to become something entirely our own.

De aquí.
De allá.
And everything in between.

I'm still putting all the pieces together behind the scenes, but I'm SO excited to bring you into this journey with me.

More soon.

Con todo el amor,

Barbara Manuelita 🤎

Here's what to do next 👇🏽