Episode 7: Las cartas de papá (1) Episode 7: Papas Briefe (1) Episode 7: Dad's letters (1) Épisode 7 : Les lettres de papa (1) Odcinek 7: Listy od taty (1)

**Martina Castro:** The first time Rodrigo Loza left his country, he was 18 years old. He traveled from Quito, Ecuador to Cincinnati, Ohio where he lived for a year with the Schmidt family. Rodrigo was one of many young Latin Americans doing this in the 70s. At the time, there was a boom in foreign exchange programs for students coming to the U.S.

**Carolina Loza-León:** En ese viaje, mi papá empezó a considerar a los abuelos Schmidt parte de su familia. Carolina Loza-León: On that trip, my dad began to consider the Schmidt grandparents part of his family.

**Martina Castro:** Carolina is Rodrigo's daughter. She had always thought of her father as emotionally withdrawn, and a little bit of an outcast. So she wondered how this American couple who spoke no Spanish ended up becoming almost like mom and dad to her father, a reserved hispanic man from the Ecuadorian highlands. She couldn't understand this… Until she took her own trip to Cincinnati, Ohio.

**Martina Castro:** Welcome to the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. We bring you true bilingual stories about travels with unexpected turns, plans unraveled, and destinations unknown. The Spanish in this story is for intermediate level learners, but if you get lost, don't worry, we will be chiming in throughout the story.

**Martina Castro:** Carolina's trip started when her dad got some bad news — Tom Schmidt, his foster father from his year in Ohio, had suddenly died. In their family, they called him Abuelo Schmidt. He was 95 years old.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Para mi papá fue difícil procesar la muerte del abuelo Schmidt. A veces se sentaba en el sofá, en silencio, sin hablar, mirando al piso. Sometimes he sat on the sofa, silent, without speaking, looking at the floor. Caminaba sin dirección por toda la casa. He walked aimlessly around the house. Si mi mamá y yo hablábamos, mi papá movía su cabeza sin realmente escuchar. If my mom and I talked, my dad would shake his head without really listening.

**Martina Castro:** Rodrigo was inconsolable over his foster father's death. But Carolina couldn't understand it… why was he so sad? She knew they were close because he always affectionately referred to them as mom and dad, which is how she ended up calling them abuelo and abuela. But Carolina had never seen her dad get this emotional about anything.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Mi papá nunca expresa sus emociones. Se paraliza si lo abrazas. It freezes if you hug it. Por otro lado, los Schmidt siempre me parecieron distantes. On the other hand, the Schmidts always seemed distant to me.

**Martina Castro:** Carolina had never connected much with the Schmidts. She first met them in a short visit to the States when she was 15 years old. And then one other time when they visited Ecuador. But Carolina's English wasn't so good when she was younger, and simple things like their sarcastic sense of humor were lost on her.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Mi papá no hablaba mucho de Ohio. Yo sabía muy poco sobre su año estudiando en los Estados Unidos.

**Martina Castro:** Since she had heard only a few anecdotes about her dad's time in Ohio, she never quite understood how her father ended up feeling so close to the Schmidts.

**Carolina Loza-León:** El abuelo Schmidt murió en abril. Dos meses después, mi papá me preguntó si yo podía viajar a Cincinnati, Ohio, para estar un tiempo con la Abuela Schmidt. Two months later, my dad asked if I could travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, to spend time with Grandma Schmidt.

**Martina Castro:** Rodrigo couldn't go to Ohio himself because he had to take care of some important family affairs in Ecuador.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Era obvio que mi papá estaba nervioso. No quería que la abuela Schmidt sufriera de depresión. I didn't want Grandma Schmidt to suffer from depression.

**Martina Castro:** Rodrigo was worried that Grandma Schmidt would become depressed. He also thought Charles, Grandma Schmidt's son, could use an extra hand with her care. So Rodrigo pleaded with Carolina to go in his place. She agreed to go. At the time, she was 28 years old.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Mi vuelo llegó 4 horas tarde a Cincinnati y yo estaba nerviosa. Carolina Loza-León: My flight arrived 4 hours late to Cincinnati and I was nervous. En el aeropuerto me esperaba la abuela y su hijo Charles. Grandma and her son Charles were waiting for me at the airport.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Cuando entré a su coche, no sabía qué hacer ni qué decir. Carolina Loza-León: When I got into her car, I didn't know what to do or say. Decidí no hablar durante el viaje.

**Martina Castro:** One hour later, they pulled into the suburban neighborhood where the Schmidt family lived. The houses there had large driveways with minivans parked out front, bikes left unlocked at their doorsteps, and well-manicured lawns.

**Carolina Loza-León:** La ciudad era segura y tranquila. Carolina Loza-León: The city was safe and calm. Muy diferente a mi barrio en Ecuador.

**Martina Castro:** Mary Schmidt lived in a retirement community in the same neighborhood, five minutes from the family house. Her apartment had an extra bedroom where Carolina would stay during her visit.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Cuando llegamos, Charles me dio instrucciones sobre sus actividades y rutinas, y una lista muy larga de medicinas que la abuela Schmidt debía tomar. Carolina Loza-León: When we arrived, Charles gave me instructions on his activities and routines, and a very long list of medicines that Grandma Schmidt had to take. Ella recordaba a mi papá, pero no sabía quién era yo. She remembered my dad, but she didn't know who I was.

**Martina Castro:** Carolina felt suddenly overwhelmed by the responsibility before her. For the next seven days, she would be taking care of a grieving elderly widow, who didn't even recognize her.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Me senté en el sofá. Imaginé los próximos días con la Abuela Schmidt: hablar mucho en inglés con personas que no conocía y recordar darle los medicamentos a la abuela. I imagined the next few days with Grandma Schmidt: talking a lot in English with people I didn't know and remembering to give Grandma her medicine.

**Martina Castro:** But those first few days didn't turn out to be as difficult as Carolina had imagined.

**Carolina Loza-León:** La abuela era muy flexible con los planes. Yo hablaba con ella todo el tiempo para entretenerla. I talked to her all the time to entertain her. Caminábamos en el parque juntas, veíamos televisión, bebíamos un poco de vino, y jugábamos al Bingo.

**Martina Castro:** The next day, Carolina met Grandma Schmidt's nurse, who had taken advantage of Carolina's arrival to take her first day off in a long while. Her name was Kim. She asked Carolina about her life in Ecuador and about her dad. When suddenly…

**Carolina Loza-León:** Kim me dijo: “¡Sé quién es tu papá, leí sus cartas!” Yo no sabía qué decirle. Carolina Loza-León: Kim told me: “I know who your dad is, I read his letters!” I did not know what to say. ¿De qué cartas me hablaba? What cards were you talking about?

**Martina Castro:** Letters from her dad? Carolina had no idea what Kim was talking about. Kim then walked Carolina over to a table where she rummaged through a pile of photo albums, receipts and condolence letters, until she found them.

**Carolina Loza-León:** “Ahí están las cartas de tu papá”, dijo. Carolina Loza-León: “There are your father's letters,” she said. El papel de las cartas era amarillo por el paso de los años. The letter paper was yellow from the passing of the years. Tenían bordes rojos y azules y estampas de Ecuador y Ohio. They had red and blue borders and stamps from Ecuador and Ohio.

**Martina Castro:** Carolina immediately started reading through them. She landed on one of the earliest ones — written in 1974, one year after her dad had returned to Ecuador. He wrote to the Schmidts about how he had been accepted into military school.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Leí las cartas en voz alta para que la abuela escuchara. Carolina Loza-León: I read the letters out loud so that the grandmother would listen.

**Martina Castro:** Another letter, this one from 1976, talked about how Rodrigo was hoping to win a scholarship to study again in the United States.

**Carolina Loza-León:** En el año 1977, les escribió desde la universidad en Colorado Springs. Carolina Loza-León: In 1977, he wrote to them from the university in Colorado Springs. Hablaba de planes para visitarlos el 25 de diciembre, en Navidad.

**Martina Castro:** The handwritten letters were around two to four pages long. In a few of them, Carolina read about her father's anxiety when he was in school.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Mi papá escribía sobre sus dificultades de la universidad y de un amor a distancia que no funcionó. Carolina Loza-León: My dad used to write about his difficulties at the university and about a long-distance love that didn't work out.

**Martina Castro:** He also wrote about his parents' divorce in Ecuador and how distant he felt from his family.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Todo esto pasó antes de que yo naciera. Carolina Loza-León: This all happened before I was born.

**Martina Castro:** Carolina found it thrilling to read these dispatches from her father out loud, letters that weren't meant for her to read because she hadn't even been born yet. For Grandma Schmidt, the letters offered a window into very fond memories.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Cuando yo leía las cartas, la abuela, escuchaba felíz y con los ojos cerrados.

**Carolina Loza-León:** En el año 1983, después de terminar la universidad y recibir su diploma en Historia, mi papá escribió sobre su retorno a Ecuador.

**Martina Castro:** In that letter, Rodrigo told them he was training to be a combat pilot in the Ecuadorian military. He was already affectionately referring to them as mom and dad —  **Carolina Loza-León:** Queridos Mamá y Papá:

**Carolina Loza-León:** Soy piloto de combate. Pero no estoy feliz. Yo vine a Ecuador a ser el mejor piloto posible. Pero las cosas no son como yo pensaba. But things are not as I thought.

**Martina Castro:** Rodrigo complained of how his superiors mistreated him in the military; of how he didn't see the discipline and sense of duty he expected of the institution.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Era obvio que mi papá no se adaptaba en Ecuador.

**Martina Castro:** This was news to Carolina. She had never heard about her father's frustration with being back in Ecuador or with his military career, which he never quit. She was also surprised to find out that the Schmidts were the first people her father decided to confide in about this, not his friends or family from back home.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Pasé el Día de la Madre con la abuela para que no pensara en la muerte del abuelo. Carolina Loza-León: I spent Mother's Day with my grandmother so she wouldn't think about my grandfather's death. Desayunamos tarde, caminamos un poco y continuamos leyendo las cartas. En una del año 1986, mi papá hablaba sobre la relación con su familia en Ecuador.

**Martina Castro:** In this letter about his family, Rodrigo wrote:

**Carolina Loza-León:** Siento que hay un problema. Carolina Loza-León: I feel there is a problem. Siento que mis padres se distancian de mí.

**Martina Castro:** Rodrigo wrote that he noticed a distance growing between him and his Ecuadorian parents. Carolina felt pain for her dad as she read this. Grandma Schmidt also struggled to understand why Rodrigo's parents would grow indifferent to their son.

**Martina Castro:** One night, Grandma Schmidt's sons Charles and Tim came over for dinner. They shared stories with Carolina from the year her dad spent with them.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Charles y Tim me contaron historias sobre mi padre, por ejemplo, sobre cómo él participaba muy poco en las conversaciones, porque no hablaba inglés.

**Martina Castro:** They told her about how he learned to swim at their Golf Club. How in the nearby town of Blue Ash, he bought his first suit for his graduation party. They showed her the garden he would cross each day to go to school.

**Carolina Loza-León:** En la casa todavía tienen pinturas que compraron cuando visitaron Ecuador en el año 1989.

**Martina Castro:** And In their bedroom, Carolina saw that the Schmidts had six photos — five of their children, and right next to them, one of Rodrigo, her dad.

**Carolina Loza-León:** La noche siguiente a nuestra cena, llamé a mi papá. Carolina Loza-León: The night after our dinner, I called my dad. Le hablé sobre la abuela, Charles y Tim. I told him about Grandma, Charles and Tim.

**Martina Castro:** The man Carolina knew to be strong, disciplined and kind of obsessive, only asked one favor of her…

**Carolina Loza-León:** Mi papá me dijo que abrazara a la abuela por él.

**Martina Castro:** That she give Grandma Schmidt a big hug for him.

**Martina Castro:** Over the days she spent in Ohio, Carolina learned that the values she most appreciates in her dad, are ones he learned from the Schmidts.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Con ellos, aprendió el valor de la palabra, el perfeccionismo y la dedicación a la familia. Carolina Loza-León: With them, she learned the value of the word, perfectionism and dedication to the family.

**Martina Castro:** Thanks to them, Rodrigo also learned to navigate American culture and fell in love with it.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Cuando era pequeña, mi papá escuchaba Simon & Garfunkel. También leía libros y decía chistes en inglés que yo no entendía.

**Martina Castro:** His love for English eventually motivated Carolina to learn the language and make it part of her life too.

**Carolina Loza-León:** Gracias al inglés, hoy soy periodista. Carolina Loza-León: Thanks to English, today I am a journalist.

**Martina Castro:** As a journalist, Carolina has worked with the United Nations, Vice News, and even the New York Times, all thanks to her english. And now it made it possible for her to accompany Grandma Schmidt, and to read her father's letters. Towards the end of her visit, Carolina remembers reading one that really struck her.

**Carolina Loza-León:** En esos últimos días, recuerdo que encontré una carta en particular, del año 1984:

**Martina Castro:** In that letter, Rodrigo wrote:

**Carolina Loza-León:** No sé cuándo regresaré a Estados Unidos. Gracias por todo, mamá y papá. Gracias por todo lo que hicieron por mí. Thank you for everything you did for me. Estaré en contacto, lo prometo.