The El Salvadoran Civil War lasted for 12 bloody years as a guerilla force fought against a government they found to be corrupt and misrepresentative. Thousands of families mourned the loss of loved ones and thousands more worried every day about their well-being in a time of political unrest. While hundreds of families were broken mine was, in a way, formed.
My father and my mother were both born in El Salvador. My father lived there until he was eight and then traveled to live in the United States for some years. He then returned to his homeland, but was forced to leave Santa Tecla when the Civil War posed an imminent danger in the streets where he lived. My mother lived in El Salvador until she was in her early 20s.
On her family’s farm in the rural state of San Vicente, she lived through the war. The gunfire at night and the shouts of soldiers surrounded her for years. A few years after the war, she married my father and moved to the United States. In 1996, I entered their lives and entered into a life blessed by the best of two countries.
Growing up, my siblings and I understood the pride of being American. We learned all the lyrics to
"This Land Is Your Land" in kindergarten. I led the Pledge of Allegiance during my high school graduation. Amidst being so patriotically American, my parents never let us forget our cultural roots. Our kitchen often featured Salvadoran foods prepared by my mom. Huge, loud, and laughter-filled parties with my uncles, aunts, and cousins were a staple of my social life. My parents ensured that I lived a life of duality; a life with the best of what their childhoods had to offer mixed with the inherent opportunities that living in the United States gave.
The most important thing my parents did was take me to El Salvador. We took trips to visit my mom’s family in El Salvador every couple of years. Living without indoor plumbing gives you myriad perspectives. Waking up at 5 a.m., right before the sun rises, and heading to milk the cows out in the field is an experience that finally made me appreciate the lifestyle that my parents had grown up with. Living in El Salvador, a different but exceptionally beautiful world, had given my parents a worldview that they used every day when raising me and my siblings. I understood why they always told me to work hard in school. It made sense of how my mother always encouraged us to appreciate what we had instead of longing for more. The importance of friendship and empathy that my parents always challenged us to strive for was apparent in all those friendly greetings that complete strangers in El Salvador would offer me. El Salvador built the character that was transferred to me when my parents moved to the United States.
The person I am today is a direct result of my parents' experiences as immigrants. Moving forward in my personal and professional life, I’ll use everything their homeland taught them while I work and live here in the United States. The troubling thing is that there are thousands of Americans who don’t understand this. For example, the way that politicians in this election are speaking about immigration is terrifying. Policies that lack empathy and humanization are tossed around daily. Comments that border on sparking anti-immigrant sentiment have been dropped all along the campaign trail. Politicians tend to forget the manner in which immigrants elevate this country. The United States is a country built on the hard work of immigrant families, and it would be a dishonor to our history to ever forget that.
My family’s narrative is not completely unique. The United States is now filled with families whose existence relies on a parent’s courage to leave the only country they had known in search of a better life. Decades upon decades of perseverance run through the lines of these narratives that have produced millions of children like myself who understand a world outside of the United States and a reality that isn’t always so red, white, and blue. The children of immigrants will continue to make this country great. It’s our responsibility to make sure that the gifts our parents have given us are not wasted.
To Mami, Papi, and all those parents who came to the United States seeking a better life: thank you. Thank you so much.
