Colombian couple moves from Canada to Merida

What began as a teenage affair is today a consolidated dream of entrepreneurship, which led Yessica Reina and Jhonny Quintero to “leave everything behind” in Canada to move to Mérida, Yucatán.

The Colombian couple, who saw the birth of their three small children in the North American country; did not think much about it before having to pack their bags and embark on a trip full of illusions, their destination: Mérida.

In this city, described as one of the safest in Latin America, the Quintero Reina family has been writing a new story for just over three months that they share in an interview with local media, where the question that was constantly repeated on Jessica’s TikTok; that reached more than a million reproductions when he told his decision: Why?

And it seems that Canada, as several stories of this short video application show, is now the new “American dream” for Hispanics, by offering competitive salaries and job or entrepreneurship opportunities.

The couple’s story began at the age of 15 in the case of Yessica, who, together with her mother and brothers, left their native Colombia to start a new life in Canada, which separated her from her high school sweetheart Johnny.

Four years later, social networks brought the couple together again, Yessica visited Colombia; and shortly after that, Johnny was already migrating to Canada with his now-wife.

Like any young couple, the work to obtain their assets when starting their family must have been constant, but in a few years, they managed to buy their house through their entrepreneurship: an online sales business.

First, they migrated to Puerto Morelos in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo; but once in Mexico, they discovered Merida and decided to move down to the “White City”.

In the short time they have lived in Mérida, in addition to experiencing the gastronomy of the region, they have also managed to integrate into the community and receive the warmth of the people around them, not only from Yucatecans but also from the Colombians who have decided take root in the land of the Mayab.

For Jhonny, learning from his wife that the key to abundance lies in sharing was an important piece to growing the business plan that today allows them to generate income in dollars, while their expenses are in pesos; being a strategy that they have decided to share on social networks through YouTube and TikTok.

They want these platforms to help young couples like them to better manage their finances and demonstrate that, while today many choose not to get married, much less have children; there are families and couples – like them – who struggle every day to improve their quality of life in Merida.

Yessica Reina can be found by name through Instagram and her YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdd0JmOpIQi8mtTNXYvSEyg) where she shares her daily life as a mother of three children, a migrant, and now a resident of Merida discovering Yucatan.

The Yucatan Times
Newsroom

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