People

‘Winters are tough but I love living in Mayo now’

New to the Parish: Gabriela Meade Díaz arrived in Dublin from Mexico in 2016

Gabriela Meade Diaz with her fiancé Enda and their dog Bailey at their home in Mayo Abbey, Co Mayo. Photograph: Keith Heneghan

Sorcha Pollak's face
Sorcha Pollak
Wed Sep 22 2021 - 06:00

When Gabriela Meade Díaz's flight landed in Dublin in 2016 she instantly felt a connection to Ireland: "I don't know how to explain it but it just felt like I was coming back to a place I already knew. Everything fell into place very quickly. I never felt out of place, ever."

Born in Mexico City, Meade was brought up in her mother's hometown of Tulancingo, northeast of the capital. She has warm memories of growing up in Mexico in the 1990s, a time when she says children could ride their bikes around the streets and always feel safe.

“As a teenager I felt safe too. In our minds and our parents’ minds there were no dangers, it was a very free life. But it’s not like that any more and that makes me sad. Even now I’m scared to go out at night when I visit.”

It was tough to deal with male clients who made comments that would not be welcome to any woman in the world

After finishing school, Meade moved to Mexico City, where she studied international relations before finding a job with the finance department of one of Mexico’s political parties. She loved the city but found the work demanding.

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"What I love about Mexico City is you can do whatever you want; it's really culturally rich, with loads of theatre, cinema and music. But in the end I got tired of the city; all the noise and people started to bother me."

She also became increasingly uncomfortable with the corruption she witnessed within Mexican politics. “I saw all the money coming in and out of that party and I realised corruption was ingrained in people’s minds. There are still people who want to make change happen, but it’s very difficult and I became disheartened.”

She left politics to work in digital marketing, only to find the sexist culture she’d experienced in her previous job was also part of this industry. “It was tough to deal with male clients who made comments that would not be welcome to any woman in the world.”

We came from Co Cork and my ancestor left Ireland just before the famine in the 1830s. His brother went to Chile

After a decade in the Mexican capital, Meade decided to apply for master’s courses abroad. Keen to study through English, she applied and was accepted onto the Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Political Communication at TU Dublin (then DIT) and started packing up her life.

Having made the decision to move to Ireland, she asked her dad more questions about the country where her surname came from.

"My dad has a subscription to My Heritage and had traced our family back to the 1300s. We came from Co Cork and my ancestor Richard Meade left Ireland just before the famine in the 1830s. His brother Dennis went to Chile first to help with the independence movement. But then things went a bit wrong so my ancestor helped him get out of Chile and they went to Mexico. They realised they had a lot of opportunities to make a life there."

When Meade touched down in the Irish capital in 2016, she didn’t plan on spending more than two years in the country. She quickly settled into life in Dublin and made friends with other students from her course.

“One of the things I really noticed was I felt safe in Dublin. We Mexicans are always looking over our shoulders to check if someone is behind us. I realised I didn’t have to live with that fear here and started to relax.”

I had moved from a city of 20 million people to a city of 1.5 million people and then a small village of just dozens

After nine months in the city, Meade starting dating an Irish man, Enda. “I don’t think either for us were looking for something serious, it started as a friendship. But then one day we just realised we were in love.”

As part of her master's, Meade spent eight months interning for Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry in Leinster House. She found the Irish political environment different to Mexico's. "The first thing I noticed was the way I was treated as a woman. I didn't feel people were just looking for something from me because I was a woman. Everyone was also interested in Mexico and asked questions. Why was there a Mexican girl in the Irish parliament?"

After the internship, Meade began working with a PR agency. But then her boyfriend decided to move back to his hometown in Mayo to start his own business. The couple continued a long distance relationship until Meade decided to join him in the village of Mayo Abbey.

At first she struggled to settle into her new rural home. “I had moved from a city of 20 million people to a city of 1.5 million people and then a small village of just dozens. I didn’t have my Irish driving licence yet, so every time I needed to go to town Enda had to drive me and that felt weird because I’m used to doing everything on my own.

“I also couldn’t find any jobs. I found out that in Mayo you have to be referred by someone; if they don’t know you it’s very difficult to get work.”

Eventually Enda’s mother helped Meade secure a job in a medical supplies company, which she began in April 2020, just as the pandemic kicked off. “That job kept me sane. I was actually going into work Monday to Friday so I saw other people. It gave me routine.”

A year and a half on, Meade has fallen in love with Mayo. “I think it was a mindset change. I was feeling a bit like a victim and then realised, this is not the way to move forward. I needed to make an effort to meet people. Winters are tough but I love living in Mayo now.

“I’ve found myself here, I’ve healed, I’ve learned of my Irish ancestors, I’ve changed in many ways and I’ve found love, not just from my partner but from his entire family and friends.

Meade and her boyfriend are are getting married in Mexico next year but plan to stay living in Ireland “for the foreseeable future”. “I love Mexico with all my heart and I’m extremely proud to be Mexican but at the moment I’ll stay in the Emerald Isle.

“I think my connection to Ireland is deeper now, especially because I’ve been reading more about Irish history. It helps me understand the way people think in Ireland, the relationship with the North and with the English. But I don’t think you can fully understand a place until you live there.

“I like the resilience of the Irish people and I think it’s amazing what the country has done in 100 years, how far it’s come.”

[ newtotheparish@irishtimes.com ]

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