Adriana & Jorge Gomez

Born in Colombia, Adriana Gomez and Jorge Aristizabal faced a multitude of challenges in their home country.

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Jorge was born far from any large cities; “The middle of nowhere, in the middle of the jungle” in a tiny town called Granada Antioquia, before moving to Medellin. Jorge was the eldest of 12 siblings which he had a large responsibility of looking over after his father passed away when he was just 4 years old. Despite the immense struggle, he still is thankful and happy in retrospect of his childhood, as it taught him a great deal of resilience and appreciation for the simple things of life. Unlike Jorge, Adriana was born and raised in Medellin. Adriana was raised in a poor neighbourhood; however, she still enjoyed her childhood. “We also didn’t know a better life then, so it was good for us.”

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Jorge and Adriana met and had children in Medellin, however despite the beauty and kindness of the country, the looming threat of the Medellin drug cartel remained ever constant in their lives. “Colombia is a beautiful place, and people are very kind, but we have a lot of problems. Social problems, we have violence and then for the children it was not a good place to grow up.” During the 1990s, Jorge recounts that it was common for people to be killed on the street for anything or anybody, resulting in gating of neighbourhoods with military outposts to defend civilians against the cartel. The rise of the Medellin Cartel founded by Pablo Escobar was due to an increase in disposable income in the United States and Western Europe, resulting in an increase of demand of cocaine which was primarily sourced from Colombia. This led to a power struggle between the Medellin cartel and the Colombian government in which assassinations, gunfights, and executions took place on the streets. Jorge and Adriana agreed that to give their children a good upbringing, they had to leave Colombia. “We didn’t want our kids living in that environment”.

Immigrating to New Zealand was a simple and easy process for them due to Jorge’s Australian passport and Adriana’s residency. The Australian passport made them welcome in New Zealand, and 5 years later Adriana got a New Zealand passport. Jorge and Adriana’s profession made the process of immigrating easier, as Jorge worked in IT, while Adriana was an electronic technician; “I was pretty sure that we were going to (immigrate). It was very simple and easy.” They found that nowadays, immigration has become more difficult; “I see people today go through the process, suffering and waiting, a lot of problems”. Upon reaching New Zealand, they found few problems integrating into Kiwi culture.

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“The good thing for me is that I very pragmatic, so I don’t suffer much. For example when

we left Colombia to go to Australia, my family was crying. It was a like show because my family and his were there. We were happy. For me it is very easy for us to settle down. When I was in Australia, I was happy in Australia and when we were here I was happy here. I never cry for that.”

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When Jorge and Adriana arrived, they could integrate easily due to the large Colombian community in New Zealand. This provided them with a gateway to learn New Zealand life, and since then they have branched out their friend group “We know people from everywhere and we have friends from every country.” Despite having an immediate friend group and getting through immigration easily, there were still a few challenges which they faced. Jorge found language to be the most challenging. “I think for me it’s the language because especially when you come here at our age its difficult to be proficient in English or another language.” Adriana also found it difficult to communicate through their thick Colombian accents. “We never lost our accent; it is hard for people to understand sometimes.” They also struggle to understand kiwi accents, as Jorge struggles to understand his son Camillo who has been raised in New Zealand. Adjusting to a slower pace of life in New Zealand also presented a challenge. “For me it’s a learning for getting slow. Like, not rushing for everything. In Colombia we had a very stressful life. We use to work from 7-6 and take the children to school at 5:30. When we came here we saw that it was so slow, people were more tranquil.”

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For Adriana, what made adapting to NZ easier was the climate, as it was less extreme than in Australia, however Adriana still struggles with the cold. “Coming from a country which had no seasons it’s a bit difficult. The winter here is still quite hard for me, during winter I don’t leave the house much.” For Jorge, having clarity on what he hoped to achieve by coming to New Zealand helped him to persevere through the difficulty of moving to a foreign country. “In my case, I had clarity on what I wanted, because I think that one of the main reasons that people that don’t adjust to a new country is basically because they don’t have clarity on what they want to do. Because even though we didn’t have many challenges with immigration, we were not Kiwis. So having clarity to why we wanted to come here, especially the main reason why to have more options for Camillo and Melissa, and to have a better life for the two of us, so that made it easier.”

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After 17 years of living in New Zealand, kiwi life has become natural to Adriana and Jorge. They both love nature and are naturally outdoorsy people, however in Colombia they always were at risk going hiking due to the cartel threat. “I love the outdoors especially the walking and hiking. We couldn’t do that in Colombia, I did a few times, but it was with a risk. Here there is no risk at all.” Adriana now loves to go outside and see the different landscapes; however, she does have a dislike for the use of pesticides in New Zealand. “The worst thing here probably because it effected my health, is that they use a lot of pesticides. Everywhere in the parks and in the food.” Jorge finds the safety in New Zealand as his favourite aspect. “I think the best thing in my opinion is the safety. The security that we have here. We have had challenges, but nothing compared to the places that we have lived before.” The slower pace of life in New Zealand gave Jorge and Adriana more time to spend with their children, and allowed them to pursue what they were interested in. This led Jorge and Adriana to move on from their jobs in the tech industry which they did not enjoy and become reflexologists, which they are both passionate about. They currently work together as reflexology therapists at their own company, AG Health and Wellness.

You can read their interview transcript here: