STORIES

I lost my father when I was young it was just me, my mother and my brother. After that I sold traditional food and candies in the streets of Ocozocoautla to help support us. When I was nine, my mother sent my brother and me to live at Hogar to have a safe place to live with access to an education.

It was very difficult to be apart from my mom, but she wanted us to have a career! Hogar is very special to me because it was there that I received my education and my values. At Hogar we didn’t have expensive, fancy things, but we had the things we needed. We received an education and we learned other things—we had a farm, so we grew corn and took care of the animals. Even though that was hard work, later in life it helped me be a very hardworking person. When I started my company Multilanguage Space, I used to be the cleaner, the director, the painter, the carpenter, the salesperson and the teacher!

Now I employ nine teachers and we have 200 students in Ocozocoautla, and I have other people helping with sales and marketing. Everything I learned at Hogar—a work ethic, caring for others, and the power of education—I teach here at Multilanguage Space. My mission now is to encourage people to do things that other people might not believe they could do. I also adopted that from Hogar, which we call “A Sharing Place.” If I could thank all of the donors, I would say thank you for the opportunity and for everything you shared with us—the clothing, the shoes, the bags, the school supplies, the food, the doctors we had when we got sick. You also contributed to me being able to study for a year in Colorado in high school, where I learned English. The help that I received from donors changed my life!