I’d like to tell you a little about Claudia, a friend of
mine from El Salvador. (I’ve changed her
name to protect her and her family’s privacy).
Claudia is 24 years old, and she is one of the brightest, kindest, most
loving, most intelligent people I’ve ever met.
Her three younger brothers are also some very wonderful young men. I want to tell you about Claudia because she
is an incredible young lady- her story is inspiring and I know she will go on
to do wonderful things for the world. I
also want to tell you about her story and her family’s story because there are
thousands of other families with stories similar to this one. I hope that sharing this story will help you
understand the difficulties faced by so many families around the world.
Claudia was born a little more than four years before the
end of the Salvadoran civil war. The
area her family lived in was one of the areas where there was a lot of
fighting. Her family fled the area to
escape the fighting and spent some time living in a refugee camp. They were able to return and resume as normal
of a life as possible, but in the years following the war her family struggled
to survive and find a way to earn a decent income. In 1994, Claudia’s dad went to the U.S. for
about a year and a half. He returned
without having been able to save any money for the family. When he returned, the economic situation of
her family improved some. Her dad
decided to work some land along with her two brothers. Claudia’s mom cooked for the staff of a
church. When Claudia was 14 years old
she began to work at a little cafeteria at a school in the mornings and in the
afternoon she would return the 6 kilometers home, get ready for school, go to
school, and then take corn to the mill to be ground.
Every evening Claudia and her mom would make a bunch of
tortillas so that her brothers and dad could eat them the next day. She worked and studied for two years until
she completed the Salvadoran equivalent of middle school. Claudia wanted to go on to high school, but her
parents weren’t able to help her with the costs of going on in school. (Even today, many Salvadorans aren’t able to
go to high school because they can’t afford the costs and they can’t afford not
to work.) Claudia was thinking about
continuing to work and just study on the weekends. However, her school gave out two scholarships
and she was awarded one of those scholarships.
But the scholarship wasn’t enough.
A lot of times she would skip meals and she would walk the 6 kilometers
to get to her house rather than spend money on bus fare. She did this so that she could save up money
to buy her books for school. With many
sacrifices she finished high school.
Claudia wanted to continue studying, to go on to college,
but things would be much more difficult to go to college than going to high
school. She would have to move to the
capital city, San Salvador, where the university was because she lived too far
away to live at home and commute to school.
The costs of going to university would include paying for a place to
live, tuition, transportation, food, books and other school supplies- and most
university degrees take 5 or 6 years to complete. Claudia’s mom told her that she would like
for Claudia to continue studying but would not be able to help her financially. Even though Claudia knew this, it didn’t stop
her. She took the admission test to get
into the university, and she passed.
When Claudia’s mom saw just how determined Claudia was to
continue studying, she made the decision to travel illegally to the U.S. to try
to earn some money to send back to her family.
Two months later, her dad did the same.
This left Claudia alone in charge of her three younger brothers who were
16, 14, and 6 years old at that point.
Three months passed with the four kids living together in
the house. When Claudia left to start
school in San Salvador, her littlest brother went to live with their grandma
and the two older brothers stayed in the house alone and continued their
schooling. The kids would only see each
other on the weekends.
It’s been about five years since Claudia’s parents went to
the U.S. They still live in the
U.S. Her mom currently works at a
Laundromat and her dad has been without work for about a year. Now Claudia’s two older brothers are also living
in San Salvador and going to college.
The littlest brother still lives with their grandma. Claudia is close to being done with all the
requirements needed to graduate.
However, the job prospects don’t look good for her. There aren’t many jobs in El Salvador, even
for really smart and skilled university graduates like Claudia.
I asked Claudia what dreams she has for her future and for
the future of her family. She said that
she wants to graduate from university, find a good job, and help her brothers
so that they too can graduate from university.
She also wants to be able to help her parents so they can return to El
Salvador and be with Claudia and her brothers. That certainly doesn’t seem like too much to
ask for, yet I know much time will pass and many struggles will be endured
before her dreams are realized.
When Claudia’s parents migrated to the U.S. they did so
because they wanted their children to have an opportunity to go to college and
have a better life. I think we can all
relate to wanting a better life either for our family. But many people would object to the way
Claudia’s parents migrated illegally to the U.S. and continue to live and work
in the U.S. without proper documentation.
Claudia’s parents didn’t try to obtain travel documents to get to the
U.S. because it is very difficult and expensive to get a visa to go to the U.S.
from El Salvador. I asked Claudia about
this, and she said it would be much better if Salvadorans could travel to and
work in the U.S. legally. The journey
migrants have to make through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. is
very difficult and dangerous.
Salvadorans like Claudia’s parents decide to go illegally to the U.S.
because they can’t get visas. They don’t
go illegally because they want to but rather because there is no other
option. Claudia’s parents had no other
option except to make a dangerous trip to the U.S., live thousands of miles
away from their children, and live everyday in the shadows with the fear of
being caught.
Claudia is just one year younger than I am, but our lives up
to this point have been so different.
There was absolutely no question about if I would go to high
school. I worked hard in high school,
but I made very few sacrifices. I didn’t
have to work a part-time job in order to pay for high school much less middle
school. When I was getting ready to
graduate from high school, it was simply expected that I would go on to
college- the only question was where I would go to school. I did consider the economic aspect of
attending college, and my parents have worked very hard to pay for my sister’s
and my college educations. I have also
had the support of some excellent grandparents. But I certainly never went without food so I
could buy books (I’ve never even gone without good food), and I never had to
walk 6 kilometers up a mountain because I couldn’t afford a 20-cent bus fare. My family has always lived together (with the
exception of when my sister and I have been at college, but we were only a few
hours away.) I haven’t had to act as the
primary caretaker of my home and younger sibling. I don’t have to help pay for my sister’s
college education. My parents have never
had to do anything illegal (at least not to my knowledge) to ensure that my
sister and I had the best life possible.
My life and Claudia’s life have been so different, and yet
through God’s infinite wisdom and power, our lives have intersected. This connection has been meaningful for me.
I have read and heard many stories
about people affected by migration, but Claudia’s story has touched my heart in
ways that no other immigration story has. Perhaps it is because Claudia and I are
practically the same age. Or perhaps it is because I have spent a
considerable amount of time with Claudia and she has become a friend. We
have shared meals, I slept in her home, we chatted about girl stuff, and we
shared laughter and tears.
Since I’ve gotten to know Claudia and her story I have wondered
why it is that Claudia has had to live such a difficult life while my life has
been relatively easy and comfortable.
What kind of a world is this that Claudia’s parents had no other option
except to make a dangerous trip to the U.S., live thousands of miles away from
their children, and live in the shadows with the fear of being caught? Some people might say that this is just the way the world
is. Life is not fair and there is
nothing we can do about it.
But I do not believe that this is the way the world has to
be. I do not believe that this is the
way God intended the world to be.
Claudia’s story helped me understand the complexities of the
situations that push people to migrate, and her story and her friendship
strengthen my resolve to fight for immigration reform.
We all need to meet someone like Claudia,
a person who will help us better understand migration and become better
advocates for immigration reform.
For those of us who already believe we
need immigration reform, a “Claudia” will help us continue on to fight for
change even when it seems like change might never come. The fight has
become personal for me. I want the best for Claudia and her family, and I know
a legal option for Claudia’s parents to work in the U.S. is one thing that
would greatly improve this family’s situation. For those people who are not yet
convinced that comprehensive immigration reform is needed, a “Claudia” can help
you grow in your understanding of the need for immigration reform.
Personal stories and interpersonal
connections help us get past the numbers and see the children of God behind
those numbers. We need to be intentional about meeting those people who are
impacted by migration, and we need to be compassionate when learning their
stories. Most importantly, once we know the stories, we must take the
responsibility to do something.
There is so much we must do to change the things that have made
life unjust for Claudia and her family (not to mention the millions of other
families who face similar injustice).
There is so much to change that I and you might be tempted to just give
up, to walk away and just worry about the problems we have in our own lives. But I can’t do that- the personal connection
is too strong.
I do have hope for Claudia.
I have hope because Claudia is such a hard working, dedicated,
intelligent, young woman. I have hope
because I see things slowly changing for the better in El Salvador’s
government. I have hope because there
are wonderful organizations working in El Salvador and in many other developing
countries to bring about sustainable change.
I have hope because so many people in the U.S. are working hard to
improve our foreign policy and to reform our immigration system. And I have hope because I know that with God
everything is possible.
