Francisco Miraval
There are few challenges in life bigger than suddenly becoming homeless and unemployed, and not because of our fault. The situation could be even more desperate when the person is a young female immigrant still learning English and whose family lives literally at the other end of the continent.
Such is the case of “Maria.” She is not older than 20 and she has been in the United States probably for no more than two years. Maria, like many of us, came here to build a better life so she could help her parents.
Maria paid an agency to come to live, study, and work in Colorado. In fact, the agency even got a host family for Maria. Everything was going well until just a few days ago, when the family, with very short notice, decided to move to another state. Maria was left alone and literally on the street.
Immigration, even if you have all your paperwork in order, is always traumatic. Your loneliness is unending. You constantly feel out of place. You are here, but your mind is still “there.” In Maria’s case, she stills feels the conflict between “my country” and “this country.”
Perhaps due to fear or shame, or perhaps because she did not realize the true dimensions of her problem, Maria tried to solve by herself the challenge of finding a place to stay and a new job, even with little or no time to do it, almost no money, no phone, and limited English.
Maria was clearly desperate. Such was her desperation that last Thursday, just before midnight, she contacted me, asking for my help. She told me she needed “a miracle” to happen the very next day. Otherwise, her dreams of completing her college education in the United States will disappear, in spite of her best efforts.
Maria’s plea led me to contact some people I know. I was sure that they, because of their social or financial position, could help. A few of them sent me a lukewarm message asking me to tell them how they could help. The rest responded with a deafening silence.
But when people I know did nothing, people I do not know when to work. My email about Maria’s situation went to unexpected places and people, people who do not know me or Maria.
Suddenly, from stay-at-home mothers to wealthy business owners, several people offered a place to stay or a job to Maria. Unknown people began to talk with other unknown people about how to help Maria. And then the miracle did happen. Less than 24 hours later, Maria had found a new host family and a new job.
“It seems to me everybody in Colorado wants to help me,” Maria told me. In fact, it was just a small number of residents who opened their hearts to help her. I wonder how many problems many “Marias” and “Marios” now face could be easily solved by the good will and hospitality-inclined hearts of other unknown persons.