VICTORIA GUTIERREZ is 24-year-old Montevidean who in March returned from spending 5 years living in New York City. (Through her I first started travelling to Uruguay in 2002.) At 19 she chose to extend a family visit and overstay a tourist visa in order to become independent and see the world. For over 4 years she lived as an illegal immigrant, working odd jobs and playing music as much as she could. In March she returned to Montevideo to be able to study formally. Now she is living with her family and going to college after 5 years away from both, and struggling to readapt to Montevideo’s slower rhythm, the laxness of the public university system, and its lack of resources. She worries that these obstacles will interfere with her musical projects (releasing a cd, making new connections, continuing to expand her compositional palatte), and that her enthusiasm will wane in the face of widespread pessimism about young people’s economic future in Uruguay.