“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
Aitana was named after a mountain range in Spain. The name was first used by the Spanish poet, Rafael Alberti for his daughter. She is 19 and was born in 2004 in Madrid. Her mother is Spanish from Zaragoza and her father Belgian from Nivelles. The family moved to Miami when she was 7 years old and her sister 5. She speaks perfect English and Spanish and is fluent in French. She has dual Belgian-Spanish citizenship and is on track to becoming a US Citizen. She has regularly been returning to Spain and Belgium to visit with family and friends and eat some of the foods she misses most: the oh-so tasty “ugly” tomatoes from Spain and the chocolate and waffles from Belgium.
Aitana went to school in Key Biscayne and at 15, asked to be sent to a boarding school in France. She wanted to improve her knowledge of French culture and of the language andbe closer to the Belgian side of her family. When the global Pandemic struck, her parents made the split-decision to get her out of France and on one of the last flights from London to Miami before the US border was closed. She travelled alone from Loches, in Central France, to London, taking 3 trains to get there. She completed her year online and completed her Junior and Senior years at the School for Advanced Studies. She graduated in June 2022 with a Superintendents Highschool Diploma and an Associate Degree from Miami Dade College. She is now studying Politics at King’s College in London and expects to graduate in 2025.
Aitana has an artistic streak. From a very early age, she enjoyed the arts and started performing in theater and musical productions at the age of 9. But it is her multicultural background that is her biggest influence in pursuing her dream of diplomacy and her greatest motivation to explore the world.