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Catalans Abroad
3 July 2016 2.00 h

Xavier Genís

Dallas (Texas)

Sold on Texas

Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?
A few years ago my wife was of­fered a job at the R&D cen­tre her com­pany has in the Dal­las area, and it was an easy de­ci­sion, a total no-brainer. The econ­omy in Cat­alo­nia was strug­gling and so this was a huge op­por­tu­nity for all of us, and also for our two sons. The lit­tle one was born al­most at the same time we de­cided to move, and his older brother was only two then. Now they are both flu­ent in Eng­lish and Cata­lan and they are grow­ing up know­ing and en­joy­ing two very dif­fer­ent cul­tures.
Why did you choose Dal­las?
We didn't re­ally choose, this was part of the job offer deal that my wife got, but we did do some re­search be­fore mak­ing the de­ci­sion and found out that Texas is one of the fastest grow­ing states in the US, that the cost of liv­ing is very mod­er­ate and that Tex­ans, in gen­eral, are friendly and laid back, and all that en­cour­aged us to make the move.
How long have you lived there?
We moved to Dal­las in 2012, so it's been al­most four years now.
Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found in your adop­tive coun­try?
This was one of the key things in mak­ing the de­ci­sion to move to Dal­las. Texas has a very di­ver­si­fied econ­omy. Ob­vi­ously the en­ergy sec­tor is one of the pil­lars of the state, but there are also tech com­pa­nies, fi­nan­cial ser­vices, health and tele­com, and it is home to the largest air­line in the world. Since mov­ing here, I've changed jobs and joined a multi­na­tional soft­ware com­pany. We work for some of the biggest air­lines world­wide, as well as the top hotel chains and travel agen­cies, pro­vid­ing them with the lat­est travel tech­nol­ogy to sup­port their busi­ness.
What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing in Dal­las?
We love trav­el­ling and ex­plor­ing new places and Dal­las's lo­ca­tion is great. It's just two hours away by plane from the Riv­iera Maya or the Na­tional Parks in Utah and Col­orado, or three hours away from New York, Florida or the US west coast. Lo­cally, we re­ally ap­pre­ci­ate the op­por­tu­nity of liv­ing in a large house and have lots of space for the boys to burn their en­ergy and for us to en­ter­tain our friends.
What do you con­sider the high­lights for any brief visit for the first time?
I think any visit to the Dal­las area needs to tap into the cow­boy cul­ture, and so a visit to the Stock­yards is a must. You can enjoy a tra­di­tional rodeo (and even join in, if you dare!) or go square danc­ing at the largest honky tonk in the world (Billy Bob's) sur­rounded by cow­boys in their hats and per­fectly ironed jeans and cow­girls in their close-fit­ting shirts and boots. JFK fans shouldn't miss a visit to the 6th Floor Mu­seum in Dealey Plaza, where the pres­i­dent was shot, and JR fans should head to South­fork Ranch, the set­ting of the “Dal­las” TV se­ries.
And if vis­i­tors have more time or make a re­turn visit?
I would rec­om­mend ex­plor­ing some small towns nearby like Jef­fer­son, which still keeps a far west look, with its old Post Of­fice, Rail Sta­tion and his­tor­i­cal ho­tels like the Ex­cel­sior House. And if they have a lit­tle more time and are will­ing to go a lit­tle fur­ther, I'd say they drive to the Hill Coun­try near Austin and enjoy the scenery with huge nat­ural pools and wa­ter­falls, and the sec­ond largest gran­ite dome in the US, En­chanted Rock.
What do you miss most from home?
The way of life in the US is very dif­fer­ent from back in Barcelona, and we def­i­nitely miss things like the food or being close to both the moun­tains and the sea. But, it is lit­tle things like not being there for fam­ily cel­e­bra­tions, or just going out for a walk (in­stead of dri­ving every­where) that we miss the most.
Do you plan to go back to Cat­alo­nia?
Sure! We know we will go back in a few years, be­fore our kids grow up too much and the tran­si­tion be­comes too com­pli­cated.
Xavier Genís is from Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf). Xavier has been living in Dallas (Texas) since 2012. He works in a software multinational.
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