Coming back home for the holidays is a way to relax from all the stress that comes with the college experience. The stress of keeping a good GPA, the stress of keeping up with friends or even the stress of trying to get a boy to like you… Talking about it now, these stressful indicators are nothing compared to the things a woman who is very close to my heart had to face.
This woman was one of many immigrants who left her home country in pursuit of a better life, a better life that included a safe home for herself and her family, a home where she doesn’t have to worry about war, and a home where she could be able to eat everyday. You see, this woman has faced some heartbreaking obstacles and because of her strength, I am able to live a glorious lifestyle.
It all started in the year of 1968, where she was born in Atiquizaeya, El Salvador, a soon to be war-torn nation in Central America. She lived in a small mud house on the outskirts of the town, with only one bedroom and six other children. With little money, her family lived off of scraps. Losing one dollar resulted in a brutal beating. Around Christmas time, she was lucky to get one gift on that day or even be able to eat meat. If life wasn’t hard enough, in 1979 a civil war between the military led government of El Salvador and left-wing guerilla group began a 12-year conflict that led to millions of deaths.
At the age of 11, soon after her father’s death, this woman was introduced to the horror of war. Talking about it, she said “Not a day went by when someone wasn’t killed.” Lines of dead bodies were placed in front of the school to intimate the people, and numerous death squads came and eliminated citizen who they thought were affiliated with the left-wings groups.
Scared for their lives, her family escaped, sought refuge in Mexico and lived there until she was granted Temporary Protection Status for the United States. From that point, she had a choice to live with her family in Mexico or move to the U.S. for a chance of a better life. At the age of 17, she decided to depart from her family, take the TPS and take a one-way bus ride to Los Angeles, California.
She was alone in the second largest city in America. Once there, she worked multiple low-income jobs to provide for herself, ranging from babysitter to a hotel maid. Many people took advantage of her immigrant status, and sometimes they didn’t even pay her after she completed the job. For ten years, she had to tolerate all types of discrimination on the job because she could not afford to lose them. For ten years, this woman worked all day and all night to make a living, and for ten years this woman was alone with no family and no friends.
Until one day, while working in the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, she met a wonderful man, who was living at the hotel at the time. It’s funny to think that a Boone native fell in love with a hotel maid. Since then, her whole world has changed. After marriage and having two kids, he convinced her to move across the country to North Carolina.
In the beginning, this woman focused on her role as a mother and took care of her children, but as time went by she decided to go back to school to earn a GED. She would study day-in and day-out so she could pass her classes, all while taking care of three insane kids. In addition to the GED, she was also studying to become a U.S. citizen, once again, studying non-stop and working non-stop for months to achieve yet another goal.
Today at the age of 48, this woman now has a home in Charlotte, North Carolina. A home where she doesn’t worry about war, a home where she eats three meals a day, and a home where she is loved. This woman started from nothing now has everything she could ever imagine. This woman has faced massacres, seclusion, grief and sorrow and because of that she has become the strongest woman I know.
I am proud to say that this woman is my mother. I wouldn’t be half the person I am today without her, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to live such a marvelous lifestyle without the sacrifices she has made.
So as I start off the New Year knowing it’s going to be one of my hardest semesters, I have to remind myself that one: I am lucky to attend a four-year college, and two: while college is stressful and presents with many obstacles, it’s no where near what my mother had to face.