Mariana

Origin of my name: Mariana...Feminine form of Marian, which is from the Latin Marianus (of Marius), a name derived from Mars, the name of the Roman mythological god of war. As a result of similarity of form, the name became associated with Maria, the name of the Blessed Virgin, and was often bestowed in her honor, and the meaning of Mariana is "star of the sea"

Well this "star of the sea" was born in a little country right down the middle of what is now called Central America, my country is Guatemala, and I was born in the capital of Guatemala, which is Guatemala City... haha my country is known for: Having spectacular volcanoes, gorgeous highlands and some of the best Mayan ruins you are going to find anywhere in Latin America. One thing it is not known for is its beaches. That being said, there are still spots along the Pacific coast where you can find some nice black sand Guatemala beaches resulting from the volcanic nature of the country. While none of these are going to make a "world's best beaches list" anytime soon, they offer a change from the highlands, and will appease most visitors nonetheless. The east coast of Guatemala is relatively small, offering practically nothing in the way of a quality Guatemala beach.

But what I admire the most of it all is its many of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala are of Maya heritage. Other groups are Xinca people and Garifuna, coming from such a small country and having so much rich history in Mayan culture and of course the art is admirable...

But my true story... My family story, the journey to today... so many stories alike and so many different, we were the lucky ones...My whole family is from Guatemala, my grandparents and my parents of course me and my sister Laura, except for Kimberly. We (the first 2) came to this country very young I don't remeber the trip actually, I was too young I was gonna be 2yrs old. from what my mother and father have told me is that my granfather (Carlos Alvarez aka Tito) was the 1st to make up his mind to go to the USA, so he left promising to come back home, the plan was for him to go work for a couple of years and then come home :( and 3 yrs went by, there were letters, and there was money but no Tito my grandmother (Rosa Alvarez aka Tita)...and at the time my dad (Carlos Peña) was going out with my mom (Lidia Peña), until they had finally decided to wed... my Tito said to wait, but my parents being young and full of life, did not wait and decided to go on with the ceremony, then my mom moved into my dad's house with my Tita , like about a month after my paren's honeymoon, my mother figured she was pregnant which what comes naturally after marriage right?

I was born on August 27th of 1984...My name was given to me by my dad, my great grandmother was named Mariana and was a strong woman with a very short temper, worked all her life, and I was and still am honored I hold her name...In those early days of my childhood I was the only little thing my Tita found that gave her pure joy, and so with her love and affection and complete attention I was given the best any caring Tita would give... a month after I was born my mother found out she had become pregnant AGAIN!!! hahaha welcoming my baby sister Laura, knowing this my Tito decided that it was better for my Tita to go to the USA and find work and then come back to us... My Tita said it was the hardest thing she had ever done in her life, she had never left my dad, and had never made such a journey... my Tito paid a "coyote" who basically is a person who waits for your loved ones at a certain point and works his way into bringing the people you love to you in the end...we were fortunate to have had a good guy, most "coyotes" don't finish the job and keep the money, some just kill your loved ones and take your money... so we were lucky nothing had happened to her, and she finally was reunited with my Tito.

My dad had written to my Tita saying that it was very hard for them to keep living in Guatemala and violence was getting pretty bad spacially around the area we had lived, in the end my Tito taking the initiative again and my father knowing what initiative and plan that was, we all soon got prepared to leave our country to find a better future and a better place to live...my mother said good bye to all of her 9 siblings, to her parents my Grandma Clementina and Gradfather Ramon... and so we left, passing through the nothern part of our country to finally reach the tip of Mexico, going further and further every day, it was hot, very humid and my mother was scared, my sister got sick a couple of times, and we didn't have much to eat... at one point my mother, sister and me got kidnapped so says my father, things got resolved quickly he never told me how nor do I question him about it for now, and so we went through Texas, finally reaching Arizona, getting into California, and finally on Soto St. and Whittier my Tita hugged me and cried, and I got to meet my Tito for the very 1st time...I was not wearing any shoes, I had a just a big shirt on we were all dirty, my Tita bathed us fed all of us, my mother got to meet her father in law...and things seemed to going pretty good.

About 2 yrs later, my mother found out she was pregnant again, my father was so super happy because what he had always wished for was to have a child in the promised land, so Little Kimberly was born... the family growing bigger and bigger and money coming in at a good rate, the 4 adults decided to move to a bigger house, in the city of LA, close to the City of Whittier, it was a big house I shared my bedroom with my 2 sisters, my parents had their room and so did my grandparents we lived in that house on Sadler St for 10 yrs...

Art by Sascalia