In May 2024, after 32 years dwelling in Southern California, Karina Nuvo hit a wall.
Coming out of a pandemic-induced lull in the singing gigs that made her completely satisfied and left her feeling fulfilled, the two-time Grammy-nominated artist discovered herself below an unbelievable quantity of stress.
She’d taken on jobs as a actual property agent and property supervisor at a Pasadena residence constructing the place she’d had a string of tough moments, together with encountering a tenant lifeless in his residence.
Nuvo was additionally busy caring for her octogenarian father.
“I couldn’t focus on singing, I couldn’t focus on real estate, I had to put my dad in an assisted living facility. My health just took a toll, it was killing me,” says Nuvo, 55.
By May 2024, with the political local weather in the US on tenterhooks once more as Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign swung into full tilt, Nuvo says all of it “just felt like too much.”
“I made a decision that I was leaving, that I was going to Europe. The job stress was what pushed my situation, but also politically I just couldn’t fathom what was coming,” she says.
She advised her dad and mom about her plans to go away.
It was then that Nuvo’s father, Jose Novo (Karina makes use of a modified spelling of this surname professionally), reminded her that they’d at all times had a method out, a path to attempt dwelling a completely different type of life in Spain, since they have been ready to apply for citizenship in that nation.
Novo was born in Camagüey, Cuba, and came to the United States for a better life at the age of 21. But his father (Karina’s grandfather) was born in Spain, which entitled each him and his youngsters to pursue citizenship by the ley de nietos (the “grandchildren’s law”).
Also referred to as the Law of Democratic Memory, the ley de nietos, set to expire October 21, 2025, grants descendants of Spaniards persecuted throughout the Spanish Civil War and subsequent Francisco Franco dictatorship a path to Spanish citizenship.
Nuvo advised her father, then 87, she would go to Spain and submit her utility for Spanish citizenship there.
“His response was, ‘Please, I don’t want to die here in this place,’” she says. So she requested him if he wished to transfer there together with her.
“He didn’t even hesitate, he was like, ‘Yep,’” Nuvo says.
So, she set to work promoting most of their worldly possessions on Facebook Marketplace, packed a few suitcases and put her plan into movement.
The solely time Nuvo and her father had tried to journey to Spain collectively was on a cruise that left from Fort Lauderdale in 2022. He received Covid lengthy earlier than they made it to Spain. They had to disembark from the ship in the Azores, the place she checked her dad into a hospital.
“It was the only time I tried to take him to Spain, and I failed miserably,” Nuvo says.
So earlier than leaving California, Nuvo advised her father, a bladder most cancers survivor, that that they had to be on the similar web page. If one thing related occurred as soon as they moved to Spain — if he received sick and wasn’t nicely sufficient to stay of their new shared dwelling — he might need to return into assisted dwelling there. Jose agreed.
Nuvo set to work trying for a place for the two of them to stay, tapping the actual property web site Idealista for potential leases and speaking to brokers to work out the greatest location in Spain for a transfer.
Originally, she says, she was set on Málaga, alongside the Andalusia coast, however was dissuaded by the housing costs. A dealer instructed Nuvo take into account the close by Costa del Sol city of Fuengirola, about 20 miles south, which has equally flat terrain that will be straightforward for her father to navigate, as nicely as a decrease price of dwelling.
Nuvo was nonetheless in California when she discovered a practically 1,200-square-foot residence in the city with two bedrooms that seemed good. It was a few blocks from the seaside and had a view of the glowing Mediterranean from the balcony.
“I went, ‘oh my god, it’s dad’s dream, by the ocean,’” says Nuvo. The month-to-month hire was 1,050 euros (round $1,150), a fraction of what they’d each been paying in California to stay.
After a cease in Miami on the method to Europe, they landed in Spain in September 2024 with six items of bags and her dad’s walker and wheelchair in tow.
“I have a photo of dad in front of the apartment right after we got to Fuengirola with a huge smile. For me, though, because of the emotional trek it was to get there, I went into a full panic attack at what I’d done,” Nuvo recollects.
She referred to as her son, 20, who’s in school again in California, and cried, expressing her doubts. But he assured her it was all going to be OK.
Just a week after Nuvo and her father arrived in Spain, her mom and stepfather, Gloria and Cesar Tarafa, came to go to for 15 days. “We’re a modern family, everyone gets along,” Nuvo says.
Nuvo’s mom and stepfather have been born in Cuba, like her father, however had spent most of their lives in Miami, and later, California. They had been dwelling for years in a fixed-income grownup group in Monrovia close to Pasadena.
It didn’t take lengthy earlier than Gloria and Cesar, then 87 and 73, determined they’d make the transfer to Fuengirola, too. They each even have the proper to apply for Spanish citizenship since they’ve dad and mom or grandparents who have been born in Spain.
The couple, who’re retired, returned to the US from their Spanish trip in October 2024, bought practically every thing they owned and have been again in Fuengirola a month later. They moved into the residence Nuvo shared together with her father and set about making use of for Spanish citizenship.
Cesar says the political local weather in the US and value of dwelling in the Los Angeles space each contributed to their determination to go away.
Cesar first went to Spain shortly earlier than his fifteenth birthday (the age when army service was obligatory for Cuban youth again then), when his dad and mom despatched him away from the island to stick with household pals close to Madrid. (He later left for the US).
He and Gloria, who met in Miami as members of the Cuban diaspora there, had additionally vacationed in Spain on a number of events and loved it. And with Spanish as their mom tongue, imagining a transfer there was straightforward, he says.
“We decided we have to make sure we enjoy our lives for however many years we have left,” he says, including that he knew the high quality of life in Spain — and, specifically, Andalusia — was good.
“The culture is also very akin to our culture in Cuba. Cubans have a lot of similarities with the Andalusian way of speaking and expressing ourselves, moving our hands and exaggerating. So we knew if we were going to make the change, it would be to this part of Spain,” he says.
Cesar says the couple’s way of life has modified for the better as a result of they will “do more with less” in Spain.
“You don’t even have to spend a lot of money. You can just go out and see people walking and see the nightlife. This city is alive. People go to dinner at 9 or 10 o’clock at night,” he says.
Back dwelling in Monrovia, the couple would normally be in for the night time at 6 p.m. he says, watching TV.
“Here at 6 o’clock you’re having a merienda (snack) and then you go to dinner at 9. And the funny thing is people don’t rush you at restaurants. You can have a cup of coffee and sit down at a table for two hours. It’s just a whole different mentality,” he says.
Cesar admits it’s taken some getting used to Spanish paperwork and issues shifting a little bit slower in contrast to the US, “but the overwhelming quality of life here is just undeniable. We’re just trying to be like a sponge and suck everything in.”
Cesar in contrast his latest departure from the US for Spain as eliciting related emotions as when he first left Cuba way back, since each instances he left every thing behind.
“I knew when I left Cuba that I was not going to be back ever, and I have the same feeling now,” he says.
Gloria says the individuals, type and way of life actually communicate to her in Spain. She left Cuba as a younger lady, when she was recruited to work as a flight attendant for PanAm in Miami. She and Cesar lived in Florida for a few years earlier than shifting to California.
Their American life was so completely different, particularly throughout the years after the pandemic, she says.
“Our life there was OK. Half of my life is there, and I miss family members. But I have to try to enjoy what is left of me. I’m 88, I’m not young,” Gloria says.
“Here, we go downstairs and have coffee, we sit there and talk. In Monrovia there was no social life for us. I might go to my son’s house or a friend’s once in a while, but that was it,” she says.
“The quality of life here is life. The food, the people and the weather in this part of Spain, I just love it.”
By January of 2025, Nuvo’s father, Jose, was having well being problems, she says.
It was changing into far too troublesome for her to care for him at dwelling. So collectively they made the troublesome determination to transfer him into an assisted dwelling facility in February in close by Marbella, about 20 miles west of Fuengirola.
Nuvo says she felt very responsible and puzzled if bringing him to Spain had been a mistake.
“But then he’ll just tell me he loves it. He spent months enjoying Fuengirola. And now he says he’s sitting out looking at the ocean in Spain, eating his favorite foods like tortilla española and croquetas and speaking Spanish with everyone,” she says.
The facility prices 2,300 euros (about $2,500) a month, far lower than his assisted dwelling facility in California, and it consists of bodily remedy, entry to a psychologist and all dwelling bills and meals as nicely as every day actions.
Nuvo talks to her father every single day on the cellphone and visits him twice a week in his non-public room with a balcony overlooking a lush backyard, which she says feels extra like a palace than an assisted dwelling facility.
The major purpose she moved from California to Spain, Nuvo says, was for a better high quality of life and “saving our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.” It’s a purpose she feels she’s to this point achieved together with her household.
She and her mom and stepfather just lately moved into a bigger three-bedroom rental residence in Fuengirola with sea views from a sprawling balcony proper in the middle of city. The location permits Cesar and Gloria to get out and stroll to every thing with no automobile wanted and proceed having fun with their new Spanish way of life. The hire is 1,400 euros, or about $1,500.
Nuvo says her dwelling bills in Spain in contrast to Los Angeles have been practically halved. Once she will get her work allow as a citizen, Nuvo says she plans to get again to what she loves doing for work — pursuing singing gigs round Europe and serving to people who find themselves additionally contemplating a transfer discover real estate opportunities in Spain.
She loves California, she says, nevertheless it was time to go. And she has no regrets.
“Things still take my breath away here, just the kindness of everybody. They have a cherishment and appreciation for their lives. And the elderly are treated like royalty.” she says.
“Even with everything that’s happened, even with my son still living in California, I can’t explain it. I feel like I’m supposed to be here.”
As for her father, Jose says his complete life has been an journey, and he chalks this expertise up as one other one.
“I left Cuba when I was 20 years old. So, from there on I went to Costa Rica, working for my company. Then I went to the Dominican Republic to work for another company. So, it’s been one adventure after another adventure,” he says.
He has no complaints about the assisted dwelling facility in California the place he was dwelling earlier than he left.
“People there were very nice to me. And I had people that I care very much for. People here are very good, too,” he says, including that the price is a large differentiating level and he finds the Spanish facility “more sophisticated.”
As for any regrets about crossing the ocean to end out his remaining years, Jose says he has none.
“Why would I? I’m in the country of my family because my father was born in Asturias, and my grandparents on my mother’s side were born in Galicia. I have Spanish blood running through my veins,” he says.
To anybody who’s contemplating a related transfer, irrespective of at what stage of life, his recommendation is easy.
“Follow your heart — and don’t be afraid.”
Terry Ward is a Florida-based journey author and freelance journalist in Tampa who hopes to at some point relocate together with her household to Europe, too.