Tell me about how your parents immigrated to Canada.

“Both of my parents grew up super poor in Guatemala. My dad has a family of 10. He had to start working at the age of 8 as a mechanic to help the family. My grandpa taught him and he went from there. He had his own shop back home. While all the kids were younger, my grandpa went to the states to find work. My dad was in charge to make the money and support the family. It was hard for him. Thankfully he got to finish high school. There was a lot of favouritism between the siblings, and even a lot of drama today. My mom grew up a little different. She has a family of 4, and she just grew up closer to her family. My dad got thrown in jail the day of the civil wedding, the signing of the papers. A guy on a motorcycle hit him that day, but he took the blame for him. They used the money for their wedding to bail him out. The wedding ended up being a lot smaller than it was supposed to be. They never ended up having a honey moon, even until this day. My grandpa on my moms side, opened up the doors for us to come to Canada. They came here in 1991. They were so broke, they only had $20 American. Three days after, they got cleaning jobs. They've been doing that til this day. They would always work their full time jobs, but in the evenings and weekends they would do cleaning jobs. They couldn't leave my brother and I alone, so we had to grow up cleaning with them. It was hard to see them work two jobs to maintain our living. We had a lot of opportunities to travel, but unfortuantely my mom had to claim bankruptcy 6 years ago. During that time it was chaotic, multiple things happened.”

“We were referred to an advisor. But at this point, they had to work even harder to pay off all their debt on top of living expenses. They're the type of people to sacrifice and give everything. I never asked them for anything, I paid my way through university. They felt bad because they didn't have the money to give me those opportunities. But I said as long as Im living at home, a safe place to say, and food to eat thats enough. I couldn't ask or anything more. My family went through a lot of hardships to the point where it made us closer. I knew something was wrong because my moms behaviour was different, she was angry. I would see her cry sometimes. I thought, 'What is going on?' - She told me she needed to tell me something. I would cry too because I couldn't do anything. I thought, 'Should I stop school and just start working to help them?' But I knew that wasn't something that they wanted. Im the only one in my family who graduated university. My entire family was so happy for me. They never expected much from me and my brother, but they just wanted us to have a good life and be successful. Just do good in life. It was a struggle, we had to cut down on a lot. Going out, travelling and not being able to see family was really hard. In 2017, we went to Red Lobster to celebrate my brother's birthday, my mom's birthday, and just the fact that my parents were doing much better and paid off all that debt. My parents were just grateful. For my family, something we're big on is faith. God is always good. It was amazing seeing that change in our lives. In 2018 a lot of doors opened for them. Not only did their debt clear, now they have a lot more opportunities. They're just doing really good.”