...some sort of background

I love traveling for it enriches the soul like few things ever do. Some trips last longer than others, some trips last longer than expected.


When I first came to Dallas I had a plan, a VERY precise plan. I'd be here for 12 months, maybe 24, work real hard on the job I had been offered, then go back home: HOME. For that was the place where all of my life resided: my dreams, my past, my projects, my friends, my hurts, my family, my ideals, my faith, my fate. I knew I had been chosen by a higher power to be born in Guatemala, therefore my life had to grow, blossom and bloom in Guatemala. I had been decided way before I had a say in it.

 I landed in Dallas on the second week of May, 2002. I've lived in Texas ever since. And although 8 1/2 years is plenty of time to develop a life, I've seen my heart, my mind and my soul get broken along the way. My spirit has broken as well. But it's been a good life. I couldn't say much about which dreams I have, for the best things I could have dreamed of I already have with me...they're realities I live every day. I do have enough of a past in Texas as well, one that has been hard to deal with, and one that has been unbelievably good to me. And I do have some friends...very few, very short friendships so far... little amount of experiences shared, littler things in common still, and even less of an understanding of the things that shaped each of us during the 3 decades lived before our lives met. And I do have a family in Dallas: my wife, whom I met here, where we both bought our first house (I own a little piece of Dallas!! Just as Dallas owns a bug part of me), had our first child, our second, and soon, our third. I won't mention my projects for they've been small, and won't mention my hurts for they have been big. But all of these have added to a life already set in Dallas, although my background lies elsewhere... but that's a longer story.

The picture in this blog's background is downtown Dallas. To anyone who's lived here, it's fairly familiar, but I sure hope they have never seen it from this same angle. And if they did, I sure pray it wasn't under the same circumstances. And if they did, I'd love it if the story has unfolded the same way. I took it one cool evening on April 27, 2009. Posted it on facebook with the caption that reads: Dallas, as seen from the count jail, where my only friend in town for 6 years is being held, before being deported on the same week I must travel to California, without a chance to see him.

It was not a sad night as it was a scary one. He had not even finished High School when and felt abandoned by his family at 17 when he decided to come to Dallas. I was scared of what his life could be back in mexico, with nothing going for him: nothing but the character I so admired that drew me to him as a friend. And I knew deportation meant he wouldn't see his son for a while, a son born a few weeks before my own first one.

Had I not gone to California it would not have made a difference. The complexities of jail would made it impossible for me to visit him anyway. We barely spoke a couple of times on the phone and I hastily gathered the $1k for bail, until I realized that it wouldn't help anyone but the county treasury. A week later he called again: he was crossing the mexican border wondering if he should go visit his uncles or look for his mother who he hadn't seen in 6 years.

Fast forward to 2010 and every week he comes up with a new unbelievable but true story of how well life is treating him back in Mexico. High school? finished. College? Two careers at the same time. Family? reconnected even to his dad whom he had not seen in 20 years. Job? A highly sought after business working for Americans who need stuff repaired or remodeled at their homes, where his English language skills and cultural understanding allow him to be the go-to-guy for these dollar paying folks. Sports? Captain of his university's soccer team. Public life? Frequent speaker at conferences where professors ask him to share about his life in the US, and why it's better to stay in school and study hard in Mexico, than to drop it all and live in the shadows.

That is why I believe that life is but a succession of places and situations where how we respond to each is far more important than what got us there. We are given a life, yet we are meant to survive. When I first came to Dallas, I thought it would be hard to survive for more than 1.5 years away from my country. Almost 9 years later, I cannot imagine myself having lived elsewhere but Texas. I have been fortunate enough to find my faith again, although it had been lost in this city full of churches. I am blessed to have found a family in this nation where i had no relative to talk to when i first arrived. I am thankful that I have friends who, like yourself, invest time in reading what I need to say.

My soul has been enriched by having travelled to Dallas, and now, wholeheartedly calling this town home, I can have my life back... go back to my dreams, my ideals, my plans of serving others, and that is why I want to go to Haiti. Some trips last longer than others and this trip to Haiti will be a short one, but as every meaningful trip, it is meant to stay with me forever.