“I feel embraced on the inside having shared my story because I have carried around all this heaviness for years, and now I feel free in telling it.”
Editor’s Note: Marina is a hard-working, brave, and determined woman. She does not let a lack of education or limited financial resources hinder her from doing what she feels in her heart and soul to be right. When her daughter-in-law, Karen, felt unable or unwilling to care for her infant, Celia, she turned over her maternal responsibilities of raising Celia, NOT to her own mother, but to her mother-in-law, Marina. She must have recognized in Marina a person who would raise Celia with a solid, consistent, Christian foundation.She chose well. Marina did not hesitate to take on that role of caring for her tiny infant granddaughter. When Karen was killed, there was no chance of that role changing for Marina; it is permanent. Like so many women of her generation, Marina has assumed this nurturing role so naturally that she embraces it as the best part of her life. Just to see her and Celia look at one another, you sense the deep and abiding attachment they have for one another. Marina now lives to make certain that Celia’s dreams come true. ( Read Celia Marina Vasquez Luna’s story for more specific information on this child whom Marina is raising.)
Marina’s own story:
My entire life has quite literally been centered around various coffee fincas and involved all phases of coffee production. I can probably walk you through every step from the planting of a coffee tree’s single leaf under a 60/40 shade canopy where it thrives through its harvest because that has been my life here in El Salvador. (more…)