Mary Andreina Gomez

I was born in Venezuela and lived there until 2017 when I was forced to emigrate to the US due to the humanitarian crisis and violation of human rights by the regime. I arrived in Boston, where I stayed for two years, and since 2019 I have been living in the city of Durham. I have a son who was born during the pandemic (2021). Since then I have not wanted to separate myself from him and created my business "Adventures in Spanish". Since 2020 I have been teaching Spanish to children, teenagers and adults in face-to-face and online classes and regular Art Spanish playgroups for babies and after school until today. I am also a Spanish teacher for adults at the Chicle Institute in Chapel Hill and was a Spanish instructor of the "Kaleidoscope Play & Learn" method (KLP playgroups) at The Nest Kidzu Children Museum Chapel Hill for a year.

I am currently part of the LEAP ORG team as a Spanish teacher in the 4-5 year old classroom, which fills me with great joy. My training was partly in Venezuela at the Universidad de Los Andes, where I studied a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in Ethnology. Additionally, I studied film production, direction, and documentary scriptwriting in Cuba and Spain. For 16 years, I produced and directed film and sociocultural projects with social impact with communities: indigenous, rural, Afro-descendants, and families with neurodivergent children and high-risk disabilities. Lastly, aside from my work as a Spanish teacher, I am currently part of the Durham Art Guild's Artbeats program as a journalism intern seeking out and writing monthly stories about local Latino/Latinx artists making an artistic living in the NC triangle area.