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Street Roots • June 2-8, 2017
News
S o y aventurero ’
BY ROBIN SCHAUFFLER
Samuel
Henriquez'
journey took
him from the
countryside of
E l Salvador to
a new and
challenging
world in
Portland
in his 20s, when El Salvador was deep in a
civil war fueled by U.S. support for a
repressive government. Though it took years
aiting at an outdoor table in front of
the small coffee house where Samuel and several court cases, eventually many
Salvadorans were granted asylum due to the
Henriquez had agreed to meet me, I
violence in their country; Henriquez was one
looked up to see a short, stocky man standing
of those. A legal resident of the United
at the corner, wrapped in a bright blue parka
States, he said he understands a lot of
against the cold. His hands were deep in the
English. “It is necessary, for work.” Yet
pockets, the hood pulled over a yellow knit
together we spoke only Spanish.
cap, and most of his face hidden. When he
He is the second of four brothers and four
glanced down the street to where I sat, I
sisters; they are scattered all over the United
walked up to the corner and asked in
States, with some family still in El Salvador.
Spanish, “By any chance are you Señor
He has remained single: “It is a rare to find a
Henriquez?” He was.
woman who doesn’t care how much money
I introduced myself, and we sat together at
you have, but only cares for the love you can
the table beside the busy street. I offered to
give.”
get him a coffee or tea or something, but no,
He never described himself as “sin casa ni
he didn’t need anything. He does not drink
hogar” or “homeless.” He doesn’t see the
coffee, he had just eaten, he was full.
story of his life that way. “Soy aventurero,” he
Still, food was what he was most eager to
says: “I am an adventurer.”
talk about. He offered advice: “There are
As a boy in El Salvador, he worked
many things that people do not know. If one
alongside his father in the fields. Their home
wishes to improve health, one must stop
was in cool, mountainous country, surrounded
eating a lot of things: red méat, carne asada,
by coffee plantations. The family was poor,
seafood, pork, potatoes, wheat flour, bread,
but they had a little land, and “there was
sugar, tortillas, pan dulce. Maybe one time
enough to eat.”
per month, but not every day.”
At age 6, Samuel contracted polio. His legs
These are the very foods he grew up eating
became weak, his feet splayed out, his knees
in El Salvador, but now they are a danger to
collapsed inward. For many months he could
his health. “Now, I cook fish, or chicken. I eat
not walk. Though he gradually recovered, it
vegetables and fruits.” No more fried bananas
left his body forever a little chueco - crooked.
with beans and heavy cream.
He has suffered much as a result; physical
In the past few years, he has had to
pain, as well as rejection.
completely change the habits of a lifetime.
When Samuel entered his teens, El
Samuel Henriquez has lived in the United
Salvador was becoming dangerously violent,
States for more than 30 years. He came here
and the family was driven from their home.
“My father lost everything - land, animals,
everything.” They moved to the capital, San
Salvador, hoping for better opportunities. The
move was difficult.
“To go from the
country to the city is
hard,” he said. “In the
country you grow what
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
W
you need, and make what you can. But in the
city, you have to buy everything.”
But Samuel found work in a bakery; his
first paid job, at the age of 14. To this day he
thinks of baking as his true profession. He
never went to high school because he was
always working. “I had the duty to support
the family.”
He described those years in the capital. “I
saw the rich, how they were,” he said. “They
would buy something very fancy, very
expensive, and give it to their dogs. They
treated the dogs
better than the poor
people. In the civil
war, the teachers
took up arms and
fought against the
government. They
saw that the children
did not even have a
chair to sit in at
school. The
government did not
respect the people.”
Samuel was the
first to venture
north, and then one
A series o f stories about
by one his other
siblings came. The
people who have
United States looked
experienced homelessness,
more stable, less
perilous.
and found their way home
“In the U.S. there
are opportunities.”
Henriquez said. “In
El Salvador, nothing. In El Salvador you
cannot even enter where the rich people are;
there are gates and fences. In the United
States, you can walk right past the houses of
the rich. And if you have the money you can
go into any restaurant and eat there.”
He admits he sees problems in this
country, too, of course: “Yes, yes, I have seen
prejudice in the U.S., against Hispanics. But
it is not like in El Salvador. The rich are
separate there. They are different.”
Still, he speculated that someday he might
move back to his home country. “The air
there was clean, not heavy. Here in the U.S.
they put chemicals in the air, and it is too
heavy. In the U.S. they add so many
chemicals to the food, it causes diabetes. My
sister had diabetes. But she went back to El
Salvador for one month, and the diabetes was
gone. Milk in the U.S. has sugar added to it.
But in El Salvador it comes straight from the
cow, so it is healthy.
“In El Salvador, when you are
old, you are free. You are not
contained. You can walk around,
medicine is cheap, you can see a
doctor, there is food.”
Though wistful for the
land of his boyhood, he
has lived all over the
United States, often
following family members
See
AVENTURERO
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P H O T O B Y E M IL L Y P R A D O