Family story #1 - Team Orange

By Calvin Antonetty

Hi Everyone!

It’s me Calvin, and I hope all is well up north! Things are great down here in good old Tijuana!! Earlier in the week I was asked by Leslie and Josh to conduct a little mini interview with the family that my group (TEAM ORAAAAANNNGEEE!!!!!) is building a house for (the house is looking pristine by the way). So I casually asked questions to the man of the family and remembered/translated his Spanish responses so that all of you lovely people at home can get an idea of the kind of people we are serving this week.

So first of all, there are four brothers who were all born in Guerrero, Mexico close to Acapulco. Acapulco is a touristy area by the beach that has a lot of money flowing through the rich and no money or real jobs for the poor. Guerrero is apparently much worse than Tijuana. He described Guerrero as an outskirt of a beautiful place that is engulfed in drugs and gang violence. Now that you have a background of some of the places, here is the background of this amazing family.

The four brothers were born into a very poor family in Guerrero. They lived there their whole life until about five years ago when they all decided to move to Tijuana. The man of our household is Adrian Soto-Ortiz. He is a shorter, stubby, serious-looking man with a very tender heart. His best friend growing up was a girl named Maria Isabel Gomez-Martinez—who eventually became his wife (AWWWW!). They have four beautiful children. The oldest is an adorable and stubby little boy named Adrian Soto-Gomez (9 years old), next came the very thin and intellectual Angel Soto-Gomez (7 years old), after came Fernando Soto-Gomez (5 years old) who has succeeded in capturing everyone’s hearts with his constant tripping over everything and his funny little personality, and the youngest is an adorable girl who looks a lot like a mix between “Boo” from the movie Monsters Inc and that baby from Ice Age and her name is Elitzabel Soto-Gomez (1 years old).

Adrian was making $4-5/day in Guerrero working from 4:00am til about 6:00-8:00pm. Rent for the apartment they used to live in was $1000/month. His wife was obviously working as well. As they kept having kids, they had to find other kinds of jobs, skip meals, and help Adrian Jr. with school. So, with the birth of Angel, they moved to Tijuana with the three other brothers and their families and lived in one house all together.

There is a local school close to the houses we are building that their kiddos will be attending on the 27^th of September. The family goes to the central Cathedral in Tijuana. And now Adrian works at an Apartment complex doing random fix ups throughout the complex (which would explain why he is so good at all this construction stuff!). Sometimes he travels to other places to sell good in markets and tourist spots. He told me that he can’t describe how grateful he is to have these houses that himself and his brothers are getting. He said that they moved out of Guerrero and into Tijuana for a new beginning and a safe environment for their kids and that now that they have these homes, everything will be easier. The money that goes to rent will now go to food and clothes. The time spent working will now be spent loving their kids. He said he has big dreams and hopes for his children and that every decision he and his wife have made have been for their kids - and Sammamish Presbyterian Church and Doxa has helped in ways that WE can’t even comprehend. I’ve known him for a week, and I love him and his family so much. This trip is amazing, thank you SPC and thank you Doxa.

Much Love,

Calvin Antonetty