I've been contributing this column for EnUSA for over twenty years, but I don't think I've ever written about my beginnings, the life before this life I built after immigrating to the United States. Who was I before the trip? Who am I now?

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That's a question I imagine many of you, readers, are also asking. Because when you leave your hometown, your place, you necessarily change. Not just your home and geography, but also, often, your profession.

 

My case was no different. We arrived through the company my husband worked for, but I had left my position as a literature teacher in Buenos Aires. I founded the Spanish school, but the children were young, so I went from teaching classes on Cortázar and Borges to reading children's stories with my students. By the time they reached the age to read more complex authors, they were usually already in high school and had too many homework assignments to continue attending the Spanish school.

 

But life always gives us a chance to win. One of the classes I treasured most in Buenos Aires was my group of young women in the literary workshop. They were recently graduated girls, between nineteen and twenty years old, with whom we met every Monday in Belgrano to read and write. They had been my students in the school workshop, but later continued privately for several years.

 

I loved those meetings because they were a way to accompany them in the awakening of adulthood, to begin to discover who they were, to reflect on that, and to write.

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I say that life gives you a chance to get even because last week I opened a workshop for young people of that same age, with the same goal I had twenty years ago: to find a place to express their ideas, to be able to create and think differently, to not feel overwhelmed by any artificial intelligence, because each person's mind and ideas come first. You just have to know how to express them.

 

The workshop is called Palabras Cruzadas and is open to anyone who wants their first experience with a writing workshop. It is bilingual, as many young people feel more comfortable in English, others in Spanish, and still others a mix of both. The first class is free. Everyone is invited to experience, at least once, what inspiration and creativity are all about, how to find it, and how to make the most of it.

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Here are the details of the workshop in case you are interested:

Crossword workshop

Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30

For more information, call 954-774-2166 or email mermoresco@gmail.com

Also on Instagram @mermoresco