‘In Ireland I’m like, come on, just hug me. It’s the Latin way’

Pablo Che Leon Sarmiento finds life in Ireland very predictable. In fact, the whole of western Europe is totally predictable, he says. He misses the chaos of Peru and the warm embrace of Latin culture.

“When I go back to Peru I want to get into those small markets. Not supermarkets, I want to go to real markets and get between the merchants and their produce. When I go home I need the noise, the flavour, the loud music.”

Sarmiento can see many Irish people are uncomfortable with hugs and kisses so he just waves hello. "In Peru when we meet a friend we either handshake or give a kiss. In Argentina we always gave a kiss. In Ireland I'm like, 'Come on, just hug me. It's the Latin way'."

He was born in the small coastal city of Ilo in southern Peru. His parents worked for the local copper mining company which meant Sarmiento and his siblings could attend an American school. “We started from scratch learning English and that made me grow up in a different way to a normal Peruvian.”

His father sometimes travelled for work but no one else in the family has travelled quite as far as the young tech worker who describes himself as the "outlier" in his family. While studying industrial engineering in Lima, Sarmiento's mother encouraged him to apply for a year studying abroad. He was accepted to a programme in South Korea and moved to Asia for a year.

“That was the tipping point. I saw other kids my own age from the States and Europe travelling around the world with all these opportunities and I thought, ‘Why can’t I do this as well?’ From the moment I got back I had my mission. If I was going to leave Peru I needed to work for a multinational company.”

Internship with Ericsson

After he graduated, Sarmiento began an internship with Ericsson which soon turned into a job. A few years later, the opportunity arose to move to the company's office in Buenos Aires in Argentina.

“Lima is chaotic and intense but Buenos Aires is even more intense. It never stops. You can feel the Argentine passion in Buenos Aires. It just gets hold of you.”

Sarmiento quickly noticed the cultural differences between Buenos Aires and Lima. “In Peru if they saw someone working late they’d say, ‘Oh, he has so much work to do, poor man’. If they saw someone working late in Argentina they’d say, ‘He’s so inefficient, he should be able to do his job in eight hours’. In Argentina work is done at six. After that they have a life outside.”

Sarmiento spent more than three years in Argentina before applying for another transfer to the United Kingdom. While he failed to get a position in Britain, he was offered a job in the Dublin office. In June 2015 he arrived in his new Irish home.

Sarmiento struggled to understand the Irish accent but quickly noticed similarities between Irish people and friends back in Argentina. “There’s the tea here and in Argentina they drink mate, there’s the beef in both countries, and that banter the way they tease each other.

“The way they are friendly and the passion when they get into an argument. Peruvians would be more calm and diplomatic. Argentines get red-faced and start waving their hands. I noticed that here as well, they get passionate and wave.”

Within days of arriving in Dublin, Sarmiento noticed how he felt safer in his new home than in any other city he’d lived in. He was also struck by how little verbal abuse women had to put up with on the streets.

"It's very disturbing to see what a woman has to go through in a city in Latin America. If you walk by a construction site it's uncomfortable. Here I don't see that.

“In Ireland I can walk down the street and take out my cell phone any time and I’m pretty certain no one will threaten me. Yes, of course I know which areas not to go to but I feel safe here.”

Curious about his background

Sarmiento says Irish people are curious about his background but that he has never experienced discrimination because of his nationality. However, he’s interested to know what Ireland thinks about people like him who have moved from abroad to work in the tech industry.

“I’m very curious by how Irish people are embracing this immigration wave. Are they happy that we are here? Are they happy by how we are shaping the city, the country? Are they resentful they can’t get a job because someone from abroad is blocking them? I’d love to know.”

Sarmiento enjoys living in Ireland but knows he will eventually move on. “I haven’t yet found a place in which I see myself establishing. I have very good memories of Korea, it was a country of contrasts and I enjoy those contrasts. Although Ireland’s very different from my culture, it’s very western so I don’t see many contrasts.”

He also misses the Peruvian cuisine and finds Irish food quite bland. “Our cuisine has been blended with Japanese, Chinese, African and local. You’ve got all those spices which makes it very rich and you’ve got variety. What I find here is that food is not that sophisticated. I like fish but not as fish and chips.”

While he misses his family, Sarmiento says living abroad has brought him closer to his parents. “When I was living in Peru I would not communicate with them that often but since I came here, I start every single morning with ‘hello family’. I talk more with my dad now than when I was even in Buenos Aires.

In October, Sarmiento’s parents visited him in Ireland. Before that, he hadn’t seen them since last Christmas. “That is something that really affects me: seeing my parents getting older and not being there for them. I wish I was able to be closer to them hence my calls and emails.”

“I tell them, ‘You see me getting older, I see you getting older, let’s use this opportunity to get to know each other better and understand each other’.”