I met Yanira in Fullerton, Calif., in the Garnet neighborhood, a five-block section of the city that's home to more than 1,000 first- and second-generation children of immigrant families, many from Mexico. There are high numbers of high school dropouts and teen pregnancies here, along with gang violence.
When I interviewed Yanira for the America for Christ Offering video, "They have a dream too," we sat in the living room of the tidy, immaculate two-bedroom apartment she shares with her husband, parents and three children. She speaks Spanish; I speak English. Despite this language barrier, and hearing her story through a translator, I was immeasurably touched and inspired by her loving spirit, her strength and, most of all, her hope.
You see, Yanira's eldest child, her daughter Sarai Hernandez, is now a freshman in college. In my world, that's a pretty common rite of passage. Not so much, though, in Garnet, where there hadn't been a high school graduate going on to college for a decade before JOYA Scholars was founded, with support from American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS).
I had tears in my eyes as I listened to Yanira talk about the day her daughter graduated from high school: "I knew I was going to cry tears of joy and happiness because my daughter was graduating," Yanira told me. "She is the first person in the family to accomplish that, and I was so happy that I wanted to shout to the world and say, 'Look, my daughter is graduating.'"
Yanira and I didn't need to speak the same language for me to understand her pride and her hope for her daughter. I could feel it. The mother in her reached out and touched the mother in me. It was a cherished moment of connection in what's common about the human experience.
Now Yanira wants to finish high school. She knows it will be a challenge because she's a mother. But her motivation is clear and inspiring: "I want to teach my children: No matter your age, you can continue with your education and achieve your dreams. Small or big ones, you can always achieve your dreams."
Here's to the season of resurrection and new life, and all the hope it brings.
