After the government threatened her livelihood as a trained social worker who championed the homeless, mentally ill, and gay population in a small Colombian town, 24-year-old Sandra sought asylum in the U.S. She soon found work in the restaurant industry, providing enough flexibility to care for her growing family and learn English. Still, she yearned to resume her chosen profession. Eventually, a volunteer position at a long-term facility filled the gap and reawakened her dreams. Last year Sandra earned certification as a nurse’s assistant in geriatrics and she now works full time, fulfilling her passion there. Sandra is grateful for every step along the way that led her to her new life.
After the government threatened her livelihood as a trained social worker who championed the homeless, mentally ill, and gay population in a small Colombian town, 24-year-old Sandra sought asylum in the U.S. She soon found work in the restaurant industry, providing enough flexibility to care for her growing family and learn English. Still, she yearned to resume her chosen profession. Eventually, a volunteer position at a long-term facility filled the gap and reawakened her dreams. Last year Sandra earned certification as a nurse’s assistant in geriatrics and she now works full time, fulfilling her passion there. Sandra is grateful for every step along the way that led her to her new life.
Guest intro/00:38
After the government threatened her livelihood as a trained social worker who championed the homeless, mentally ill and gay population in a small Colombian town, 24-year-old Sandra sought asylum in the U.S. She soon found work in the restaurant industry, providing enough flexibility to care for her growing family and learn English. Still, she yearned to resume her chosen profession. Eventually, a volunteer position at a long-term facility filled the gap and reawakened her dreams. Last year Sandra earned certification as a nurse’s assistant in geriatrics and she now works full time, fulfilling her passion there. Sandra is grateful for every step along the way that led her to her new life.
Coming to the U.S. to Escape Persecution/01:37
Deborah: Tell me, Sandra, what brought you to the United States? And tell me a little bit about your journey, if you don’t mind.
Sandra: This is a pleasure for me to be here. Thank you so much. Well, that was when I was 24 years old. It was in the end of 2004. I decided to came for the opportunities in a new land. Tired of the persecution that my family had been subjected to for a long time by armed and violent groups. So much pain to my eyes and to my soul, the hypocritical logic incorporated into the town where the government gave a deaf ear to the hundreds of complaints and the tragic endings of those who publicly claimed justice. So first the war diverted the vocabulary of our childhood when those who spread their role with a chainsaw, with head-smashing armor, with crematorium ovens, came to my town and stayed. So I felt the decision to come, when the aroma of intimidation which filled all my senses and the rapid beating of my heart mixed with it the pendulum that mimicked the step of death when it’s approaching. So that was the day I said, “I don’t want this for my life. I want, I want something else.” And I just came.
Deborah: So was there a particular event on that day that happened? You said the beating of your heart, and there was one particular day that you said this is it.
Sandra: It was when I came back when we was— when I was like in fifth grade, my family flee my family life, the small town to that big city. There I finished high school and I went to the college. When I finished college, I come back to work as a social worker in the hospital in the small town and I was, I worked for four years and especially with certain groups in the community especially, gays. And at one point I was training for those kind of groups that they usually say homosexuals was part of the contamination, a source of contamination. So that was something I experienced when I was a teenager when my friend was killed when he decided to be whatever he feels to do where he was starting wearing like short, tight shirts like female blouses and makeup. Scandalizing the whole community. And I wasn’t shocked when this human being was denied to enter high school because he was a source of contamination and eventually he and others like him was killed. And something that groups called social cleansing, so homeless, homosexual, and people with mental illness were barred.
Deborah: Excuse me, you said, homosexuals, homeless, and . . . .
Sandra: People were mentally ill, people with mental ill—they had to be eliminated of the community by the social cleansing. So when, when I lived this experiences, I reminded myself to one day work with this community. And it was something that I wait, I wait for the shortest wait for the flowers and the beaches for the waves, and having achieved it, it made my heart full. Because it wasn’t so long was only four years, but we achieved a lot. We achieve a lot of goals that was working for like rights and service for this groups in the community.
The Day of Decision/06:22
Deborah: So something happened?
Sandra: Yes. I have a visit at my office and this guy wasn’t that friendly and say, “Well, you know, you are walking through very sensitive, like a land, like, territory. So we want you to stop. We, we have been respecting your family.” My dad was a person who works in the community as well. He was a nurse in the hospital. “But that is something we won’t tolerate anymore because you know, what is the rules here. So are you still working in protecting and fighting or doing something else for that kind.” They use disrespectful, or mistreatment, like word to the homosexual that they gays. They say, “You have to take the decision because we won’t tolerate this. So you have to leave or you have to quit or do something else.” So I was, I just was tired the whole life. So seeing kind of stuff I wasn’t happy with that was the day I said no more.
Deborah: So did you come to the States seeking asylum?
Sandra: Yes, that’s correct. So, and of course I went with the official report about it and, actually, well, because to this process you will need to, it was a long a long list through my family so that kidnapping and asking for money every month. Things like that because to live in there, to work in there, to grow in there, to have to pay every month to live and to be like to have a normal life to move around. You had the permission, to have the permission you have to pay. So it was something that was, I was tired and especially how they treat the community and help people live with fear.
So it was something like, I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to receive that. I mean, people introduce that kind of situation and that life and they train and they talk like this is normal. And I thought like, no way, not for me, not for me.
Deborah: So from the time that you made the decision to leave and actually left and came, how long did it take you to come to the United States?
Sandra: A few months. Well, I traveled from this small town to the capital, the Colombian capital, and two months after I went here, I arrived. I landed in the United States. I landed in Florida.
Deborah: So you flew?
Sandra: Yeah, I did. I flew from my native country capital Bogota. I flew to Havanah. I went to Cuba first, and then I stayed there a few days. And then came here U.S. It was a process. It was a kind of process to do that. But here was when my process starts right here by just traveling. When I came here, I asked for asylum here in the United States. Not there I just want to go and try a different place and seeking for help in a different place. No here because the whole life I want to see in like corruption and you want something that you can find that people, it was something like because when you see that kind of corruption the whole life you don’t trust anyone anymore.
Work, a New Life, and Finally Reigniting a Long-postponed Passion/10:01
Deborah: So what were the steps you took to make a new life here?
Sandra: I came here. I arrived in Boston and the first thing I found a job in the restaurant about two or three days after my landing. I was in Florida. And for a few days I worked in there and I know some people in Boston, so I came here. There was in the fall actually. Wasn’t at the beginning or April. I’m not sure but it wasn’t that cool. It wasn’t winter was like April, I arrived to Boston. I was hired at the restaurant. I work, I work in the food industry for fifteen wonderful years.
Deborah: Whoa! Fifteen years in the food industry.
Sandra: Yeah. Fifteen years full of learning and meeting people who have been a gift to my life. But something I was wondering all the time and my mind was what I can do here with my studies in Colombia? That was something, it was all the time here. Although I enjoyed working at the restaurant and I appreciate the opportunity to have grown in a field that I would never have imagined. And the years of the language, parenting I had been the fifteen years. I had three children to hold me back. Like, hold me back but not for a while. I started to look for information. I was curious about education and it was in the meeting with a career advisor that this person guide me step by step. And that process of transferring university credit from my native country to here, which helped me enroll mostly. And the courses that I am currently taking to specialize in geriatrics. So it was, I was so happy about it because I know to redo my careers from Colombia was too expensive and it take a long time. So this is something I can start doing right now. And I, I feel so excited, so happy about it. As I told you a few minutes ago, although I enjoyed the work in the restaurant, I found the passion, the passion to do what I love, why I feel connected when I began to be a volunteer in a long-term care facility, almost about four years ago. And the moment at that place I found my inner peace or finding myself in my heart overflowing. And it wasn’t until last year with the pandemic and everything, I questioned in myself and I decided to take a break from the restaurant. And focus on becoming a certified nurse’s assistant. I managed to do it, and I was hired for full-time at the long-term care center and I feel like I living the dream. This is my time. And this is I want to. This is I want for my life. This is I want.
A Dream Comes True/13:48
Deborah: That’s fantastic. So while you were working in the restaurant, you are also in school part of the time or not? When did you start the school program?
Sandra: Last year, last year at the beginning of the year, I decided, I said I will take a break. I want to be certified as a nurse’s assistant. So I started school. I finish it a few months after. I started to take the courses to get a specialization in geriatrics. So I can be, I, I wanted to become, nurse specialized in geriatrics and it is a field that I can grow and I feel so excited to do. I think that is something that is my dream. This is my dream in a few years. I want to see myself, doing what I’m most passionate about. It doesn’t feel like a job having more days of life to give back all the love I have a received.
Building a Family/14:49
Deborah: Sounds like you’ve definitely found the work that you love and a way to do it. And it’s so great that you got some credits from your education in Colombia. That’s not always easy to do. That’s great that you’re able to do that. So how old are your children again? And when you came to the States, did you have any children? Were you married yet? Tell me a little bit about the birth of your family, if you don’t mind.
Sandra: Sure. When I came here, actually my boyfriend at that moment was living in Boston for three years. We had our relationship. I was in Colombia. He went here and when I came to Boston, so we connected again. We had like a relationship through the distance. It was not easy. So when he noticed I was in Florida, so he said maybe you have more connection to Boston. So maybe. This is going to be more easy for you and I went with him. So I came, we reconnect again and, a few months after I was pregnant with my first child. So my oldest son, it will turn 16 soon. The middle guy’s ten, and the baby is eight years old.
Deborah: So were you working in the restaurant business while your kids were growing up? And also I’m going to ask you, how did you learn English? Because you speak very well.
Sandra: That’s all kind of you. Thank you. Well, that’s something I really appreciate about the food industry, the flexibility I have in terms of taking care of my family and being able to work and things that I achieve some financial goals. At the same time, I was taking care of my family. And I have been blessed. I found people that I tell you, they are a gift to my life. That I had a manager with I work for the first time and this human being helping me. Enormously to grow. He pushed me a little bit at the beginning because when you, when you came here, you’re afraid of everything. So I got a lot of support from him does the something I really appreciate and feel thankful. And I always thought to tell him that he’s my family for my heart families is not the blood. He’s just the heart. What make us family. And I have been blessed that the universe allowed me to be part of this family or being part of the family in this country. So I just left the restaurant last year. So all the time I’ve been in the United States, I’ve being working with him, with the restaurant and he actually, the guy left, the restaurant at the beginning, like, through our beginning to work, let’s see, 10 years ago and I followed him to another restaurant and we worked together again, he asked me, “You want to join my crew? This is going to be a new project?” I say, “Of course! Let’s do it.” And we navigate together for another six more years together, but I was making money. I had with the flexibility to take care of my family, but it was something empty right here, I need something else. And always the question was in here and yeah, and I love who’s that customer service, it was a great experience, but something was missing. That piece was missing inside my chest. I missed something else and I learned English or try it. And I still working on it to, well, you know, my silver lining when the pandemic in. We had a free GPA. They offer online classes. I wasn’t able, I wasn’t able to go to school every night. I live in East Boston. That was so complicated for me to go Tuesday and Thursday for classes. So I started, I started to take the classes online. And before that I went to church for classes. I went to so many community services that provides help the immigrants community to improve or help with a language and to help them, or to help us to find a better jobs, better communication, to be easy to go to a hospital, to help our children with homework. That was my biggest challenging helping my kids, my older son, especially with homework. So I seek for help and I found it and with many community programs. That was the way I try to learning.
Learning English/20:04
Deborah: How about your children, do they correct you and help you with your English?
Sandra: Actually, yes. They help me a lot and practicing when I’m practicing, my speech is something that was so funny because they usually sit down and just listen to me, look at me very serious. Like you are focused on your speech. And they correct me and they, and they help me, “Now pause, breathe, and start again.” But once they look at each other, they just laugh. So they just pretend to be serious, but they can look together because they’ll look at each other they feel so proud. Especially my oldest son. He went with me with the process of translate my high school and my college diploma and everything. And he was like, “Oh my God, you have an associate’s degree?” “Yes. I was a social worker in my in my native country.” He says, “Wow. I never imagined that. How cool you never told me.” Well, yeah, maybe I was, you know, doing something else. I thought that wasn’t that important. And I saw like a light right in his eyes like, oh, wow. I’m so proud of you. And now, so proud. Just more I can do in life. So they are, they’re very happy and they helped me a lot.
Missing Colombia/21:35
Deborah: Great. So what was the very hardest thing about either actually physically getting here to the States or once you got here, what was the biggest, biggest challenge that you had to overcome?
Sandra: I left everything behind everything. My whole life, my family, my childhood friends, everything is when you came here. I remember that I have a small suitcase and a couple dreams, but I feel like a huge bag of fears in my back. So it was biggest, the fears than everything else. I was afraid of everything. Eating. You mean a loss. Everything. I wasn’t even, even, I wasn’t allowed to eat because I was sick because the taste was not the same of my place. The water was different. Everything in smell, the color, the places that was the hard, hardest thing that I remember. The new start. When I came and I said, everything is behind me. When I realize everything is behind and I am not allowed to come back. It was an impact. It is a shock, definitely. And I think the best way to describe my longing is to say, that that place over there, lay down for a nap and it stopped there and frozen in time.
Deborah: You’re saying that the past was like the place.
Sandra: Where I grew up.
Facing Fears/23:22
Deborah: You said that you had like a huge suitcase of fear on your back. When you came.
Sandra: So heavy.
Deborah: It weighed you down. When did the fear start to lift and get lighter?
Sandra: Once I feel, once I get confidence, once I was able to communicate, because when, when you can’t express yourself, you can’t even say what do you want for eat. And in some cases, so you avoid to talk, you avoid, the being relationship, what you avoid everything. It is so many stories I can tell you in the restaurant about funny things, funny facts, like where you don’t know anything about the language. And I was even afraid to talk and order food because I wasn’t sure that was right or not the people will laugh at me. So when you come to get a little bit of confidence and improve a little language, the language, and you start meet or know the place where you going. Because at the beginning is hard even to take the train because you will not get lost. Right? So you start knowing the place. You feel confident, little by little you, I was dropping one fear little by little, another one, little by little, one more. And right now I’m flying. I am the air. So not that does not like that, but, but with more confidence I’m happy and I’m thankful for each single step that brought me here. And I will say I will take the same step again. And hopefully, in the future tomorrow, when I look back, hopefully with the certainty or have I am living fully, I have been tried everything I wanted regardless the results.
Transformation/25:34
Deborah: You talked earlier before we started recording about—you used the word transformation. You want to say a few words about how important that word is to you and to your life?
Sandra: Yes, of course. Sometimes I said, “We achieve some goals.” More time. We usually compare our life to somebody else. And this is a bigger mistake in something that I have learned during the years. Don’t count the time. Sometime we view the steps because each step is a reminder how capable we are and our ability to adapt. So when we focus on how long will it take me to take, to do this. Oh my God, how long? If I think seventeen years after I came to United States, I started to do it, what really I am passionate about it now. I said, I feel proud because I will work in a field that I never would have imagined it like in the food industry. And I have learned a lot. I have been surrounded for a wonderful people. So I have been transformed by the time and also by the people I have been learning a little bit of each person. So, so my main focus, my main idea right now is that focus and my transformation. Don’t count the time the time how long it took me to be here today.
Deborah: Just take it one step at a time and don’t count how many steps you’re going to have to take.
Sandra: No, because every single step is a reminder for how strong or how capable we are. Every single day had to, I mean, I want to say, don’t regret of what did you did. What not because he had to be like that because we had something to learn. That’s my way to say that things
Deborah: You look for the lesson in whatever is going on even if it seems like adversity, you know, you’re going to learn something from it.
Sandra: Yeah, absolutely.
Advice/27:55
Deborah: What kind of advice would you give to someone coming here based on what you’ve learned?
Sandra: Be ready to a hug for a long time the people you left behind. They’re there for long, long time. You will miss that. Miss the last hug, they will miss the people and enjoy the maximum. Every single minute you will have in that place because you will miss that. So, so much and be ready. Don’t give up, be ready to do your best every single day. Bring some pictures with you. Cause that’s going to be the reminder. How lucky you have been with the time ten or fifteen years after. That’s something important for me when I look at pictures that reminds me how lucky I have been. And also I can tell you that bring the faith with which you will tie your shoes every single day and your memories. Good memories. That will be like a holy water that irrigates the flow for your soul. That the most important thing that with that my advice of someone who will come. That’s the important things.
Deborah: Could you just say one more time what you meant about tying your shoes every day? Was that it was that just from the past or for right now every day?
Sandra: For the past. And though as the right now, I mean, the faith, when the person came here. Faith to tie your shoes every day. That’s when I get up in the morning and say, I have the faith today, I will tie my shoes in my place and I will stand up. That’s my way. As the memories, that same memory as the holy water. Now you relate the flow of our soul.
The Magic Hat/30:00
Deborah: That’s beautiful. So, Sandra, did you bring any little item or anything with you from Colombia that you still have?
Sandra: Yes, I have. I have a magic hat. I have a hat with a magic singularity.
Deborah: Oh, let me see it. Can you show it to me
Sandra: Yep. It’s a magic hat. And the singularities to keep the aroma of its former owner, my dad. So it was for me, a magic hat. Every time I want a hug from my dad, I smell it and put it here to my chest, and this is my favorite thing. So I brought this hat and also pictures in for my faith and my memories.
Deborah: That’s great. In addition to the podcast, there’s a printout. It has the transcript that people can read. And so there’ll be a picture. I’ll include a picture of you holding that magic hat.
Sandra: Yes, I did. My dad gave it to me when when I decided to came. It was the best thing in that hat. He had his hat for a long time. So it’s a really old hat, a magic hat. And I can read you. I can tell you like a piece that describes where I’m coming from. A little bit words, what am I learning is where I’m missing. It’s a place that I think, it doesn’t have many change through the years. So two years, because I believe the trees are still there, I do not remember if those trees bore fruit or shade, I do know they gave birds of many colors and sizes, the same happy trees that were smiling taught us the geometry of light. It also blows the same wind that is trained to direct the dance of the birds, while timidly wandering the same clouds where we saw traces of ghosts, angels, and fairies in the leaf-covered patio of the houses, still living a silence of three in the afternoon that accompanied the melody of a dying accordion. That’s my place.
Deborah: Did you compose that? It sounds almost like a poem.
Sandra: I just find a release when I write what I feel, what I miss.
Resilience Through Gratitude/32:46
Deborah: It’s very beautiful. Is there anything else that you want to share?
Sandra: Yes. hopefully, I will see you in a few years and I will see you. I made it. I still working in hospice. I love it. I am still feeling the passion to do it. I would like to continue to encourage my children to worship nature and the importance when remind them the importance of celebrating and be thankful for the existence of others. And I’m trying our best every day, teaching them what we are made of, we are made of all the feelings all the passion or they work hard. Where we come from, where their mom coming from when they place, where the inhabitants are possessed by the folkloric spirit that allow the people who take solemnity out of life, laughing of the mysteries. And that is something I am mining. And that’s something that maybe it’s maybe in my genes and hopefully in my kids too.
Deborah: Well, the best lesson is always the power of example. And the fact that you are pursuing your passion, doing what you love, that’s the best example you can set for your children. That’s for sure. This is great. Thank you so much, Sandra.
Sandra: I hope I’ve been clear and helpful in my message with you at the clear way, hopefully.
Visiting Colombia and Plans for Citizenship/34:25
Deborah: I have one more question. What are your plans for citizenship so that you can go back to Colombia and visit your family? And if so, what are the steps you’re taking to make it a reality?
Sandra: Well, actually we have the opportunity, the kids and I went last year and that was something amazing. It was complicated because the pandemic, it wasn’t that long. Bitter and sweet bite for me because when you get there, it is not the same. I don’t find the people I left one day. Mostly they are gone and the fear still complicated because the aroma of my children is different. And always you feel like I need to protect them or something. So we was allowed to do that. It was a gift to our life. No, I got my residence approved last year. And was allowed to move and travel.
Deborah: That’s fantastic.
Sandra: And we enjoyed it. That was the best ever thing with them. This is a gift we want to enjoy a few days. It was two weeks. It was so short. And I still want to bring, especially them to know where I grew up exactly place, but it’s so complicated because there are security situation all the violence still. So it’s not safe, it’s not safe. So we visited some part that we really appreciate. And my way to the citizenship, it will come. It will come through I’ll be there and I will let you know when I manage because you guys are being really, really important piece in my process. The classes last year was amazing. Have been really, really, really helpful. And, hopefully, more kind of people like you guys, being there like angels to guide and help our community. Thank you so much. And God bless you.
Deborah: Thank you so much, Sandra, for this interview. And I’m so glad that you were able to go back to Colombia for a couple of weeks with your residency permit. That’s fantastic. You’re on your way. Thank you so much.
Sandra: Oh, Deb, I have been a real pleasure. Thank you so, so, so much. Hopefully I can see you soon. Stay safe.
Wrapping Up/37:14
Always grateful for her journey, including any obstacles along her path,
Sandra radiates good cheer for the life she has crafted for herself and her children. With a loving heart and a spirit full of wisdom, Sandra offers encouragement and is a powerful example of resilience. Finding the silver lining in whatever befalls her, her primary focus has always been a search for the lesson she can learn from every situation.