Menu
header photo

Project Vision 21

Transforming lives, renewing minds, cocreating the future

Blog Search

Blog Archive

Comments

There are currently no blog comments.

Ana and Dwayne are very different and so similar at the same time

Francisco Miraval

Ana and Dwayne never met each other. They live in two different places, were born in different countries, speak different languages, and even the color of their skin is different. However, in spite of all those differences, they have something in common: they both face life’s adversities with a seemingly endless faith.

I recently spoke with Ana. She is from El Salvador. Ten years ago, after the death of her eldest son, she decided to leave her country and her other four children to come to the United States. As many other people, she crossed the desert and faced all kinds of difficult circumstances. Eventually, she found job, met husband and had two more children.

Things were going well for Ana. So well, in fact, that she decided two years ago it was time to bring her four Salvadoran children to the United States. However, her children were arrested inside Mexico. Somebody called Ana asking for a “ransom” to liberate the children. Ana went to Mexico and after two month she was able to recover her children.

Then, she crossed the Sonora Desert for the second time, but this time with her children. When the situation became so difficult she thought they were all about to die, she decided to call the Border Patrol, asking the agents to come and help her and her children. That call led to a deportation order. Ana will leave the country very soon.

I asked Ana how she felt, knowing she was about to be deported, knowing that half of her family will stay here, and knowing she will have to return to the same place she left a decade ago because of social and political problems. Her answer was immediate and direct (and not what I expected): “I have a lot of faith and optimism because the bigger the problem, the bigger the miracle.”

I met Dwayne, an African American man, walking on the streets of Denver, where he was born. Due to some unwise decisions, he ended up at a local penitentiary, serving a sentence that prevented him from seeing her small daughter for many years. However, that separation let him to pay his debt with society and to start a new life (not an easy task).

Dwayne is a wandering poet. He walks in the area of downtown Denver sharing his poems with anybody who wants to listen. He asks for nothing, but he is always willing to accept donations. His poems, sometimes using very graphic language, reflect the desperation of somebody who knows what it means not to have a voice, or a future, or any hope for him or for his daughter.

With all his earthly possessions in a worn backpack, Dwayne knows he is still paying for a past that prevents him from building a future. However, like Ana, he refuses to abandon his faith.

“The devil tricked me once. I will not allow him to do it twice,” Dwayne said.

May both find the miracles they need

Go Back