GONZÁLEZ: I’m Ana González, and this is Mosaic, a podcast about immigration and identity. And today’s story picks up right where last week’s left off.

NAT SOUND UP: CARS BUZZING BY

GONZÁLEZ: At St. Teresa’s Catholic church on Manton Avenue in Olneyville with Juan García.

Today, the church is abandoned. It has been since 2009. A couple of the windows have fallen out. The shrubs are overgrown. Plastic bottles and shattered glass line the fence. Where there used to be a sign, welcoming parishioners, there are now two stark wooden poles with nothing in between. Juan is standing next to me and those poles, bundled up. It’s gotta be 10 degrees outside. He still agreed to meet me outside of this building.

JUAN: Sabes que ahorita que estoy aquí, me hace revivir muchas cosas, verdad, que vivimos. Y siempre pasó, pues yo vivo ahí abajo. Siempre cuando yo paso por acá. Siempre me persigno, porque para mí, la iglesia sigue siendo la iglesia, no importa si hay otro edificio para mí va a ser la iglesia. Porque aquí, aparte de trabajar, fue como que yo nací de nuevo.

ENGLISH: You know, not that I’m here, it’s making me relive a lot of things, you know, that I went through. And it always happens because I live right down there. Whenever I pass here, I always cross myself. Because for me, the church will always be the church. It doesn’t matter if it’s another building. For me, it’s going to be the church. Because, through work, this is where I was born again.

GONZÁLEZ: Today on Mosaic, part two of Juan García’s story, the birth of an organizer.

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: Nearly 28 years ago, Juan walked into St. Teresa’s after recovering from being stabbed in a bar fight. That’s where he first hears the mass done by Father Raymond Tetrault, the immigrant-activist priest who had just transferred up from St. Michael’s in South Providence. Something about Father Tetrault’s mass grabs hold of Juan, so he comes to the church two days later.

JUAN: Cuando yo entré él me dijo– yo no sé cómo sabía mi nombre, tal vez alguien se lo dijo o algo– pero cuando yo entré, estaba en una reunión. Él me dijo, “Juan. Bienvenido. Te estábamos esperando.”

ENGLISH: When I got there, he told me – I don’t know how he knew my name, maybe someone told him or something– but when I got there, he was in a meeting. And he said to me, “Juan. Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you.”

GONZÁLEZ: Juan tells Father Tetrault about his life: from being a lookout on the street corners of La Limonada to being forced into the military, imprisoned, and his journey through Mexico and Texas. Father Teteault asks him about his work and growing family. After they talk, Father Tetrault offers Juan a job as part-time community organizer. Juan is elated. But he isn't quite sure what that means. How does someone organize a whole community?

JUAN: Entonces el Padre me dijo a mí, “Mira, Juan. ... te voy a poner un ejemplo. Mira, aquel, en la iglesia viene gente a traer una bolsa de comida y $5 y a la semana vienen otra vez. Tú tienes que hablar con ellos y saber porque ellos tienen que venir a poder una bolsa de comida y $5 y los demás no. ¿Cuál es el problema? Y siempre detrás de eso hay una injusticia. Tú tienes que buscar y platicar con ellos para ver cuál es la situación de ellos y organizarlos para que ellos cambien.”

ENGLISH: So the Father told me, “Look, I’m gonna give you an example. See, people come to the church to get a bag of food and $5, and the next week they come again. You have to talk with them and understand why they need to come and get a bag of food and $5 and others do not. What’s the problem? And behind this, there’s always an injustice. You have to search and talk with them to see what their situation is and organize them so that they can make a change.”

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: So, that’s what Juan does. Starting from that fateful night in 1993, Juan meets everyone who attends St. Teresa’s and gets to know the community there. It’s a mix of immigrants, old and new, brought together by Father Tetrault.

FATHER T: We had a great community. They were just coming here from their own country. And they didn't know what the church was going to be like here. And I didn't know what their experience was back there. But we did know that we were together here and we did what we wanted to do. ...We'd have kind of, like, liturgy in the street. I remember going in front of the federal building downtown, and protesting. It was like, bringing the street into the church and the church into the street.

GONZÁLEZ: Father Tetrault mentors Juan a bit, brings him to regular meetings at St. Teresa’s. And one of their big projects early on is revitalizing Olneyville.

JUAN: Nadie quería vivir en Olneyville. Era un barrio malo. Todas las casas eran dueños de gente de Massachusetts de otro lado, se la rentaban y no se preocupaban por ella. Había un montón de drogadictos, prostitución, vendedor de droga.

ENGLISH: Nobody wanted to live in Olneyville. It was a bad neighborhood. Because all of the houses were owned by people from Massachusetts or some other place. They rented them out and didn’t care about them. So, because of that, there were a lot of drug addicts, prostitution, people selling drugs.

GONZÁLEZ: Affordable and safe housing is a huge issue. Juan describes his own house as ugly and broken-down because he rents from an absentee landlord. Juan and his wife work with St. Teresa’s and Habitat for Humanity to buy the house and renovate it.

JUAN: En la esquina cuando ya tuve terminada la casa, le puse luces, comencé adornarla, limpia. Y la gente comenzó a ver el cambio, y comenzaron todos a ponerle luces en Navidad. Comenzaron a limpiar sus propiedades. Pues Olneyville cambió.

ENGLISH: On the corner, when I had finished the house, I put up lights. I started to decorate it and clean it. And the people started to see the change, and everyone started to put up lights on Christmas. They started to clean their properties. So, Olneyville changed.

GONZÁLEZ: With that, Juan literally cements his place as a beacon of light in Olneyville. Now, with four kids, a good marriage and a new purpose, Juan has a home. He’s able to quit drinking and be a more present father and husband. And he helps others do the same. Through St. Teresa’s and Habitat for Humanity, Juan helps organize the purchase and renovations of dozens of formerly-abandoned houses in Olneyville.

JUAN: Pero cuando nosotros recuperamos esas casas y la gente las comenzó a comprar, entonces la gente comenzó a hacer el cambio.

ENGLISH: But when we renovated those houses and the people started to buy them, the people started to make the change..

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: There are fewer people selling drugs and sex on the street and more kids playing. Juan forms relationships with local law enforcement officials and community members. They all meet in Juan’s office in the basement of St. Teresa’s. Father Tetrault is there, too, always a calm, even-handed presence.

JUAN: Yo siempre he dicho que la persona que me cambió para mí completa la vida es el padre Raymond....pero una vez me dijo algo muy interesante. Me dijo, "Juan," me dijo. "Qué esperas tú de Cristo o qué espera Cristo de ti?" Yo le digo "Bueno, padre. Yo ya no tomo. Tengo mi familia. Soy un buen padre. Trato de ayudar a la gente...usted sabe.” Y me dijo, "Pero qué más?"

English: I’ve always said that the person who changed my life completely is Father Raymond. But one time he told me something very interesting. He said, “Juan,” he said. “Are you waiting for Christ or is Christ waiting for you?” I told him, “Well, Father, I don’t drink anymore. I have my family. I’m a good dad. I try to help people, you know this.” And he said, “But what else?”

GONZÁLEZ: Juan is confused. What more can he do? He’s literally changing the neighborhood.

JUAN: Entonces me dijo, nunca se olvida que él me dijo "Que vacío estás," me dijo. "Como tú hay millones." Y ya no me dijo más, se acabó la plática.

ENGLISH: So he told me, I’ll never forget what he said, “How empty you are,” he told me. “You are one of millions.” And that’s it. He didn’t say anything else. The talk was over.

GONZÁLEZ: Father Tetrault’s trying to get Juan to realize what it means to be part of a bigger legacy.

FATHER T: If a person takes his inner life seriously, he begins to ask “Who am I? What is this all about? What's the purpose of life?” Those are serious questions. And the church has a long history of people who also took those questions seriously….The church is a group of people who are searching, not that they have all the answers, but they're seriously searching and they know, they need one another, to search together to find deep answers to life.

JUAN: Entonces comencé yo a analizar estas palabras yo entendí, que como persona tenía que ver más allá. No solamente era por mí, sino que era por la comunidad.

ENGLISH: So, I started to analyze the words that I understood, how a person had to look outside of himself. It wasn’t just about me. It was about the community.

GONZÁLEZ: Something clicks in Juan. He begins to see that behind the lack of affordable housing, the illegal street hustles and neighborhood neglect, there’s the bigger issue of a broken immigration system. And it’s intensifying. [MUSIC] During that time, the 1990s, more and more Spanish-speaking immigrants are pouring into the US, fleeing poverty and violence throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America. In Olneyville, huge numbers of Guatemalan and El Salvadorean migrants are fleeing mass violence in their countries and arriving at St Teresa’s. Many of them have no legal immigration status, tons of trauma, and are petrified of seeking help outside of the Church. It’s totally different than when Juan crossed the border in the back of a box truck all those years ago.

JUAN: En realidad, yo te digo una cosa: nunca tuve miedo. Aquí había mucha necesidad de trabajadores en ese tiempo. La migración más que todo llegaba los restaurantes como lo hacen ahora, verdad, pero cuando uno hablaba inglés, ellos se iban. Ahora es más difícil, ¿verdad?

ENGLISH: In reality, I’ll tell you something: I was never scared. Here, there was a huge need for workers in that time. Immigration enforcement did go to restaurants, just like they do now, but if you spoke to them in English, they left. Now, it’s more difficult, right?

GONZÁLEZ: Father Raymond’s words ring in his head: you’re one of millions. Juan sees himself in the immigrants seeking help and refuge in St. Teresa’s. He knows he was lucky to live in this country undocumented and without fear. And he’s not one of those passive Catholics Father Tetrault preached about who will just sit on the couch, watching TV while his neighbors are struggling. No, Juan is and always has been a fighter. He gives his number out to whoever needs it. He runs soup kitchens and clothing drives. He arranges housing for people who’ve just arrived in Rhode Island or who get evicted. Soon, his phone is ringing all day. One of those calls tells him that an entire Guatemalan family from Olneyville has been detained by immigration.

JUAN: Iban a deportar a una familia guatemalteca...y comenzamos a organizar. Traíamos a Patrick Kennedy, lo traíamos ahí a la iglesia, nunca había bajado a Olneyville.

ENGLISH: They were going to deport this Guatemalan family. And we started to organize. We brought Patrick Kennedy to the Church. He had never been to Olneyville.

GONZÁLEZ: Juan and Father Tetrault invite State Representative Patrick Kennedy, Ted Kennedy’s son and JFK’s nephew, to St Teresa’s to hear testimonies from people on behalf of the detained family. Juan arranges for a handful of other churches to join them in the rally.

JUAN: Yo recuerdo que esa vez que oyeron el testimonio de otras personas que venían huyendo de la guerra civil con capucha dieron su testimonio. Habían más de 250 personas y se paró la deportación de esa familia.

ENGLISH: I remember at that time, they heard the testimony of other people who had fled the civil war in Guatemala. They gave their testimony. There were more than 250 people. And he stopped the deportation of that family.

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: Juan talks about this event as one of the formative moments in his career as an organizer. It’s when he realizes what the stakes are in this work. So, he decides to capitalize on this energy, this momentum and start his own group, El Comité de Los Inmigrantes en Acción, or the Committee of Immigrants in Action. It’s composed of 8 people at first, 8 latino immigrants from different countries. Juan García leads their meetings every other week in the basement of St. Teresa’s. It’s part therapy, part soup kitchen, and part direct action. They discuss the biggest issues facing immigrants over bowls of soup, under flickering fluorescent lights. And something that comes up time and time again is the ways people are being exploited at their jobs.

JUAN: Cuando la gente no tiene documentos, es abusada por el mismo sistema: por la policía, por los lados del estado porque saben que la persona no tiene cómo defenderse…

ENGLISH: When people don’t have documentation, they are abused by the same system, by the police, by all sides of the state. Because they know that undocumented people cannot defend themselves.

GONZÁLEZ: Rhode Island is still driven by factories and plants, a holdout of the industrial revolution and Jewelry boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, factories and plants employ huge populations of immigrants to Rhode Island.

KAREN ZINER: Here you have people who are sitting ducks for exploitation...And there were a couple of real horror stories.

GONZÁLEZ: That’s Karen Ziner. She’s a former reporter for the Providence Journal. 20 of her 38 years at the paper were focused on covering immigration. She meets Juan early on in his work at St. Teresa’s.

KAREN: He impressed me as very dedicated and very plugged in.There were people who were injured at work, or there were people who were arrested, and there were people who couldn't work their way around things, or they needed to know where the consulate was. So, I think this was on his mind night and day, and he really supported the people in his church community...Olneyville in particular.

GONZÁLEZ: Karen tells me of a factory worker torn in half in a machine because he couldn’t read the safety signs in English. Another man was slashed in the face by a chainsaw on the job, and, instead of helping him pay his hospital bills, his employer called immigration on him, tried to get him deported. And things like this are happening all the time. Juan tries to help, so do the others at St. Teresa’s, but there’s only so much they can do as grassroots activists working out of a church basement. So, in 2000, Juan and Immigrants in Action plan a big, public event: they want to march on the streets of Providence and demand support for workers. They organize Rhode Island’s first-ever Worker’s Rights Day protest on May 1st, 2000.

JUAN: Yo recuerdo que la primera marcha la sacamos de la iglesia, que está, San Patrick's, para el Capitolio como 50 personas.

ENGLISH: I remember that the first march, it started at the church, St. Patrick’s, and went towards the capitol building. It was about 50 people.

GONZÁLEZ: These 50 people march through downtown Providence yelling,

JUAN: “Workers’ rights! Derechos a los trabajadores!” Y la gente se quedaba viendo “May fIrst!” “Están locos. Qué es Mayo primero?” No tenían ni idea.

ENGLISH: “Workers’ rights!” And the people were there watching us yell, “May first!” “They’re crazy. What’s May First??” They didn’t have any idea.

GONZÁLEZ: This is a small start, but it’s small like a seed is small.

JUAN: Lo que tienes que hacer es expandir esa esa semilla, y esa pequeña parte en la mente y en el corazón de la gente y sólo se logra eso organizándolos. Uno no puede ser líder, en lo que uno tiene que ser organizador.

ENGLISH: What you have to do is expand that seed, that small part in the hearts and minds of the people. And you only accomplish that through organizing. One can’t be a leader in this work. You have to be an organizer.

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: Even though Juan is at the center of the march, he’s careful not to call himself a “leader”. He’s an organizer of people and a planter of ideas.

HEINY: Yo realmente conocí a Juan el año 2001 porque llegué aquí en el año 2001.

ENGLISH: Really, I met Juan in 2001 because that’s the year I came here.

GONZÁLEZ: That’s Heiny Maldonado. Today, she’s the co-founder of Fuerza Laboral, a workers’ rights organization out of Central Falls. But back in 2001, she’s a newly-arrived immigrant from Colombia.

HEINY: Trabajé, entonces, sabes que muchos de nosotros, los latinos...especialmente.. cuando establecemos aquí, en el mundo industrial trabajando en las factorías, aquí en la ciudad de Central Falls…. Yo vi a

mucha injusticia en los lugares de trabajo.

ENGLISH: I worked, well, you probably know that many of us, los latinos, especially when we establish ourselves here, we wind up working in the industrial world of the factories here in the city of Central Falls. And I saw a lot of injustices in the workplace.

GONZÁLEZ: Immigrant workers are being underpaid and overworked. Many of them don’t know that they have the right to ask for safer working conditions, more breaks, or translation. Heiny can’t stand to see it, but she doesn’t know how to change anything by herself. So, she begins to volunteer with another immigrant activist group out of Progreso Latino in Central Falls. That’s where she meets Juan.

HEINY: Para mí siempre Juan fue una persona muy amigable...siempre una persona muy preocupada por la comunidad….Era, más que todo, como un líder comunitario.

ENGLISH: To me, Juan was always a really friendly person, someone who was very worried about and focused on the community. He was, more than anything, a community leader.

GONZÁLEZ: Heiny sees how Juan works. It’s kind of like how Father Tetrault used to work, as one of the people. He hears them and gives them what they need. But he also pushes them to be better. Heiny helps Juan connect with more factory workers and unions. She helps grow the seed. Soon, more grassroots groups form: English in Action, Workers United, a Rhode Island chapter of Jobs with Justice. And each year, the May Day march grows. On May 1st, 2006, that little march that started with just 50 people marching a few blocks, it grows to 28,000 marching nearly 2 miles, from Central High School to the Statehouse. Juan is one of the key organizers.

JUAN: Sí sentía emociones, me entiendes, pero emociones como de satisfacción que una persona que había hace un indocumentado, una persona que había salido de un barrio allá en la zona 5 en Guatemala, una persona que sufrió un montón de situaciones, había llegado a la mente ya la conciencia de cerca de 28,000 personas. ¿Cómo decir?

ENGLISH: And I felt emotion, you understand, but more like satisfaction. That a person that had been undocumented, a person that had left his neighborhood there in Zona 5 in Guatemala, a person who suffered a whole mess of situations, had touched the hearts and minds of close to 28,000 people. What can I say?

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: It’s that fall in 2006 that Heiny Maldonado works with another activist to start Fuerza Laboral. The roots of the immigrant activist tree are deepening. Which is good because soon, they’ll be tested. Because we’re in a post-9/11 world now. And immigration enforcement is cracking down on both federal and state levels in Rhode Island. First, there’s ICE, Immigrations and Customs enforcement. By 2006, they’re picking up the pace. Here’s Karen Ziner again.

KAREN ZINER: What affected people was there started to be these ICE raids. And they seem to be at times kind of random, you know.

GONZÁLEZ: The first big one is the Michael Bianco leather factory in New Bedford. 361 workers are detained in one raid. Then, there’s this guy.

GOV CARCIERI: When I look at our little state, when I see what’s happening in our schools, and the influx in our schools, and I see our hospitals and our law enforcement, it’s crystal clear the impact that illegal immigraiton is having.

GONZÁLEZ: Rhode Island’s Governor from 2003-2011 is Don Carcieri. He blames Rhode Island’s failing economy, at least partly, on undocumented immigrants. Juan has to take a big breath before he talks about this line of thinking. Because, he says, undocumented people pay taxes.

JUAN: El gobierno federal [sighs] tanto dinero que agarra de la gente indocumentada para el seguro social, pa’ TDI, todo ese dinero, es un dinero que ya no va a tener. Un dinero que va a tener que repartir y son billones!

ENGLISH: The federal government [sighs] with all the money they take from undocumented people for social security, for temporary disability insurance, all of that money is money that they are never going to get back. It’s money that the government gets and divvies up. And it’s billions!

GONZÁLEZ: But that’s not Governor Carcieri’s line of thinking. In 2008, he signs an executive order requiring state agencies and vendors to verify the legal immigration status of all new employees through a digital program called E-Verify. It goes on to direct all state police and Department of Corrections Officers to report any undocumented workers to ICE. The Rhode Island immigrant community is sent into a panic, and a new, fiery anti-immigrant rhetoric rises.

KAREN: It was an attempt by the Carcieri administration to, you know, set some immigration policy...it gave state police immigration enforcement powers. And that was very controversial. There was something on almost all the time on talk radio, and it was divisive, and it was ugly. Calling undocumented immigrants, animals... cockroaches... diseases. All that kind of ugly, ugly stuff.

GONZÁLEZ: There are more ICE raids. Restaurants are hit. Factories. One summer day in 2009, all six courthouses in Rhode Island are raided by ICE, targeting the newly-hired custodial staff. It’s a tidal wave. And there are some wins for the activist community, but there are many more losses.

NAT SOUND UP

GONZÁLEZ: One of the biggest for Juan is when St. Teresa’s closes in 2009.

JUAN: Tenía que ponerle como aquel nuevo sistema de incendio, lo que quiera mucho dinero. ...antes el barrio era mucha mucha comunidad americana. Pero viene mucha comunidad latina y los latinos tenemos algo muy diferente a ellos que nosotros damos en la iglesia, pero damos como en Latinoamérica. Limosna, como dicen la palabra, pero aquí hay que dar como un 10% 8 y la gente no está acostumbrada... por eso voy que la iglesia no se pudo sostener y nos mudamos a la iglesia Blessed Sacrament.

ENGLISH: They had to put in a new heating system, which would have cost a lot of money. Before, the neighborhood used to be a big American community. But a lot of latino people came. And latinos, we’re very different from them in what we give in church. We give, but we give like we gave in Latinoamérica. Alms, is what they say, the word. But here, you have to give like 10%, 8%, and the people weren’t accustomed to that. So, because of that, the church couldn’t sustain itself, and we moved to Blessed Sacrament.

GONZÁLEZ: Juan still attends mass every week and works out of a storefront in Olneyville. But it’s different.

JUAN: Osea que esta iglesia tiene historia. Ahora aquí organizamos el barrio. Organizamos la comunidad. Encontré como una nueva vida. Encontré una forma de ser útil a la gente, a la comunidad y no solamente hacer una persona que pasa por la vida, verdad. Esas cosas tienen mucho valor para mí.

ENGLISH: This church has history. It was here that we organized the neighborhood. We organized the community. I found a new life. I found a way to be of use to the people, the community, and to not be a person who only lives for himself. Those things mean a lot to me.

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: 2009 also marks an important shift in immigration politics. President Obama takes office and changes the focus of national immigration policy from deporting any and every undocumented person to finding those who have broken serious laws. The climate of fear from the Bush years lessens. Soon, Carcieri is out of office, too, replaced by a more moderate governor, Lincoln Chafee, who immediately repeals Carcieri’s executive order. But the fight is far from over.

JUAN: Bueno el comité sigue. Yo tengo un programa de radio.

English: Well, the Committee’s still working. I have a radio show.

“Radio show 01”: “Esto es camino a legalización”

JUAN: Bien gracias, buenos días. Es el programa “Camino a legalización” ,como todo los sábados…..

GONZÁLEZ: Juan hosts a call-in show, “Camino a Legalización,” “Path to Legalization”, every Saturday morning on 100.3 Latina FM. He brings in different immigrant rights leaders, lawyers, and politicians to talk about all of the issues facing immigrants in Rhode Island. There are some of the same problems he’s been working on for decades: housing, safe workplaces, fair wages. But there are new ones, too, like getting driver’s licenses for undocumented people and stopping the separation of families by ICE. And for Juan, it’s more than just a weekly radio show. He still protests. And he posts videos on facebook regularly, aimed at informing and inspiring other Spanish-speaking immigrants.

JUAN: [FB MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE 1]: Muy buenas tardes. Soy Juan García del Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción ... Quiero decirles que durante las últimas problemáticas dentro del tema migratorio sobre los niños. Sobre los niños no acompañados y las familias. El comité antes a cargo de su servidor ha rescatado más de 120 niños, y más de 50 familias se han reunido….

ENGLISH: Good afternoon. I’m Juan García from the Committee of Immigrants in Action. I want to tell you all that about the latest problem in the immigration issue is about children, unaccompanied children and their families. The committee has rescued more than 120 children and reunited more than 50 families.

MUSIC UP UNDER SECTION

GONZÁLEZ: It’s made the headlines for years now. Under the Trump administration, more children are being separated from their families at the border and detained by ICE. Juan is the guy people throughout New England call they need someone to advocate on behalf of their detained children. He always does.

MONTAGE OF FAMILY REUNITED VIDEOS UP FOR A BIT AND DOWN UNDER after “José”

GONZÁLEZ: He’ll go and meet these families at the airport and share the joy of welcoming their loved ones to the United States.

JUAN: Entonces, bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos. Ya portate bien y estudiar, ok?

ENGLISH: Welcome to the United States. Be good and study, ok?

MUSIC COMES TO POST

GONZÁLEZ: Today, Juan is 68 years-old. He has the same jet-black hair and mustache he’s had for his entire life, maybe there are a few grays at his temples. He has the hands of a construction worker and the demeanor of a soldier. He radiates trust. He says he’s retired, but he’s one of the busiest people I’ve ever met. He never turns down an interview. He still hosts his radio show over the phone during the pandemic. He had coronavirus and beat it. I mean, he never ever stops.

JUAN: Un día normal, iba a la casa y de repente ring el teléfono. Me dice, Juan, necesito irme el sábado a corte en Boston no tengo abogado, me puede llevar? Lo llevo….”Don Juan, mi hijo, El Coyote lo tiene Nueva York, y no me lo quiere dar.” Entonces yo voy con ellos allá y los rescato. “Juan mire me quedé sin carro mire mi trabajo si no me van a correr.” Por lo llevo. Entonces esto es mi día. Es lo que hago todo el tiempo.

ENGLISH: A normal day, I’m at home and all of a sudden, my phone rings. They say, “Juan, I need to go to court on Saturday in Boston. I don’t have a lawyer. Could you bring me?” And I bring them. “Don Juan, it’s my kid a Coyote has them in New York and he doesn’t want to give them to me.” So, I go with them to New York to rescue them. “Juan, my car broke down and I can’t get to work. So, I take them. This is my day. This is what I do all the time.

GONZÁLEZ: ¿Y te gusta? ¿Te gusta tu trabajo?

English: And do you like it? You like your work?

JUAN: Me encanta porque a pesar de los años que tengo que en lugar de estar ahí sentado, retirado, soy útil. Es lo más importante. Sabes por eso no me envejezco [laughs] Tal vez lo único que sí quiero para todos que van a escuchar esto: no importa como sean, quienes sean, lo que han sufrido. Sólo recuerden sé algo. No solamente vivimos para comer y para tener y almacenar. Vivimos para desarrollarnos y desarrollar a los demás.

ENGLISH: I love it because after all of these years here in this place, I’m retired, but I have a purpose. That’s the most important thing. You know, that’s why I don’t get old [laughs]. The only thing that I want everyone who’s going to listen to this to know: it doesn’t matter how they are, who they are, what they’ve gone through. Just remember to be something. We don’t only live to eat and to have and to hold on things. We live to grow and help those around us grow.

MUSIC

GONZÁLEZ: Just a note everyone: this is our last episode of the season. And feels fitting to end things right here, with this story. Because Juan is just one person with one life, but he’s made it his mission to help every person who asks him for it. All because Father Tetrault made him realize he’s one of millions. And that’s what this series is all about: telling the individual stories of the millions that make up this living mosaic of our nation of immigrants. Thanks for listening.