By Julia Lopez, community reporter
Lidixe Montoya left her family, friends and home in El Salvador to give her son a better and safer future in the Chippewa Valley.
In August 2015, Montoya, then 38, flew to the United States with her then five-year-old son, Pavel. She also had a student visa and a plan to graduate with her bachelor’s degree in human resources from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
She attained her bachelor’s degree from UW-EC with a concentration in public health, as well as a master’s degree in administration and ministry from Luther Seminary in St. Paul.
“I thought a degree was going to be easier to get a better job and give my son a better life,” Montoya said in a recent phone interview with the CVPost.
Montoya is now interning as a mission developer with the Neighbor to Neighbor program through the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The program works to assist people who did not receive federal stimulus checks this year due to documentation issues, even though they pay taxes here.
She is also raising Pavel and her younger son Andrey, who just turned one, as a single working mom.
Montoya and her family recently moved to Bloomer but she remains an active member at Hope Lutheran Church in Eau Claire with her former host parents, Debrah and Robert Adams.
She met the Adamses at a health clinic in El Salvador in 2004 and they kept in touch. The Adamses became Pavel’s godparents, which moved them to help Montoya obtain her student visa and leave El Salvador following a rise in gang violence.
Montoya said she moved her family to Bloomer because she found a house she liked and could afford and felt comfortable there. She said they are happy with the life they have created in the Chippewa Valley and the change it offers from life in El Salvador.
Racism here
She noted she has endured racism in the Chippewa Valley, but it’s worth it to raise her son in a safe environment, and with a good (and bilingual) education.
“Here there is no war,” Montoya said, “but we’re at risk of being discriminated against because of our color. A country that is built on immigration is not welcoming immigrants…that is race.
“There are so many white citizens of European descent that have forgotten why their ancestors came. The exact same reasons [as me]…they came here to get a better life and they’ve forgotten that in the shade of a color of skin, ” she added.
Montoya said she and Pavel fled her hometown of Lourdes in west-central El Salvador out of concern for their basic safety.
“[Gang violence] has been so bad,” she said. “They’re very strong now and they recruit kids even at Pavel’s age…It’s everywhere in El Salvador. They are extremely violent and they’re able to do awful things, atrocities, even to children. I didn’t want Pavel at risk of being recruited or being assassinated.”
The threat of violence is very real to Montoya, who grew up during the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992) during which over 75,000 civilians were killed at the hands of the government-controlled Salvadoran military. That’s according to the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA) located in San Francisco, which pursues reparations for those who have endured crimes against humanity.
Family affected by El Salvador violence
Montoya’s sister was one of the estimated 6,000 Salvadorans to “disappear” during the Civil War; this means she was randomly taken (by “the police,” according to Montoya) and simply disappeared. These crimes left no traces or accountability, and left Montoya an only child when she was four years old.
Two years later, her mother, Olimpia Montoya, was accused of running a clandestine hospital for anti-government guerillas and arrested.
“When I was six, my mom was a political prisoner,” Montoya said. “I was with her a few times at a women’s prison but later I was at shelters and foster homes. My life is totally different from what my kids are living. You don’t want to have your children suffer what you suffered.”
Montoya noted that gang violence is still prominent in the country. Due in large part to the instability left behind by the Civil War, groups such as the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs thrive and recruit children as young as five years old, leading to a cycle of violence that has given El Salvador the highest murder rate in the world, according to the United Nations.
“My mom was killed three years ago,” Montoya said. “We don’t know if it was on the street, coming back from the grocery store, or at home.”
She said her mother’s death made her wonder if she should have ever left El Salvador, but nonetheless she knows it was the best decision for her and her children.
“It wasn’t easy to have to leave my mom,” Montoya said. “After my sister was killed…we went through so much together. But both of us understood that to keep Pavel safe we needed to sacrifice.”
Journey to U.S. is risky
She added many Salvadorans don’t risk the journey to U.S., as it’s extremely dangerous to make on foot (especially for women) and difficult to get the extensive paperwork necessary to emigrate legally.
“I am blessed I didn’t have to do the walking journey,” Montoya said. “Some people are so desperate, and they really don’t have the money or the resources, or they don’t meet the criteria the U.S. has…the other option is to walk. And even that’s not cheap. You have to pay smugglers a lot, $7,000 or $10,000…But I came here with a visa- it was almost a year getting the paperwork.”
One of the “criteria” she referred to is proficiency in English, which Montoya said she was fortunate to have learned voluntarily during her summers in high school. Without it, she wouldn’t be in the Chippewa Valley today.
NOTE: A related story, focused on the work that Montoya is engaged in, can be read by following this link.
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