Home » Listen » Rachel Salazar and her husband, Ruben

“My coworker sent you that email by mistake.”

This love story started with a typo.

In 2007, Rachel P. Salazar was living in Bangkok, Thailand. Ruben P. Salazar was in Waco, Texas. But these two strangers had nearly identical email addresses.

Here, they remember how an errant keystroke led to an enduring romance.

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Below you’ll find the first emails between Rachel and Ruben.

Recorded in Waco, TX.

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Credits

Produced by Jasmyn Belcher.

Facilitated by Virginia Lora.

Recorded in partnership with KWBU.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Ruben Salazar: I get to work, first thing I do is turn on my email. And I discovered this one that I didn't know who it was from.

Rachel Salazar: My coworker sent you that email by mistake.

Ruben: And I was like, "Here's another R.P. Salazar. Imagine that." And so I forwarded it. I wrote a little message: Hi, Rachel, it seems as if this message came to me instead of you. I'm in Waco, Texas, USA. Have a great day. PS, how's the weather there in Bangkok?


Rachel: I replied to you, Weather in Bangkok is lovely. Gracias, Rachel.

Ruben: So began a chain of emails.

Rachel: The first couple of emails you started describing yourself and that kind of encouraged me to be open about myself too.

Ruben: I was excited that this person is halfway around the world. It's kind of like sending a letter in a bottle. I happened to hover my mouse over your name on one of those emails and a picture of you popped up and I was like, Wow, she's really beautiful! How can I make this picture bigger? [LAUGHS] I would stay up late at night, which was your morning, and we would chat for four or five hours.

Rachel: You had started to play an important role in my life even before I consciously realized it. I knew that I was falling in love, but there's still that tiny little bit of doubt that this might not work because we're 8,000 miles away from each other. But at some point I finalized my plans to visit the US.

Ruben: And you didn't tell anyone.

Rachel: Because everyone would tell me, You're foolish to go halfway across the world to meet some strange guy you have not met. That would be crazy.

Ruben: And on my end, every relative, every friend, co-worker--everyone knew.

Rachel: We were together for eight days.

Ruben: We were dancing one night and you mentioned something to the effect that no one...

Rachel: I said that you were the sweetest guy I've ever met.

Ruben: I knew right at that moment--I need to say something or do something so that I don't lose her. And so I got on my knee and asked you to marry me.

Rachel: Deep in my heart I knew it was coming and it was the right thing and it was the best thing.

Ruben: People didn't believe me, and some of them had second thoughts for me.

Rachel: They now all tell us, You're perfect for each other. You found the right match.