Biography:Shanie Matthews is a United States-born and raised freelance wordsmith, entrepreneur, aspiring photographer and passionate snow skier.
After living in multiple countries, she now considers herself a citizen of the world. From a childhood in Bellingham, Washington to adolescent growth in Bavaria, Germany to over a decade of young adulthood in Lake Tahoe, California, her experiences led her to wanting to explore outside the box.
She relocated to Mendoza, Argentina in 2005 with her husband, Jamie, first owning a wine vineyard. They currently live in awe-inspiring Bariloche, Patagonia where they appreciate the impressive views, soaring condors and undiscovered outdoor paradise. She and Jamie share their daily craziness of living abroad in their blog, www.LivingInPatagonia.com .
My Argentine Family
I am not a descendant of an Argentinean or married to one. But I have an Argentine family.
I moved with my husband, Jamie, to Argentina two years ago. I was 32, married three years, had a non-existent biological clock and the feeling that my life was in a rut. We decided it was time to think outside the box. We packed up our life in the United States and moved 7,000 miles to a large, neglected farm in San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina.
Our newly-purchased 65 acre (26 hectare) chardonnay grape, plum and olive farm had a previous employee. He and his family were our only neighbors. Their names, we came to learn, are Juan, Ann, Jorgelina, Maria Sol and Eduardo.When we arrived, the five were living in a small house with another five-member family.They did not have their own place to lay their head at night nor any payment for past work done (except for the small lot next to our farm with a partially built house).
Our first lesson of cultural differences began immediately.We were told by the past owners of the property that Juan and family were good people, but “…were not our friends and shouldn’t be treated as such.”
Jamie and my ideologies in life had a hard time accepting this bit of advice. Despite misgivings, we listened to another person's word instead of being attentive to our intuitions.
We hired a management company to overlook things and employed Juan to work on the property as well. Because of our language barrier and not knowing each other we thought this to be the easiest way to start out.
It was apparent after a few months that the management company was trying to swindle money from us but we weren’t absolutely positive nor had any proof.
The day after Jamie and I discussed talking with the management team about our feelings a huge thunder storm enveloped the dry, arid landscape. The San Rafael area is often hit with thunderstorms of Godly proportions and we were about to see the immense destruction that they are capable of.
The ting of raindrops started hitting our metal roof...within minutes the winds picked up to a steady 50 mph, gusts to 70, and the rain turned to hail. But this hail was the size of a swollen golf ball. When it started to come down, it was in sheets. The view, that only minutes before was sagebrush, the vineyard and river, was now complete white. Visibility was no further than the end of the porch.
Then it was over. The torrents of rain and wind were finished as quickly as they had begun.
Jamie and I peeked out the door. It felt and looked as if we had just been at war with Mother Nature. Large tree limbs were on the ground. Our beautiful, flourishing grapevines had been raped and beaten. They no longer looked like the vibrant plants they were a few minutes earlier.
We started to walk around the vineyard slowly, taking in the damage.
Through the rising mist of the melting hail, I saw a silhouetted figure coming our way. At first I couldn't make out who it was; it was Juan.
He was lingering at an exceptionally large grape vine that had visibly been torn to shreds. He gingerly held the leaves between his fingers. We walked up to him.
“No bueno. El administación es malo, muy malo.”
With broken and reconnected Spanish we began to understand that Juan had seen the management doing dishonest activities with our farm. He knew that we had been trying to purchase protective netting for our grapes that would have kept them safe in a storm like the one we had just witnessed. He gestured that he had seen the management team stuffing their pockets with our money. The lack of action and swindling on their part had helped destroy all of Juan's hard work. He had not let us know sooner as he didn’t know if we would believe him.
Despite the knowledge of being taken advantage of by the management team, it felt as if a load had been lifted from our shoulders. Our feelings had been right. Our hired team was not being truthful with us and our instincts had been correct.
We decided to go with our intuitions the second time around and made some changes. We hired Juan as our full time caretaker. The farm was his canvas; it was his turn to show us what he could do with it. We also hired a full time employee to work underneath Juan. For the first time in his life, Juan was being trusted to show his intelligence in regards to grapes and his ability to be a boss.
Growing up with a father that lived his life toiling soil, Juan learned the ways of the vine from a young age. Given the opportunity, he was now developing his lifelong experience into becoming a true expert of the field.
Juan did amazing things for our farm and in the meantime we did special things for his family. We provided electricity, a roof, windows, furniture, house wares, clothing and other needed items. We even bought Ann dentures; it was an incredible feeling when we saw her new, beautiful smile.
With time the language barriers came down and the family that we were once warned against became our new Argentine family. Their love, trust and ability to teach us the little importance of materialistic values was, at times, overwhelming and always heart-expanding.
When we chose to sell the farm, Juan's family was one of the main reasons we were sad to do so.
On our last night on the farm the family came to wish us goodbye.
We gathered in a group hug to say our farewells. As I felt the warmth and affection from Ann and Maria Sol on either side of me, I realized that I was hearing the sniffles and short breaths of tears being shed. Tears flowed down my cheeks, as well.
This was a grand life lesson; follow your heart and love will follow. These five people are now a part of me. My Argentine family. They are the truth of Argentina. There are wonderful people here. It doesn't matter if you live or travel to Argentina; the people are worth the journey.
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