team Lorenza

We spent the afternoon today with 18 year-old Lorenza and many of her cousins, uncles and aunts. Lorenza's parents, and her little brother and sister live in Guatemala, but Lorenza is starting a new life in Los Angeles thanks to Bim and his colleague Sasha, whose pro bono work won her asylum. it's a big deal. The amazing supervising non-profit attorney (Lindsay) who brought the case to Bim's firm said that only about 5 of her hundreds of clients--all children--have been granted asylum.

For Lorenza, this means that she won't be at risk for deportation back to Guatemala where, as a native Mayan woman, her life was threatened numerous times by gangs that often target indigenous people. Bim would come home after meeting with her and tell me some of what she went through. Her little brother was killed by the gangs and...well. We're happy that she'll be able to finish high school and go on to college here. We all hope things will be easier for her, though easy isn't probably the right word. College in a new language can't be easy. But she has a plan, and a big family to support her.

The aunts spent all day cooking us Mayan tamales wrapped in special leaves that they buy once a year. The second course was a chicken and pasta soup, served with homemade tortillas. Mmm, boy. I could eat that every day. Our translator, also Guatemalan (Lorenza speaks K'iche), explained that we were eating the equivalent of Thanksgiving dinner.

Meanwhile Ally and Liv were making friends with all the kids in the the little courtyard area between apartments. The little boys won Liv over by bestowing little gifts on her: stickers and tinsel they pulled out of the dumpster. She claims to now speak Spanish.

Welcome to the land of giants.

If anyone ever puts one of these in front of you, eat it.

Tios y Tias

Team Lorenza: Misrael (translator), Lindsay, Lorenza, Bim, Sasha

Lorenza showed us all of her official documents and her legal resident card, and she gave us each a glitter bedecked holographic picture of Jesus on which she'd written a grateful benediction. As we sat down to eat at tables rented for the occasion, she stood and made a little speech, telling Bim and Sasha and Lindsay how thankful she was and how she prayed that God would return to them, in blessings, all the time and money and work they had devoted since her case was opened more than a year ago. She was so poised; it was hard to imagine all the wild changes she's endured since leaving her home: from candles to electricity, from K'iche to Spanish to English. She showed us pictures of her family, all in the native Mayan dress which up until now were her everyday clothes. I can only imagine how her mom must miss her. But it's a great day!