Living in Uruguay: Mariamna Oliveira

Mariamna married a Uruguayan man almost 20 years ago, without imagining that she would end up raising her children in this country. Nor would she end up being a fan of barbecue and Carnival. He decided to arrive in winter, thinking that if he endured difficult weather then everything would be easier. And he wasn't wrong. He has been working at Infocorp since 2016, today as project manager and his main advice for anyone who wants to emigrate to Uruguay is “don't look for work in December”.

Q: Hello Mariamna, tell us how and when you arrived in Uruguay.

M: I arrived on July 14, 2015. My husband is Uruguayan, but he had been living in Venezuela for 40 years. He left during the dictatorship and had returned to visit, but all this time he was there, his eldest daughter is also Venezuelan. I had never been to Uruguay. When the situation in Venezuela became complicated, we had young children and we began to consider the idea of him coming for a while to see how he was doing. At one point we decided to come and visit but with the idea that if we liked it, we would stay.
I said: we're going in winter, because if I endure the winter I think I can stay. And the truth is that I was not mistaken. In the beginning we came here for 3 months and we began to consider the idea of staying, I think the thing was already half decided because the situation in Venezuela was in a tailspin, getting worse and worse.

Q: What did you know about Uruguay before you came?

M: I knew something. I knew about Pascualina, and something about what people were like, but for me the truth was a big unknown. What I had were the memories of my husband who told me “when we get down there the cold is going to be horrible, a cold that you can't take away with anything” and I said “if I put up with that cold, then the rest can be overcome”. But I don't think he even had the memories, because when we arrived here and he saw the beach, the rambla, he said “why did I leave?” At first we came with a lot of contradictions, besides, we didn't come alone, but we came with the two children. I have an 8-year-old boy and the girl is 11. We came with our fears plus their fears, because it's like a total uprooting and fighting against what you're feeling, plus what the kids are feeling is a challenge.‍

Q: Tell us about your work at Infocorp.

M: Today, specifically, I am a project manager at Infocorp. And the truth is that my start at Infocorp coincides with the moment when I feel that everything started to go better in my life in Uruguay. For me it had been quite hard because I had left my job there and it was to start from scratch. As much as in the area of technology the unemployment rate is zero, it is even negative, and even getting in the area that I liked was difficult. Because I don't like the programming area so much, but rather being an analyst or being a project manager, which is what I had been doing in Venezuela. Today I am happy. I really like the environment, the people I work with, I made a lot of friends. I really like the fact that here in Uruguay friendship is given a lot of value and that is encouraged in the company as well.

Q: And any anecdote about your work at Infocorp? Anything like that that you remember as special or fun?

M: I have several, but I was remembering when I started at Infocorp and precisely the subject of the interview was for me quite an anecdote. I was about to return because I couldn't find a job or I couldn't find a job that I was comfortable with when they called me from Infocorp. On the day of the interview, a horrible day, with horrible rain and I had gone to do the psychotechnical and then one of the bosses of Infocorp comes out and says “Mariamna we're going to take advantage of the fact that you came to do another interview” and one, two, three came in like 4 different people and it was still raining outside and I imagined that it was going to come out very quickly and no, people kept coming until at that moment they told me “well look, since it's raining so much, we don't want you to go and come back, we wanted to do it once and for all proposal”. And that's when I accepted the job and here I am, four years later.

Q: And any interesting anecdote from your life in Uruguay?

M: I have a lot of them, but for example I already have citizenship, but when I started three years ago with the subject of citizenship, my brother-in-law used to joke me a lot and told me that if I didn't drink mate they wouldn't give me citizenship and I bought my mate, I made the effort but I didn't like it very much. I'll stick with the Dulce de Leche! It strikes me a lot because it's like something social, so I always say, but if I drink coffee, if I drink tea, does it matter? But I know it's not!

Q: What would you say or recommend to a foreigner who is thinking of coming to live in Uruguay?

M: I would recommend that you search the networks for information about the country, I would recommend that you do not look for work in summer, it's very complicated because everything stops from December to March. That's an important fact that I would have liked to know before coming. I would also recommend that if you come in winter that you don't make any effort to bring a coat, especially if you are from the Caribbean because we in the Caribbean keep warm and think that we are very warm and when you arrive here you realize that none of the coats you bring are suitable for you. Maybe you know a little bit about the subject of what it's like to rent a home. Many people say that Uruguay is an expensive country, but it seems to me that the quality of life is well worth it.

Q: And what do you miss most about Venezuela?

M: The friends, the family, because I don't miss food anymore because there are already so many of us, so there are already many places where you can get Venezuelan food and sometimes we have taken Infocorp to share as well. They like arepas!

Q: A slightly different question: if you could choose to travel to the past or to the future where would you go and why?

M: I'll tell you something that's a little emotional, but it was the first thing that occurred to me. I would return a couple of years ago to give my grandmother a kiss, because my grandmother died last year, around this time, and I have her very much in mind right now. And in the future I would travel to some time where all this topic of isolation happens to meet the people we love and give them a hug.

Pingpong

An Uruguayan meal?

The barbecue

An Uruguayan soccer player?

Cavani

A place in Uruguay?

Montevideo, specifically the Rambla de Malvín

Carnival yes or no?

Yes, I love it, I really enjoy it.

An Uruguayan custom that you adopted?

Get up or go to bed later

A Uruguayan song or artist?

Eduardo Mateo

A month or a date of the year in Uruguay?

I like November because it's my daughter's birthday and it feels like spring.

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