{"id":7709,"date":"2019-09-29T20:04:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T00:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/?p=7709"},"modified":"2019-09-30T11:53:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T15:53:38","slug":"from-el-salvador-to-acps-a-journey-of-courage-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/from-el-salvador-to-acps-a-journey-of-courage-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey of Courage and Hope from El Salvador to Alexandria"},"content":{"rendered":"<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>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\" \/><\/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 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\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h6>Image of El Salvador copyright \u00a9 Donna De Cesare, All rights reserved. \u00a0Courtesy usage \u00a0by special arrangement.<\/h6>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/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<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14452 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/WAALogoFinal-260x207.jpg\" alt=\"We Are Alexandria\" width=\"260\" height=\"207\" \/><\/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":10,"featured_media":7747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 23:32:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7709"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7749,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7709\/revisions\/7749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/staff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}