Chapter 18 (part six)

1.     Have empathy

         In 1979, a year after I had come to Utah, a government coup took place initiating a civil war in El Salvador.9 The financial support my parents had pledged on my behalf while I attended school in the U.S. was no longer available. My father had been a successful businessman, but private property was confiscated after the coup. Bank accounts were frozen, and what little money my parents could get out of the bank could not be exchanged for dollars.

            Part of the agreement in getting the I-20 student visa was that my family would support me 100 per cent. When this was no longer the case, I had to go back home. There I found out about many people I knew that had been kidnapped or killed by the guerrillas; one of them was my boyfriend, Gabriel. Aside from that, I missed the freedom I had experienced in Utah. Part of me felt like a foreigner in El Salvador. Everything people did irritated me, such as throwing trash out their car windows, not obeying traffic signs, and coming in late for meetings. Once again, I had to make a choice to either stay home in a war-torn place or move to a safe and thriving place like Utah. What would you have done if you were me? What if my story were your story?10 This is where empathy comes in.

            I remember the moment I decided to return to Utah from El Salvador. My parents and I were in our car going along a street downtown San Salvador. I was looking at all the holes on the walls made by bullets, when we came to a stop. I looked out the window and saw an automatic weapon pointing at me. The gun barrel was right between my eyes. I got scared. The possibility of dying at that precise moment was real to me. That is when I knew I needed to get out of there.  Back in Utah, I had to find work. A family offered me a place to stay in exchange for baby-sitting. I went around the Avenues cleaning homes. At times I had nothing to eat but what was given to me when I went to clean houses. Those sandwiches tasted so good!  I discovered that my worth as a daughter of God was more than what money could buy. 

To be continued...

Con amor,

Vero