This month on VOICES Radio Hour — airing Friday, July 11 at 6pm on KDNK — Roaring Fork Valley locals share about their journeys to find home, whether here or returning to places they had never been before. Mateo Sandate shared his story of discovering one such place, and the family he found along the way.

Nothing can really keep loved ones apart. Although like the ticking of a clock, sometimes Time can get in the way. Better felt than said. A year away from a significant other is significant. How about 100 years apart?

That’s where my dad and I found ourselves as we boarded an airplane bringing us back to a home we’d never known. Our journey into our family history to that point was like a butterfly, carried by the wind — this way and that way. The monarch butterfly specifically became a symbol for us as we embarked on this journey to carry us home.

We were accompanied by my uncle, with whom we’d found key documents like the birth certificate of my grandfather. This included the address of the home where he was born in Mexico just over 100 years ago.

For an immigrant grandfather, details like ancestry were secondary when trying to feed a family of 10, especially as immigrants in a community where you couldn’t eat at a restaurant, swim in a public pool or even get a haircut because you were labeled a “colored person.” Imagine not even being able to drink the water that flowed from a public water fountain!

So when we found the document, it was like a piece of treasure. Questions arose — Might family be alive we’d never met? Might family live at this address? Are there more of us?! We gave ourselves a week to find out, and to go back to our home we’d never known with hopes of finding family!

Upon arriving, we went all over town, and after a week, we exhausted all our attempts to find family in government offices, clerks, municipalities, historic records, cemeteries and even bars! We did find the address on my grandfather’s certificate (in 15 minutes) though it had turned into an ice cream shop in the historic center of town.

We had an angel with us, however — a local named Mario, who learned what we were doing and decided to join us. He turned the tide. On our last evening, Mario followed his hunch to visit a friend who had an old phone book — 50 years old! We tried the handful of phone numbers listed that shared our family’s surname, Sandate, though none worked. We thought we’d reached the end of our road. It was ambitious to get off an airplane, land in a foreign country, and discover family after being estranged for over 100 years.

On our final morning we resorted to knocking on doors. The handful of phone numbers we discovered also came with addresses. We pulled up to the first. As we did, residents milling about seemed to step inside with a swiftness only given to strangers. It was fitting. As everyone went inside, one person stepped outside. The streets were emptied and still.

My uncle got out of the car carrying the birth certificate and went right up to the one person standing outside. He mentioned we were in town looking for Sandate family and before he could show the certificate, we heard a voice in Spanish say, “I’m a Sandate.” Thus began a tearful conversation full of hugs and the laughter of a family reunited.

Miles away, forgotten and unknown, we were as mysterious to him as he was to us. It turned out this elder named Moises, about 80 years old, was our cousin. My grandfather’s cousin to be exact. He shared a story of waking up that morning with so much excitement. He didn’t know where it came from or what to do about it. He decided to go outside. For him that meant to go out the front door and get some fresh air. That’s when all of us met with our eyes. Gazing from curb to car, and only moments before “strangers” became “long-lost relatives.”

Have you ever hugged someone you’re related to? The warmth, the peacefulness. Now imagine being separated by 100 years. There is a familiar warmth that silently communicates “we’re related,” “we share family in common,” “we have the same blood.” It’s a feeling of joy beyond words, beckoning tears. The hug seemed to change us molecularly. Feeling that familiar warmth, reuniting with family we’ve never known, going back to a home we now know.

This summer, I’m planning to make my third pilgrimage back home. And what an honor it is to go home on the wind like the butterflies! My journey has been one of going back home to reunite with what was once unknown, like the monarch butterflies. It takes them several generations to fly from Mexico across North America carried by the wind as far as Wisconsin, Georgia, California and Colorado. In one generation, a single butterfly makes the journey all the way back to a home it’s never known.

Mateo Sandate is a professional guitarist who lives in Carbondale. He studied jazz performance and holds multiple degrees from the University of North Texas. He is the founder of the Guitar Academy at A Spiritual Center and has supported Colorado Mountain College, Jazz Aspen and the Aspen Music Festival as an instructor. He loves to compose! His current single, “Peace Prevail,” is inspired from a tour with the Goi Peace Foundation and Nobel laureate Nihon Hidankyo.