The Passport

almost a year after beginning the process of obtaining Spanish citizenship, i signed and submitted my paperwork in front of a notary who will send it to the ministry of justice. and immediately picked up a celebratory bottle of cava🍾

i spent the last year studying and traveling to Albuquerque to take (and pass!) Spanish language and civics exams, applying for genealogical certificates, getting background checked and fingerprinted, and a whole lot of hours running around to various state government offices to collect documents, get the necessary stamps and seals of approval, and get them all translated. when everything was ready to go, i planned a 16 day trip to Spain to submit my documents.

my uncle and i have been working on this process together so coordinated to sign our paperwork together and spend a few days together abroad. i’ve road tripped and traveled alone around the states a lot, but this was my first international trip alone. i covered 5 cities and a ton of miles by foot, bus, train, and plane. i met new friends from around the world, stayed in a few great hostels (one AirBnB with cockroaches too), ate a ton of incredible food and walked it all off everyday, and drank a lot of tasty wine 😋

i wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the whole Garcia family - my grandma spent hours poring over genealogical research for my submission, my uncle kept me on track with gathering all my documents and coordinated all communication with our lawyer in Spain, my cousins in New Mexico fed and housed me many times over the last year.

now, we wait! ⏳