The first time Rodrigo Losa left his country, he was 18 years old.

He traveled from Quito Equador to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lived for a year with the Schmidt family.

Rodrigo was one of many young Latin Americans doing this in the 70s.

At the time, there was a boom in foreign exchange programs for students coming to the U.S.

In that trip, my father started to consider the Schmidt grandparents, part of his family.

Carolina is Rodrigo's daughter.

She had always thought of her father as emotionally withdrawn and a little bit of an outcast.

So she wondered how this American couple who spoke no Spanish ended up becoming almost like mom and dad to her father,

a reserved Hispanic man from the Ecuadorian Highlands.

She couldn't understand this until she took her own trip to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Welcome to the Duolingo Spanish podcast.

We bring you true bilingual stories about travels with unexpected turns, plans unraveled, and destinations unknown.

The Spanish in this story is for intermediate level learners, but if you get lost, don't worry.

We'll be chiming in throughout the story.

Carolina's trip started when her dad got some bad news.

Tom Schmidt, his host father from his year in Ohio, had suddenly died.

In their family, they called him a boil of Schmidt.

He was 95 years old.

Para mi papá fue difícil procesar la muerte de la vuelo Schmidt.

A veces se sentaba en el sofá en silencio sin hablar, mirando al piso, caminaba sin dirección por toda la casa.

Si mi mamá y yo hablábamos, mi papá movía su cabeza sin realmente escuchar.

Rodrigo was inconsolable over his former host father's death,

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