Sueños Personales y Familiares
This blog post is the fifth blog post of the Housing Alexandria Stories campaign, the purpose of which is to celebrate our residents and share their stories in order to create more recognition and appreciation in our community as well as to strengthen Housing Alexandria’s ability to raise money to provide life-changing services to our residents through our resident services programs. This blog post was based on an interview with Claudia(she/her), a Housing Alexandria resident. This interview was performed in Spanish.
Claudia is a Housing Alexandria resident who has made a home for herself and her family and is working hard to overcome several obstacles in order to pursue her dream of working in the legal field and helping others resolve their problems.
Claudia is married and is the mother of three children: a junior in high school, an eighth grader, and a kindergartener. Claudia’s husband works as an electrician. Claudia and her family are originally from El Salvador, where Claudia was born and raised. While living in El Salvador, Claudia studied law and worked for the ministry of labor for twelve years. She enjoyed her job, but she decided to move her family to the United States ten years ago to join her mother, who was already a resident of Alexandria at that point. She and her husband believed this would be better for their family than staying in El Salvador because their children would have more opportunities. Despite this, she says moving to a new country was very difficult.
Claudia always wanted to work in law so that she could help people who were suffering. Upon moving to the United States, it was extremely difficult for her to find a job in the legal profession because her education was in a different country, and she often had to settle for working restaurant jobs that were below her education level to make ends meet and help support her family. However, she eventually found a job through Americorps at Casa Maryland supporting immigration work, including citizenship, permanent residence, and applying for bank accounts. She loved helping people and would have stayed in that job longer, but she gave birth to her youngest child and had to leave. Claudia’s dream is to work in law again, and she is pursuing that dream by getting an education on top of working and raising her children. She is currently pursuing an associates in education so that she can improve her earning capacity. She lives a busy life in which she drops her children off at school in the morning, and works and studies all day. Despite the busyness, Claudia loves studying and reading, and so she is happy to work hard to pursue her dream.
Claudia’s church has been a big part of her community since moving to Alexandria. Claudia and her family attend St. Rita’s, a local Catholic Church with a private school. People in her church community, including a woman who lived in their building, helped her and her family feel more comfortable after moving into the new place. Claudia described this neighbor as her “angel.” At her church Claudia volunteered to help teach the Catechesis to the children and also to teach basic Spanish to the children who didn’t already speak Spanish.
“It is important that families can afford a home, especially families with lower incomes, so that they can live in a dignified situation”
Claudia had her daughter start school at the Mt. Vernon School, which is a dual-language school that teaches in both English and Spanish. Despite the fact that both languages were present at the school, Claudia’s daughter didn’t speak any English at all, and she really struggled through the sections of school that were in English. Claudia decided to send her to the Catholic school starting in 6th grade because she felt that it would be a more comfortable environment for her daughter. Her children now all go to the St. Rita’s, and they are all able to stay due to many generous scholarships. Claudia is very grateful to have all of her children at the same school, especially because she feels the school provides a safe and nurturing environment for them and also helps provide resources for them to stay.
Claudia has served others outside of her church community as well. During the pandemic, she was approached by a woman in the George Mason University-based group Amigas de la Communidad (Friends of the Community), who asked how her group could help Claudia and her family during the pandemic. After getting to know more about the organization, Claudia asked if she could join them. She joined their group and performed services such as contacting mothers in the community to ask what help they and their families needed and helping with tasks like homework. They also provided translation services and partnered with Community Lodgings in Alexandria to serve the community.
Claudia’s family is what is most important to her. She wants her children to grow up in a safe, nurturing, supportive environment where they can be successful. An example of this that she shared is that, while her children struggled to learn English, she encouraged and motivated them, emphasizing the importance of mastering both languages. Claudia’s oldest child has gained confidence in English and, through the process of learning English, realized that he could do difficult things. This has inspired him to start studying Mandarin Chinese, which he believes he can learn because he has already learned a new language. Claudia also tries to instill a desire in her children to use their talents and abilities to help other people, whether that is with translation or anything else in life, because she sees everything in life as an opportunity. Claudia loves her family and is very proud of them.
Claudia is very grateful for her home and where she lives. Her home is very safe and tranquil, and she and her family are very happy living there. She loves going to the park with her children and appreciates that everything she needs is close by. She also benefits from Housing Alexandria’s resident services, such as the Back2School backpack and school supplies distribution at the start of the school year and Toys for Tots at Christmas. She says it is “Important that families can afford a home, especially families with lower incomes, so that they can live in a dignified situation.” Housing Alexandria helps people like Claudia and her family live in more dignified situations that allow them to contribute to their community.
