My childhood and world travel experiences
have led me to where I am today.

I drink yerba maté tea, Argentina’s native tea, as soon as I wake up in the morning. Even though I’ve been away from the country for a long time, I still make time for tea. I spend half an hour drinking about one liter. I can't start my day without it.

I was born in Seattle, USA, and then moved to France for two years until I went to primary school, so my earliest memories are of France. But I was a bit different from other kids in terms of language and cultural nuances, so everyone made fun of me, and I was left out a lot (laughs). But my father handled this in different ways, and I have a lot of good memories of that time. My father is a mathematician who teaches at university. On weekends and long holidays, we would take family trips all over Europe by car. We did the same thing after we returned to Argentina, my parents' homeland, where we traveled 5,000 kilometers from north to south and around the Andes, as well as to Patagonia, the southernmost point of the country.

However, when my father changed universities, my siblings (there were five of us) would get angry because the language changed again (laughs). My passport says I’m American. But I’m not. When I would think about who I was, I couldn’t come up with an answer right away. I lived life like a nomad, and that experience has led me to where I am today.

When I was 23, I went to New York to visit a friend. I returned to Argentina three years later. During that time, I traveled to about 40 countries around the world as a backpacker, wherever the wind blew me. I also had a lot of difficult experiences. When I volunteered at Mother Teresa's hospital in India, the people I cared for were dying every day. I felt that I became more open-minded as I came in contact with and accepted values I hadn’t known about in different countries. I haven’t disliked a single country I've been to. There is something interesting about every country and region.

Farewell to the nomadic life
Discovering Fukuoka

But when I finished my travels, life went back to normal. Soon I felt the urge to stay for a longer period of time, this time in another culture, to learn something in depth. Fukuoka came to mind: I had discovered the game of Go during my first trip to Fukuoka. It's said that Go originated in China more than 3,000 years ago. I’d suddenly see that the opponent in front of me was someone from 3,000 years ago. It was an interesting experience. When I went back to Fukuoka, I continued to play Go five times a week, six hours a day. I couldn’t speak Japanese at all, so got by using body language. My teacher was wonderful. He used to say, "Beautiful”. He would look at the balance of the pieces on the board and say it was good because it was beautiful, or bad simply because it was not beautiful.

I didn't study Japanese because I didn't think I would be in Japan for long. At that time, I applied for a job as a Spanish and Portuguese translator for the Universiade* in Fukuoka (1995). I was hired, so I decided to stay in Fukuoka because I thought it would be another interesting experience.

*Sports competition for students from all over the world

How was the NPO Tiempo Iberoamericano created?

Culture is not fixed, it is always in flux, alive and changing. I came to this realization through my experience at the Universiade, where I thought I might be able to be a part of this change, even if only in a small way.

This is why I created the NPO Tiempo Iberoamericano, a Latin American cultural center, which includes language courses taught by native speakers, art courses such as music and dance, and cultural exchange events. Language exchange requires years of study. With art, we can communicate without words. It offers a shortcut to people’s hearts and minds. Activities range from small weekend events to yearly festivals. The annual "Isla de Salsa" festival, which means “Island of Salsa”, on Nokonoshima Island has been going on for 25 years. Salsa is a musical genre, but it originally means "sauce" in Spanish. So it means "let's mix it up”. It also ties in with Tiempo's concept of "sharing differences”.

Fukuoka is a beautiful place with the ocean and mountains. I go to the mountains without deciding on a route, so sometimes I get lost. That’s how I ended up in a big mess once (laughs). But getting lost can be interesting sometimes. It was the same when I was travelling around the world. I like not knowing where I am and finding new paths to travel.