BUENOS ARIES, Argentina – Muscatine native Kevin Chick is on a six-week backpacking trip to Europe, but when he returns home it will be to his apartment in Buenos Aries where he works as an actor, teacher, and Study Abroad coordinator.

Kevin, 24, is the son of Dennis and Cheryl Chick. He graduated from Muscatine High School in 2002, and the University of Iowa in 2006. He has been living and working in Argentina since his graduation from Iowa where he was a theater major.

“I have always been interested in being an actor, and learning more about the Spanish language and culture,” Kevin said during a recent visit to the home of his parents in Muscatine.

Chick started displaying his acting and musical talents at an early age. According to the 2002 Auroran yearbook, Chick’s goal was to be an actor.

“I tried out for everything, and was in a lot of plays at school. I played percussion in the concert band, and bass guitar in the Jazz Cats.” He was also in the show choir and on the student council.

Chick also became involved in languages at an early time. “I took four years of Spanish at MHS, and spent one semester in Spain when I was in college.”

Among his friends during college was a girl from Boston whose family was originally from Argentina. “She still has a lot of relatives there, so I decided to go to Argentina for a visit after college.

“I didn’t know how long I would stay there, but during my second week I was offered a one-year contract to be a member of a cast of a children’s theater company that performed musicals in English. We traveled all over South and Central America, including two months in Mexico. I play bass guitar and can act and sing enough to be a musical performer.”

His current Afro-style long hair is part of his acting persona. “It helps me stand out,” Kevin said. “People take a second look at a white guy with an Afro.”

Living in Buenos Aries, Chick continues to hone his language skills. Spanish is the language of all South American countries except Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken. Spanish can vary considerably from one country to another because each country has its own version and regional dialects. “I could understand people in Mexico, because I have studied a universal Spanish, but people in Mex-ico couldn’t understand us.

“People tell me I speak the Argentine language without an American accent because of having to use the language there in everyday life. I had a minor in American sign language when I was at Iowa, so languages have always been a part of my thinking.”

After the year of traveling with the theater company, Kevin looked for other ways to make a living as an actor. He has been to a lot of auditions and has appeared in television commercials, including two for Coca Cola. “A lot of commercials are made in Argentina because of a favorable monetary exchange rate and a large pool of talent, he said.

“I knew one of the Coca Cola commercials was going to be shown in the United States last February, and told my parents to watch for it. It was actually shown during the Super Bowl, but you could not see me in it as a person. Some of the characters in the commercial morphed into cartoon characters, and the part I played was in a cartoon figure during the commercial aired in the U.S. So, I was in the commercial but you couldn’t really see me.”

Chick is also a Study Abroad coordinator in Buenos Aries for a San Diego college. “Students come here for periods of one to three months. I arrange housing, transportation, purchase tickets for events, and anything else to help them adjust to Argentina. I can assist them in many ways because I am an English-speaker who is fluent in Argentine, and I know my way around this city of 14 million people.”

“That is a good part of being self-employed. I know when the Study Abroad programs are scheduled, and can work my time around that.”

In addition to everything else, Kevin has also taught conversational English to small groups. “I am not a certified teacher, but I can do that.”

Kevin isn’t sure about his long-range plans. He is comfortable doing what he does now in Argentina. “In a couple of years I would like to go to graduate school to continue a theater career.”

Editor’s note: “Where Are They Now” is a Muscatine Journal series written by former Muscatine Journal editor Gil Dietz, who welcomes comments and suggestions. You can contact him at 563-263-5499 or gvdietz@earthlink.net