Ask an Immigrant: Manuel Rivera

We at UUCA are blessed to have such conscientious custodians caring for our physical plant as Manuel Rivera and his stepson Jose Pineda. Here is a brief account of Manuel's immigration story, which originally appeared in the UUCA pamphlet "Our Immigration Stories" (collected by Partners for Arlington and Guatemala, or PAG), and is featured in the January Arlingtarian, available via a link on the home page.

I was born in 1946 in a small town in central El Salvador, Apopa, a railroad station town on the main El Salvador - Guatemala railway. My father worked for the railroad and my mother sold cooked food (beans, rice, pupusas, and excellent Salvadoran coffee) from her stall on the streets. I have five sisters, all of whom now live in the U.S. I grew up accustomed to hard work. An early job was digging and loading sand from the river into a truck for sale to
construction sites. My father and I also bought logs which we loaded into our cart, hauled to market, and sold. Later on, I was a truck driver and a fare collector on local buses.
In 1975, a time of much internal conflict, I came to the U.S. and have become a citizen. After living a short time in Los Angeles, I moved to Reno and to Las Vegas, working in the airport and at the Marriott Hotel as a dishwasher. I saved enough to bring my first wife, who has since passed away, to join me. We moved to Washington, DC in the 1980's and were joined by my mother in 1990. I worked construction jobs by day and, at night, in a tractor repair shop and at a Mexican restaurant. With my savings, I was able to help my family back home, but about 15 years ago, I lost everything through a fraudulent bank in Washington where I had my savings. I have worked for UUCA since 1995 and in 2002, moved to Arlington to the house where I now live next to our church. I thank God for my custodian job with the church, for all the kindness people have shown me, and for the confidence they have in me and for my family.
I remarried, to Maria – also from El Salvador. Along with my stepson Jose, I have two children with Maria, Manuel and Guadalupe.
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Do you have a personal immigration story to share? If so, email me at revc(at)uucava.org, and I will pass it on to the co-conveners of the Immigration Working Group. In conjunction with the immigration focus of the UUA General Assembly this year, we’d like to highlight some of the many immigrants in our own church and community. We will feature one person or family each month here and in The Arlingtarian.