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January/February 2007
Issue
Where the heart is … that’s home
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Life is different in many ways now for
Benjamín and Etelvina Valdez, different than
it was in the 1980s. From hunger and poverty in a third-world
country to employment and a home in the United States.
From the heat of a Guatemalan summer to the cold of
a Michigan winter. From a feeling of hopelessness to
a life filled with faith.
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Life
is different. Better. Even the Michigan winters are preferred.
“Michigan – I like it. I like
the cold fresh air. I like that it is safe and clean,”
Benjamín said.
He and his wife, Etelvina, and their children,
Federico, 16, and Eveli, 11, also like Michigan because this
is where they found their faith, where they came home to Christ
in their hearts.
“It was my responsibility ... ”
When Benjamín first came to the United States in 1988,
he had nothing. He had heard there was employment in Los Angeles
– and he needed to make money. His father had recently
died, leaving his mother and her nine children with steep
medical bills on top of impoverished conditions.
“In Guatemala, the oldest male has to
help his father. So I didn’t go to school. I helped
my father. When my father died, it was my responsibility to
help my mother and brothers and sisters,” Benjamín
said.
Uneducated but knowing he had to do whatever
he could to make money, he made his way to the United States.
He was 24 years old.
Los Angeles was a place unlike any he had
seen before: skyscrapers that seemed to touch the clouds,
people speaking in a language he did not understand. “I
remember looking up at the tall buildings and not knowing
where to start. I thought, ‘Where should I go? What
should I do?’”
He found refuge in the home of another Guatemalan
family who said he could stay with them until he found work.
“They gave me a bag of sugar, two packages
of tortillas and two avocados – that was what I ate
when I first came to the United States. I wore the same clothes
for my first three months here. Eventually, I found work in
a factory, trimming clothing. I earned $35 a week and lived
off of eggs and bread.”
Gradually, he began to earn enough to send
money back to his family in Guatemala. Coworkers encouraged
him to learn English, so he took classes.
After seven months in the United States and
now earning about $200 a week, he asked his girlfriend, Etelvina,
to join him in Los Angeles.
It was scary for her, heading into the unknown.
“I cried, I was home sick,” she said. She knew
it was a permanent move.
Their son Federico was born in 1990 in Los
Angeles where he was also baptized. A few years later, the
family made the decision to move to Michigan.
“I wanted a safer place. I wanted cleaner
air,” Benjamín said. He had heard of other Guatemalans
moving to Michigan.
He found employment with a builder in Grand
Rapids. His wife found work cutting cardboard on a production
line for a local company.
Daughter Eveli (also called Astrid) was born
here a few years later. It was about that time the family
bought a home, a California-style bungalow on Grand Rapids
southeast side.
“I love our neighbors. The family next
door with three daughters – they call me ‘Papi’
like my son does. Our neighbor across the street – our
son called her ‘Grandma’ – she helped him
with his homework until she died of cancer. We have good neighbors,”
Benjamín said.
A deeper faith
But the family also wanted a deeper connection with God. They
had been going to Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Andrew since
1994. Benjamín and Etelvina had grown up Catholic,
but neither came from families who truly practiced the faith,
Benjamín said.
They found good friends in Father Tom Bolster
who was the Cathedral’s rector at the time (he is now
pastor of St. James Parish in Grand Rapids) and in Father
Steve Cron, current rector. “Saint Andrew’s has
helped us a lot. The parish connected us to a therapist we
could talk to because of the suffering we had been through.
I had a lot of anger. I had a temper. I am a much calmer person
now.
“We also started praying together as
a family. We found God because of the sadness and pain we
had been through. We found goodness in our hearts.”
Benjamín and Etelvina decided the next
step in their commitment to their family and to God was to
get married. In 1998, after going through pre-Cana classes,
they were married at the Cathedral’s St. Ambrose Chapel.
Federico helped to videotape the event.
Federico today is a freshman at Catholic Central
High School in Grand Rapids. Eveli is in fifth grade at Saint
Andrew School. Benjamín coached his son’s soccer
team while he was still at Saint Andrew’s, helping the
team to earn a second-place finish in the Catholic School
league.
Benjamín and Etelvina are both eucharistic
ministers at the Cathedral and have participated in the Cultural
Institute for Leadership in the Midwest (ICLM) Hispanic leadership
training.
Recently, the Valdezes traveled back to Guatemala
with their children – only the second time the family
had been back to their homeland since 1988. “My relatives
treated me very special because I come from another place,”
Federico said.
The Valdezes feel they have also been treated
special – like family – in the place they now
call home.
Diocesan call to action:
• For more information about the Diocese
of Grand Rapids’ Hispanic Ministry and its participation
in the ICLM program please contact Luis Beteta, diocesan director
of Hispanic Ministries, at 616-243-3927 or by e-mail at lbeteta@dioceseofgrandrapids.org.
By Molly Klimas
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