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What is the meaning of
Cynthia Salgado speaks with Marco Lopez, a Venezuela native, about becoming a dad and the shift in how he views the word “home.” After moving every few years and lacking a sense of belonging, Lopez is setting down roots in Chicago to provide his daughter with a sense of home.
From mini bars to rubber duckies: Marco Lopez’s journey to feel at home
From mini bars to rubber duckies: Marco Lopez’s journey to feel at home
Click here for audio transcript
I thought home was mobile. My mom loved to move and everything was temporary around her and so home was wherever she wanted it to be. So home was everywhere and anywhere I wanted it to be, you know?
My name is Marco Lopez. I was born in Venezuela, a very long time ago now. [He laughs.]
Yeah, um, I came to the US when I was seven years old. Like, halfway through second grade. Aside from, like, living in different places, I feel like I grew up the most –and I use “grow up” in, like, quotations – became who I am today in Boston. But as far as, like, the journey, I just remember, like, you know being here.
It was difficult not having family and stuff around. Um, still is, but it’s a very long journey. It hasn’t ended yet. That’s that’s the thing too, so … [he laughs].
Because I moved around so much, in my childhood and in my adulthood. That’s why I say everything’s temporary, right? So I never decorated because I knew I was moving, whether it was a year, or two years or whatever, it didn’t matter. So it’s weird. Like, there’s internet memes about, like, oh, a guy’s apartment never has anything on the walls and they just have, like, a mattress on the floor and whatever. Okay, mine wasn’t like that. I always had a bed frame. But, like, the last apartment I have, and now this one – I am making it home.
Like, decorating your space to be more of you. Whether it’s your personality, whether, like, you don’t like this one wall, you want a different color – that makes it more home. You have to make it, you have to put yourself, a little bit of yourself into the physical space around you. And, that was new for me.
Trying to figure that out … Like, I recently figured that out, like, two, three years ago? Yeah, right before my daughter was born. And it was her being born that was, like, you need to make this place yours. Having some things semi permanent for my daughter, some more, something more stable because that’s something that I want to provide for her. I want her to travel and experience, but I don’t want to move her to a new school every year.
So, um, kind of her space, we’re thinking we’re going to make her room right here in this corner. She’s gonna have a little bed and I want to decorate this corner with her colors. Um, so we’re either doing, like, the lilac or keeping it white, but getting, like, she loves ducks. Like, she has, like, rubber duckies. [He laughs.] So I’m thinking of getting pictures of, like, rubber ducks, just putting them all over that wall right there.
I hope that Olivia interprets the word “home” kind of as a feeling. I want her to be comfortable. Like, when you’re home you’re, you feel loved right? You feel that warmth inside? That’s what I want for her. I want her to have a sense of belonging.
Uh, she’s just so, she’s just so great. Like, I love our little, little family that we have.
So this is, this is home. Yeah. They, they are home for me.
I’m not going to cry.
Marco Lopez doesn’t remember exactly how he made his way from Venezuela to the United States. When asked, he describes it as “just being here.”
He was seven when he migrated.
“It was difficult not having family and stuff around,” said Lopez. “Still is, but it’s a very long journey. It hasn’t ended yet.”
Lopez, his brothers and mother traveled back and forth between Florida and Venezuela for a couple of years.
His father stayed behind running the family business to provide for them financially.
But during all this back and forth, Lopez’s parents separated. And the frequent trips back to Venezuela suddenly stopped. Lopez, his brother and mother moved to Massachusetts shortly after.
For almost a decade he did not speak to his father.
“My mom loved to move and everything was temporary around her and she was a very tough woman that did everything she wanted to, so home was wherever she wanted it to be,” he said. “Home is mobile.”
Lopez moved so frequently that he went to three different high schools in two different states.
At 16, Lopez struck out on his own. He eventually settled in Chicago after living in several places across the country during his 20s.
A young Marco Lopez stands in the garden of his family’s house, named Karajitos, in Venezuela early 1990’s. The greenery is what he remembers the most, and he says he hopes to recreate a similarly welcoming atmosphere in his current home in Pilsen.
COURTESY OF MARCO LOPEZ / NEXTGENRADIO
Since movement was the norm for Lopez, he never really bothered decorating his apartments. Though, there was always one constant: the mini bar. This was inspired by his many years working in the restaurant and bar industry.
“The last apartment I had and now this one – I am making it home,” he said.
LEFT: Marco Lopez carries his daughter Olivia outside of their home on June 22, 2023. Lopez says Olivia is the reason he feels it’s time to leave his nomadic lifestyle behind and establish roots in Chicago. RIGHT: Lopez says this was an opportunity to start from scratch and mold this space into the vision of home that he and his partner have in mind.
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Lopez plans to put up decorations and fill the space with greenery to provide the comfort he experienced in his childhood home in Venezuela. It was named Karajitos, after a pet name for him and his brothers.
The three story home had an open floor plan, a full size pool,10 foot walls and an indoor garden.
“The home itself housed so much of my family, and it was like all happy times,” said Lopez. “You could really be kids and the house was big enough for us to have fun.”
He recalled the toy room having a television, Disney posters and gaming consoles.
“We had a rug that was this navy blue…that filled most of the room and we would sleep on it,” Lopez said. “And people were asleep on the beanbags and the pullout-weird futon thing. It was just a little piece all to ourselves. And our family would just be over all the time.”
“I think that’s so awesome, to have roots.”
That same feeling of home is what Lopez is now trying to create for his daughter, Olivia. She plays with the same bean bag chair her dad played with in Venezuela. It’s a direct line between Lopez’s new home and the one he left behind.
“I can’t wait to tell her the stories about the beanbags and how we used to put them at the bottom of the stairs and use the lid of the toy box to slide down those stairs into the beanbag so we wouldn’t break anything,” he said.
He said his partner, Azalea, is surrounded by her family in Chicago and has childhood friends from kindergarten.
“My partner was born here. She lived in this house, you know what I mean…I think that’s beautiful,” Lopez said. “I want Olivia to have that. I think that’s so awesome, to have roots.”
His excitement is clear when he talks about ways to make Olivia’s room comfortable for her. He said he and his partner are already facing dilemmas about how the space will come together.
“We’re trying to figure out what she likes the most,” he said. “She loves the color yellow, but she loves dinosaurs. She also loves ducks.”
It’s been a long 30 years since Lopez first came to the United States. During that time he experienced a lot of change and movement. But he finally has a place where he can put down roots surrounded by the people he loves.
Marco Lopez poses with his partner Azalea Lopez and daughter Olivia on a family trip to Hawaii on November 1, 2022.
COURTESY MARCO LOPEZ / NEXTGENRADIO
LEFT: Marco Lopez sits on one of the bean bags that he played with during his childhood in Venezuela. He shares this piece of his old home with his daughter as they sit in their new home in Chicago on June 22, 2023. RIGHT: Marco Lopez’s uncle Trino Perez holds him as an infant in 1986 in Venezuela. His uncle eventually joined Lopez and his family, becoming a best friend, brother and father figure to Lopez.
CYNTHIA SALGADO / NEXTGENRADIO
COURTESY OF MARCO LOPEZ / NEXTGENRADIO