Gustavo Ocaranza Nuñez
“Chile was not my country – here I am happy, here I belong.” This is what Gustavo Ocaranza Núñez says about Germany, after having lived in various metropolises in Latin America, the USA, and Australia, and finally immigrating from Chile to Bremerhaven in 2018. When Gustavo Ocaranza Núñez decided in 2003 to abandon his unhappy studies as an electrical engineer, he initially didn’t know what he wanted to do. “I made all the wrong choices at university. My mother then asked me, ‘Gus, what do you want to do? Why don’t you go to the USA for six months to your uncle, learn English – maybe you will discover what you want to do.’” In New York, he then embarked on a two-year English study, which motivated him to return to Chile and become an English teacher. In 2015, an opportunity arises for Gustavo Ocaranza Núñez to study in Australia. He plans to return to Chile after successfully completing his master’s degree. In Melbourne, he meets a German student from Bremerhaven: his future wife. After their studies, they initially return – he to Chile and she to Germany. Both are determined to continue their relationship, and Gustavo Ocaranza Núñez decides, “Okay, I’m going to Germany” and arrives in Bremerhaven for the first time in 2017. Due to “too much bureaucracy to live permanently in Germany,” he initially makes short stays there and uses the time to get to know the language, the country, and the people. In 2018, he finally marries in Chile, allowing Gustavo Ocaranza Núñez to move to Germany long term. Since September 2018, he has been living with his wife in Bremerhaven and now works as an English teacher at a Waldorf school. “Now I have finally found my place.”
A portrait of Gustavo Ocaranza Nuñez is one of the faces visible since June 2021 on the facade of the new German Emigration Center. Before the opening of the expansion with its artistically designed facade, the Nordsee-Zeitung introduced the people behind the faces. You can watch the corresponding film portrait of Gustavo Ocaranza Nuñez here.