Born and raised in Puerto Rico, I came to Orlando with my family in my teens. Family decisions brought us here in a hurry in the summer of 1990, and my brothers and I were awed to think that we were about to move to a place less than an hour from paradise, also known as Walt Disney World. We outgrew the excitement and rapidly settled down to a normal life in the suburbs of a big city 2,000 miles away from home. We also learned to accept that, from there on, two separate reference points would define our lives, one in the states and the other in our homeland.

Our life in Orlando was different, laid back and serene on many levels. Without the company of a big extended family – grandparents, aunts, cousins, tons of friends – we worked our way through the novelties of life as a close-knit nucleus of four, slowly etching a life for ourselves in a whole new world. The vastness of the place, the silence of the neighborhood, and the distance to almost anywhere constantly reminded us that this was not anything like Puerto Rico. We were familiar with the language and became fluent in no time. Then came friends and parties, frequent visits by our family from Puerto Rico, new relationships, college, driver’s licenses, part time jobs, the whole bit.

Our comfort level aside, nothing compares to living in our island. Puerto Rico is warm all year, lively, fast-paced, colorful, musical, and friendly. The capital city, San Juan, is no larger that 8 sq miles but is home to 2 million inhabitants. Even the many who live in the suburbs work in the city and suffer the traffic jams that are a daily part of their commute. In sharp contrast to the calm and quiet in Orlando, and the orderly comings and goings of the people of Central Florida, Puerto Ricans flock to shopping malls and supermarkets, and sports and entertainment activities at a lively pace. Politics takes on a life of its own by the hour, and the Latin blood is always avid for the day’s happenings and lots of gossip that is rapidly replaced by tomorrow’s news. Life seems to rush by frantically and is complicated by the social problems that are shared by many societies, but these loom larger and more complex when there are crowds in motion everywhere you go.

Hands down, we have grown accustomed to Orlando over Puerto Rico, though our visits there are always memorable and at times full of family drama. But there is no denying that no matter how sedate and comfortable our lives have become in Orlando, home is always where the heart is, and our hearts are in Puerto Rico.