Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Siu.
Hi Juan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Juan Siu, a 37-year-old Venezuelan, living in Houston Texas for the last 8 years working as a developer for Liberty Mutual that plays Music on a side, and take professional photos of people.
Kind of odd but also exciting to talk about my life; I guess my story needs some context, and it might, hopefully, inspire and remind people to be grateful on what this beautiful country has to offer.
I was born and raised back in my country, Venezuela, from a humble low-tier-middle-class family with a standard house dynamic, where my mom, Maria, raised us as a stay-at-home mom and my dad, Alberto was the breadwinner working Monday to Saturday, and was barely home. My brother, Jorge, was like me, very well behave and respectful obedient kids, all thanks to my mom incredible values. I was for some reason the non-wanted one (my mom after having my brother didn’t want it to have more kids, but my dad broke made holes on every condom in the house and that is where I came in) that ended been the life of the party at the house, mom’s favorite, the fun extrovert over achiever excelling on any subject at school, so I got the luck to grow on a home very confident and supported at all times. A little bit egocentric because of that, but well is something I still carry with me and try to work on (a constant in my life: working on myself).
From an early age, I remember I was obsessed with the idea of New York and the American Dream; growing up watching all the American TV shows from the era and learning English from it and all the English spoke music I had the chance to listen to thanks to either my dad or MTV (for a long time we stole cable from a neighbor! until we were able to afford it). At a very young age I told my mom, “Mom I’m going to be rich one day, living in Manhattan, looking at Central Park”.
Money – Opportunities – Happiness – Better life – Safety – and fulfilling one’s dream was an association I had with the statue of liberty and the United States of America.
Even on the early days of social media or in some of my personal notes and journal I would write my captions in English, and my friends will make fun of me. The reality is that at that point no one in my immediate family have never travel outside the country, I might have maybe gone to 3 or 4 road trips if any throughout my childhood to a local beach an hour away. Due to my dad always working and my mom been home alone to raise us, traveling, was never a thing, neither any extracurricular activity, so my majority of time I was either at school (until noon when they release us) which I love to attend and then home either mingling with a Macintosh computer of my dad, listening to his records and cassettes in the living room or making my own board games from cardboards or drawing and making clay toys. Granted I’m not complaining it was a great childhood, on a house full of love and there was some toys to play with like TMNT or GI Joes and so on, I just preferred do more creative DIY stuff. Music was a huge thing for me, like many I guess, I could spend hours laying in my living room daydreaming while singing but also a guilty dream I had, for some reason I as ashamed to try or even mention the image I had of been on stage in front of thousands of smiling people, dancing ala Michael Jackson, or in a dim lighted bar singing romantic tunes to make people fall in love, but It was that just a dream, there was not availability or opportunity for that, no instrument or music background in my family or school and well I kept myself distracted been the best in my grades, been a good kid and probably playing too many hours of the video games we were allow to rent once every week.
I got my first job, at 18, in a shopping mall video game store, as a rebellious move against my dad (one of the few times I have broke a rule in the house) and also to finally be able to have some money to enjoy my life in university, but I was too afraid of my dad so I never told him, I kept using the excuse that I was in the library for hours at end every day. True is school was always easy for me; I attribute my math brain on my Chinese grandpa (my dad’s dad), and since my dad was always working, it was easy to come out with excuses of what was going on. At some point, I mentioned the idea of me working, and he got angry and offended, he after all, he worked very hard to make sure we didn’t have to experience what he did growing up. Lucky for me (and because of my work ethic and love for games), when my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer due to smoking way too much, I was already in a manager position and was able to take care of both my mom and brother when he passed away, 4 months after the diagnosed.
A reminder on how little time we have in this life, some more than others, and how much we should try to take advantage of what we have and appreciate it. After that moment of my life, I try (emphasis on try) my best to not take anything from granted. Oddly enough, been a college student working to pay for his own bill (and in this case my mom and my brother) felt like what life in America as an student should be like, were people become independent and responsible of themselves at an early age, something a lot of my friends were not experiencing (for better or worse) that always kept me somehow disconnected from them.
I was able to graduate as an engineer at my 22, not too excited for my career ahead, beside the bigger paycheck after leaving retail, but definitely feeling a bit empty on what life was going to be like from now on in reality I enjoyed school and college because of the people, I enjoyed my life at that point because of the friends and family but it was growing in me more and more, a feeling of discontent for the country, our culture (or the bad part of it), the laws and politics that were never good but were starting to become even more problematic. Venezuela always felt to me like without this survival of the fittest mentality, were in order to move ahead you need to step on others, was the only way to succeed or have money, that connections were more important than talent, and that if someone else is doing it, I’m allow to as well, even if it’s illegal or incorrect.
Right after school and because of my good grades I landed a big job on the largest oil and gas company own by the government (who I obviously didn’t support)something that didn’t help with my career and my apathy on how things were run in Venezuela, the thing is we went from a right-wing “make the rich people more rich mentality” to a left socialism extremist that used the excuse to “help the poor while they got as rich as the other politicians,” and for the next 6 years I had the worst time of my life from Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 4 pm. The only thing I can save from this time is how much time I spend at work reading and learning from United States, down to even pay attention to what “Times magazine, Forbes, and the Newyork times” have to say (all thanks to the invention of twitter) that helped feel more and more in love of the idea of one day living in here, and understanding how things were and important fact that helped me when I finally moved.
At 24, I made possible a big dreams for my mom, and I (with the help of some special loans from work) bought a house for me and her; next to that, I booked a flight for us to visit Aruba and leave the country for the first time. It was a beautiful year, but also full of hard work to have the house ready to move in, that of course, because of economy and the way things work over there took way more than expected. The thing was, as soon as I hitted that goal, l felt lost, thinking now what? This whole time I was worried and working on finding some type of stability for my family some type of normal after losing dad, but I was doing thing just because I knew it will help me get that house, but not for me, not for my dreams.
So, at 29, after a couple of failed attempt to get a tourist visa, and some money and month wasted in the long unnecessary difficult process, I got it, and I booked my first flight to “America”. A whole month vacation that I planned to visit a friend from school that lives in Miami a cousin in Katy and then when I was there settle for a couple of days, plan my way to visit my dream place, New York. I even had a go-away surprise party thrown at me from my friends; the truth is, all of them knew, including my mom, of the possibilities of me, never coming back; even tho it was never completely discuss they knew my hunger for a better life, they knew I felt like a big fish in a small pound, and granted I knew too, and kind of prepared on a side my letter of resignation from that big job and a letter of power from a lawyer to leave everything under my name to my mom.
What happens next is, to be expected, I felt in love with it, with America, the convenience, the luxury, the range of products and goods, the smells, the vibes, the diversity, the way things actually worked, the services, the order and cleanliness, and it only took me hours just moments after landing. I didn’t got to New York right away; that had to wait; the moment I spent a couple of days at my cousin and thought of my options to never go back, it was decided, well by me, but I did call my mom to explain, that the best I can do for myself and to support her is to stay, I will find a job under the table, get a lawyer, to discuss my options even if I can never go back and I have to start from scratch by myself, with some help from my cousin and a little backpack. And that is what I did. It took me a week, and I was on my first job, excited to test the English I learned as a kid.
My experiences here have been many, and I won’t necessarily go in full details, I worked as a server then bartender, I added plumbing, painter, and handyman assistant on the days I have some time of the bar. I started a cleaning business with my cousin (that still operates today: JEJ Solutions), I worked on retail again for At&t, modeled a couple of times, and went back to oil and gas on an office position for Schlumberger; I learned photography on a side and did it professionally on the weekends, went back to school to become a software engineer, I worked on a door to door sales job after been laid off from oil and gas and then became a designer for a marketing agency during covid, without any experience besides having a good eye, all of that while applying to become an engineer again one day and actually make good money, the hope was still there, to not have to hustle so much.
Eventually, I was able to visit NY (and cried when I stood in front of my lady “Freedom” the majestic statue of liberty), made many friends, bought my first car and sold right after it broke in a month, scratched a bunch of items of my bucket list, learned about taxes and how confusing they are, change my party drinking habits to a more homebody chill adult, suffered a back injured from a car accident and experience the not so great health care/insurance system, became a vivid reader, sold my company to my partner, traveled to some of the most famous places in the country, and finally, landed that engineer job, now as a developer, working remote, making enough to not have to worry about gigging on many of the different skills I have learned along the way, while still supporting my family and relative abroad, and giving me back time for myself to enjoy and learn new hobbies.
At the end of 2020 I moved to an apartment by myself for the first time, and I started attending a school to learn music (school of rock) during my new free time of not having to work a second job, I attended many local shows to support and network, was introduced to the music scene in the city and the company “plug and play” that runs open mic, and became part of a community of human supporting other doing their craft, Music, and with a lot of inspiration and support from friends I spent hours every day and I can now play and sing, wrote a couple of songs (13 and counting) and recorded my first single one that can be found in all majors music services. I even call myself a musician nowadays after a lady randomly tipped me a 20$ for performing my first original song in public. Crazy I get to play music and get pay for it (most of the times)
The thing is, It hasn’t been easy, and I have worked very hard, sometimes more than that, but the experiences along the way, the opportunities I have had, the people I met has been mostly incredible positives, the places and opportunities this country has are so vast, and is easy to not see them when we are not paying attention and we focus on our challenges. I used to believe been rich and famous and getting that apartment on Manhattan was what successful meant, I think now that yeah it could be associated to that, I no longer crave it btw, the term “success” is what you want it to be. For me has been living my America Dream, making a living, a good living, fulfilling my basic needs, helping when I can, been able to enjoy little things in life, surrounded by the right people, on a place that feels safe and free, where I have been giving the opportunity to grow without needing to step on anyone in the process and a place where all challenges can be overcome with patient and right attitude.
The cost has been huge, leaving my life, my house, my family and friends, a good job, everything I was, and of course this last 8 years aren’t necessarily smooth sailing, I haven’t been able to see the majority of people I left behind including my mom but I can say I have never been happier and that decision is still, till today, the best I ever had done for myself.
Life has taught me that discipline and confident are my best friends, even is sometimes I have them both for different reasons, but also the lens we choose to see things; life is beautiful, this country is definitely beautiful, is not perfect and I see it, but I have been able to achieve everything I put my mind to it while helping others in this country….that Idea of me playing music on that bar, with dim light? I have, actually, many times now. Owning my first car? Done. Listening to your favorite musicians live? Done. Attended the biggest most famous video game convention? Done. Music fest? Owning my first Mac? Meeting a famous person? Visit the famous themes parks or landmark where movies were made? Starting my own business? Silly, right, but done, want me to get serious? well Not having to worry about theft crimes? Or not having water or electricity for days? Been able to provide to sick family members and help? Paying for relatives to relocate to a new country? Volunteer and donate to others? Access to all type of food and medications? Yes, to all and many more.
I feel privilege to be here, and I hope I never take it for granted, I might not have everything figure out, neither have all the answers to my life and future, but I’m happy, and you can find me playing on local venues and bars sometimes, enjoying morning walks in the buffalo bayou, smiling to strangers, always looking to make new friends, taking photos of happy people and keeping my incredible girlfriend laughing all day… I get to enjoy this short silly life, and I’m happy to share my story, after all, we all have something to tell.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
– Finding a job as an immigrant is harder, or at least in my situation where my work permit has an expiration date and has been used against me. – Been a brown man trying to be taken serious as a business owner was a bit of a struggle but maybe perhaps of my own insecurities and bias to see only white older men as CEO’s and bosses.
– Making friends and meeting people has never been too hard, but in reality, the time-consuming lifestyle of American leaves very little time to nurture those friendships. Community and family integration is not as strong here than other places.
– Feeling part of something took me a while, and is now while playing music, is the first time I felt I belonged somewhere even if it’s not perfect is there.
– Leaving my family behind and not able to travel back or having them visit me since Venezuela and the USA relationship has not been great.
– The long process of getting a green card has affected a lot of my work opportunities and delay my ability to travel.
– Understanding and empathizing on how American see the country, to not judge them for complaining or dismissing a place that is so privilege.
– My overconfidence has of course been a double-sided sword that has helped me be courage when I need to but them also overjudge my performance and success on everything I do, that has of left me drain and burned out when things don’t go my way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I graduated as an electronic engineer in telecommunications and worked for 6 years in a petrochemical company as an automation and process control engineer. I loved design and visual endeavor so I became a professional photographer for a year a half; I do it now mostly as a hobby so I can focus in my music.
I have done many jobs, but I might be considered a jack of all trades master of none.
If I were to named some skills, designing and drawing is one of them, and the ability to share exciting ideas.
I know mostly because of my positive attitude and my constant appreciation (compliments) to others.
I’m currently a Software Engineer for Liberty Mutual. And I’m a singer-songwriter that plays the acoustic guitar.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
Making a board games using wood cardboard and a lot of imagination. Playing war games around the house with my cousins.
Pretending to be a singer in a family gathering event.
A surprise birthday party from my friends at elementary school.
Kissing a girl in kindergarten and telling everyone she was my girlfriend.
Playing Mario Kart with friends while eating Doritos and Pepsi.
Laying down on my dad ribs while watching the Discovery Channel.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juans1u/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juans1u
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanesiu/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/S1u
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Js1u
Image Credits
Christian Pena
Leonel Fernandez
Juan Siu
