My Hopelink Story: Silvestre Moreno

I am from Nicaragua, a city called Esteli, 150 km from Managua.

Very bad. I was in the army fighting the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas put me in prison and I was treated very bad for 10 years. When Violeta Chamorro was elected president, the war ended. I got out of prison and I wanted to be a soldier to defend Chamorro but it was not safe for me. The Sandinistas took me to prison again. I escaped to Honduras then came to the United States 16 years ago.

When I didn’t understand anything, I came to Hopelink. I came to learn how to become a citizen and learn English. It was very hard. I wanted to stay in the United States and have a good life. I wanted to have my own company here and I needed these skills to do that.

They helped me to learn English so I could work, and have my own company. I learned the history of the United States and stories about great people like Benjamin Franklin. They are very important stories, beautiful stories, and I learned a lot from them. I used to work 13 or 14 hours in a restaurant and couldn’t go to classes anywhere else. Hopelink classes were close to my house and were at times when I could go. Two years ago I started my own cleaning company. We clean buildings. It is very busy.

I like the United States better than Nicaragua now. I can’t go back to Nicaragua. I have a sister and brother there but I can’t go there. The United States is like a mother and a father to me, a home, everything. It’s my USA.