Imaginative | Driven | Strategic

One of the things that fascinate me the most in life is observing the factors that affect a culture’s behavior. As an amateur cultural psychologist (more like a hobby, who am I kidding!), my focus is to put light on those characteristics that are different (or similar) to my own culture and to dig deep to understand the “why”. Personally, I have a couple of points of comparison since I was born in Chile, lived in Venezuela for 5 years, moved back to Chile and left again at the age of 22 to come to the United States, where I’ve lived most of my life. I don’t consider myself an expert on cross-cultural psychology by any means. My observations and conclusions are not intended to be biased. Rather, my intent is to invite thought-provoking dialogue. I am equally interested in people's opinion as much as on my own research. I don’t believe the truth to be definite, cross-cultural psychology is not an exact science. Instead, I believe that we can only get close to it through respectful exchange of ideas. 

There are not many things in life that bring me so much immediate joy than dancing. Time slows down, my face changes, I can't help but smile, I'm happier. My first memory related to dancing was when I was 5 years old. My family and I were living in Venezuela and I had joined the folkloric dance team at my school. I performed a choreographed piece of Joropo (Venezuela' national dance) with other kids in front of the entire school. I loved it, I was hooked. Ever since, I've been obsessed with learning about the traditional dances of the world. No matter which country I go to, the first activity I look for is either a show or a school where I can learn the traditional dances of that region. My favorite social rhythms are Bachata, Salsa On2, Flamenco, and Kizomba. I'm a proud member of the Salsannati dance team, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Traveling gives me a sense of freedom that not many other things do. I love discovering restaurants where locals eat, you know, those hidden places that tourists do not know about, and which are both economical and traditional. I love museums and historical landmarks. I normally travel solo so I can enjoy walking and discovering the city for as long as I want to and on my own schedule. At the end of each trip, I like to put together an itinerary of everything fun that someone could do in one day, if that's all they have to explore that city. Oh yes, and I photograph everything.