From the Land of Silver to Denim and Diamonds

By GAYANE TOROSYAN
ONEONTA

If anyone knows how to tame unruly hair, it’s Oneonta stylist Carolina Lateana Terrell. A tall brunette with smiling eyes, she often wears Argentinian silver jewelry that adds just the right amount of flair to her dignified posture—one that suggests she has nothing to prove, but much to offer. A tiny diamond stud sparkles effortlessly on the gentle curve of her nose.

“I’ve done curly hair, long hair, thick hair — all kinds of hair,” said Terrell, who works at Diamonds and Denim salon in Oneonta.

Her expertise is rooted in her South American upbringing and shaped by a journey from Argentina to upstate New York—one marked by resilience, reinvention, and a deep love for her craft.

Born and raised in Baradero, a small, picturesque town in Buenos Aires Province— “not to be confused with Varadero in Cuba,” she adds with a smile—Terrell grew up surrounded by beauty and style.

“I come from a family of cosmetologists,” she said. “My aunt—my mother’s sister—was a beautician. Now her son and granddaughter are, too. I learned by watching her do hair.”

After finishing high school in 1989, Terrell went straight into cosmetology training. She later worked in a hotel salon that catered to international tourists.

“I’ve worked with all kinds of hair — curly, straight, kinky — different cultures’ hair was never a problem,” she said.

Her family roots run deep in Argentina, with a rich blend of cultures. Her father, Carlos Alberto Reynaldo Lateana, was born in Baradero, though his own father came from southern Italy. Her mother, Margarita Esther Alonso, now 86, frequently visited Carolina in the U.S., especially after the birth of each of her children. Her father passed away in 2019 after a fall that led to an aneurysm. He was 85.

Terrell is one of five siblings—a retired rural school superintendent, a bakery owner, a physical education teacher and a classroom teacher. Thanks to their grandfather’s Italian citizenship, many of her nieces and nephews now live in Europe. One niece, who worked at the Argentine Embassy in London, now lives in Alicante, Spain. Another lives in Barcelona, along with Terrell’s brother.

“They all speak English, French and Spanish,” she said.

In 1999, a friend offered to buy her a plane ticket to visit her uncle and aunt in Binghamton. She stayed for two and a half months, attending English classes at BOCES.

“Learning the language was my main goal,” she said.

Just days before returning home, she met Michael Paul Terrell at a party.

“We became super good friends and started writing letters to each other,” she said, smiling at the memory of their old-fashioned connection. Less than a year later, he asked her to return to the U.S. to pursue a relationship.

After a brief stint in Miami, she returned to New York in May 2000. Michael enlisted in the Army shortly after.

“I wasn’t excited about that,” she said. “I didn’t want to be alone here.” But he returned a few months later, and the couple reunited.

They married in January 2001 and began the process of applying for a green card. On Sept. 11, 2001, while submitting paperwork in Albany, Carolina was breastfeeding their daughter Calixta when federal workers told them to evacuate. “We are under attack,” someone said. The process was delayed until November. The couple sealed their marriage in court and later celebrated their wedding in Argentina in 2002.

In 2010, Terrell became a U.S. citizen.

“It was a relief to live legally in a country that was not where I was born,” she said. “It felt good to do everything right.”

She added that it gave her peace of mind to share citizenship with her husband and children “in case something happened.”

The Terrells lived in Walton for five years, where Carolina earned her GED through the Even Start program—a course that provided childcare while parents studied. She later enrolled at Ridley-Lowell Business and Technical School in Binghamton to earn her U.S. cosmetology license. For a year and a half, she attended night classes while her husband cared for their children.

She worked as a master stylist at the Regis salon in Binghamton’s Oakdale Commons Mall for three years, while also running a daycare from home. In 2014, she began working at Main Street Cutters in Oneonta. When the salon closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she briefly worked at Chantique Spa before renting a chair at another salon—a position she was asked to leave after objecting to discriminatory remarks made by the owner.

“That’s the good part of being self-employed,” she said. “You can choose your clients. I don’t want to be treated like the help.”

Terrell said she also experienced discrimination while running her daycare.

“The inspector came to my house more often than to others,” she said. “I felt singled out because of my Hispanic background.”

Today, Terrell works at Diamonds and Denim in Oneonta and also styles hair at Bridgewater Nursing and Rehabilitation.

“I love working with older people and making them feel beautiful,” she said with a smile. “I have four regulars, and some of my clients are men.”

In addition to styling hair, Terrell recently began working as a substitute teacher aide for K–12 classes at the Afton Central School District.

Carolina and Michael Terrell now live in a home in Afton, purchased through a first-time homebuyer program that wasn’t available to them in Walton. Michael, who grew up working on his grandfather’s dairy farm in Deposit, New York, now works as an operator at FrieslandCampina Domo, a dairy-based manufacturing company.

The couple has three children: Calixta, 23, who recently earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Binghamton University; Damien, 22, who is studying environmental science with a minor in biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; and Julian, 16, a high-school student who excels in soccer, basketball, and academics.

“My life growing up was very different,” Carolina said. “We played outside on the sidewalk, soccer in the street with cousins. My kids didn’t have that.”

Now 56, Terrell continues to embrace her passion for hair. “I love to do hair and wouldn’t change it for anything,” she said.