{"id":14459,"date":"2019-09-29T20:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/?p=14459"},"modified":"2019-09-30T13:20:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T17:20:40","slug":"from-el-salvador-to-acps-a-journey-of-courage-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/?p=14459","title":{"rendered":"A Journey of Courage and Hope from El Salvador to Alexandria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>On the morning of December 24, 1980, 12-year-old Ana Bonilla-Galdamez boarded an airplane from El Salvador for the US, fleeing the terrors of civil war. It was years before she would see her homeland again.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14452\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal-126x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal-126x100.jpg 126w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal-260x207.jpg 260w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal-768x612.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal-753x600.jpg 753w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/>As a young child she witnessed gut-wrenching violence, the collapse of the country\u2019s economy and her parents agonizing over the decision of whether to stay or leave.<\/p>\n<p>When, one day, her daughter\u2019s life was threatened, Ana\u2019s mother\u2019s mind was made up.<\/p>\n<p>Her story will ring true for so many of our families in Alexandria who left behind danger and poverty to seek a better life in America.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14465 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/bonilla_express-1-of-1.jpg\" alt=\"Ana Bonilla\" width=\"972\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/bonilla_express-1-of-1.jpg 972w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/bonilla_express-1-of-1-145x100.jpg 145w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/bonilla_express-1-of-1-260x179.jpg 260w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/bonilla_express-1-of-1-768x529.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/bonilla_express-1-of-1-800x551.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 972px) 100vw, 972px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the 1980s, nearly 5,000 people from just one Salvadoran village, Chirilagua, settled in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/?p=14407\">Arlandria<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ana now works for ACPS as a Family Engagement Specialist at T.C. Williams<\/p>\n<p>High School and has dedicated her career to supporting those in need.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"vimeo-player\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/362346483?title=0&amp;amp;byline=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>Image of El Salvador copyright \u00a9 Donna De Cesare, All rights reserved. Courtesy usage by special arrangement.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/362824927\/54c53254f9\">Watch the full-length interview in Spanish<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/362826214\/6217697ffc\">Watch the full-length interview in English<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, we continue to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month with the story of a T.C. Williams High School staff member who made Alexandria her home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":14520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acps","category-video"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 19:35:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14459"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14525,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14459\/revisions\/14525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}