Faces of the MacArthur Park

The Faces of Mac Arthur Park My name is Miguel Guarchaj. I was born in Guatemala. My first language is Quiche. I came to the U.S. when I was 18 years old. I went to school as a young kid, but i couldn’t finish because i wanted to come to the states. As a kid I always wanted to travel the world & have a career. While I was out of school, I began to drink & it made me lose time. All of my siblings have their careers. Now that I have completed Funcional, I am learning English. What always kept me motivated & will continue to do so are the teachers here at Centro Latino. My goal is to keep learning Spanish & English. I will continue to learn because I want to be a doctor. I am 27 years old and I come from San Juan Ixcoy, Huehuetenango, Guatemale. My first language is Canjobal. I never went to school as a child because my parents died when I was 3 years old. I lived with my grandmother and I started working when I was 7 years old, taking care of a boy. At 14 I left my job because they mistreated me and then I worked at a restaurant. As I grew up I didn’t want to go to school because I felt ashamed. I work cleaning houses and life has not been easy for me. Now that I now how to read and write I hope that I can find a better job. I know how to do my budget, the bills at work, how to find an address, take buses and fill out any forms, but the most important thing is that I opened a bank account. Education is very important, it opens a lot of doors. If I have kids one day, I want them to get educated and learn so they don’t have to go through the same hardships I went through. My goal is to learn more Spanish and English, learn how to use a computer so that I can communicate through the Internet, find a better job and be able to save as much as I can to go back to Guatemala and buy a house of my own. José Bonilla Soy de Usulután, El Salvador. Cuando era pequeño, trabajé en el campo con mi papá. Por las mañanas trabajaba y en las tardes iba a la escuela. En el campo cortábamos una flor amarilla que manchaba mis manos. La maestra siempre me regañaba y me pegaba con una regla por tener las manos con esas manchas. Por eso le dije a mi papá que ya no quería ir a la escuela y el no insistió. Preferí ayudarle, porque éramos 12 hermanos. Tengo 5 hijos de edades 16, 21, 22, 23 y 26. Quisiera que vean mi esfuerzo y usarlo como ejemplo. El incidente que me motivo a querer aprender fue cuando estaba participando en la iglesia y me llamo el padre a leer la literatura. Use la escusa que no podía leer por que no tenía mis lentes. Ese mismo día le pedí a Dios que me ayudara, al siguiente día una amiga me refirió a Centro Latino. Este programa me ha ayudado a sentirme mas confiado por que puedo leer y escribir en la casa, el trabajo, pagar biles y notas de la escuela. Trabajo en un laboratorio medica. Una de mis metas es progresar en general pero también saber usar la computadora para un alto nivel en mi trabajo. Yo le pedí tanto a Dios que me diera una oportunidad para aprender a leer y escribir para ser una mejor persona y padre. By Adam Perez