A little bit of myself by Natalie Plaza C.

As The Rolling Stone song says “Please allow me introduce myself”… I am Natalie Plaza, a sweet girl from Venezuela. Do you know where Venezuela is? Let me explain it to you. Venezuela is a Latin American country from South America, it has Caribbean coast on the north, Brazil on the east and south east and Colombia on the west and south west. Related with weather, it does not have seasons as many other countries have because it is near the Ecuador line. However, it is well-known because of its beautiful and crystalline beaches, its mountains that are part of the Andin Mountain Line, its solitary sand desert and the Amazonia that has the largest waterfall in the world called “El Salto Angel”. Where I live, it is a city named Merida, in the valley of the Andin Mountains.

I have been living in Merida my entire life, my father’s family is from a town near Merida and my mother’s family is from the capital, Caracas. Zenaida, my mother, came to Merida when she was young and during her high school she met my father, Eduardo. I was not planned to born, so when they got me they were a young couple, around 22 and 25 years old. Two years after, my father died from an estranged disease so my grandparents, from my father’s side, took the place of my father. My grandparents’ house is like my own house, I could say that I have two houses and two mothers, when my mother got angry with me I used to escape to my grandparents’ house and did the same if my grandparents got angry with me. The bad thing about it is that when both get angry, instead of having two parents, I have three of them to deal with.

When I was 8 years old, a choir conductor came to my school searching for singers. I took the audition and I got it. That is how I started my music life. Since the beginning until now, all my family have supported me with my music studies. I am grateful with the life that has giving it to me because a have had the chance to visit a lot of new places around the world. To be a musician has opened the doors for living exited experiences.

Now days, I am planning to continue my music studies and become an ethnomusicologist. I wish to contribute with ethnomusicology society in order to preserve traditions from cultures all over the world.