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When Queenstown writer César Carvajal arrived in New Zealand from Colombia a decade ago, he thought he was taking a short hiatus from his legal career.
“I was working with lawyers from New York, so I wanted to talk to them and have the ability to interact better,” Carvajal says of his plan to study English before returning home.
“Stay six months, study and practise, then go back to Colombia to continue in my job.”
However, life in NZ had other plans for him, beginning a decade of experiences that form the basis of his self-published memoir, The Older Brothers.
The 40-year-old Sunshine Bay resident, who works as an Uber driver and meditation teacher, says the book’s an “extended meditation” on migration, identity, reinvention and the search for a more fulfilling life.
Carvajal says he stayed because NZ gave him a greater sense of safety, openness and freedom than his native country.
Because he couldn’t transfer his legal qualifications to his adopted country, “I had to start from zero”.
Starting with washing dishes, he went on to study cooking and work in kitchens.
After living in Auckland and Māpua, near Nelson, he moved to Queenstown in 2022.
Carvajal says after contemplating writing a book for many years, he returned from a trip to Colombia with his Irish partner in January feeling ready to synthesise years of notes and written reflections he’d accumulated.
Several intense months later, The Older Brother was complete.
It opens in his kitchen, where he’s making coffee and looking out towards Cecil Peak and the Remarkables.
He then see his reflection in the window, and wonders which version of himself he really is: lawyer, chef, writer or meditation practitioner.
Writing the book helped him realise he did not have to choose, he says.
“I feel like I’ve closed one chapter and opened a new life where [I’m] all of them at the same time, and they’re not fighting each other.”
He hopes the book will resonate with migrants and anyone navigating major change in life, and those who’ve achieved some success, but remain unfulfilled.
The title comes from Carvajal being the elder of two brothers, but also from a visit to Colombia’s Lost City, an archaeological site where an indigenous community calls itself the “Elder Brothers” and sees service to the community as a responsibility.
He’s adopted that philosophy for himself, hoping to share his mistakes and experiences so others might avoid similar struggles, he says.
Published through his imprint, The Elder Brothers Press, the memoir is available as a paperback and e-book.
