Sylvia was born in Bogotá, Colombia.

She has lived in Bloomington since March 6, 1987. Before arriving in Bloomington she lived in Texas, where she met her husband who is from Bloomington.

She works for Cook, Inc. in quality control and customer service, where she handles calls from Latin America and translates documents.

Recent growth of Latinos in Bloomington

“It used to be a very small community but now it was grown a lot for the last five years. It has expanded to many parts of city, and in the beginning there weren’t many Latinos because I looked…there weren’t any Latinos with whom I could talk except for in the university…the only people with whom I could speak Spanish was when I had exchange students in my house from Venezuela, Colombia…”

Appreciative of U.S. opportunities

“I really like this country. It has many opportunities that many Americans do not realize, but someone who comes from another country knows how to appreciate these things.”