Viva la Mami - Latina Motherhood, Modern Parenting, Latina Well-Being

127. We're Moving to México!

• Jessica Cuevas • Season 5 • Episode 127

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The secret is finally out - my family and I are moving to Mexico! In this episode, I'm joined by my husband as we share the announcement that's been two years in the making. We're relocating to León, Guanajuato with our boys, and I'm so excited to bring you along on this incredible journey.

I open up about how this decision came together - from our four-week trip to Mexico that changed everything, to the stars aligning with our current living situation, and most importantly, our boys being at the perfect age for this adventure.

What You'll Hear:

  • The real story behind our two-year planning process and what finally made us take the leap
  • Why we chose León, Guanajuato over other Mexican cities and how it balances big city life with family proximity
  • How the Viva la Mami Collective is evolving to serve Latina moms globally
  • Why this move isn't just about us - it's about giving our children core memories in our motherland

For detailed show notes, visit vivalamami.com/episode127

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Jessica:

with Mexico, I mean we thought that this would make much more sense just because it's connected to our Cultura, it's connected to our families. You know, we're only one generation behind, if you will, from like being disconnected or away from the the motherland. And so what a great way for us to come back. And for us to bring our little kids. And I think, like Alex said, like I think that is our inspiration. Our kids are kind of like the force between this so that we can do something different. And again, just like the stars aligned very well for us. So if you ever, you know, pay attention to that. If you ever pay attention to fate or you know, just like any signs, right? Like take that as a sign. Like maybe it's time for you to it. Time for a change. Yeah, exactly. Everyone, thank you so much for being here. So as you see, I have a, an empty chair, and that is because I am very excited. To have a special guest like I shared with you all who we will be sharing a very special announcement. I have this Instagram Live and I will be posting it later on tonight for those of you who couldn't join us. But I will also have this video on, on YouTube, and as well as on the podcast. But thank you all for those who have recently joined. I'm very, very excited to have you all here. You have no idea so. Without further ado, I'm going to bring over my guest just so that we wouldn't take too much of your time here. So my special guest, as you probably know, is my. Husband. So, you know, I, I wanted to have him here because I think it is very important to share with you all of this big announcement that we have. And it's so funny, I have gathered a mix of responses as to. What is next in line for, for me and for Viva Ami and for our family really in general. And so we are very excited to officially announce that we are moving to Mexico. And so this is why I wanted to bring Alex here with me because obviously he is a part of this. We've been. This has been pretty much like two years in the making. We knew that we wanted to move to Mexico, but we just didn't know when the time was going to be right. We didn't know, you know, whether if right now is the perfect time, or later on, you know, all of us have our hopes and aspirations and dreams to eventually go back to the motherland, but for us it definitely came sooner. And so us as first generation folks are kind of, you know, we're doing this right reverse migration. And I think that it is very important to talk about that because you know, we all someday hope that we would return or some of us. We have been ingrained it, it has been ingrained in us to not even consider going back to Mexico because of outta survival. Our parents had to, were forced to move out of the country, and we still envision Mexico as that way. But in all honesty, over a year and a half ago, we went to Mexico for like. Four weeks. We stayed there for four weeks and we literally saw ourselves there. And Alex, I don't know if you wanna say anything about that.

Alex:

No. Yeah, for sure. First of all, thank you for having me. I feel super honor to be in front of your, your followers here, and hopefully, I don't know, I can bring some excitement here. No. Yeah. But to answer your question, for me personally, just like how Jess said when we went over there about a year and a half ago, I fell in love with it. Right. I mean, I've always been, we've always been city people and that's where we're gonna be going to. It just gave me personally that big city vibe that Chicago gives us, right? Mm-hmm. And I'm not saying, I'm not comparing that both of they're the same. You know, obviously each has their own individualistic characteristics, but León is León. It's beautiful. And that's where we ultimately decided to, to move to.

Jessica:

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that this is the perfect time and I will be answering a couple questions that people had asked. So if you haven't signed up to the newsletter, to the Viva AMI newsletter, I did share this with my subscribers as well as the Viva Ami Collective community in advance about this. And I did have a couple questions about. Our move and, and really right now, we felt like it was the right time just because we have two little ones. You know, as you know, we have two little toddlers who are two and four years old, and we felt that right now we could definitely take advantage of that just because

Alex:

they have no friends. Yeah. They, they, they don't have like an

Jessica:

established friend group here or you know, I know that as they get older, you know, they might. Pushback on a lot of things. Like I remember when I was a teenager, I would be so unappreciative of going to Disney World for some reason, and so let alone doing a big move like that. And so. We felt like right now is the right time. And for those of you who haven't followed us for a long time, currently in the space that we're in, we're in a living situation where we are homeowners to a three

Alex:

three flat

Jessica:

building in Chicago. And so we knew that eventually we could always move out and then rent it out. And so that's something that, you know, didn't keep us kind of like restricted in terms of our current living situation. And

Alex:

yeah, we definitely give ourselves a year tops. Live here to here because a one bedroom, one bathroom with four people definitely gets on into your mind. So yeah, that was definitely a big contributing factor for us to make this move.

Jessica:

Yeah, and essentially, you know, we gave ourselves a deadline. To live here for a year. And we were like, okay, well what is the next move? And you know, we were trying to look at the conventional things, right? Like trying to look at, trying to find better jobs, better paying jobs to afford another mortgage, because we don't wanna, you know, sell this property. This is sort of a, a, a real estate and investment property. And so for those of you who don't know what house hacking is, we did talk about this actually with Alex here on the, on the podcast. We did share about, you know, what it's like to. To house hack and kind of building that generational wealth, but. Yeah, so if we felt like right now was the right time to do that, because everything seemed to align very well with us and our current season of life, and so, yeah. I can't believe it. We are moving to Mexico, which is wild. Yeah, so it, you might hear this. Place a little echoey just because we are slowly getting rid of our stuff. We got rid of like some furniture, but not all. I think within the next couple of weeks we will be kind of getting rid of some things just. Because that's the nature of doing a big move.

Alex:

Check off Facebook market, buy some stuff

Jessica:

for those of you who are in Chicago. Yeah. And so, yeah, like, you know, one question was like, what made you decide that now is the right time to make this move, especially with two young kids. And so. You know, I already said, you know, right now we felt like it's the great time because they are little. But it's also so that, you know, I don't know about y'all, but like growing up, at least my grand grandma used to take care of me. Myta used to take care of me. You know, Alex had a very positive childhood experience like. Those, those are core memories that I personally have at least, you know, like the, the first five years of my life, maybe up until maybe I was like eight years, everything else is a blur because you're kind of in this preteen stage. But at at least for like for me, like I really wanted to have our kids create this like core memory and that is of Mexico. And I know a couple friends, in fact my hairstylist, she. Lived in Mexico for a year and, and she was like, oh my gosh, I remember how fun it was like my siblings and I loved it. And so, you know, we felt like, okay, right now. Maybe we can create this kind of once in a lifetime experience for our kids. And so if anything, we're doing this for our children just that way they can be immersed in the culture, they can be integrated with just like having this bicultural, bilingual experience, not just from the United States but in our motherland. And one of the questions was, why now? And especially with our kids. And so I don't know if you have anything else. To share?

Alex:

Yeah, I mean, just like how Jess mentioned that obviously one of the biggest contributing factors was that Diego and Mateo, they don't have like any established roots here in terms of like friendships or like friends or whatever. So yeah, hopefully they can build some of that over there in Mexico. And for me personally was, I told Jess that one of the biggest things that if it didn't happen for me, mama knows right? It was, I was looking for a promotion in my job, didn't happen. So just like I just said, the stars were aligning. So once I, I got that bad news, Hey, you know, let's make this good news and let's get outta here.

Jessica:

Yeah, yeah. And so there's a lot of ways that you can kind of go about this, right? Like you can't either. Leave your job. I know a lot of families who leave their jobs and just like start a new chapter in their career, in their lives really. And they start a new and, and I think that's the beauty with us. We are able to, I don't know, just create some, like start a new chapter in our lives. It's just like when we get married, it's just like when we graduate college, right? There are so many milestones and I think all of the decisions that. We've made, we, we did it mutually. We did it through, you know, just like listening to each other. Mm-hmm. And, and honestly, I don't know whose idea it was, it almost like, it was just like, we were, well, but you too. You were like, you know what, let's just go. And so like, I think we were planting the seed for each other and then it, it happened. One of the questions in advance that we received was, where in Mexico are you moving to? And why did you choose that specific location? So Alex a answered that earlier. But we are moving to Leon Guanajuato, which is one of the largest metropolitan cities in the, in, in the United States, in Mexico. I think it's the sixth largest city I believe in Mexico. I'm, I'm, my family's from Guanajuato. And so, you know, a lot of people are like, well, are you moving there because your family's there? And actually my parents are currently there, and my grandparents live there too. I think it's. Helpful to have my family nearby. They're gonna be about an hour away. But honestly, I loved Leon, and often people don't talk about Leon. When you think about Guanajuato. People think about San Miguel or Delogo or Guanajuato City and the big surrounding cities. People often think about Guadalajara and Guro, but. You know, we really like Leone because it created that balance between, you know, the big city, but also it's not as big, like Mexico City. I love Mexico City, and we were thinking about moving to Lada, Mexico, but we were like, no, that's too big. Like, yeah,

Alex:

it's, it's mindboggling how big that place is. Yeah. It's really

Jessica:

big. And so we're like, you know what, maybe Leon is a good sort of like in between. In between, yeah. Especially for us city folks like who ha grew up in in Chicago. I think it's a happy medium to to be in a city like Leon. And then the other second part is, oh, I guess when are we planning to move? And so we are planning to move in the next two months, so yes. Mm-hmm. Please send us well wishes, prayers, or whatever. Like, it's going to be a lot of work, to be honest, just because, you know, we have to have everything kind of. Set, I guess with the apartment, right? We wanna get it rented out. So if anyone's in the Chicago area, and if you know anyone who lives in the city and wants to rent, like feel free to reach out. Let us tell, yes, let us know. But it's also just like the logistics of getting there. And so I will be sharing content about that just because there's a lot of information about relocating to Mexico, but this is more so out of the expat perspective and or. People who are. Don't identify as like Latin American or Mexican for this specific example. And so, and yeah, so we're coming in from a different lens, from a different experience. We are children of immigrants. I've obtained my dual citizenship. Alex is still working on his, that process is gonna be a little lengthy, to be honest. Mm-hmm. But I'll be sharing that as well. And so we come from a different vantage point than other people that wanna move to Mexico, who. Don't have any roots, if that makes sense. And so, yeah, we, we will be sharing a lot of information about that as far as with our adventure, let me see, I'm getting, there was

Alex:

a question here from Uhhuh. Yeah. They're saying what type of work will you both be doing While they're my partner, my partner and I have been planning, planning to move to India, to Mexico.

Jessica:

Yeah.

Alex:

So I could kind of briefly answer that one. I'm still gonna keep my job my, I'm fully remote. So I'm super, super blessed to have that, you know, this position. So that's basically what I'm gonna be doing my, the same old nine to five job, but in a different location.

Jessica:

Yeah. Yeah. And for me, I am currently unemployed, but you know, through Eva la. You know, I, I'm o open to receiving, whether if it's partner, brand, partnerships, sponsorships, whatever it is, speaking engagements. I'm currently working on that and I'm also working as a contractor and so more like freelance. And so the benefit is that we are earning US dollars. Mm-hmm. And so that is a privilege, right. But I always say like, this is part of the American dream that our parents. Left and are, do, have done for us, right. They came to this country so that we can have some advantages. And one of the advantages is that being bilingual, being bicultural, you know, we're able to really navigate this and you know, just leverage, kind of like our existence, right? As, as people who can be from here and from there, if that makes sense. Another question that was asked. Uh, what are you most excited about and what are you most nervous about with this big change? So what makes you excited, Alex?

Alex:

For me, what makes me excited is making these new memories with my family. Right. Getting to watch my two kids, not be enclosed in our little house, you know, if we want to go outside, let'em go outside. And yeah, just pretty much having new experiences in a different country. Right. And yeah, just exploring every day pretty much that that's what, that's what I'm personally hoping to do. Yeah. And as far as what makes me scared, the logistical part of it, right. Right now we're currently trying to look for, for an apartment. What I'm kind of worried about is the actual drive down there. Being in a car with two little ones is a freaking cat.

Jessica:

Yeah. We haven't shared that yet. Yeah. But yes, we are planning to. Drive from Chicago to mm-hmm. To embark on this move. A lot of people just like fly to, to relocate, but know we're actually gonna bring our car and talking about legalization and plating our car to a Mexican plate, like, that's gonna be different. And so again, there's a lot of things that, you know, it's not just like, grab your bags and leave, right? Mm-hmm. There's so many logistics and for us, we are planning to live there for a minimum of a year. So we are giving ourselves at least a year to try this whole thing out and, you know, see how this works. But we're also open, we're open to, you know, staying there for a couple years. And for me at least with my current season of life, like I, I am a stay at home mom, right? Like that is my full-time job. I am a stay at home mom and we are going to enroll the kids to school. So actually. If y'all haven't been following me or have seen my stories, I, I went to Mexico alone with the kids last week. Or is it gonna be two weeks? I, two weeks? I don't remember. Two weeks. Yes. And we were there for a week because we were, we went to the school where we decided to enroll them. We, during our spring break, we visited a bunch of schools and we decided to enroll them into one where they're both gonna be together. It's gonna be, and both. Kids will be there, and that will allow me, you know, to focus on Viva la Mommy and, and creating different and new content for you all. So feel free to share any, you know, suggestions or topics that you want us to talk about. But yeah, the, you know, we, we have thought about this and you know, it's not just about, like I said, packing our bags and leaving like, no, this is very logistical. It's very formal. It's like legit, it's legal, right? Like we are. Again, not, not going there as like tourists for 180 days. We are going there as citizens

Alex:

365 days

Jessica:

minimum. I have a question here, so let's see. Is there a timeframe of staying in Mexico? Yes, so I did answer that and so yeah, like we we're planning to stay there for at least a year and then go from there. Let's see. Another question that was asked, how are you preparing the boys for this move? Are they excited about living in Mexico? Okay. To be honest, Diego, specifically, if y'all haven't heard him talk, this kid only speaks Spanish. You know, right now he's in that age where we, we have fully immersed him in in the language, right? Like. It's 100% Spanish, everything everywhere. With the exception of school. Right now, school isn't like fully 100% Spanish, but had we stayed here, it would be dual language after this year. But this kid, I kid you not like, is obsessed with anything Spanish speaking, obsessed with the culture, obsessed with Mexico in general and even in the winters he would, he would be like. And I was like, okay, well if, if this is your goal, then hey, this dream is about to happen. Yeah. And so I guess we officially told them And specifically Diego, right? Yeah, because Diego's four and Mateos two, but we officially told Diego like, Hey. How do you feel about us moving to Mexico? You know, or you know, how do you feel about going to a different school and meeting new friends? And so just like having those initial conversations and it's really equipped him to have a better understanding of like, oh, we are moving to Mexico. And honestly I think he is excited more than anything. Mm-hmm. I think he's very excited for us to road trip down to Mexico. He's excited to meet new friends, like. He got to visit his school, his future school, as well as Mateo, and they interacted very well with the, with the students, the teachers. They love the playground that there is. These kids are. Super active kids, and I know that Mexico is very outdoorsy. I mean, and yes. Okay, we're moving to a, a, a location in Mexico that isn't considered like hot, right? Like it's pretty mild, I would say in the winters. And for us, I mean mild is like what? 40 degrees or, you know, like for us. Yeah, yeah. Like we're used to having 20 degree weather in the, in the city of Chicago. So

Alex:

I'm gonna be the one that's struggling because I start sweating at 70 degrees. Yeah.

Jessica:

Well I, so, yeah, so I think the kids understand the concept and we are working with them. So for those of you who haven't heard or known of this yet, Diego. Is currently going to therapy and occupational therapy, and both therapists know about us moving to Mexico and they're helping him with sort of like a transition plan. That way it's not going to fully like hit him hard, but you know, I think. He, he's excited. I think he's ready. Excited. Yeah, he's definitely ready. He's ready. He's

Alex:

more ready than we are, honestly.

Jessica:

Yeah. One question that I had was, what about Viva LA and the Viva AMI Collective, which is my in-person community? And so for ami, we'll start out with that first. It's still gonna be the same, right? It's still going to focus on Latina motherhood. It's still going to focus on how we can redefine mahood as modern Latina moms and how we can sort of reclaim our culture and mold that into this modern parenting, right? And so this is still the same premise, but now that I will be living in a different country and especially. In a country where my, our family comes from, I think I will be able to share a better perspective. Right? I will be definitely sharing more content about our experience. So what we've decided to do, and, and Alex is partnering up with me here, we will be creating a a, a series of YouTube videos. So it will still be under my YouTube channel, Viva la. But there will be unique playlists about our stay in Mexico, our relocation to Mexico, where it will be kind of like, like vlogging lifestyle, but also just like educational videos.

Alex:

Yeah. Sharing tips and tricks. Right. We'll be making all the mistakes, so hopefully you guys won't have to,

Jessica:

especially for those who have shared that they, this is a dream, right? And so we will be adding more content specifically on YouTube, but also on social media. So please stick around, you know, and, and I'm always welcome to receiving feedback to receiving. You know what your thoughts are, if you have any topics that you want us to, to talk about. But yes, we will be sharing more content as it relates to our official move to Mexico. As far as with the Viva Ami Collective, and I did share this with the community members, I am in the process of revamping it. You know, initially it was a, it essentially was a monthly kind of in-person. Mommy meetups that we would do. So each month mammies would meet up in person around the Chicagoland area, and then we would also offer virtual workshops kind of con, I always considered it like the, the professional development of motherhood, right? Where we talked about different topics and how we can best be the, a better version. Of ourselves through this lens of mothering. And so I am planning to revamp it just a bit. So I still wanna have a community just because I feel like there's so many benefits to it. But it will definitely be more of a virtual setting, which I know it's, it can be disappointed, especially for us mamas who lived through the pandemic. We wanna make those in-person connections. But trust me, I mean. There's a, a lot of different, you know, platforms that offer in-person meetups, and I'm in the process of, you know, trying to figure out if I can gather a couple ambassadors where they can host these in-person events, you know, based upon, you know, the area that they live in. So there's still more to come, but I will let everyone know about, you know, this. New makeup of the Viva AMI collective. I do see an importance and I have received really positive feedback about this, especially the mentorship program. But I, I also wanna scale to a different level where, you know, we can be inclusive of like mama's outside of the Chicago area, so that way, you know. We can have more mamas like, trust me, and I've gotten requests from mamas in Texas, Puerto Rico, Australia, Colombia, so like different Latina moms that are just navigating, you know, this unique journey and having this kind of sense of, of this dual identity where they are mamas, but also Latinas and how that really impacts the way that we parent.

Alex:

Just excited for this new move. So, yes. Yeah. So

Jessica:

like I said, a lot of new content. Coming up as it relates to our official move to Mexico. We'll still be around here in the Chicago area for the next two months, but you know, we will. Yeah, embark on this new journey and I'm very excited to have you all here. You know, for us to share all of this to you. I think it's, it take this as a sign that if you ever wanna make change, I think it's doable,

Alex:

right? You make it happen. It,

Jessica:

yeah. You can make it happen. And I think a lot of us are. Scared to, to do big changes like this or were just like comfortable.

Alex:

I for sure was, I definitely for sure was scared,

Jessica:

but, you know, props to you, you know, like I think I, I've always told that I was like, I'm, I'm, I'm such an adventure person that I, I've always envisioned myself. Living outside of the country. You know, at first it was like what Ireland and then Italy and now

Alex:

everywhere she visited, oh, I wanna live here.

Jessica:

But obviously with Mexico, I mean we thought that this would make much more sense just because it's connected to our Cultura, it's connected to our families. You know, we're only one generation behind, if you will, from like being disconnected or away from the the motherland. And so what a great way for us to come back. And for us to bring our little kids. And I think, like Alex said, like I think that is our inspiration. Our kids are kind of like the force between this so that we can do something different. And again, just like the stars aligned very well for us. So if you ever, you know, pay attention to that. If you ever pay attention to fate or you know, just like any signs, right? Like take that as a sign. Like maybe it's time for you to it. Time for a change. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, thank you all so much for the lovely comments. I appreciate it. I don't know. That's it. Yeah, that's it. Okay. That was it. This video will be obviously posted on my Instagram account, but you'll be listening to this as the audio version on the podcast, and it will be posted online on YouTube as well. So all these different channels, and that way we can reach out to more folks. But thank you all so much for tuning in and. Bye.