From Guatemala to Sweden by choice

By: Gabriela Morales

José Luis Guerrero is a 46-year-old man born in Guatemala who currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. He moved in 2011 for a scholarship to get his master's degree from the University of Uppsala. At first he felt lonely and wanted to return to his home in Guatemala, but soon he made friends and got used to culture.

“One of the things that shocked me the most at the beginning was the influence of the weather on people,” Juan Luis tells us; in Sweden the four seasons are well marked, “November is characterized by its low solar radiation, because of that people are less friendly and they all look kind of sad. It's 3 in the afternoon and it's already dark, as if it was 9pm in Guatemala.” Juan always liked how the city colors changed when the seasons passed, a big difference with Guatemala in which there is really no change of seasons. The second thing that impressed him most is that people don't really use cars, something very different from Guatemala. Traffic in this country is null and all roads give priority to cycle paths, "I learned to only use a bicycle to move from place to place, and I think it is one of the best habits."

The interviewee mentions that it was very important for him to have strong social relationships and to be surrounded by people who not only made him a better person, but also made them better people. He was very surprised that people were very friendly and everyone treated each other as if they had known each other for a long time. The culture was very polite and “All the people take off their shoes when they enter the house, and if it was a party they wore shoes to wear inside… women wore their snow boots to walk on the street and their heels to be inside. ” Juan Luis admires that people are very simple and always seek to share what they have to anyone, people almost don’t go out to eat because it is very expensive, so they get together in houses and eat.

Juan Luis decided to move completely because of the safety and simplicity of people, “being in Guate one always has a certain fear that something bad might happen, here I don't feel that way anymore. I like my family to be well and at ease at all times. ” His final decision was when he fell in love with his current wife, a Swedish girl he met, while studding in Uppsala University. Now they have a house and a 7 year old son. Juan Luis comes to visit his family every year and they will visit him, he is very happy and thinks that the cold is worth living there.