A Life Between Two Shores (Pt. 2 of 2)

This is Part 2 of the story. To read Part 1 click here:
http://descubriendoadean.blogspot.com/2012/03/life-between-two-shores-pt-1-of-2.html

How Levante U.D. brought me closer to my ancestors

In July of 2010, where Part 1 left off, I was feeling a rush of different emotions. I was proud for how far I had come since I started investigating my grandfather's life. I had located his old neighborhood, El Cabanyal, and experienced first hand the air, the warm sand, the Mediterranean coast and the beautiful houses my grandfather left behind when he came to the United States. Yet somehow, I still felt frustrated, and somewhat embarrassed, knowing that I had been so close and still felt so far removed from the local society, the culture and the family that I had always thought I would find at the end of the road. I could not help but feel somewhat depressed as I left Valencia, not knowing when I would ever return or if I would ever resolve my grandfather's story and find my ancestral family...

No more than a day had passed since returning to Alcalá de Henares (near Madrid), where I was taking classes, when something really special happened. I was on a soccer website, as usual, and a particular advertisement caught my attention. It was an advert by a little club I had heard of but knew nothing about, Levante. It was so full of charm, centered on glorifying the humble struggle of a small club, with a vast economic inferiority in comparison with its competitors.

"How GREAT it is to be little" (Video Link)

"Some think that Soccer is merely a battle between two teams.

For a Levante fan, it is SO much more.

We do not support the team that always wins,

but rather the one that most needs our support.

We live by a different philosophy:

a tie is almost a win... and a win, like touching the sky!

We celebrate promotion, as if it were a World Cup trophy.

While others celebrate 6 trophies in just one season,

we have the lowest budget of any team.

That's why we don't sign players with Golden Balls, we sign players with balls, 

capable of defending our colors against any enemy.

And what to say about our stadium? 

It may be small, but we live the action closer than anyone.

Being a Levante fan is, above all, suffering, suffering and suffering again (and having a good time),

and rebelling against those who say that "what goes up, must come down"

and fighting to show the world, how great it is to be a little club.

I was won over in a little more than a minute. After viewing the video, I searched for information on this mystery soccer club. I was shocked to find out in a matter of minutes that not only was Levante based in Valencia, they were founded in El Cabanyal, my grandfather's neighborhood, and even once known simply as "Cabanyal Foot-ball Club".

It seemed too destined to be played off as a mere coincidence. I quickly became a fan of the club, reading everything I could find, watching documentaries and YouTube videos. I saw in Levante a perfect  representation of my ancestors. Like Levante, my ancestors lived in the humble, toilsome, seaside community of El Cabanyal. I was, in many ways, convinced I had reached a dead-end in my investigations and it seemed that Levante was what I had been looking for all along: a way to honor my ancestors and my Valencian roots. In fact, the more I read about what Levante represented, in my grandfather's time, in El Cabanyal, the more convinced I was that he and his family must have attended games and cheered for this neighborhood team that represented them.

I watched every game I could in the 2010/11 season and began regularly entering Levante forums and online groups. Most believed me to be someone from Valencia who was studying abroad in the United States or who had gone to live there. Few knew the true story until I started blogging about Levante at the encouragement of Javier Zamora, an imaging representative for my favorite Levante player, Rafa Jordà. I won a video contest for Jordà´s website and with it an autographed jersey. When Zamora contacted me via email, he could not believe that the jersey was going to have to be shipped to the United States. After hearing my story, he was adamant that I needed to write a blog entry about why I was a Levante fan. My first entry "Porque soy del Levante U.D. (Why I am a Levante fan)" received a lot of attention amongst Levante fans. In a mere few days, my blog had received thousands of hits. I was receiving daily well-wishing messages and encouragement from countless Levante fans. However, one of those messages stood out above all the others.

The subject line alone, "Vicente Sanchis Amades", gave me goosebumps. Could it be a long lost relative contacting me? Or someone wishing to help me investigate my roots? I waited a few minutes to open the email, knowing even before reading the email that it would be one of those moments in life that would change me forever.

The message did not disappoint. It came from Joan Bosch Gosalvez and Rosa María Alcaina, a couple in Valencia, a medical doctor and his wife, who both had roots in El Cabanyal and had taken it on themselves to start compiling all the documents and genealogical information they could from those who lived in the seaside neighborhood where my grandmother came from. With in a few hours of sending me the email offering their investigative aid, they had already solved the riddle that had long been frustrating my efforts: according to census data my grandfather was actually born in a small town called Estivella, about 30 kilometers from El Cabanyal. Soon after he was born, his family returned to El Cabanyal (where his mother´s roots run very deep) where they lived throughout his life in Spain.

We exchanged messages daily throughout the summer and into the fall. They were also Levante fans, but beyond that they really took an interest in me and I could tell they cared about me. They went out of their way to help me investigate my grandfather. I really felt a close connection to them, a family like connection, so I started calling them my padrinos (godparents). This past February and March, I had the incredible pleasure of meeting them in person and discovering how their charm, wisdom and joy in living is magnified so much more in person. Thanks to their help, I was able to present the necessary documents to the Spanish Consulate in Chicago in order to obtain Spanish citizenship.

11-11-2011

I officially became a citizen of Spain on 11-11-2011, Veteran´s Day in the U.S., a date I chose on purpose in commemoration for the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the bravest heroes in the history of the United States, who stood up and fought Hitler, Mussolini and Franco years before World War II, years before the rest of the U.S. even began to understand the threat that fascism represented for the freedom of humanity. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was an "illegal" army, not officially recognized by the U.S. government. In fact, their efforts were discouraged and even in later years, particularly during the Red Scare, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade veterans were harassed and black listed. Those brave, and the American women who also served the Spanish Republic in its fight against fascism, formed the first fully-integrated army in U.S. history. They were able to overlook race in 1930´s America. Their courage and humanity never should be forgotten, and yet in the United States very little is known about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Becoming a Spanish citizen was a way for me to formalize my connection to Spain and my Spanish ancestry and my reclaiming of my Spanish roots. However, this journey has been about so much more than a passport. The relationships that I have been able to form along this journey, the places I have been able to see and the culture I have been able to experience mean so much more to me than mere citizenship ever could. I have found family, joy, passion, humility, compassion, and a way of life in Valencia that I cannot live without. So much of the richness that I now find in living has stemmed from becoming a fan of a small, humble soccer team in Valencia, Levante Unión Deportiva. It is amazing to think about the role the club has had in this journey and in my life.

I feel destined to live a life between two shores, constantly returning to Valencia to reaffirm and rediscover myself and my ancestral heritage, to continue uncovering who my ancestors were while reconnecting with the amazing culture, history and beauty that my ancestors lived and participated in.

I cannot live without you, Valencia. Without you, I would lose me. Fins aviat.

"El viatge valencià" (The Valencian Trip)

A video documenting through film and images my trip to Valencia in February and March of this year 

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