"I'm just a guy. Your average Joe. Who has lived a life collecting perspectives."
- Milton J Guarderas
Queens, New York ~ 1988
Milton B Guarderas has been living in the United States as a illegal immigrant since he left his home country of Ecuador at the age of 18. He did not speak any English, but he knew how to work and was a very quick learner. So he lived in Queens and worked at a restaurant on Roosevelt Ave. One night Milton was walking down the street with some co- workers, and a woman caught the group's eyes. Milton tells his co-workers that he will see them tomorrow.
Claudia was walking down the street headed home when a man walked at her side. She panicked because she did not speak English. Claudia has come to the United States with a work visa from Colombia with dreams of a better life. She is relieved to hear, "Como estas amor, te puedo molestar?" Now there was Milton, sweet talking Claudia into a date.
The dates lead to her becoming pregnant with her first child. Milton proposed short after the news of the pregnancy. Now Claudia has to play a role that she was no stranger to.
Claudia was the oldest child out of 5 children in Colombia. They lived in poverty, but that was not always the case for this family. Her grandmother was the last living member of the rich Coronel family from Germany. During the the late 1920's her grandmother lost both her parents to an accident, leaving her to raise her 2 younger siblings. During this time-period women did not have any rights to property or inheritance, so the fortune was left to her kid brother. He grew up mismanaging the fortune and being taken advantage of by those he surrounded himself by. He disappeared traveling the world and left her grandmother and the family without a peso.
Now Claudia grew up dirt poor, her father died at the age of 24 in a bad bus accident in the mountains of Colombia. Her mother was always working in order to have a roof over the family's heads, and food on the table. That left Claudia to help raise her 4 younger siblings, and forced her to grow up fast. She did excellent at school when she went. Top of her class at one point. Then helping her mother by taking care of her siblings became the biggest priority for her. As she got older she knew she had to go to the United States to try and get ahead, to strive for a better life for her and the family. So the day she received her visa to go to the United States was one of the happiest scariest days of her life. She will go to a foreign country where she did not speak their language, did not understand their culture, and where she did not know anyone to work hard to get ahead, and get a piece of the american dream.
The day came that Milton became a father. He wondered about this day for a very long time. He didn't expect to have a kid so soon after coming to the United States. This was going to be difficult, he did not speak English, or have any legal papers, but he was no stranger to difficult situations.
Milton is the youngest of a family of 12, from Ecuador. His family was living in poverty and was part of a even bigger family tree. Milton grew up in a tough part of Quito, but he lived in a tougher household. He grew up experiencing abuse from his siblings, but most of all his father. His father was a boxer turned street brawler, and he had a problem with drinking, and when he drank he was a problem to everyone else. Milton would grow up dealing with a lot of problems children had no business dealing with. What always kept him going was that he always thought about the love his family had for him. He, at 18 years old, heard so many stories about the United States from his cousin in New York City, that one day he told his mother. "Mama, te quiero mucho y te agradezco por todo q haciste por mi. Me voy para los Estados Unidos, para ganar buen dinero donde vive mi primo en Nueva York. Te voy a llamar, y te mando dinero."
Plainfield, New Jersey July 31, 1989
The first generation from both sides of the family to be born in the United States. The blank page at the beginning of a new book for the bloodlines. The Bloodline of the Latin American. The first grandchild to his mother's mother, and the first great grandchild to her mother. He was the first nephew to the siblings his mother raised. The last grandchild to his father's mother and father, and the youngest sibling's child was born. This bloodline will begin with Milton J Guarderas
This series is based on a true story*
Chapter One : Being an Only Child
will be posted March 18, 2019
Help Support the Based on a True Life Story series
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