Santos

     To say Santos struggled when he got to America would be incredibly kind to his situation. He didn't have more than eight or nine dollars in his pocket in 1985 when he came to San Francisco at the age of 17. A friend in America fronted the $800 necessary to get him to America and get him a place to stay, which was a crowded hotel in the Tenderloin.

     He was terribly abused as he worked to pay off his debt, and several times prayed to get enough money in his hands to return him, but he didn't. He worked and somehow he persevered through those times to get to the other side. He got a girlfriend, and his girlfriend become his wife, and his wife got pregnant and had his children, and they kept moving up, from a cramped studio to a one bedroom, to a two-bedroom, to a three-bedroom and now, their dream, they were going to move into a whole house of their own.

     He didn't talk about his past much. To talk about it was to make it real, was to make all the villains who had sought to destroy him for a little bit more money real, all the people that had spit on him because he was Guatemalan. He was an American now. He had a house and two and a half kids. One of them was starting college in the fall and had a job. Working with him in a grocery store, but still, work. He was working.

     And Santos had wandered into a dream situation. He had come to Mr. Drummel as an out-of-work guy with a one-bedroom he could barely afford and two small children. Now he was Mr. Drummel's right-hand man, running the store alongside of him and making almost $20 an hour. Yeah, Mr. Drummel could be alright, but Santos had made it happen, had made himself indispensable, and had made the store money.

     In the meantime, Santos' wife, Lili, had gotten a degree as a medical assistant and was working full-time herself. They'd done well for themselves. The only thing they hadn't accomplished was to have a business of their own, but Santos was sure that would come, too. As long as he kept his head down and worked hard, he would be rewarded, in time.