He’s from Israel; she’s from Argentina. They fell in love in Spain. Now they share their lives with two children in the quiet village of Haydenville.
Edo Mor, 36, and Rosario “Rosie” Torres, 38, met a dozen years ago at a music festival in Andalusia, Spain. And though they couldn’t understand a word the other was saying, they spent two days dancing together, using primitive forms of communication to get to know each other.
“It’s really easy to fall in love when you can’t speak each other’s language,” Mor said.
Mor had gone to Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago, an historic 600-mile trek through the south of France to the Northwest of Spain, and one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during the Middle Ages. It was research, he says, for a novel he was writing in which the Jewish protagonist pretends to be a Christian while hiking the trail. Mor decided it was important to experience the pilgrimage himself, for the sake of the book. Plus, he adds, it was a good time to leave, because he was feeling disenchanted with America.
“I left for Spain after the Twin Towers fell, and we were declaring war on Iraq,” Mor said. “I was disheartened by our actions, and disagreed with the way President Bush was projecting our image in the world.”
So he packed his knapsack and got on a plane for Spain, ready to trek.
He was temporarily distracted.
After those fateful two days of dancing, Mor and Torres decided to stay in Spain together — and for the next two years, they made jewelry together, selling it on the beaches. Their business did well enough that they were eventually able to save enough money to buy a house — in Argentina.
But first, Mor said, he had to take that hike. Torres said she’d go with him, and the two completed the entire trail in a month.
“It was very good that we did Camino when we were broke. People gave us tomatoes, we camped on the side of the road,” Mor said. “If you have a credit card, it’s a whole different thing; you can be like, ‘That looks like a nice hotel to stay in.’ I recommend, if you ever walk it, just throw your credit card out.”
Torres calls the time together on the trail epic — the highlight of their time in Spain.
“We are always reminiscing days on that hike,” she said, with her rolling Argentine accent. “Especially now, we get into the routine with the kids, and don’t remember what we did two days or weeks ago. But there, every day was a journey, and we remember each one with such clarity.”
When they completed El Camino, Mor and Torres moved to Argentina, as planned, but a year later, Mor was ready to move back to the U.S.
“After a couple years out of the county,” he said, “I felt more grateful for all the things the U.S. is, and came back with a fresh perspective.”
Since 2009, the couple has lived in the quiet village of Haydenville, a spot they discovered while visiting Mor’s brother, who attended Hampshire College in Amherst.
“This place really stood out for us. I just felt comfortable here right away,” Mor said. “I have found that people here have a sort of positivity, are engrossed in life from day to day, and find things that are meaningful for them. It creates a safe feeling here, like a family.”
Mor and Torres still make jewelry together, and have a business they’ve named Momo Jewelry, after a book, “Momo,” they read to each other while traveling through Spain.
And though they’re happily settled in Haydenville, they say, they still have a lust for travel: They take their kids, Amaya, 4, and Django, 2, with them to summer art shows, and spend three months a year in Argentina, where they continue to make jewelry. Each trip, they say, is an opportunity to expose their children to the wondrous world they have experienced together.
Keegan Pyle can be reached at ValleyStoryPlace@gmail.com.