Throughout Immigrant Heritage Month, A Faith That Does Justice is sharing stories from members of our community who immigrated to the United States. By creating space for people to tell their own stories in their own words, we hope to foster understanding, challenge misconceptions, and celebrate the experiences, contributions, and resilience of immigrants. Each story reflects one person’s journey. Together, they invite us to see our neighbors more clearly, listen more deeply, and recognize the dignity and humanity that faith calls us to honor in every person.

I am from Pilar de la Horada, a small town in Alicante (Spain). It is a small beach town in the Mediterranean that triplicates its population in summer as we get a lot of national and international (mainly Europeans) tourists to enjoy the fantastic beaches in the area. I went to study Pharmacy school to Valencia but came back and lived with my parents when doing my masters and PhD. My parents come from poor families in Spain but my dad made a business in his twenties and they live very well nowadays. I have a sister who used to live in Valencia where she met my brother in law in college but they recently moved to Madrid (relocation of his work).

In 2013 and after defending my PhD, I had a very bad job at the university and had the opportunity to come to Harvard to do some research for 3 months. I really liked it and asked for a job but my mentor told me he did not have funds to hire me so came back to Spain. After a few months, he reached out that another faculty at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health was looking for a postdoc and I moved permanently in 2014 after he hired me. I thought I would only stay for 2 years but things worked out well and never left.

My experience has been overall very positive. I have been always very ambitious and never had any good job opportunity in my home country. Spain carries a huge economic crisis since 2008 and there are not many good jobs, specially in research. I have for sure experienced loneliness as Sundays in Spain are always to be spent with your family, frustration given the language barrier, and anxiety given the tremendous responsibilities I had at work, among others. However, I look back and all of that just made me stronger and very proud of the woman I became. I would not change one single episode of my journey as an in migrant in the US. While I am much looking forward to visit Spain every Christmas and summer to spend time with my family and high school friends, I am also ready to come back to USA and the life I have built here. I have made very good friends who are my family now. They have been the most important part of my story here.

Faith has been crucial during my transition and when building my life in a foreign country. I have always made my moves with faith and serenity, understanding that God’s plans are never wrong. My faith has been my anchor through both the hardest and the most joyful moments of my life in the US. As an immigrant, I have learned to be grateful for every part of the journey—the struggles that shaped me, the opportunities that inspired me, and the countless blessings that have guided my path.