Envision the Earth as a busy colony of common honeybees. Hundreds or even thousands are thriving and bustling. With ever-changing resources, microclimates, environmental conditions, seasonal conditions and other drivers, it is often determined that it is necessary to relocate the colony partially or entirely. Similarly driven by more favorable sites and situations, humans too often decide that relocation is necessary to improve their quality of life. While not necessarily driven by more abundant and more sought after wildflowers and fruit trees, humans do often qualify their decisions to relocate based on “bread and butter;” whether you are a bee or a person, where you choose to live often depends on a matter of economics.

In pursuit of what a bee may consider easier or more competitive access to their resources, humans will comparatively relocate in search of education. Where a colony of bees may move due to habitat destruction, predation, or even down to the level of a juvenile with a rock, human migration too is often driven by threats to security and social and political climate. Adversity, opportunity, and sheer adventure have driven my mother’s bloodline to travel from thousands of miles over at least 3 traceable continents to end up where I am today. It is in the nature of able beings to travel and the reasons and manners in which they do so is a subject of great curiosity; grasping why can help procure a greater understanding of how our cultures came about where they could be destined in the future.

Because of the importance of relative space on migration, it is vital to grasp the methods used to analyze space. Location is one criteria of space; it can refer to Cali, Colombia, for example, as the place by name, or it can refer to 3° 25′ North latitude and 76° 30′ West longitude, the definitive coordinal location of that city. Location can be analyzed in terms of physical state of the location, including all resources and the composition of the landscape, as well as in terms of the situation of the land, or how this location is situated in such a way to be able to interact with human activities. Accessibility of a location to transportation and communication are key factors in determining a location’s connectivity to other locations. Immigration is the movement of a person to a location and emigration is the movement away from a place. All human movement is collectively considered migration. Migration can be voluntary and driven almost entirely by pull factors ranging to forced migration against one’s will which is heavily influenced by push factors. Migration within a country is considered internal migration, versus international migration which is between countries; both can be forced or voluntary.

In each decision to migrate, there are various factors which dictate movement. Push factors drive emigration by various causes ranging anywhere from war and famine to climate dissatisfaction and boredom with a location. Pull factors attract people to immigrate to an area such as economic opportunities and favorable geological site and situational conditions. The gravity model for migration dictates that with the more people that are concentrated in one area, the more the area will become a desirable place to live. Especially for long distance moves, large cities can provide a sense of security in the form of intervening opportunity. Intervening opportunity is the consideration that the more people there are in an area the more opportunity there are likely to be for improved quality of life. Because of the economies of scales associated with living and working with more humans per square mile, it is easier to improve quality of life with less economic capitol. Step migration is generally more based around internal migration in the movement of people from rural areas to more populated urban areas.

Channel migration is the chain reaction of immigrants from a certain area following one of more people from that area to a new location. The fact that at least one other person has already migrated means that they can give information, emotional support, and economic support for other that would also like to migrate to that area. This creates a migration field where there is a concentration of migrants from a certain area in one place. Assimilation is eased in channel migration, increasing the desirability of a new location. When people migrate even over a relatively short distance, they take with them the memories, values, languages, religions, foods, etc. from their previous locations and from their ancestors which will then have to merge with the new location’s equivalents. When immigrants are concentrated into a certain area, assimilation can sometimes take on the effect of modifying the new area based on the culture of the immigrants. Understanding population movements and their effect is integral to understanding the reasons and manners in which people move.

I am part of the youngest generation of a family history and genealogy that can be traced back for more than six centuries and over at least 3 continents. In 2006, I emigrated from Birmingham, Alabama, USA, to San Diego, California. Push factors in justifying moving were largely due to cultural and religious and differences. Other push factors include the weather being so unbearable due to heat and humidity that it is very difficult to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle, as well as relative location to the coast line. The pull factors for moving to San Diego included the prospects of an education from San Diego State University, the weather, recreational opportunity from the geographical location relative to the ocean, mountains, and high desert, and my attraction via the gravity model to the opportunities of a larger city. In the mid 1970’s, my father’s best friend and close family friend moved to San Diego because of the weather and the booming architecture industry at the time. In the summer of 2003, my father, my brother, and I came to San Diego to visit “Uncle” Bill Behun as our last big adventure before my brother left Birmingham for Army boot camp at Fort Benning, Georgia in the coming fall. Visiting Bill and the support he was able to offer in helping me assimilate to the city illustrates an example of chain migration. It helped me recognize various pull factors which helped me arrive at the final decision to migrate.

My two parents Dennis Charles LaGatta and Adriana Gutierrez married in 1975. In 1986 they had my older brother Christopher Andres LaGatta and in 1990 they had my younger sister Monica LaGatta. As a family unit we have internally migrated within the United States several times. In the summer of 2000, my immediate family moved to Birmingham from Sarasota, Florida, USA. They were seeking economic opportunity in form of a new job with a construction firm, Heery International, and what my parents describe as a combination of boredom and genetically driven “wanderlust,” otherwise known as “itchy feet.” In the winter of 1995, my family moved from Washington, DC, USA to Sarasota stating boredom, curiosity, wanderlust, and a desire for a change of environment and a new job prospect with The Richy Organization (TRO) provided just that opportunity. In 1988, my family, without my unborn sister, moved to Washington, DC (a return move for my parents) from Atlanta, Georgia, USA for the economic prospects of a new job and wanderlust. My brother and I were born at West Paces Ferry Hospital in Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia. In 1977, my parents moved to Atlanta from Washington, DC pulled by the economic prospects of attending graduate school at the Georgia Polytechnic Institute. The lower cost of living and the fact that they had already assimilated to Atlanta formed the justification for this move. In 1975, my parents moved to Washington, DC from Atlanta for their first jobs, which is where they met. My family has deep routes in frequent migrations which go back for centuries.

In 1970, the Gutierrez bloodline settled in North America. Driven by the financial needs of four of their six children entering college and the difficultly of supporting this on a Colombian income, my maternal grandparents, Oscar Gutierrez Pinzon and Adrienne Janeth Elizabeth Gray, moved back to the United States to Atlanta from Cali, Colombia, South America. In 1949, Oscar Gutierrez Pinzon married Adrienne Gray of the Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. In 1942, Oscar Gutierrez moved to New York from Cali after being accepted to Brown University. After arriving to register for classes at Brown University, it was quickly discovered that, at the time, my grandfather spoke no English and he was not allowed to attend the university. After one year, my grandfather was better assimilated with the culture and the language and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York where he met my grandmother who happened to be the first female engineer to graduate from RPI. Ironically this also happened to be the same school which my father, born in Troy, New York and raised in Waterford, New York, attended 30 years later before meeting their daughter and my mother in Washington, DC.

After graduating college, my grandfather again migrated internationally and returned to Cali with my grandmother where, in true Colombian fashion, they had their six children on their small farm. Born to Oscar and Adrienne were Ricardo, Eliza, Peter, Adriana, Maria Elena, and Carlos Gutierrez. Oscar Gutierrez was born July 22, 1924 from Carlos Gutierrez Arango and Blanca Pinzon Suarez of Manizales, Caldas, Colombia. Carlos Gutierrez was born on April 10, 1888 to Emilio Gutierrez Alvarez and Emilia Arango. Emilio Gutierrez was presumed to be a grandson to Jose Maria Gutierrez Alvarez who, again in true prolific Colombian fashion, had 30 known children from his two wives, Dolores Arango and later her sister Anselma Arango. Carlos Gutierrez arrived circa 1918 to Cali, several hundred miles away and several days donkey ride to seek his fortune in cattle ranching, sugar cane farming, other commercial enterprises, and as Colombia’s “Coffee King” buying and exporting coffee to the world. After establishing his enterprise, Carlos completed step migration and illustrated the gravitational model by moving from the rural Abejorral Antioquia, Colombia to the more populated but still agrarian, more accessible, city of Cali, where he returned with his 14 children. The Arango side of the family can be traced to Antonio Arango migrating from the Spanish province of Asturias Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 1654 via the port of Seville, Spain, Eastern Europe. There he served in the military and then moved to Abejorral Antioquia where he began to get involved with cattle ranching and agriculture.

The Pinzon name lingered in the central Colombian region for several generations prior. Blanca Pinzon Suarez, daughter of Ricardo Pinzon (brother of coffee baron Carlos Eduardo Pinson) and Laura “Mama Lala” Suarez was born August 10, 1822. Richard Eduardo and Carlos Eduardo Pinson where born to Antonio Pinson and Mercedes Posada. Antonio Pinzon was born to Juan Pinzon and Eugenia Amaya. Juan Pinzon was born to Jose Maria Pinzon and Rafaela Salazar. Jose Maria Pinson was born to Joaquin Pinzon Del Ferro and Maria Marina Del Ferro in the late 18th century. Joaquin Pinzon Del Ferro was born to Francisco Ambrosio Betran Pinzon and Micaela De Savedra in 1748. Pedro Pinzon was born to Francisco Beltran Pinzon and Maria de Maiorga. In 1598, Francisco Beltran Pinzon was born to Juan Beltran Pinzon who was born to Arias Perez Pinzon and Maria Alverez. Arias Perez Pinzon was the son of Martin Alonso Pinzon of Palos, Andalusia, Spain.

It is not certain exactly which generation of the Pinzón family finally brought the bloodline directly to South America. However, it is documented that Pinzón descendants immigrated to Florida and Texas in the United States from Palos, Spain at a later point in history. Martin Alonso, the direct ancestor of my bloodline, and the Pinzón Brothers are well documented historically as great explorers. Exploration and the prospect of wealth therefore provided great impetus and pull factors for exploring South America and settling the area for a short amount of time. Martin Alonso was the captain and owner of the Pinta with his brother Francisco as the pilot, and his brother Vicente as the captain of the Niña in Columbus’s famous voyages prompted by the Spanish royalty to find a new trade route to India. They did not find a trade route to India in the end, but the journey was considered wildly successful after the discovery of the New World. Although the Pinzon brothers were integral to the voyages, they received very little recognition and fame for their contributions. Their home town of Palos de la Frontera has declared October 12 of every year, normally reserved for Columbus Day, Pinzón Day in honor of their stolen glory. After returning from the discovery of the New World, Martin Alonso Pinzon died shortly after. It is suggested that he was murdered by Christopher Columbus over a dispute about the profits of the voyage. It is equally likely that he died of syphilis contracted on the journey, perhaps while conceiving the next generation of Pinzóns. Continuing to explore following his brother’s death, Vicente was blown on shore to the coast of modern-day Brazil where he is credited with discovering the Amazon River. The Pinzon brothers were born in the city of Palos, Spain descended from Martin Pinzon and his father Diego Martin Pinzon. Diego Martin Pinzon is the earliest dated ancestor of my bloodline.

Many generations, have brought my ancestry to many different places with many different reasons. Some reasons were pleasant and others were not so pleasant. As the migrating honeybee takes with it a portion of the honey derived from the local sources of nectar, my ancestors carried with them certain cultural characteristic of the previous generation and their previous location. The conditions and interactions that exist between different locations often present apparent and favorable reasons to relocate. Whether you are a scout bee searching for a new place for the colony or an explorer who has happened upon an unknown world, migration is a natural tendency.