MERIDA CHRONICLES: Adriana Medina…//
Text/Photos by Robert Adams//
Adriana Medina, the new administrator of Merida English Library, was born in Merida and grew up in Miami, with frequent visits to her native city for summer vacations and special holidays with family members.
Medina hopes to draw on this dual Yucatecan-American “citizenship” in MEL’s push to expand its traditional role of a lending library catering to expats to become a cultural resource for the entire Merida community.
“The board’s emphasis is on bringing in more (Yucatecan) community members with new projects,” Medina noted in an exclusive interview with MID-POINT. “MEL will continue to be first and foremost an English library. But the board wants to balance bringing in new Yucatecan members while still keeping true to our original mission.”
Medina appears to be uniquely qualified for this challenge of bridging Merida’s vast culture gap between native Yucatecans and its rapidly expanding foreign expat community.
Born in Merida of a Yucatecan father and Cuban mother, Medina moved to Miami at age six with her mother. She grew up in Miami’s suburban Kendall area and graduated from Florida International University, where she majored in psychology. She also has completed three years of doctoral study in social psychology at Clark University in Massachusetts.
After deciding to take a break from her graduate studies, Medina moved back to Merida, where her family owns a bed-&-breakfast. She discovered the MEL administrator opening online and applied.
“This opportunity with MEL came up serendipitously,” she observed in the interview in her small MEL office. “But I am good at administration and love literature and community service.”
Medina said she is thrilled to have landed the MEL post, where she replaces Susanna McKibben, who left in February to work at home while raising her young daughter. Medina said the board is open to her ideas for new initiatives at MEL, including offering cooking classes and expanding English programs for Yucatecan youth.
“Kids here learn English in school, but they need to practice and lose anxiety about their speech,” she commented. “Many Meridanos understand English, but they lack confidence in their speech.”
Medina beamed when asked how she feels being back in Merida full-time.
“I love Merida’s sense of peace. You can walk the streets any time of day or night. I love Yucatecan food – I probably missed that more than anything while I was away. I love the native Yucatecans’ commitment to courtesy and civility. How they are polite and kind to new people.”
Her hobbies include travel, reading and writing (especially short stories), and watching movies (she is a an Alfonso Cuarón fan). She enjoys frequent trips to the beach in Chuburná, where her family once owned a home.
A Centro resident, Medina said “it’s easy to see” what draws the steadily increasing flow of expats to Merida and particularly Centro: “It’s where it’s at!”
