- Evelyn Peck Vasquez became concerned about Michigan’s lack of diversity and how it would affect her four children.
- She and her husband decided to sell their Michigan home and seven rental properties for a profit of $177,000.
- Although they can only afford a two-bedroom apartment in California, they say the benefits outweigh the higher cost of living.
We were vacationing in Florida and at breakfast in the hotel when my 5-year-old son made a remark that left me speechless: “Mom, we don’t speak Spanish.”
And it was true. That morning we were surrounded by a large group of Spanish-speaking people. A mix of Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican accents could be heard in the background. Three other guests had sat at our large table because no other seats were available. My son was amazed to watch them bow their heads as we said a prayer, while salsa music played.
His reaction reminded me of the importance of diversity and made me question the sense of community in Lansing, Michigan. When we got home, he continued to ask why no one in our neighborhood spoke Spanish. I felt sad and explained to him that there were many more different nationalities in Orlando.
Lack of diversity drove us to leave Michigan.
We never planned to stay in Michigan this long, never expected the lack of diversity to have such a noticeable impact on our children, and it wasn’t until we heard our son’s comments that we realized we needed to get out.
My husband is from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, my father is from Cameroon, and I grew up in Cleveland, where my mother was born.
My four children were the only bilingual kids in our neighborhood, and as they grew older, they lost sight of the value of speaking two languages and always resisted our efforts.
Besides the lack of bilingual friends, I began to notice something else very disturbing: my children, who had lived their whole lives in the same town, were beginning to close themselves off. There was a shared belief in our area that our community had everything we needed, and very few people were interested in exploring the outside world.
I was scared that all the efforts I’d made to diversify my life — traveling, living in Mexico briefly, speaking multiple languages – would be wasted by the culture around me. It took us another five years to leave, but when a pandemic rocked our world and an unexpected opportunity presented itself, my husband and I grabbed it.
After selling our house and rental property, we moved
We sold seven rentals and our primary residence with the goal of buying a home in California and broadening our children’s horizons.
In April 2021, we moved 3,000 miles west to a small town in Southern California. The increase in diversity was evident from the beginning: My daughter made several bilingual friends in kindergarten and first grade. I was amazed at how many kids spoke Spanish, not to mention a long list of other languages.
In our new home in Simi Valley, 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the Hispanic or Latino demographic is 26.2 percent, nearly double that of Michigan’s capital city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
I’ll never forget the first day my oldest son, now 20, came home excitedly from his job at McDonald’s offering to help train new employees who only spoke Spanish, after years of complaining that he was forced to speak Spanish.
For the first time, he seemed proud to be bilingual, and his three younger children have had similar experiences, helping to translate for new immigrants in class or enjoying speaking Spanish with their bilingual friends.
Rising housing prices have made it difficult, but I have no regrets
Three years later, we’re still paying $2,600 for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. This is evidence of the biggest challenge we faced: housing. The combined proceeds from the sale of eight homes in the Midwest totaled $177,000, which is still not enough to buy a house. Zillow puts the median price of a home in Simi Valley at $846,159. Many of these homes are half the size of our house in Michigan.
We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our high school graduates could potentially qualify for two years of free community college education through the California Promise program, which waives application fees and, in some cases, tuition fees for first-time students. This was great news for our large family.
Overall, the sacrifices we made to move to Southern California were worth the benefits of living in a melting pot, and we would do it all again.
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