Guadalupe Morales is small in stature and seems even smaller
when she starts to speak, sitting at a table inside the office of
the John H. Boccardo Family Living Center.
SAN MARTIN
Guadalupe Morales is small in stature and seems even smaller when she starts to speak, sitting at a table inside the office of the John H. Boccardo Family Living Center.
The Mexico native doesn’t speak English, but as her 4-year-old daughter Viviana plays nearby, she has no qualms about telling her story through an interpeter.
A single mom, Guadalupe is one of 25 families living at Boccardo, where she is taking classes in computers and English. Her future is all but certain, because the 24-year-old experiences seizures periodically and has had trouble finding a job.
Recommended to EHC LifeBuilders-funded Boccardo, where she can live up to nine months, Guadalupe previously stayed at a place in Morgan Hill but couldn’t afford to pay rent. She went to live with a friend in Gilroy and received help from the Morgan Hill Learning and Loving Education Center, from which she was referred to Boccardo.
Guadalupe’s story isn’t new, but it is compelling nevertheless. She came into the United States from Queretaro, Mexico, at her mother’s request, five years ago while pregnant with Viviana, whose father “didn’t want to take any responsibility,” said Irene Aguilar, case manager at the John H. Boccardo Family Living Center.
“That was one of the reasons” she came, Aguilar said. She came to San Martin because her mother lived there.
Shortly after, however, Guadalupe’s mother died and she was left alone, said Aguilar, one of two staff members at Boccardo, which houses the mostly immigrant families who otherwise would be homeless.
Boccardo is temporary shelter and Guadalupe’s most pressing needs are finding a job and a place to live. She also needs basic household items that she can’t afford on her meager welfare check of $340 per month.
“Guadalupe, like all of us, needs affordable housing,” Aguilar said. “One of her goals is to be able to find a job, but she thinks with her seizures she can’t.”
Guadalupe is looking for babysitting jobs and “could probably work at a restaurant as a dishwasher,” Aguilar said.
Whatever the case, Guadalupe doesn’t want to return to live with her brother in Turlock, which she describes as “not a very good environment,” Aguilar said.
HOW TO HELP
To help Guadalupe Morales’ family, contact Irene Aguilar at the John H. Boccardo Family Living Center at (408) 686-1300. Morales’ needs are:
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A job, possibly as babysitter or dishwasher
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Affordable housing or help obtaining it and paying rent
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Miscellaneous household items, including a microwave
