New to the Parish: ‘I’ve stayed in Dublin because of the peace and security’

Silvia Bernal: arrived from Bolivia, 2011

The street where Silvia Bernal lived as a child in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz always flooded during the rainy season. With no concrete on the roads, the soft earth would rapidly become heavy with water, flooding the suburban streets. Bernal's parents had no car, and the bus drivers were not willing to plough their vehicles through the deep pools of water.

“Our school was very near home, but walking to school always meant taking off your shoes, wading through the water – often very dirty water – arriving in school, drying your feet and putting back on your shoes.”

Bernal's family had left the dizzying heights of La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, when she was 11. Her parents were struggling to make ends meet and they left their home city with their two daughters after her father secured a job in a bank in Santa Cruz.

“My parents got married very young; my mother was 19 when she fell in love with my father and became pregnant with me. She worked in a kitchen as a cook, and my father used to work as a taxi driver while studying at university.”

Bernal remembers her mother queuing for hours to buy bread and basics for the home. “In those years Bolivia was in an economic crisis. I realised when I was older all the things my parents had to do to give us food every day.”

When the family moved east to Santa Cruz in search of greater economic security, Bernal struggled to settle in to her new school. She describes the "collas y cambas" culture – a division that exists between people from the high Andean plateaus and those from the tropical eastern part of the country. As a native of La Paz, Bernal was immediately singled out as a colla.

"In my school most of the other children were cambas. My skin was darker, and those from the east have whiter skin. My accent was very different as well."

Another move

In her mid-teens the family moved again, to Cochabamba, before returning to Santa Cruz, where Bernal studied communications at university. She also worked at a local children's home to earn some money to fund her studies.

"It was there I met lots of foreigners and began to think about travelling abroad. There were volunteers from Germany, Spain, Italy and the US who told me stories of all their travels."

Bernal yearned to adventure beyond Bolivian borders and, through a contact at her mother's former school, arranged to spend a year working with a group of nuns in Ecuador. From there she travelled to Germany, where she spent a second year working as an au pair in Hamburg.

Bernal returned to Bolivia to finish her studies and found a job with an NGO working with indigenous communities in Bolivia.

“I loved working with those people. The best part was I got to travel all the time. I would go into the countryside and interview people from the diverse indigenous backgrounds we have in Bolivia.”

When she began dating a Dutch volunteer, her mind drifted back to life in Europe. "I couldn't get a visa for Holland; it was very frustrating. I wanted to travel again, learn English, and I was still in touch with my friend from Holland. I wanted to be closer to him so we would have the option of seeing each other."

When her visa application to study in the UK was rejected, an agency in La Paz suggested she consider moving to Ireland.

“I had absolutely no idea where Ireland was and thought people there only spoke Irish. When I told my parents I’d decided to go to Ireland, they were shocked. Surprisingly my father knew where it was because he’d heard about the IRA.”

Bernal began to organise her trip but felt nervous when she discovered the country was in recession. “I wasn’t a rich student who could just pay for English classes and not work. I was going to Ireland to work and study.” She decided to take a chance, and in 2011 she arrived in Dublin.

“I had imagined that, like Germany, Ireland would be super-organised. I asked in Dublin Airport for directions to the underground train into the city and they said there was none.”

Bernal had learned enough English before leaving La Paz to “get by and ask for directions”, but she struggled to understand the Irish accent. “That was the first difficulty I encountered: Irish people speak really fast.”

She began working as an au pair and lived with a family in Blackrock for her first year in Dublin. She quickly realised how much safer she felt compared with back home in La Paz.

“La Paz is a relatively dangerous city, but here no. It’s a capital city too, but it’s much calmer. That’s the main reason why I’ve stayed here, because of the peace and security, especially as a woman. I feel so much safer walking down the road here. In La Paz or Santa Cruz I could never go to a party or leave the house alone.”

Home for Christmas

After spending a year in Dublin, Bernal returned home to Bolivia just before Christmas with the intention of staying. However, she struggled to fall back into the routine of life in La Paz.

“I feel so much more independent in Dublin. Even my parents are happy with my decision to come back here. When I’m in Bolivia they’re always worrying about me, telling me not to take taxis alone or calling to check on me.”

Bernal is now studying a degree in computer science. She presents a radio show on Dublin's Radio Latina. She babysits and teaches Spanish at the Latin America Solidarity Centre to pay for her degree.

She has struggled to make Irish friends and finds it difficult to create “real ties” with local people, but adds that Irish people are always “friendly and courteous. Working and studying in Ireland allows me to do things I never could have done at home. In Bolivia I didn’t really have a life. Here in Ireland I do.”

• We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past five years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com