We didn't build LiveGalicia for people passing through.
Galicia knows what it means to leave. For generations, this region exported its people — to the Americas, to Europe, to wherever work could be found. That history lives in the families, the architecture, the language, and the particular kind of welcome Galicia extends to people who arrive from somewhere else.
Something is shifting now. The flow is reversing. In 2025, all of Galicia’s net population growth came from foreign residents. Migrants generated 100% of net new job creation in the autonomo economy. The people arriving here and choosing to stay are not lifestyle tourists. They are building businesses, paying taxes, raising children, and putting down roots.
LiveGalicia has been working in that space since 2017.
We built it for people who came to stay — and needed the infrastructure to do it with intention.
What we actually do
We facilitate acculturation, integration, and entrepreneurship for people who have chosen Galicia as their territory. That means something more specific than it sounds.
It means we do not build bubbles. We do not recreate home abroad or insulate newcomers from the friction of integration. We work at the doorways Galicia already offers — the language, the culture, the civic and economic structures — and we help people walk through them with clarity.
Our community of over 6,000 across multiple platforms includes founders and freelancers, autónomos and executives, families navigating school enrollment and professionals navigating the NIE. What they share is not nationality or sector — it is the decision to be here fully, not partially.
We call that a Galipreneur.
Three things we are. One thing we are not.
- We are a community — over 6,000 people building lives and businesses in Galicia, connected through shared experience rather than shared origin.
- We are a strategic resource — for employers who need qualified international talent already established here, and for organizations that need cultural intelligence to work across the communities Galicia is becoming.
- We are nine years of institutional knowledge — relational capital and on-the-ground understanding that official data is only beginning to confirm.
- We are not a promotion platform. We do not sell Galicia. We help people build here.
Built from the inside, not the outside
LiveGalicia was not built by someone looking at Galicia from abroad and seeing opportunity. It was built by someone who came here, stayed, and learned — through the friction of integration, not around it.
Ángela-Jo Touza-Medina grew up between two worlds: a family with roots in Bueu, Vigo and A Coruña, shaped by the Galician diaspora that crossed the Atlantic in the early twentieth century.. That dual inheritance — understanding both what it means to leave and what it takes to build somewhere new — is what LiveGalicia is made of.
But the foundation is not only personal. Before LiveGalicia, Ángela-Jo spent more than a decade working directly with migrant and refugee communities in the United States — managing programs, building institutional infrastructure, and advocating for policy that reflected the real complexity of people’s lives. She has sat across the table from people navigating systems that were not built for them, in languages that were not their first, in places that did not yet feel like home. That experience is not background. It is the methodology.
It means the editorial voice is grounded in reality, not aspiration. The community standards reflect what integration actually costs, not what it looks like from the outside. And the refusal to flatten Galicia into scenery or reduce belonging to a checklist comes from knowing, firsthand, that neither of those things is enough.
Our Values - What drives our work
Meet the Team
Ángela-Jo Touza-Medina, Founder
Born in the United States, her roots run through Bueu, Vigo, and A Coruña by way of New York City and Havana. Her grandparents and great-grandparents were part of the Galician diaspora that crossed the Atlantic in the early twentieth century. She grew up in Vigo, spent nearly twenty years in the United States, and came home. Migration is not a professional specialty. It's an inheritance.
Ángela has spent twenty-five years working with governments, nonprofits, and international organizations on migration policy, public policy, institutional strategy, organizational development, and human capital across four continents.
She served on the national bodies that shaped immigrant integration in the United States, led the citywide network of immigrant-serving organizations, and chaired a City Commission on Immigrant Affairs — grounded in a decade before that of running large-scale direct services to refugee and immigrant populations through cultural orientation, workforce integration and training, and resettlement support.
She founded LiveGalicia in 2017 from Austin and moved back to Galicia in 2019, where it became her primary focus. Recognized by the Texas Senate, the Texas Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs for her work in cultural orientation and refugee resettlement, SXSW, and Executivas de Galicia, which named her a Referente Galega in 2026.
Dorothée Müller, Head of Partnerships
German by birth, Dorothée has spent twenty years helping technology companies enter and establish themselves in new markets — specialising in the digital transformation of the construction sector across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Spain.
Founder of Bauherz Digital, where she advises ConTech startups on market entry strategy, stakeholder positioning, and partnership development in the DACH region and Spain. Partner at Vitidron, applying satellite imaging, drone technology, and AI to precision crop monitoring — early detection, harvest estimation, and 3D analysis — helping agricultural businesses optimise performance, reduce costs, and advance toward more sustainable farming.
Her relationship with Galicia spans nearly two decades: she first lived here from 2008 to 2013, across Vigo, Moaña, Sada, and As Pontes, before relocating to Switzerland. She spent years going back and forth — her family already rooted here, raising her daughter in Galicia — before returning full-time in October 2025.
Dorothée joined LiveGalicia in 2021 as a facebook group moderator and evolved to collaborate as Head of Partnerships in 2025, focused on business development and building LiveGalicia's referral partnership network.
Galipreneur Connect Advisory Council
The Galipreneur Connect Advisory Council guides the programming and direction of LiveGalicia’s Galipreneur Connect events — the coworking socials, meetups, and gatherings where founders, freelancers, and autonomos building in Galicia come together in person.
Council members are volunteers that serve renewable one-year terms and are selected for their lived experience as international professionals building businesses in Galicia, their commitment to the community, and their willingness to contribute beyond their own projects. Learn more.