Divine Intervention

Por Irma Sosa Pineda. MA. MEd.

Divine Intervention is the story of a humble person who was born in El Salvador, being the fourth daughter of nine brothers and sisters. She once lived the most amazing childhood surrounded by nature and love in a place of freedom and happiness where all the children have the freedom to play together in a secure environment.

During school time, I had a wonderful experience in learning in my humble public school. We, all the children of the community, walk together to the school with no fear; we walk in a safe environment. During 1980s, the country was having a social change. It was not safe anymore; I just looked at the chaos that was happening in our communities, with the families. The community was not safe anymore; what I saw was destruction and poverty, no job opportunities. I decided to migrate to the United States. I knew it would not be easy, but I took the risk of losing my life in the journey, by crossing the desert and getting on board of the train, The Beast, looking for my American dream. Like many immigrants who leave their loved ones to give them a better future, I also left my eighteen-month-old baby. I went through this pain that is hard to explain, and only the ones who had experienced the same journey can truly understand how hard it is to leave your loved ones behind. It was not easy to reach the American dream, and in this story, you will read all the danger and struggles that I went through and how I never gave up. I knew God was holding her hand the whole time and made her strong to survive in another country, another culture, another language, and another environment. This humble person became a lion to survive and reach her goal.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 13 dic 2021
• ISBN: 9781662489259

Vista previa del libro

cover.jpgtitle

Copyright © 2021 Irma Sosa Pineda. MA. MEd.

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2021

ISBN 978-1-6624-8924-2 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-8925-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

The Immigrant Journey: What Is Divine Intervention?

El Salvador

When I Was a Little Girl

My Sweet Fifteen

My First Love

My First Job

My Odyssey to the United States

From Salvadoran Culture to American Culture

My First Job in New York

Moving to New Jersey

My Experience in Washington DC

Moving to Philadelphia

Acquiring My First House

Bringing My Daughter to the Land of Opportunities

The House on Eighth Street

How to Make a Difference in My Community

Volunteer Time in My Community

Making My Own Trucking Business

Working as a Nanny

My First Job in a Nonprofit Community Organization

Associate’s Degree

Open a Child Care in My Community

Working in a Special Needs School

Working in a Charter School

Working in a Nonprofit Organization as Their Early Childhood Education Specialist

Buy One—No, Two Houses

College Graduation

Interview to Become a Resident of the United States

Buying My First New Car

First Trip to El Salvador/Literacy Program

Working in a Public School

Buy a New House and Open a Child Care in El Salvador

Second Master’s Degree

Became an American Citizen

Owner and CEO

Reaching the American Dream

Why I Immigrated to the United States

My Salvadoran Dream

Honoring All the Spanish/Latin Immigrants in the United States

The Loss of My Mother

Letter to the President of the United States

Vocabulary

Acknowledgments

I want to give thanks to my parents—my mother, Ana Irma de Campos, who passed away on February 27, 2019, and my father, Juan Jose Campos Saenz—both of whom were very strict in my education. My mother had taught me how to be a lady with manners, and my father was very strict in discipline. Indeed, they both can attest to God’s intervention in my life.

To my two daughters, Michelle and Ashley, who give me love and support during this journey. To my family, who support me all the time; it is a blessing to have a big family. I am blessed to have four brothers and four sisters. We always get together to have fun and share family stories together. Thank you for being there in happiness and sadness; have cried and laughed together. I love all of them and I thank God for them.

To my husband, who was appointed by God to be a part of my blessings and to live all these experiences with me; the Lord wanted him in my life so he could experience his grace and enjoy his life with me and my daughters as a family. He is my strong supporter and a big part of this story.

To my friends, who support me in my journey, I want them to know that I have a great affection for them all. You will read in this book how great God has been in their lives too. They were chosen by God not only for them to be my supporters at the right time and place but also for me to help them with my inspiring spirit and love for life, positive attitude, and encouragement to be the best in starting their own business and to just be grateful of and enjoy their life and place in this world. In this book, I will be sharing how they were blessed even without realizing that God was with them all along.

I hope all of you enjoy reading this amazing story of my life.

The Immigrant Journey:

What Is Divine Intervention?

I describe divine intervention as the most amazing experience that one can experience. I realized God’s love for me having experienced His guidance in my life since I was a little girl. I searched in google the spiritual meaning of divine intervention. I found this definition: Divine intervention can come in the form of a miracle, such as a healing or supernatural sign. It can also come in the form of a seemingly random event, which directs us in the way God wants us to go.

To understand more about this amazing wisdom, I invite you to read my story as I try to relive vividly every single moment of my life. I encourage you to use your imagination to enjoy God’s miracles.

I want to give thanks to my daughters, Michelle and Ashley, who have always remained strong and supportive. During my education, they were there to support me in everything. One day, when Michelle was not around to help me with my university essay, my daughter Ashley did it for me. As I finished writing a five-page essay, she said, Mom, you finished writing. Let me correct your paper. I let her because she is also a very good writer; she was in one of the best charter schools in third grade. I didn’t check and immediately printed my essay. Then I went to school and gave it to my professor. The next week, the professor said to me, You didn’t write this essay, did you? I just looked at him, and he gave my essay back. He said he wanted to see my presentation, so I did, and I did great; I got a B+. My daughter Ashley said, Mom, what grade did the professor give you? Did he give you an A? I said, Yes, baby, but I messed up in my presentation, so we had a B+. She was very happy. When I did read the essay, I saw it was completely changed, but oh it was very good. I told her, Baby, I am so proud of you. You have nice writing skills. She said, Thanks, Mom. I can write a college essay, and I replied, Yes, you can.

They were both well-behaved girls. When I was reading my books, they were reading too. They gave me a lot of love. God has indeed blessed me with two beautiful daughters, now both with a college degree and have a professional job in addition to continuing with their Masters degrees.

Chapter 1

El Salvador

I am from The Republic of El Salvador and I invite you to learn about my birth country.

El Salvador is located in Central America. It is a country that has 14 departments; 262 municipalities; many beaches, some of them among of the best for surfing; wonderful lakes, one of which has water that turns turquoise in color; and volcanoes, some of them active. There are also wonderful places for families to visit like turicentros and their Colonial towns, which maintain the history of our Mayan, Lenca, Pipil, and Cacaoperan culture. All the places are within short distance, and you can go to your next destination in just a few minutes. El Salvador is also known for its Pacific Ocean beaches, which are some of the best ones for surfing. Aside from mountain landscapes, it also has beautiful places for sightseeing such as the Ruta de Las Flores, which involves a winding journey past flowering coffee farms and rain forests. We also have the town of Juayúa, which boasts of food festivals every weekend. Concepción de Ataco is also another place to be visited, a home to vivid murals and many others.

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. Its abundant beauty made me realize how blessed we the Salvadorans are to have such beautiful places to visit and enjoy with our families. Some of these beautiful places that are worth visiting are: San Salvador, El Boqueron (a national park), Lake Ilopango, Caldera De Coatepeque, Las Ruinas del Tazumal, Santa Ana Cathedral, Palacio Nacional, Estadio Cuzcatlan, Monumento Al Divino Salvador del Mundo, San Salvador Cathedral, Museos, Teatro Nacional, Monumento a la Libertad, and many more.

Its natural splendor is its tallest mountain, El Pital, which is located near the northeast border by Honduras. We also have numerous volcanoes, most of which are inactive. The San Salvador Volcano is a popular hiking spot for locals and tourists. Another natural splendor is the Los Choros, which is a natural waterfall.

For surfing enthusiasts, one popular spot to visit is the Pacific Ocean, which generates waves year-round. El Puerto de la Libertad is also a good place to visit, located about thirty minutes from the El Salvador capital, San Salvador. Other beaches are El Tunco—the heart of the action for surfing—Costa del Sol, Playa El Cuco, El Zonte, and El Zunzal. A usually good time for surfing is during the months of March to October; there at the Pacific Coast are many more places to enjoy with family and friends.

Historic places: the Mayan Ruins

Capital city: San Salvador

Currency: US dollar

Population: 6.4 million (2020 per World Bank)

Chapter 2

When I Was a Little Girl

I am from the beautiful country of El Salvador, I was born in San Salvador, San Marcos, canton Guadalupe.

San Marcos is a little town with few people and where everybody knew everybody else. I knew some people were luckier than the others, but we were all happy.

Like any other girl, I loved to play with my brothers and sisters since I didn’t have neighbors to play with. I have younger siblings—five sisters and four brothers. We didn’t have toys to play with, but we had the most amazing and natural playground where we could explore nature. Looking back, I did not need toys to play with; we had the best natural environment a child can dream of. We have trees in all sizes, we had animals and so much more. Most of all, we enjoyed the nature and had fun and were joyful. I think I was the only one that really enjoyed and explored nature the way I did. I usually played with leaves, noticing the differences between them—the shape, color, texture, smell, and size. I would put them on the floor and press them hard with my hand and see the figure stamp on the floor. They were all amazingly different but not in color; all the leaves were green in color, though some were darker, light green, and medium green in shade.

I was never bored, for I was always looking for different things to explore. One day, as I was going down the steps, holding on to the side for support, I felt a sandy texture on my hand. I looked down and saw four different layers of dirt—the first one was dirt brown, the second not too dark, the third one just fine sand with light dirt, and the last one with very little rocks. When I saw the last part of the dirt layer, I remembered the comment the older people would say in my grandmother’s house. They were talking about San Marcos, saying, San Marcos was a lake before, but during the time, the lake was disappearing little by little. I put that comment in my dirt research. I remembered the rocky part and the sand and got scared. My mind flew to the past, and I started imagining people in canoes and all kinds of fish. I had goose bumps, but I came back to reality. I continued playing and went under one of the trees and got a big leaf and a stick. When I could not cut a piece, I went to grab a knife and used it to cut a piece of dirt like it was a piece of cake to explore the layers of dirt, I noticed the first layer was very dark and wet. While the smell was not offensive, I could not describe it. The soil was healthy for the plants. I decided to look around and noticed that some places looked drier than others, while others looked more wet. There were no plants thriving in the dry spots, but in the wet part, I could see the plants growing by themselves. Exactly where I saw water running through the land, at the bottom, I saw a lot of white big mushrooms. I remember a person said that they were poisonous mushrooms. I wanted to play with them, but nobody was to touch them, so I left them alone. However, I was so curious about them. All the time, they looked so cute, like little umbrellas, and I wanted to play with them. The next day, I decided to touch the mushrooms with my finger. At first, I touched them softly, and they just moved. I decided to poke the bigger one harder and it broke into pieces. I looked at my finger, and nothing happened. The next day, my mother said, I don’t want nobody eating those mushrooms. You have plenty of fruit here. Did you hear, Lupita? I just looked at her. I understood but I was also fascinated with the mushroom and its umbrella shape, some big and others small. I decided to play with the clay and the mushrooms. I molded the clay and did a big comal, put some tortillas on, and then left them to dry under the sun. The next day, I couldn’t see the final product, no comal and no tortillas. I don’t know what happened to my sculptures.

In my home, we were lucky to have all kinds of trees, most of which were fruit trees. They looked so lush, and I always wanted to climb the guava tree. I wanted to look deeper into each one and observe how they grew. I would give them some love by talking to them; that was my way of showing that I care for them. At that time, I was also scared that somebody would catch me talking to the guava tree. One day, as I was walking under the guava tree, a big fruit fell and almost hit me. I picked it up and said to the tree, with my finger pointing, "Don’t do that again. You almost made me a cocotazo." Coincidentally, my neighbor saw me and he laughed at me. I thought that nobody knew that I talked with the trees, though in the end, it was just the trees and me that knew the real connection we had. I was always very curious of my environment and I liked to study every single detail of the trees and their fruits.

One day, I picked one leaf off each tree—cashew, mango, guava, icacos, paterna, olive. It was hard for me to obtain the leaves, because they were in my neighbor’s yard, and though the tree was not toll, it looked to me like it was. I thought of throwing a rock at one of its branches so I could pick a leaf but then I decided not to and instead decided to use a stick. I threw a stick at the olive tree while saying to the tree, I am sorry but I have to play and I need just a few leaves. Okay?

The next tree was the avocado tree. This one was tall with little fruits all over it. Its brilliant green fruits seemed to shine, and the more they grow, the more I admired them. We also had the izote flower. This flower is very important in my country because it is the flower that represents our culture. The base of this flower is a green leaf, long and pointed like a sword, and the flower rises in the center like a cotton ball, making a beautiful ramo. I picked one leaf off the trees, lined them up, and observed every single one again. Then I placed the leaves in order of size; none of them had the same size, and they all smelled differently while some didn’t even have a smell. With the use of my thumb and point finger, I cut a little piece of each one, some so hard that I couldn’t cut a little piece with my nail.

Then I heard a voice calling, Lupita, it’s time to eat. My older sister was calling for me to eat lunch, which was spaghetti and meatballs. I loved to eat spaghetti and tortilla. My sister Esther cooked the spaghetti with tomato salsa and mantequilla. My mother was always concerned with our diet, so she developed a very well-balanced meal for our everyday meal. She brought the food intended for the next day ahead every night, and sometimes my older sister was the designated person to go to her in the morning to get our lunch and dinner. We didn’t have enough money to buy dinner, so we had to wait for my mother to sell something off her merchandise in the mercado to buy food for nine children. Sometimes when it got too late, my sister would spread mantequilla or margarina on the tortillas, something we could have in the meantime until my mother came home with the food. While waiting for my mother, we would play games like "esconde el anillo, escondelo bien." For this game, we use a little rock as a ring. The other games were a la vivora de la mar, salta cuerda, peregrina, el caracol, yoyo, jacks, escondelero, Arranca Cebolla, jugar con una goma o elastico, saltábamos, y haciamos otros ejercicios si nos tropesavamos con la goma perdiamos el juego. My brothers play chibola, trompo, futbol, piscuchas, y todos tenias turnos para usar las bicicletas eran solo tres bicicletas para los nueve. Mi turno era ya como a las 4:00 p.m. We all sat outside and played under the sky. I would look at the stars in the sky and use my fingers to unite the dots in the sky. I also rejoiced when I saw the beautiful full moon shining in the sky and I said to myself, One day, can I ever go to the moon?

All nine of us brothers and sisters would sit at the top of the steps to play. One day, my three-year-old little brother fell and injured his right upper leg. Although I was so scared to see blood in my baby brother’s little leg, I took action, grabbing dirt to cover his wound. The bleeding stopped, and when my mother came home, she cleaned his injury. The next day, my brother was fine, like nothing happened. After that, we played and sang songs.

When I saw my mother coming through that curve in front of my house, we all jumped and ran to her to help her with the bags. Then she said, "Como estan." We were all jumping with happiness to see her coming with two bags of food for dinner and for the next day. She would always bring fruits like sapote, melon, sandia, nances, anonas, arrallanes, guineo, etc. Even though we have fruit trees at home, she always brought a lot of fruits for us, and we never fought for food because we always had enough.

After a few days, I went back to see the leaves I left in order days before and I found them the way I left them over a fallen tree. The leaves were drier and turned brown in color; they were completely dead, so I stopped the project. I continued admiring the trees; the guava tree was especially so elegant all its branches were spread out in an elegant display that you could lie or sit on those branches. But I was only able to imagine it because I was so little and couldn’t climb the tree. Every day I looked at my beautiful tree and said to myself, One day, I will be able to go up that guava tree and I will lie and sit in its branches. I enjoyed eating the sweet guava, which had a shiny green color on the outside and was white inside with little pink seeds. It had a sweet taste that melted in my mouth. Most of the time I could not wait to bite into the guava and would just go ahead and enjoy its delicious sweet taste. I wouldn’t even wash them; I just wanted to eat them.

The other tree was an olive tree, and I was the only one who had tasted its green and purple fruit. Nobody cared about it, and his fruit was always on the floor because nobody liked it. I knew, however, that something good could come from that beautiful tree. It looked too high, about six feet taller than me. My parents never collected its fruit, but one of my new neighbors took them, and I was happy because I saw that somebody was taking them. In the middle of our backyard were three beautiful small marañon trees. Although they were small and pretty, its fruit the perfect size to cut with my hands, I never liked them. Some of them were red, some orange, and others yellow. Most of the time, the fruits looked like a rug under the trees because nobody would pick them, although some birds ate parts of them, most of which were big and healthy. My sisters made juice with the marañon, but usually they just cooked the seeds on a charcoal fire. I liked to cook the seeds, but my sisters would usually eat them. They were hard to peel, and I would use a stone to crack the seeds. The inside was sweet and delicious, and after eating, my mouth and hands would look black because of the charcoal.

The banana plant is small, and I could touch it with my hand. The green bananas were little and were growing fast. I used to wait for it to change its color so I could let my father know about it, and he would go and cut the racimo of the bananas. When I realized one of our new neighbors had taken them, I was so sad. I expected my father would do something about it, but he just ignored it. I thought of asking for my bananas from my neighbor, but I decided not to. My mom said, Let them take the fruit from us. We have enough. I always bring fruit for all of you.

The paterna tree was tall and his fruit was white with green seeds that are coated in white. The white coat was sweet. We would cook the seeds, and when they turned soft, we just added lemon and salt. It was so delicious.

Remember the flor de izote? It also has a seed inside, which is light green in color. I’ve always admired this plant and I’ve never thought that you could cook and eat the flower. One of my neighbors asked if he could cut the flor de izote, and my mom said yes. So he cooked it with oil, tomato, onions, and scrambled eggs and then fried the white flower. He then gave us some, and oh my god, it was so good! I learned new things about the flor de izote.

Now we had the majestic mango tree at the entrance of the property. It was so tall that it was impossible to cut down. Its fruit would fall down on their own as soon as they were ripe enough for harvest. But for my brothers and his new friends, when they wanted to eat mangoes, they would just threw rocks on them. We would then pick them up and eat them with salt. The last tree was the icacos tree, which were so big and with a lot of delicious white meat to eat. My sister Esther was the one who would usually climb the icacos tree, and she would pick them and give one to everybody.

We also had the chayote ramada, which were scattered on the side of the yard. I loved to see the fruit hanging while observing as they grew day by day. The fruit, when ready, looked big and pointy like green needles, which could hurt your hands if you weren’t careful. My mother just gave them away to our neighbors, even helping a woman sell the chayotes, who in turn gave Mother a little money for a big basket of them. My mother said to her, "I take your money so God will bless you more, but it’s not the cost of the chayotes. I enjoy all my beautiful trees."

I always wanted to have flowers; in our home, we never had them. I had a dream, and it was of a big garden. I planted the seeds inside, all around the quebrada. In there they wouldn’t be needing water because the river ran in the quebrada. The water was so clean and crystal clear, and I liked to play and swim in the river. As the flowers started to grow, it looked so beautiful and amazing. I planted in the perfect spots, so the river could not take them away. First, I planted the flowers all around the quebrada, at the edge of the river in both sides, from Don William’s house to the entrance of Oscar’s house. I planted roses of pink, red, yellow, and white colors. I also planted a bunch of campanitas of yellow and purple colors. The orchids also looked so amazing, as well as white lilies; jasmine; daisies; red poppy, which gave a strong look to the garden; a bunch of alyssum, purple irises, violets, gladiolus, statce, gerbera, orchids, and even some exotic flowers that I hadn’t seen before and whose names I didn’t know of. Then I saw the most beautiful garden I’d ever seen. My neighbor helped me take care of the garden. Every morning, I ran and smelled all the flowers. I was so happy with my garden, but then little by little, the flowers were disappearing. I drew a picture of my garden every night. I enjoyed the time I spent in my garden and I said, Please, God, I don’t want to wake up. I want to enjoy my garden. When I woke up, I looked into the quebrada to see if there’s a