Honduras, a country located in Central America, San Pedro Sula, Cortes.

From a poor and dangerous community, they saw me grow up in streets full of dust, as the Bible says, dust we are and dust we will return, but in that neighborhood the young people daily have to resist being part of gangs.

I saw how an uncle of mine was taken from life, for simply refusing to take someone else’s life.

Since that day, I have not lost that image of the look of my uncle when he died. I can also say that the beautiful evenings he lived also died with him. Because even though I was being domesticated, I played soccer where I found that inner child, that child who was full of hope, who had love for all people who, no thanks to not having love, fill their hearts with violence and that hatred is something that has marked me, like my uncle’s blood on my face after being riddled with bullets by two people.

From that moment, I saw a different world to which I was already accustomed, after being an orphan, I had already lived in orphanages who attended to children at social risk, this was where I realized that God was not against me. I had previously believed that only bad things happened to me because at my young age I had already experienced the death of my mother, the abandonment of a father, and the murder of my older brother. In those different orphanages that I lived, I have a memory of each person that marks me, as friends, as brothers, as souls that were there, for the simple fact that we all deserved a second chance. I have always believed that education is the way to deal with crises that affect my country, and various other places remote from the world.

At the age between 14 and 15 years old, I had already experienced many things, some of which, as you can imagine, were self-inflicted just because of my survival instinct. I was a young man who used drugs in order to lock myself up or to just move further away from who I was.

After all this, I took refuge in the art of reading, and I wrote and I became passionate about psychology, some of my favorite writers were Erich Fromm I read a book called, “Attraction to Life” that book was like an awakening in my soul. I was very interested in psychology, that even being aware of being someone hurt, I love to listen to my companions and offer advice, and motivate them to never give up.

I have always believed that we are people enslaved or subject to the law of necessity, all to seek a well-being that gives you peace and love and based on this obtain happiness, which for many is something different (each one inside of his own bubble) but mentioning love, without a doubt I think it is the greatest force that exists, since for many the love and affection that they have for their children, parents, friends, family members is what makes them see life in a different way. It is like seeing the universe without using a telescope, I realized that that was me because although I had nothing of material value, I had LOVE! something that even with all the money in the world could not obtain.

Although I had no family throughout the struggle, my fellow brothers in the orphanages were for me, and together we were strong in spirit and with our smiles. At that time, my life was in danger and realizing that I was a free soul and that I could make the world a better place, I learned to appreciate the wonderful pleasure of being alive. In that year I met Hannah Sorensen, to be honest The first thing I saw of her was her eyes and that special color, but in them the way into the soul of a wonderful person.

Senderos Orphanage mission trip September 2015

I remember very well also among them was someone who life and God allowed me to meet, Ray Ray, a person who despite not knowing the language and not being able to communicate very well, he transmitted love just by smiling

Ray Ray and Giovanni at Senderos September 2015 and the sneakers we traded

2 weeks after, I would leave Senderos and take a trip in search of a better life, with the sneakers that Ray Ray and I had exchanged, and with a dream of not being in any danger.

Photo of Ray Ray still wearing my sneakers at Soulfest at Gunstock, NH in August 2019

I spent 2 years residing in Mexico, I thought that it was no longer necessary to travel to the U.S., but for the individuals who wanted to see me dead, it was not enough to have simply left the my home country.

I faced many things on this path, such as kidnapping and deprivation of liberty;

A lot of bad things that I do not want to mention anymore. After facing all that, I am now here, legally in the U.S., at 19 years old and many more years ahead, with the dream of graduating from philosophy, and a doctorate in literature,

With the dream of continuing to perfect the speech of this language, I want to mention that without the help of Julie and Evan Sorensen and Heart4Honduras, I would not be or be as I am today.

Visiting for the first time in The U.S., September 2019

I am grateful to the people who are ours, who make themselves known and who want a better place in this world.

I wish you all health and love, thank you for reading this, and I want to leave you with the reflection that we all deserve a second chance, and we can give those children who are living something similar to what I lived, the opportunity to see more clearly with other eyes

Life from the eyes of a boy raised in Honduras