They are Argentineans, they moved to Valencia and they recount the difficulties of setting up their family business

In December 2021, the marriage of Ignatius and Nataliaalong with his daughter Sofia, 12 years old, all Argentines, undertook the adventure of leaving to settle in another part of the world. The chosen country was Spainand the city, Valencia. Five months later, thanks to his effort and tenacity, were able to exhibit at a Valencian fair the dolls that hug and other craft products from natina toys, their family business that they transferred from Argentina to the Old Continent. Happy to be able to start over in a new home, they both thank “the good vibes of the people” in Valencia and they assure: “Here they value us, they tell us that Argentines are very creative”.“Today marks five months since that December 13, 2021 that we took the plane with my family to settle in Valencia. Today, with a lot of effort, Natina Toys starts with Abrazos Natineros to share the games of the boys in Spain”, he wrote, on his Twitter account, Ignatius Marcalain, to tell his followers the good news of his family. The photos that accompany the post show him next to Natalia Parody, his wife – whom he defines as “the locomotive, the soul and the engine” of entrepreneurship – in the market Colon of the mentioned city ​​in eastern Spainwhere they set up a stand with their products. The decision to settle in another city was something that both They had been “chewing” for years. “I feel that it arises from a concern to open my head, to know other realities. We always liked to travel a lot, and we did it a lot, and we thought about being able to make our lives in other places, and live experiences with other customs, other idiosyncrasies”, he tells, THE NATION, Natalia, through a telephone conversation in which her husband also intervenes Ignatius.The family of Ignacio, Natalia and Sofía moved to Valencia in December of last yearTwitter / @nachobam67“This started a long time ago when Nati began to fill out the papers for Spanish citizenship, and then she passed it on to our daughter Sofía. We wanted her to have the tools so she could do whatever she wanted anywhere in the world. We speak languages, we taught that to her, who went to an international school in Argentina and now here too,” says Ignacio, who was a cameraman for the news division of Channel 13 and TN for about three decades. the things to go – he adds Ignatius-. The years of the pandemic showed us that there were other realities, I was completing 30 years of work, like a cycle was ending and that’s how we decided. We agreed between the three of us, we talked about it with the family and they said that they were sad because we were leaving, but happy because of the illusion we had of starting over. We packed our bags, moved in with the bare minimum, and set out on an adventure.” “We decided on Valenciawhich is a very beautiful city, because they told us that it was an ideal place for making toys, and because the proximity of the sea was very attractive to both of us”, says Ignacio, who, to round off the idea of ​​the importance of having the waters of the ocean – in this case the Mediterranean– He says his wife is from Puerto Madryn, and “she lived her entire childhood two blocks from the sea.” The adventure of the trip included bringing part of the enterprise that Natalia created in 2004: Natina toys. It is a family business that was born with the creation of a doll made to hug Natalia’s three-year-old niece and grew with these dolls as a standard – now there are three models, Natina, Lala and Mili and they come with a book that explains the benefits of hugs – and a host of other objects designed for children’s play and creativity: horses with wooden sticks and wheels, kits for children to make dolls, rainbows, so that they can build their own toys, small cardboard theaters, “guardrails” and much more. The dolls that hug, by Natina toys.- Source: Instagram @natinajuguetes “We are very playful, we like to play a lot and we like what we make. She designs everything and gives added value to what she does, a concept. She thinks about things, and I am in the technical part of how to bring them to life, how to assemble them”, explains Ignacio, who says that they have already bought a sewing machine and other artifacts for their artisan work of creating toys. Of course For Natina’s magic to flow also in Valencia -the enterprise continues in Argentina, with an important portfolio of clients, by the hand of Malala, Natalia’s sister-, a great effort had to be made. “It was hard for us because it was like starting something new without knowing the cloth he asserts. We had to get suppliers, raw materials, everything to generate production and livelihood here”. Spain They found another reality regarding the materials for the manufacture of toys and that is that everything is made with sustainable products. “Everything is made with organic processes, which do not affect the environment. We take advantage and look for that type of thing that is taken into account here,” he adds. Ignatius.Natalia Parodi created Natina Toys in 2004, after designing a doll that she hugs for her little niece to do “a lot of paperwork”, in the words of the Argentine. “We were going to make a T-shirt that said: ‘Send an email and wait for the answer‘ -jokes Ignatius-, because for everything, even if you personally explain something, they ask you for that”. “It’s very bureaucratic, but you stay calm because in the end what you need comes out. They tell you ‘a week’ and it’s a week away”, adds Natalia. “What happens is that we, as Argentines, are eaten by anxiety,” concludes her partner. The truth is that, after the paperwork and effort, Natina toys made her presentation in Spain on May 13, 14 and 15 at the Mercat de Colón, an old recycled supply center with a very modern design where all kinds of fairs are usually held. “We went without much expectation because we are new and they don’t know us. We introduce ourselves to test if they like our products. We weren’t thinking of selling, but when we sold we were very happy,” he says. Natalie, about the first public experience of their toys in Europe. “The response was very positive because they got hooked on the concept of the dolls, that the boys incorporate the hug in a playful way. It was very good for me that there was interest”, comments the creator of Natina, and recounts the worldwide friction that her creations had, since children and adults from Morocco, Greece and, of course, Spain, among other countries, were delighted with them. “We are understanding that the energy that one puts into things helps a lot,” he says. Natalieas a reflection.Nacho Marcalain announced in his networks the presence of Natina in the Colón market, in ValenciaTwitter / @nachobam67The next step of the toy brand that crossed the Atlantic Ocean will be a design fair that will be held in June in the Nursery Gardens of Valencia, called Palo Market Fest. “Once we have the safe toy certificate, which is in process, we are going to start contacting educational toy stores, which are our target, toys that do not use plastic either, not even in the packaging,” says Ignacio. Taking stock of the Valencian experience five months after their arrival, the couple assures that “it was positive”. “We are happy,” he says. Natalie and her husband notes: “That does not mean that we do not have our Doubts, fears, anxiety, but the balance is positive”. Both claim that technological tools serve to “keep them close” to family and friends.Ignacio was a cameraman for El Trece and TN for 30 years, a job from which he said goodbye last September 10twitter / @nachobam67Natalia and Ignatius, who speak and complement each other with the complicity that their 24 years of life together give them -six dating and 18 married-, point out that “so far” they do not miss anything from Argentina. “Neither of us is a fan of anything, not dulce de leche, not soccer, we don’t have Argentines on the stick, we’re a bad example for that,” he says, laughing. “The one I missed a bit at first was Sophie, but luckily that has changed: she has a group of friends who made her part. Seeing her well gives us enormous joy, because we did this thinking of her”, says the creator of Natin.Regarding the attitude of the locals towards this family of recently arrived Argentines, Natalie felt welcome. “I was quite surprised by the good vibes of the people,” he says. We were very well received, they love us very much, we don’t feel like foreigners at all. They value us. At the fair we attended, they told us that we Argentines were very creative”. “They also consider us to be very good salespeople, because they say we talk a lot,” he adds.The cloth horses, with wooden sticks and wheels, are another of the handcrafted toys offered by NatinaInstagram / @natinajuguetesAmong the differences between the people of Buenos Aires -the Marcalain family lived in Vicente López- and the Valencians, they point out the language issue. “We speak the same language, but with different words. There are expressions of ours that they don’t understand and things about them that we don’t understand”, says Ignacio. In the same sense, but a little beyond the language itself, Natalia adds: “In certain things it is strange that there, in Argentina, I tell you something and we understand each other. We have the same codes. Here I have to explain more and give examples, because they don’t quite understand the emotion I want to convey”. “Sometimes the times they have are more lax, things take longer. First it shocks us, but then we end up saying: ‘That’s what we came for, quality of life, that we don’t have to be running all the time’”, says Ignacio, who also says that there it is possible to see people in bars with cell phones on the tables or with phones on the subway or the street “without feeling any threat”.Natina toys will participate in the Palo Market Fest design fair in June and later will be launched on the educational toy store market in SpainTwitter / @nachobam67 the morning. We walked near a park, and there were other people around, all calm, ”she adds. “In that sense, you quickly get used to being relaxed with the security issue and that things work well. It didn’t cost us,” he says. NatalieFinally, the married couple who want to set up their family toy business in Spain assures that they have met in Valencia and the region with other compatriots who live there and who all have something in common. “Argentines are resilient. We give it forward. And the ones we find here are all like that, they go forward and are happy”, concludes Ignacio.