Hi, Tamarindo listeners. This is Brenda reaching you from my holiday vacation in Mexico with family.

So don't mind this quality of audio. I am not in a studio for this intro, but the interview is in a studio.

So that'll sound great.

On this bonus episode of Tamarindo, you'll hear journalist Mariano Avila speak about retache media,

bilingual stories and resources for returnees from the U.S. to Mexico.

Retachados are people like Mariano who are reestablishing in their home country of Mexico.

We learn Mariano's story and the mission behind Retache, which is focused on supporting

returnees as they navigate their way through Mexico's bureaucracy, society, and culture.

Like Mariano, I am working on my own journey back to Mexico and I've taken

the steps to make this dream come true sometime next year. And the 60,000 plus people who follow

Retace on Instagram tell me that I am not alone. I sat down with Mariano at Sonoro Studios in

Condesa and this conversation is fantastic. so let's hear his story now.

Welcome to Tam Marindo podcast.

Hosted by me, Brenda Gonzalez, a fitness coach, political nerd, and nonprofit capacity

builder.

And me, Delsey Sandoval, a Guatemalan American licensed therapist and passionate creativity advocate.

Together, we're here to uplift our community through powerful conversations

with change makers, creatives, and healers. Each week on the pod, we talk politics, culture,

and personal development. Listeners called Tamarino, the advocacy and self-love podcast.

Let's start the show.

Welcome, Mariano to Tamarindo. It's so good to see you in person here. Thank you so much. Yeah, we've been talking for a while.

Yes. Okay, so very excited to have you here on this bonus episode of Tamarindo. We're releasing it off-season because I was just too excited to do this. Well, thank you. So I'm happy to do this. So, okay, for our listeners that may not be familiar with you, let's start with you first. Tell us a little bit about your background and what brings you to Mexico now. So I was born here in Mexico City, way south of where we are. I was kind of born and raised in the Koyokan, Chimaldistak area Okay. And I lived in San Angelo. I lived in Tlalpa. And I loved kind of all over the south. And my parents are academic. So we would bounce back so they could get a master's, come back, save some money. Then they'd go get a PhD, come back, you know. But at 21, many many many years ago

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