It’s a Wednesday morning. Like any other day, most people wake up and go about their daily routine. Well, Jose Martinez is not like most people. He wakes up every day and realizes how lucky he is to be given the opportunities he has been given.
Martinez, a junior pitcher on the baseball team, grew up in Venezuela. With the corruption in the government of the country, Jose’s family knew they had to do something to improve their situation. So, in 2012, his parents sent him and his brother to the states. He moved to Miami and could immediately see the difference from his place of birth.
He said the transition was very difficult at first, as he had to learn a new language and adjust to a different culture. And even though he was in a better situation, he missed the place where he grew up. He said he “remembers where [he] grew up, [his] house, and the fields [he] played baseball on as a child.
He wishes he could single-handedly fix the situation because most of his family is still there, and his parents send supplies like food, water, and toothpaste, because the government does not supply it. He also witnessed the widespread poverty of the country, seeing children eat out of trash cans.
Jose is “ashamed” because of what the government has done, saying “inflation is through the roof. He carries grief with him everyday because of what the government is doing to the people. He is grateful that his family chose to leave the country when they did because the situation would have been so much worse if they stayed. He considers himself blessed to be able to be a student at Saint Joseph’s University and be given the opportunity to go to a school where he can grow and learn each day, rather than being stuck in a place where he would have had “no future and no opportunity.”
