A Busy Spanish Mother & Researcher

Araceli Munoz

My name is Araceli and I’m 42 years old. I was born in Barcelona, a big city on the coast of Catalonia famous for its modernist buildings and its museums. I’m married and I have two children: a son, Marc, and a daughter, Marta. Marc is eleven years old and Marta is nine. This is my nuclear family but I have an extended family too. I have parents, three sisters, six nephews, thirty-two uncles and forty-eight cousins. This extended family is also very important for me. I’m in Dunedin with my husband and my kids but I miss my sisters and my nephews a lot.

All my family lives in Barcelona. My father is Catalan, he was born in Barcelona. My mother was born in Andalusia, in the south of Spain. This is the reason why I speak two languages: Catalan and Spanish. When I was a child my father sang me traditional Catalan songs. Now I like singing these songs to my son and daughter before they go to sleep. I love my children and I would like to have had more, but my husband says that two kids are enough. My children are charming but they don’t allow much free time and I’m always very busy.

When I lived in Barcelona, I worked and studied and my days were very long and I did a lot of things. I worked in “The Institute of Childhood and Urban World of Barcelona”, a research institute about childhood and the family, where I researched into social issues about childhood and health. After working, I played the clarinet and I sang in the choir of a music school, because I love music. But I also needed to do sport and, at night, when my children were sleeping, I went to a gym. So, I practise kick-boxing and I am currently a brown belt in Mugendo (a martial art).

My family and I arrived at Dunedin five months ago because my husband will begin a Master in Business and Administration at Otago University next February. Besides it would be a great opportunity for my children to learn English and I could finish my PhD thesis. In Barcelona it was very difficult to finish it because I was very busy with my work, my children and my home. Nowadays, in Dunedin, I’m not working and I’m going to try to finish my thesis. The subject of my research is how children perceive and understand health and illness, from an anthropological and sociological perspective. I did my fieldwork in Primary Schools in Barcelona and I worked with children between six and twelve years old.

But if my level of English improves enough, I would like to do a postgraduate course in Public Health at Otago University in the second semester of 2010 too. These are two objectives that I will try to realize for next year. And I hope that my classmates will able to achieve their goals and plans as well.

Good luck!