Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica De Leventis.
Hi Angelica, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in 1972, in a beautiful city named Barquisimeto, Lara State in Venezuela. But my parents were living in a picturesque town located between huge and beautiful mountains, named Sanare, Lara State in Venezuela.
There I grew up and was incredibly happy, this town was characterized by being a town rich in vegetation, where potatoes and coffee were produced industrially and for export. It is also the cradle of great plastic artists, poets, singing authors, and a remarkably diverse town, where they lived and shared staff of different nationalities Spanish, Italian, Arab and Portuguese, and Venezuelan to name a few.
I come from a very humble family, but full of love and commitment. My parents are Orlando Colmenarez and Carmen Guevara. They got married at a very young age, they were always determined to provide for me, my brother Gilberth and my sister Carol, with all the best they could both give us, but the best we could receive from our parents was all the teachings of what perseverance is, respect for the values and principles with which we were formed.
They were always an example of struggle and perseverance to achieve the goals and purposes that we set ourselves in life. And they were throughout their lives merchants and owners of their own businesses, each separately carrying his business forward. My mother was very creative and talented and had a clinical eye for doing business, she still is!
My father was an empirical engineer, the creator of agricultural machinery to process coffee, in the huge coffee market of the time that lived in the Sanare of that time, my father took us forward with the production of that ingenious machinery that he invented, the same invention, patented and sold for years in his town and nationwide, He is still very ingenious at 80 years old!
Since I was a child, I loved art and music, I liked to sing, dance, read, and study. That is why I always participated from a noticeably young age in the cultural and singing festivals of my elementary school, my high school, and university, I sang at festivals representing the schools, colleges, and universities in which I studied during my childhood, and my youth. As I loved to read and study, at the end of high school I went to my hometown, Barquisimeto, where I began my first university career in Business Administration, culminating my career in 1996.
After this I moved to another city Maracay, Aragua State, in Venezuela, where I did my studies at the Bicentennial University of Aragua at the UBA Law School, I finished my second career in 2001. I started working at the Palace of Justice in Maracay Aragua State, in the area of Criminal and Procedural Law, there I discovered that I wanted to specialize in that part of Law, and I decided to start my master’s degree in Criminal Law and Criminology, culminate my specialization in 2007, and continue working and helping people in their criminal processes.
I had a very prosperous and valuable professional life, where I learned a lot about all the criminal processes and procedures of my country of origin, established in the Penal Code of Venezuela. I practiced my career as a lawyer specializing in Criminal and Procedural Law for 11 years. In June 2011, I immigrated from my country of origin to the United States of America with my family, my husband, and our three (3) children. We chose the city of Houston, to restart our lives from scratch.
We leave Venezuela because we were going through an exceedingly difficult time, we were not free there in so many ways, so hard to execute anything due to all the difficulties caused by a dictator government, this was the main point of our decision and determination to leave our beloved Venezuela to save our children. Here, in Houston I began with my family to learn about this culture, totally different from mine, to re-start a new life, to learn a new language, and to mobilize and locate myself in this big and great city, to deal with new people, because I did not know anyone.
The truth is, at that time was not easy for me or for any of the members of my family, but when you take the courage and decide to leave your country of origin, your home, your family, culture, friends, and everything that implies being an immigrant, you for sure are going to have the strength to do anything, one puts this in the thought of every day to be able to have the courage to move forward, Fighting and learning what must be learned in order to get ahead, because you have already left everything behind, and you have no choice but to move forward without looking back.
So, I started by learning to communicate, learning the English language, for me was really a huge challenge, I arrived in this country, just 13 years ago, I was adult enough, and I was having language barrier in front of me, every day it was not easy, but I began to study and learn more every day, I learned to go step by step and so I was achieving each goal I proposed. When we came to this country as tourists we used small conversations in English, but we learned that coming as a visitor or tourism is never the same as when you live here!
Professionally, it was also a big challenge for me, to restart and I pushed myself to look for activities that I could hold back with, to mitigate a little that feeling of frustration of having had everything, and then feeling in the air with nothing. While improving my language, I began to see what I could do to advance a little more, and I decided to start Paralegal studies, I did my Paralegal Certification at CALS, Center for Advance Legal Studies, and I graduated in 2015, from that moment I began to work in small legal services offices and over time I was accepted to enter in the Federal Immigration Court of the United States, based in Houston, Downtown.
There, I was working and learning for almost two and a half years, at that moment I became enormously proud of myself, and so grateful to God, to see everything that happens since I arrived in this country and for everything that had overcome me and what I had achieved. Everything was going very well, I loved what I did, and in a brief time, I was promoted to other important positions, and I came to assist the Federal Judges within the Courts helping to resolve immigration cases.
But two (2) ladies of Latino origin, within the organization, felt alluded to and began to show themselves differently and act against me, trying to harm me. Time passes and during COVID-19 Pandemic, for no reason or cause, I became unemployed. From that moment, I began to think that I should do something for myself, that it was time to do my own business or work freelance, I began to evaluate what to do and decided to do my studies and preparation to obtain the Real Estate license. It was then that I began my studies, and I was introduced to this wonderful world of Real Estate.
Now I am working very hard to grow my own business, and I am 100 percent dedicated to Real Estate. I know and I am sure, that in the future I will be very successful more than today, and that my future generations will be proud of me, of everything I have done and achieved, to give happiness to my family and so that my parents and siblings feel very proud of me.
I come from a very humble but very fighting family, where great professionals and entrepreneurs have come from because we carry in our blood and in our family the example of great merchants and successful business owners, just as Dad and Mom taught us and were the first who executed their actions to be entrepreneurs throughout their lives and with it, they raised us and formed us!
Thank you, Dad, and Mom! for this beautiful succession that you left to us. Today I can say that I am what I am, thanks to my parents. As an adult now, I appreciated all that both of you did, and I and so grateful for all your teachings. I love both of you.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
When we came to this country, it was never easy at all. My family and I had to learn again to many things, from Cero, and start to understand the new language. For me, it was exceedingly difficult to start again in a country that was not my country of origin, where I felt strange, and on many occasions, I was treated as such, as a foreigner. If I told you completely the story of my beginnings in this country, I think I could draft a book!
My beginnings in this country I consider that it was not easy but never impossible for me to overcome, because when we left Venezuela, we came to the United States with a firm purpose and that was to advance, grow and evolve. With those purposes in mind, I began to struggle and to learn from all the good and bad of this country, so I evolved, working to achieve the goals I set and correcting in the march all the mistakes that did not allow me to evolve.
I suffered a lot, I cried I felt in many moments super alone and empty, to be honest, but I just turned to look at the faces of my three young children, and filled me with new energy to keep going each day. So time and years went by, and all the struggle of that time has been bearing fruit they have given me to understand that the decision I took with my family in 2011, was worth it in every way, since we have been able to give our children thousands of opportunities that only in this country they can have.
They are now young people who are fighting on their own to achieve their dreams and goals in this country that is not their country of origin, but nevertheless, we are all now giving the best of each of us! So, it is always worth having come to live and make our new life here in Houston Texas. We are all now focused on following each other’s plans to achieve the proposed goals and keep moving forward, growing as human beings, and trying to be the best version of each of ourselves every day.
It was never a smooth road, but when you dream big you can always achieve your dreams and goals as much as you want to do it! It is never too late to start again and achieve everything we propose in our lives, the sky is the limit and if you want to do it, wanting will always become your most valuable weapon to make your dreams a beautiful reality!
It was never easy for me and my family at the beginning, but I considered that we are doing very well now.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
ANGELICA DE LEVENTIS REALTOR® as a business is my new inspiration! As a REALTOR I am a very energetic and enthusiastic Real Estate Agent with many years of experience in the client relationships field. Angelica De Leventis received her Law degree and an undergraduate degree from the University of UBA Venezuela. Following her successful career in law for over eleven (11) years in Venezuela, Angelica decided to move to Houston with her family over 13 years ago, and seek a new career, after the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Real Estate caught her eye, Angelica De Leventis, decided to move into the business full-time and work on her real estate license back in 2022. Early on I must learn that education and preparation is the key! So, I want to become a successful Real Estate Agent! And now I spend time finding my clients the perfect home and representing them as a buyer, sellers, investors, and leases.
Angelica sets herself apart with an unrivaled work ethic, integrity, and being an honest professional that loves to collaborate with her clients and make them feel always valuable and happy. Angelica is perfectly bilingual (English and Spanish). Whether seeking to purchase, sell or lease your residential estate. Angelica will use her experience to assist and provide the best customer experience. Client satisfaction is of the utmost importance for ANGELICA DE LEVENTIS REALTOR®!
Angelica enjoys Art, traveling, physical fitness, interior design, fashion, and learning from diverse cultures. Angelica De Leventis REALTOR®, as a business, has access to many advantages such as Marketing Opportunities, Videos, Networking, Capabilities, Market Statistics, Testimonials, Recommendation Letters, Luxury Home Websites, and more.
This business brand has the mark of a real estate professional who has made the commitment to provide a prominent level of professional services by securing a strong educational foundation. Innovative technology, laws, procedures, and the increasing sophistication of buyers and sellers require real estate practitioners to perform at an ever-increasing level of professionalism.
Here is my business. Angelica De Leventis REALTOR® is here to stay! And to satisfy all the Real Estate needs of its clients, giving them the highest and most sophisticated quality of services in the field. My business is powered by Keller Williams Signature Realty, giving my business all the support and prestige of all the years of experience of this prestigious Real Estate Firm.
Our Services:
– Real Estate assistance and representation
-Buyer Representation
-Listing Representation
– Investors Service
-Leases assistance and representation
– Home Staging service
-Interior Design Service
-Landscape Design
-Space Planning
-Re-design
-Re-styling
-Difference Services for homeowners
– List of Providers for services and installation.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
When a was 15 years old, I started my relationship with MANUEL LEVENTIS, the love of my life, in 1987, we got married in 1991, when I was eighteen (18) years old, and he was twenty-three (23). Since this year to the present, we are together. Our love history started, and we have from our marital union three boys Emmanuel Leventis, Miguel Leventis y Manuel Leventis JR.
Our three children are the reason for our existence, and since our children came into this world we began to struggle and work extremely hard, to offer them an integral formation and education, and educate them with the principles and values with which my husband and I were formed. In our beginnings as a couple in 1991, we did not have much, but I was still studying in college, and my husband was about to graduate as a computer engineer.
Manuel my husband, always worried about giving us everything, the best he could, and both from an early age we learned what was the responsibility of being parents, because our first son Emmanuel, was born in 1992, a year after we got married at that time my husband was the person who contributed everything for our maintenance and I studied and took care of our little one. Then over time I graduated in 1996, got my first degree in Business Administration, started working, and took care of my baby and my family.
A year later we moved from Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela to another city named Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela, and I began studying at the Law School of the Bicentennial University of Aragua UBA. I graduated in 2001. I started working at the Palace of Justice in Aragua. There I understood that I wanted to specialize and do my master’s degree in Criminal Law and Criminology, I began my studies and continued studying, taking care of my son, and taking care of my home. I graduated and obtained my specialization in Criminal Law.
When I finished my master’s degree my husband and I planned to have another child, we made the decision and I got pregnant and when Emmanuel our first child was ten years old, our twin sons Miguel and Manuel Leventis were born, they came into our lives and became the protégés of the three of us, His older brother enjoyed taking care of them and helped me a lot with the care of the twins. My husband began to travel a lot and our lives began to get complicated because there came a time when it was very difficult for me to take care of our children and work full-time at the same time. But we managed to keep moving forward and fighting together to lift our children.
Over time, our beautiful country Venezuela was in an insufferable and unlivable situation with insecurity and under a dictatorial regime, where it was even said in the voice of the dictators of the regime established in Venezuela, that children would be separated from their parents, and for this reason, my husband and I decided to take our children out of our country of origin. It was then that on June 27, 2011, we immigrated to the United States of America, and chose Houston Texas as a city to live in. Since then and until now we have all struggled to improve ourselves and adapt to living in your country, to learn from its culture and language.
Today, 13 years later, we feel grateful to God for allowing us to leave our country in time, to give a better life and future to our children, and for allowing us to reach a place that welcomed us and made us feel at home. Today all of us have struggled to get ahead and become useful American citizens for this country and for society. Manuel Leventis, my husband is outstanding and prepared professionally in his specialty with many years of experience in project management and is working in his area and in the same company since we arrived in this country, thirteen years to be exact.
Emmanuel Leventis is the CEO of @eLeventis_desigh, an extraordinarily talented interior designer who loves art and his works have been outstanding, distinguished, and recognized in the city of Houston. Miguel Leventis is an entrepreneur, a millennial boy, who has his virtual store THRIFTA, is very resolute in his business, is a good worker, and is organized. Manuel Leventis JR is at the University of Houston doing his business career.
I, Angelica Leventis, am currently REALTOR and CEO of ANGELICA DE LEVENTIS REALTOR®, I am one hundred percent focused and dedicated to my Real Estate business, I love what I do, and I try to be updated with everything related to this complex and changing world such as Real Estate.
Today as a proud Venezuelan, I feel very happy to be able to tell you about my story and the beautiful family that I love, and I want to say that wherever you come from and wherever you are from, it is never impossible to move forward and achieve dreams and goals, if one fights and focuses to make dreams a beautiful reality!
Contact Info:
- Website: angelicadeleventis.kw.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/angelicadeleventis
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leventisangelica
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/angelica-colmenarez-de-leventis-009390127
Image Credits
Alec Julian Garza and Adriana Del Toro
