Rosales Family

Mario, Melania & Maria

Mario and Melania Rosales and their daughter Maria have been in Jasper for over 13 years now.  Today Mario owns El Campesino, a thriving restaurant, just off downtown.  By all accounts, things are going well, but it is a story that did not happen over night, nor did it come without challenges, hard work and sacrifices.

Mario was born in El Salvador, and as he came into his adult life, the country was in the midst of switching from the colon to the dollar as its form of currency.  It was a time of economic chaos in which the price of goods went up 2-3 times and good paying jobs were difficult to come by.  He made the decision to come to the United States for the opportunities it offered.  First in L.A., then New York City, and finally settling in Maryland, Mario took to driving over the road trucks, operating heavy equipment and working as part of a crew repairing roads and bridges, sometimes dangling 168 feet above a river on a rope swing.  Maryland held him for 23 years until he took his driving skills to Denver.

A family affair in the kitchen

Mario, or "Shark" as he is known to his friends, felt as if he was ready to get married.  He and Melania were married, and since he was a U.S. Citizen and she was not, they had to live apart for many years while she remained in El Salvador.  Even when his daughter was born, Mario would only visit when he could get away from work, bringing his love and presents to spoil his young daughter.  For Maria, she said "he was a stranger who would show up", not fully realizing why this man was showing up sporadically to visit.  Eventually, everything would change as Mario as able to finally bring Melania and Maria, now 3, to live with him in Denver.  This was a big change for the family, but a bigger one was one the horizon.

Maria hitting the books before the lunch rush

A friend suggested to Mario that he should look at moving to Jasper.  Mario was familiar with the area given all his trips across country on Interstate 64 and decided to make a move.  Selling out in Denver, they arrived in Jasper with $300 to their names.  Needing an apartment and a job, Mario walked into the office of Bart Kersteins.  He had apartments to rent, but they required a $200 deposit.  Mario pleaded that he only had $300, had a family to provide for, and needed a job in order to cover food and rent; taking $200 would strap the family too thin given the unknown of the job situation.  Bart offered an apartment that needed to be cleaned and said he would knock the deposit to $100 if they cleaned it and gave Mario the name of a friend at Masterbrand in Ferdinand.  He told Mario to tell her that "Bart had sent him".  Mario went to find her the very next morning and landed his first job in the area.  Mario said "everything was going to be ok".

Melania preparing tamalès

Eventually, Mario would open a tienda in Jasper and found success in the grocery business.  During this time, an acquaintance approached Mario about opening a restaurant across the street.  Mario told him he only had $1000, but his acquaintance assured him that he could cover half the costs.  So, together, they opened a restaurant at the "Y" in Jasper, only the acquaintance never came through with his money, and Mario was left with the financial responsibility of the restaurant.  Selling his tienda, Mario by accident was now a restauranteur.  Sometimes these happy accidents happen in our lives, changing the course of our lives for the better.

For Mario, the restaurant is his true passion.  The roots of El Campesino took hold.  He opened locations in Marengo and at Patoka Lake.  Though business was good in the summer at the lake, it was not a year round draw and Marengo was quite a drive daily, so Mario committed all his energies to one locations in Jasper, his wife and daughter right by his side cooking, serving, and cleaning, with Maria, now a junior in high school, squeezing in time for homework - working toward her dream of being a cardiac surgeon.

Mario working on his famous "Green Coffee"!

The "tornado"

Mario told me his approach to food is this, "a small place have a chance to cook in small portions and to cook everyday, the food is almost as fresh as it can be".  Larger, busier places cook ahead in batches and use processed foods with lots of waste created to cater to larger crowds.  Mario would rather provide food that meets the approval of his customers, feeding them like family.  He says, "I have a lot of good customers, a lot of my customers are my friends".  Maria says that they work to create bonds with their customers and pride themselves on being "hospitable".  The customers respond to this and return again and again.

When asked how the restaurant has changed their lives in town, Maria puts forward that they are not looked at like strangers anymore.  People in town know them now.  Spending time with their customers has opened up conversations and friendships that could easily not have happened if they just passed each other on the streets.  The Rosales story is a fine example of the hope for this series - that friendships and bonds can form just by getting to know one another, and fears and stereotypes can fade away as we humans come to know one another.

Cruz Family

Today I begin a journey on a project that I hope will shed light on an aspect of immigration that does not get much press.  Politically, there is much talk and grandstanding on the issue of immigration.  Yet, we do not hear much about the immigrants themselves.  This project seeks to bring forward the stories of those living and working in our community who are struggling with the stigma of being an immigrant.  My hope is to offer insight and awareness so that others may come to understand, appreciate, and relate to the lives our fellow brothers and sisters live, seeking to find commonality in our hopes, dreams, and fears.

This past week I was welcomed into the home of the Cruz Family - Fransisco, Gissella, Jacqueline, and Allison.  Tucked in a little neighborhood in Jasper, this cute cape cod was adorned with pictures of weddings, the kids and family.  Fransisco, an assistant supervisor at Masterbrand in Ferdinand, and Gissella, a nurse at Memorial Hospital, have been together as a couple for 16 years.  Both originally from El Salvador, they did not meet until they lived in Huntingburg- Gissella was literally the girl next door!

For this couple, family is the focus.  With two young girls, Jacqueline in 1st Grade and Allison in preschool, Fransisco and Gissella have their hands full with the energy and excitement for the world that comes with young growing kids.  As a couple they have made the decision to sacrifice so that the kids can have a parent always available.  Gissella works 12 hour shifts at the hospital on the weekends so she can be present during the week for the girls.  Fransisco takes full time duty on the weekends.  And though it was tough on him when the girls were younger, he says he's found more comfort getting out and about with the girls now.

Daily life is certainly a juggling act as Gissella is now working on her Nurse Practitioner degree.  She says it is hard finding time to get it all done, often working on her studies after the girls go to bed.  But that is also when she and Fransisco have time for one another, and she wants to honor that time as well.  All the hard work will be worth it, as the degree will help their family become more secure financially.  So they work through this schedule knowing it's only for a few short years.

So on the surface, the Cruz family eats and sleeps and faces the same challenges of family life as most Americans.  Yet, underneath, they endure challenges only known to immigrant families.
Contrary to what people see on the surface, both Gissella and Fransisco are not Mexican.  They come from El Salvador and came to America by two very different paths.  Gissella immigrated to the U.S. with her parents and brother, twice - first to Washington DC and then 8 years later they arrived in Huntingburg, Gissella at 14 starting high school as  freshman in a new country with no friends and only 5 other Hispanics in the school at the time.  Fransisco, on the other hand, came on a journey with his brothers, sneaking into California packed in the back of a truck, bodies layered and smashed like sardines.  After a some time in LA, he left the chaos of the big city behind and moved to Huntingburg where other family had settled, finding a community more in line with the life he had left behind in El Salvador.

Gissella and her family have U.S. Citizenship, and Fransisco has legal protection under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted as a result of a major earthquake that hit El Salvador in 2001.  Yet, as we talked, Fransisco hinted of his concern for all the rhetoric that is put out in the news and worries about what immigration reform will look like when a new president is elected.  Gissella spoke of her concern of the perception people have for Hispanics as criminals and how this impacts the conversation on immigration.  She admits there are criminals who are immigrants, but she would suggest dealing with those individuals.  Most immigrants are working, contributing members of society who love God, pay taxes , and want to raise their kids in a safe environment so they too can move in the direction of their young dreams.

The story of this couple is a classic American story.  They both had parents who wanted better lives for their children and who sacrificed everything for a chance their kids could have something more.  Gissella's father gave up a restaurant he owned in El Salvador to come work in a factory in Huntingburg, limiting his own dreams for his kids.  While Fransisco's parents sent all their boys ages 11-18 on a dangerous journey for the chance they might find a better life, sacrificing their own parental connections and longings.  How many of our ancestors came by similar circumstances; to escape war, poverty, lack of opportunity?  How many of our ancestors endured racial slurs and unwarranted attacks simply because of the language they spoke or the way that they looked and dressed?  Can we too not related to the story of Gissella and Fransisco?  If it were not for the risks our relatives took, we would not be the people we are today.  And American would not be the country it has become.