Savoring tradition: How music and food keep Vero Gonzalez’s Chilean heritage alive

After leaving Chile 16 years ago, Vero Gonzalez has found that no matter where life takes her, the vibrant flavors of Chilean cuisine and the soulful rhythms of its music keep her deeply connected to her culture.

Vero, senior software engineer at Elastic, moved from Santiago, Chile, to Madrid, Spain, for a software engineering job with the Spanish government. While she was always interested in technology, she originally wanted to work as a park ranger. She was the first person in her family to attend university and wanted a job that could provide stability for her future. 

After she finished school, Vero discovered the open source community through a project where people were trying to create a database to identify flora and fauna of a certain area. 

“I learned about Linux, the open source community, and I fell in love with it. There was a lot of freedom about accessing technology. It was only a question of putting your imagination into it,” she says. 

“It was a really cool way to enhance people's lives. When you open one door, you can then open other doors that improve your quality of life and others' quality of life.”

Technology ultimately ended up taking her to Spain and then Australia, where she now lives. Vero got a job with the Spanish government working on a disability law it was developing. It was in Spain where she met her partner, and her partner’s job took them to Melbourne, Australia. 

Vero didn’t speak English when she first moved to Melbourne, so she got a job on a radio station’s Latin program, which helped her connect with the local Latin community. 

“The cultural events are very important for the city and community,” she says. “People like to interchange the cultural aspects of their own life; everyone wants to share their culture and that’s received with a lot of respect.”

Once Vero learned English and got another job in technology, she still socialized with the community as much as possible. 

“I try to participate as much as I can,” Vero says. “Mainly it’s around food and music. There is a big Latin street festival in November with food trucks from all over South America and stages with music and dancing.” 

Socializing is one of the biggest things that drew Vero to Elastic. 

“The culture of a company is really important to me,” she says. “I was missing the human part in my last job.”

At Elastic, Vero works on a team whose main goal is to make other Elastician developers' day-to-day lives easy, she says. 

“Our aim is to provide the tools and services they need to do their jobs. We review code and see if there is something to improve or how we can help them.”

Vero joined the Elasticians Unidos ERG when she started at the company. 

“I saw a lot of people with Latin or Hispanic backgrounds so I wanted to know more,” she says. “Now, I try to join in as much as I can.” 

For others joining Elastic, Vero recommends looking into what the company’s Employee Resource Groups can offer. 

“There are a lot of topics you can be interested in,” she says. “And you can meet people not on your team who share common interests.”

At home, Vero continues to honor her Chilean roots through the comforting combination of food and music. Preparing ceviche for her partner and family, while the sounds of Chilean melodies fill the air as her child plays, she bridges the distance between her homeland and her new life and keeps her culture alive, even from an ocean away.

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