A Long Walk to America

By Jessica Lopez

Everyone has a story. Some share the story, and some never make it out alive to talk about it.

A Long Walk to America shares real-life lessons from the young life of Los, a boy from El Salvador, who walks to America with his best friend. Los escaped from the civil war in his homeland in the 1990s as a child war soldier. Growing up in the civil war, he had seen death squads and violence every day. Los shares his story of how the USMC saved him and his friends from the regime. He had enough gruesome violence to literally make his stomach turn. Los has no stomach and had to battle stomach cancer after living in America. A Long Walk to America is a real heartbreaker. Not everyone who makes it to America has a happy ending.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662471339

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A Long Walk to America

Jessica Lopez

Copyright © 2022 Jessica Lopez

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-7132-2 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-6624-7133-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Home in Quezaltepeque—Nana's Bar

Mama's Sick

The Street Dance

Walk Home with Erica

War Tanks in the Streets

By the Pools with the Teacher

A Long Way Home

Seven Years of War

Toni, Enrique, Ray, and Los Walking on la Playa

Marine Helicopters Rolling in by Honduras Border

Seven-Month Walk with Gallo, Second Attempt

Got Caught with My Homies

Arriving in the Midwest

Gallo Arrives with Cilla

California

My Bad News

The Life-Threatening Decision

My Hell Starts Again

Flashbacks from the War

The Streets

About the Author

To the memories of my parents, Donna, Lisa, Mario, Dori, Jon, Ray, and Gallo, your spirits are instilled within me and give me the strength to carry on. For the people who knew me, thank you for caring for me during the time of my suffering of stomach cancer.

I appreciate all of you!

To all the children of El Salvador who were robbed of their childhoods.

Home in Quezaltepeque—Nana's Bar

I was on my way to visit my grandmother at my grandparents' bar. I walked to the back to grab a pineapple shake. Gunshots started. I ducked and took cover in the back by the cooler. My grandmother covered my ears with her hands. It sounded like a machine gun. I was biting my lip not to scream. I kept my eyes wide open. I could see three men fall down from the bullets zooming into the air.

I saw five men fall back from the gunfire. All five men at the bar were shot dead. The gunman got away and fled out the front door. As soon as the gunshots stopped, my grandmother grabbed my hand, and we ran out the back door. We ran and ran in the alley on the brick road. My grandmother made me open the door to the bank. We went to the work of my grandmother's sister.

We waited for my grandpa. My grandpa came to pick us up. We told him everything. My grandpa took us to the police station to report the shoot-out and the dead bodies that lay in the bar. My grandma held my hand, with tears rolling down her face.

My grandmother told the police everything. I sat there and saw how scared my grandmother was. I'm glad my nana did not get hurt. I love my nana. She is like my mother. She has taken great care of me. I could see the fear in my nana's eyes, and her hands were trembling. She held my hand tight as the police asked a lot of questions.

Thankfully, this shoot-out had nothing to do with my family. It was so random that these guys had beef with each other at the family bar, and I walked in at the wrong time.

I'm lucky they did not kidnap me. Thank God for taking care of me and my grandmother. I feel bad for my nana, as she seemed to always be crying, and she was always worried about her family walking outside. So many people are being killed daily in my city of Quezaltepeque. We can't escape it! People being shot daily is normal here. I have to step over dead bodies coming home from school. This is life here.

Mama felt sick and had to take a rest. I missed her after she left us in La Libertad. My mama wanted our home spotless, and Lily was always best at housecleaning. My mother had this illness that affected her ability to swallow. I don't know the name of her illness. I know she had to take pills to continue to be comfortable. She did not care to discuss her illness. I only know she developed the illness after she gave birth to me.

My mother and I lived with my grandma and grandpa. Our home was next to a field wall, and on the other side of our home were our neighbors. We lived in the city of Quezaltepeque, El Salvador, along with my mama's two sisters. I was living in a civil war in my country. Every day, there were dead bodies on the streets as I walked to school. Every place I walked outside, there were armed soldiers with machine guns. Some mornings, my neighbors and I walked to school together with adults from our family. We would walk to school, and we would see a pile of dead bodies on the streets. The Communists called them death squads.

A few days after the shoot-out at my nana's bar, I got this vibe over me, this knotting in my stomach. I went with Gallo to hang out, but this pain kept growing inside, and I could not keep my busy mind focused on this growing discomfort in my stomach. I'm not sure why I was having so much pain in my stomach. My nana told me that I was thinking too much.

Gallo was my neighbor and best friend. He lived around the corner from me. Gallo was the coolest kid on my block. He taught me to drive a car. Mind you, I was only eleven years old. Gallo was seventeen years old. He had twin sisters and two big parrots that talked in Spanish. He lived down my street. Gallo taught me how to drive a five-speed and an 18-wheeler, thanks to Gallo. My family liked Gallo a lot. He was a great person and liked to help people. I was heading downtown with the rest of the gang and Gallo.

Mama's Sick

For some reason, I took a rain check and went back home. I always went with the boys at night. We either had school, or it was too hot to be out during the day. Gallo told me I would miss out if we don't go home.

We stuck together. This night could not keep me out. I was rushing home to relieve this pain overcoming my stomach. I did not care about what I would miss. I wanted to be lying in my bed. I knew if I was home, I would feel comfortable, and the pain would disappear.

My mama knew how to make everything right. I lived with my mama, my nana, my tia, and her daughters. I was the only prince of our home. When I came inside our home, my nana was wiping my mother's forehead. She appeared to be ill. My stomach sank with worry.

I knew now why I had such pain inside. Tears rolled down my face for my mama. She did not want to get up. I went to give my mother a kiss on her cheek. I came home to my mama. She was lying in her bed, and she had pain in her mouth. My nana just looked at me, and the look on her face told me this is not good, not good at all.

She continued to sweep my mama's face. I had to have hope that God would hear my prayer to help my mama. My nana was not even talking right now. We both were in the same room as my mama. Every night, when I came into our home, my nana would always make me some food and give me coco juice. Nana was always ready to fill me up. She did not even talk to me tonight. Time froze, my pain increased.

I left the room and lay down on the sofa, and I noticed my nana not coming out of the room. I could not sit there any longer and be ignored! I burst the door open and said, Mama! Why are you lying there? What happened?

Mama could not talk. Her throat was swollen, and her eyes were full of tears. Nana shook her head to me and said, "Son, we are out of medicine. There are no more pills