Q: How old are you?
A: 34 years old.
Q: Where are you living right now?
A: I live in Córdoba.
Q: Do you have any children?
A: 3. The oldest is fifteen and the little one is four.
Q: How many years have you been away from your country?
A: Since 2008, ten years.
Q: How was your life before leaving your country? Did you have a job? How was your economical situation? How was your family life?
A: I was working as a kitchen assistant in a 5 star hotel. One day I realized that I was making more money selling music records, so I did it. Finally, I came here.
Q: How did you get on with the money in Romania?
A: Well, because I had my family. They helped me a lot… I was 14 when I left my home and my parents didn’t agree. They were gypsies and it was very difficult. I went with my boyfriend. My parents sold their house and they had to buy a cheaper one. So, my uncle who lived in Alicante and had a construction company gave me an apartment here in Romania. I lived with my mother, my older sister had separated and was with us. I felt very overwhelmed so I came to Alicante.
Q: What was the family situation like?
A: My parents had a very good house, very big. But when my father saw that his daughters were living a bad life, he made his own decisions. He separated from my mother and he got together with a younger woman. With the help of my current husband, my mother came with us.
Q: Before coming, did you have children in Romania?
A: I had my daughter, who is now 15 years old.
Q: Who did take care of her?
A: My mother. I helped financially and my mother took care of her.
Q: How was the relationship with your Romanian neighbors?
A: I got along well with everyone. The problem was that I lived where my uncle gave me the apartment where there was a lot of drug trafficker. I started smoking horse, heroin … But I was not dependent. I was more dependent when I came to Alicante. I thought I can´t give up drugs.
Q: What was the relationship with the police, authorities?
A: I have never had problems with the police.
Q: The treatment received by the authorities, services, etc.?
A: There is a difference between Romania and Spain. For example, when in Romania men beat women, the police do nothing until they kill them. My husband beat me, my sister’s husband beat him, and the police did nothing.
A: There are many people who have told us that when they went to the doctor or to public services, they did not take care of them very well.
A: I went to Romania in March to ask for documentation so that my current husband can put his surnames. I spent a lot of time to get the birth certificate. To get my id, too. I like to go to my country, but when I’m there for a week, I just want to return to Spain. I’m more relaxed here, people are more respectful.
Q: What happened to you to decide to come to Spain?
A: Because to the situation in which I lived. I wanted to come with my daughter’s father. My husband’s parents were in Elche. He worked a few months in a garage, but soon we got hooked on horse/heroin and cocaine. A horrible life. Stealing in Mercadona and Day to get the drug. Then, one day I was with the Red Cross and the woman from Elche told me that I was very young (I was 25 years old) and that I had a very small daughter, that I was worth a lot and was losing my life. Then, one day I left my husband, well, my excouple. I took my daughter and left him.
I couldn’t live like this. He went to Romania and I was an accomplice of a friend. He broke the windows of the cars and stole the gps, mobiles, etc. of the cars.
I couldn’t live like this. He went to Romania and I was an accomplice of a friend. He broke the windows of the cars and stole the gps, mobiles, etc. of the cars. Then they caught us, they saw that we had phones, GPS, etc. in the bag. They put me in the dungeon, social affairs took my daughter away for 5 years. When I saw that my daughter was not there, it was terrible.
I decided to enter a detoxification center, the Red Cross took me. When I left after two weeks, I told them that I wanted to leave Elche and change my life. I wanted to leave everything. Then, they brought me to Córdoba, I stayed in a center for two weeks.
They gave custody of my daughter to my mother. My mother had a lot of problems with the consulate to take my daughter to Romania.
On September 29, I met my current husband because I asked him for a cigar. We were walking and he told me that if I wanted a cigarette I would ride on his motorbike.
Q: Have you been in other countries than in Spain?
A: I’ve been in Italy because I have an aunt in Milan, but just for holidays.
Q: When you decided to leave Romania and come to Spain, did you think you would come back to Romania?
A: I did not even realize what I was going to do. When I came I did not know what I was going to do or what was going to happen, but I have always fought hard and thanks to God and thanks to my husband I am like a queen. Now he is sick, but he has always given me everything. We have three wonderful children.
Q: When you left Romania, did you have any perception of what awaited you in Spain?
A: No, because I came with my daughter’s father who wanted to set up a workshop. I wanted to change the rhythm I had there in Romania selling records to support my family.
Q: When you arrived in Cordoba after everything that had happened, did you have an idea of what could happen?
A: I had no idea. I had not even imagined having a stable home and a family.
Q: What do you remember from your first day here in Spain?
A: I thought it was really beautiful. I arrived on the floor and had 4 rooms, a hall, a very long corridor. Everything was great and I liked it very much. We have learnt to speak Spanish talking with people.
Q: Were you living in that apartment the first days?
A: We lived for months there.
Q: Was it hard for you to find a job?
A: The father of my daughter did not let me work because he was very jealous. It was overwhelming, he controlled me a lot. I never gave him reasons to be jealous, I met him when he was 14 years old. Luckily I am now with a Spaniard who is not jealous at all.
Q: What do you like the most and what do you like the least about Spain?
A: What I like the most is the people, the city of Córdoba. What I do not like is how much it costs me to pay attention from the Sevilla mother’s unit.
Q: Where do you spend your holidays, in Spain or abroad?
A: Always here, as a family. I am very excited about the Holy Week in Cordoba.
Q: Who has stayed in Romania?
A: Now they are there: my grandfather on my mother’s side, my grandmother on my father’s side, my little sister, my father and my mother.
Q: Who was in charge of your daughter when you were in Spain and she in Romania?
A: My sister and my mother. They fought a lot for my daughter. I had to prove many things to be able to recover her custody.
Q: How did you feel during that period when you were not with your daughter?
A: I was terrible, I had a very big depression. I was even in the hospital.
Q: During your time in Spain, have you sent money to Romania?
A: No, I had no money. I only had money to survive. My family even sent me my money from Romania. I have just sent packages for birthdays.
Q: How do you prefer to communicate with people from Romania?
A: WhatsApp and Skype.
Q: Do you usually call more or do they call you more?
A: They call me more than I call them, because I do not have much time because of the children.
Q: Do you feel comfortable in the conversations you have over the phone?
A: Yes, I’m happy and they know that.
Q: Did you learn to use the computer here?
A: No, I already knew how to do it in Romania.
Q: Has there been a time when you needed to contact someone from Romania and you could not?
A: Yes, but I could not because I did not have money or a computer.
Q: How did you contact your daughter when she was not yet in Spain?
A: I had a friend in Elche who sometimes left me her mobile.
Q: Is there something you miss to be able to communicate with people who are in Romania?
A: No, because I talk to them.
Q: Was there a time when you had to tell something to your mother and you didn’t want your daughter to find it out?
A: Yes, because my daughter’s father called her and told him that her mother had died. My daughter had to go to psychologists. My ex-husband did it because he wanted to take her to France. I wanted to talk to my mother, but I did not have a phone and I was desperate.
Q: Do you think your family in Romania are better now that you are living in Spain?
A: What I know is they love me more than before. They are very happy for me because they see that I have sat down well.
Q: When was the last time you were there?
A: I was in May 2017. I was there for three weeks.
Q: When you were there did you feel that they treated you differently?
A: They did not stop celebrating my arrival, they were all very excited.
Q: When were you in Spain, is there someone in Romania who has had a serious health problem?
A: No.
Q: Are your friends and family members there better or worse than you?
A: Everyone is doing what they can.
Q: Did you know the language before coming to Spain?
A: No, but I watched a soap opera in which they spoke in Mexican.
Q: Right now, you just develop in Spanish?
A: Yes, I speak Spanish and Romanian.
Q: Do you dream in Spanish or in Romanian?
A: Every night I put the news of Romania on my mobile, but I really like Spanish. The truth is that I do not know in what language I dream, I think I do it in Spanish.
Q: Do you have a lot of friends here?
A: Yes, my neighbors are like another family. They are all Spanish except me.
Q: Do you have contact with any community of Romanians in Cordoba?
A: Yes, sometimes I go to an association and I tell them how it is going.
Q: What have you lived in Spain is what you thought that was going to happen to you before coming?
A: No, I thought that this was another world. But in reality you have to carve out a future anywhere in the world.
Q: Would you change something of what you have done here?
A: I would do totally different things.
Q: Would you move to another country right now?
A: Not at all.
Q: Would you go back to Romania right now?
A: No, just for holidays.
Q: Have you ever thought about bringing someone else from your family?
A: Many relatives have come to visit me.
Q: What would have to happen for you to return to your country?
A: This is a very difficult question. I do not want to live anymore in my country, I like Cordoba.
Q: Perfect, that’s all. Thank you very much.
A: Thank you!