Thursday, October 3, 2024
Lylian Nielson, whose Portuguese-accented Spanish was evident throughout our conversation at a Green Bay café, is a four-year resident of Green Bay where her daughter attended school.
“I spent the first 22 years of my life in Chile. I grew up in a family of very few means to make ends meet. So, I promised my mom that as soon as I concluded my education, I would focus on caring for her” Nielson said.
She said her mom sacrificed a lot for her.
“It wasn’t easy. To be able to complete middle school, high school and a college education, I had to work while enrolled in school to cover the cost of it all,” she said.
After completing a degree in technical design, she worked as an engineer.
She said her work was in Chile’s capital, Santiago, but she grew up in San Bernardo, Chile.
At the age of 22, Nielson found a great work opportunity in Brazil.
She unexpectedly received residency, contingent to her move, at the Brazilian embassy in Chile due to the fact that they were looking for engineers in Brazil.
“It all happened very quickly. I had to learn a new language in three months” Nielson recalled.
In spite of her move from Santiago to Sorocaba, Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo, Nielson said that she missed her mom terribly.
Yet, she said she adapted to the “busy working life” there, to the point that she would call “samba land” home the following 24 years of her life.
“I had a boyfriend in Chile, Max; he wanted to go live to Australia. But I had already made arrangements to go to Brazil. So, he came to Brazil” Nielson said.
They got married in December 1978.
She said their marriage ended 18 years later.
“He did not want to spend life with me. We grew apart. He changed,” Nielson said.
They had a daughter together, Denise.
“She wanted to come study to the United States, which she eventually did. I then had to learn English” Nielson said.
Before their daughter was born, Nielson said she still treasures a moment while in Brazil when she heard a conversation between a mom and her two little children at a store that made her fall in love with English and maternity.
In 1999, Nielson moved to Green Bay.
“My daughter, who studied at NWTC, needed me because she had a health problem,” she recalled.
Nielson recalls that the ESL program at NWTC in Green Bay helped her gain a better understanding of the English language after her move to the U.S.
She said Green Bay’s cold winters shocked her quite a bit coming from Brazil, but her “Chilean roots” eventually helped her adapt.
Nielson said her mom died three years ago at the age of 82.
She said she kept sending her mom money.
Her regret is her dad, who made a lot of money but spent his earnings socially-drinking and partying with his friends.
“My dad, who was German of origin, also physically abused my mom. He was 21 years older than my mom. I disliked the life my dad led. He never helped my mom. I begged my mom to leave my dad, because I hated seeing her suffering, but she relied on my dad and did not have studies or options to live on her own,” added Nielson.
Nielson said she misses a good Portuguese conversation, and Portuguese music — full of love. “They have bossa novas here but they are all in English, although their origin is in Brazil,” she said.
Nielson said she had been so busy working in the past few years that she did not know many places in the area.
“Now that I am retired, I am starting to rediscover Northeast Wisconsin — everything I missed all these years because of hard work.”
