The Spice Chica

Marina Mellino’s love of everything Argentine has ruled her life. Up to the age of six, she enjoyed an idyllic childhood in Buenos Aires. Then, a right-wing military coup forced her father to distribute his children to various relatives and disappear. Marina was sent to live with her paternal Italian grandmother. It was from her that she learned how to cook.

When her father resurfaced in Uruguay, she and her siblings went to live with him there. He then moved the family to the United States and on to Canada.  Marina graduated from high school here in Calgary, fluent in English, Spanish and Italian. But she remained in mourning for her lost homeland. “I felt I was taken away from Argentina” she says. “I never chose to leave, and there was always something missing in me. Whether I went to Uruguay, Mexico, Miami – there was something missing.”