Dear friends, colleagues and family:

During mid May, as I was getting ready to leave Miami and move to Switzerland I spoke to my wife Petra about a project I had in mind. I wanted to start a program where immigrants (to Switzerland) would use video as a tool of self-discovery and identity proclamation. Young, old, men, women, immigrants from all walks of life, would be able to learn how to use a camera, learn how to edit and tell a story with video. In the process, they would discover who they are, where they came from and where they’re going. Petra, then, wisely, suggested that I should do it myself first; that I should put it into practice myself, because after all, I am, once again, an immigrant. I am a Puerto Rican in Switzerland.

That is how UnboricuaenSuiza.com was born.

There was no better way to capture the dichotomy of my migration than to use my native language. There is no English translation for boricua. The site is not bilingual, but once in a while, I would have no other recourse but to use my mother tongue. After all, how do you translate Ñooo!

I am an audiovisual storyteller and the website beckons to be driven by motion pictures, sounds, still photographs and text.

Certainly there will be many entries. My goal is to do 52 main entries. I figured, 52 weeks, 52 years old, 52 entries.

With love,

Rubén

PS. To return to the posts area simply click on the words Un boricua en Suiza at the top left of the page.
Very special thanks to Allan Tépper from AllanTepper.com for his significant contribution to the creation of this space.