Silvia was 19 when her mum died. “I’d been living in Boston on a gap year, learning English,” she says. “I came home to Mexico City when my mum was ill, but I didn’t know she had terminal cancer. I thought she would get better.”
Her death came as a huge shock and Silvia plunged into a depression. Two years later, she was still struggling with grief. “My sister suggested we set up a screen printing business together, which was a nice distraction from everything because I became so busy with work.”
A friend encouraged her to come along to a party. “I didn’t have many friends then, nor did I go to many parties, but she wanted to get me out of my little cocoon,” says Silvia. “I didn’t feel like going but I decided to give it a go.”
Another friend picked her up from her home, and brought Pepe along, too. “I’d just finished university and was living with my grandparents,” he says. “As soon as I saw Silvia, I was interested. We started talking in the car and I really liked her; she seemed different from the other girls I’d met.” Silvia enjoyed their conversations that night, but “wasn’t open to a relationship”.
“My friend asked if she could give him my number and I said ‘no way’. But she ignored me and did it anyway,” Silvia says with a laugh. When Pepe called shortly afterwards, she was shocked to hear from him. “I told him I was going on holiday the following week and that I didn’t ‘do’ dating.”
Still keen to get to know her as a friend, Pepe called again when she returned and suggested a “non-date” coffee and a walk. Silvia agreed to go and found she liked the way he listened to her. “He wasn’t just looking at me; he made me feel as if I was interesting. We discovered we loved cinema and had seen many of the same art exhibitions.”
Callout
From then on, they met up as friends more frequently and Silvia began to realise how much she liked Pepe. “I felt really comfortable around him. I grew up with little self-esteem but, being with him, I felt I could be myself without fearing judgment. We ended up kissing one day and it felt very welcome.”
The pair soon became inseparable: “On weekends, we used to watch three films in a row, or go to exhibitions, on road trips, to gigs or clubbing.” Pepe began working in marketing for a management consulting firm, while Silvia continued her business.
In 1995, Pepe was offered the chance to move to London. “I invited her to come with me and she said yes,” he says. “We hadn’t considered marriage, but our families were more traditional, and it was seen as proper to get married before living together. So that’s what we did.”
They loved being in London, describing it as “the world’s creative capital”. “Pepe was having a ball and I had made the best group of friends,” says Silvia. “The only difficulty was finding work. So I retrained as a chef in 1998, got a job with a restaurant and fell in love with the kitchen’s smells and flavours.”
Their son was born in 2004 and Pepe’s work was transferred to the Netherlands two years later, with stints in Switzerland. Although they loved the Netherlands, by 2020 Pepe wanted a change. “Our son was keen to learn more about his roots, so we decided to come back to Mexico City,” he says.
Settling back in has been more challenging than they expected, but they’re enjoying the experience. “As we are older and have been to many places, we now see the city in a different light. We’re rediscovering Mexico with a curiosity we wouldn’t have had if we had stayed here,” says Silvia.
She also loves her partner’s determined nature. “It doesn’t matter what the situation is, Pepe never quits,” she says. “He makes me feel so loved. When we became parents I fell in love all over again, because he’s such a great role model for our son.”
Throughout their travels, Silvia has been Pepe’s “constant”. “Whenever we move around, coming back to Silvia gives me the base I need to land, rest and take strength so I can carry on.” says Pepe. “Regardless of where we are, she represents home, stability and family to me.”
