Peruvian Immigrant Invests in Making the Community Welcoming for All
Peruvian professor and professional musician Nayo Ulloa, specializes in the Quena, an Andean pre-Columbian flute, and singing. He plays music from all the Latin American countries, but specializes in Peruvian music, including the main three folk styles of Peruvian music: indigenous pre-Colombian music, music from the coast, and traditional and contemporary Afro-Peruvian music. In 1981, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, invited Nayo Ulloa to come to the USA to perform and teach Peruvian music. Fortunately for Nayo Ulloa, his ability and persistence of the Berkeley student, that become Nayo's first wife, allowed him a fast visa process to come to the USA as an immigrant. “I was quite lucky, because my immigrant story is not as difficult as some of my other fellow immigrants,” he says.
In fact, Ulloa was skeptical about America. His dream had been to go to France where Andean music was very popular in the 80s. “France, I thought then, to be more welcoming to immigrants and foreigners,” he says. “I didn't realize that it was quite difficult to come to the United States legally. I realized later how lucky I was. I heard from others that it is difficult to get into the U.S. legally, especially if you are poor. If you have money, you can buy a visa.”
Nayo traveled world-wide in the 80s playing music thanks to the Peruvian embassy in San Francisco, California. Unfortunately, his first marriage ended in divorce after 16 years. After several years of divorced life, he fell in love with his current wife, Heather Bridger, that grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. She had moved to Oakland, California in the 80s and was a singer of Latin American music and Nueva Canción with "Grupo Germinal" of San José, CA. They got married in 2003, and when they had a child, they wanted the child to grow up close to family. So, Northern Indiana become an option, and the family moved to Goshen, Indiana in 2011.
The family settled in Goshen, where Ulloa taught Latin music at the Goshen College Community School of the Arts in the Fall of 2011. Then, in January 2012, he was invited by Goshen College to teach Spanish and Latino Arts and Literature, a position that he still holds.
After a few months living in Goshen, Nayo was surprised to see that the Latino community was very large, but not integrated with the larger community. “Being in Goshen and seeing this lack of interaction between the Latino and Anglo communities, I felt a need to get involved in community organizing, and I did so for a couple of years organizing several Latino organizations. In 10 years, things have changed a lot, and more and more Latinos are involved in local business and politics; I am happy about that," He adds "I have been treated very well here in Goshen. I’ve never been mistreated, really, but I am always aware that I am different from the majority population.”
In addition to teaching, Ulloa has performed as a soloist with the Goshen Community Choral and the Maple City Community Orchestra. He appreciates the opportunities he has received in the USA, but some of his long-standing reservations remain. “I love the United States,” Ulloa says. “I love the people and I’ve had a good time. But even after 40 years, sometimes it does not feel like home. Ironically, when I go back to my native Peru, it does not feel like home either. I guess, I have a divided home in my heart, or maybe, I should consider myself lucky to have two homes.”