Marvin's Sister

The doctor visited me a couple of days ago to tell me that if my glucose levels drop below 60 -- my levels have ranged between 74-75 -- I am at risk of dying. I only ask ICE to please consider me. I am very weak at the moment. My stomach really hurts, it burns. My back hurts, as well as my head. I ask, please have mercy on me.

Also, they come here periodically to tell me, to pressure me, eat, eat. I feel pressured because I have not taken any food. I am only holding on to the moment when I receive good news so that I can finally be free.

MARCH 25 2021

Read the interview with Marvin's sister in which she recounts the story of her father and brother's deaths.

TW: death, violence

Life before

We had a normal life. We lived well. We weren’t millionaires. But we had everything we needed. My dad worked very hard, together with my brothers. He had a truck, and he would drive it to Nicaragua to bring cheese. He just did the transport, the trip. The merchandise was not my dad's. His trips to Nicaragua usually took him 3 to 4 days. He carried a lot of money, which was from the cheese, it was what he transported. And he always took my two brothers around to help him, they worked together.

In fact, they were all doing very well, because my brother had gotten married 2 months before, my brother who is currently detained. He had a beautiful wife. Everything, everything was fine. Until the day my dad and older brother were killed.

Day of Shooting

That day was July 27, 1998. They were driving to Nicaragua and stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank. This guy was already putting gas in his car before my dad. They knew each other, my dad actually even held him as a kid. But the boy, he had a bad reputation, he was a rapist, he was on a bad path, you know?.

My older brother got out of the truck, they greeted each other and everything. He was going to get out of the way. When my older brother got back to the truck, that's what he said to my dad and my younger brother, that the boy who was there was going to take off. But he spent a long time and he did not take off. He didn't take off, my older brother got out of the truck again, and that's when he shot him. He shot him like it was nothing. He shot him twice. My dad and my younger brother were seeing that, and my dad's reaction was to get out of the truck too, to see what happened, or something. And when he got off, he shot my dad too. But my dad [starting to cry:] died instantly, instantly.

And he [the man who shot father] also pointed his gun at my brother, the one who’s here [detained in the U.S.], but he dropped the magazine. My brother tells us that he just ducked down because he felt that he was gonna get killed too. And my younger brother no longer heard gunshots or anything. He came up again and saw that the man fled. So what my younger brother did was to help my father.

He called his wife, his wife arrived in another car; they put my dad like that in the car. It was a pickup truck and they put him on the truck bed floor, like that, just imagine. And they also took my sister out of school, she was in class, she was near there and they took him to the hospital.

Meanwhile, my older brother was more “ cholo” , he was stronger. So, even with the two shots that he got, he was still alive, he drove the truck and took himself to the hospital.

Reflection

It was horrible. Losing two loved ones was something that… Maybe someone would say “that happened in '98, two people that no one knows” , maybe no one cares.

Only we know what we really went through. Especially my brother, the one who is detained, because he saw all that, he lived through all that happened there and since then his life has changed. Because he never got any help from a professional or something, he never had any therapy. He needed my dad obviously, and my brother. And everything that happened, he felt so helpless for not being able to do anything.

Day of shooting - brother tells mom dad is dead

That day, my mother was in the house with me when my brother, the one who is detained, came to tell us what happened. I will never forget that day, I was 13 years old. and he was in a white shirt, but his shirt was completely red with my dad's blood.

My dad had already died. And he came screaming, [crying] "where is my mom?" And my mother was coming out of the bathroom, she was putting on her shirt. And he said to her: "Mom, they killed my dad. " I saw that she was just holding onto her stomach and saying, "Now what am I going to do?” And they all left, they all left, and they left me alone in the house.

I didn't really know what was going on. I only heard my brother saying that they had killed my dad. But I didn't believe it. It was something that I didn't... I couldn't even mourn my dad's death. It was something I couldn't believe.

Day of shooting - brother dies at the hospital

They took my brother to San Miguel because he was seriously ill but he was alive. So my mom says that she accompanied him to the hospital in that city and he asked her about my dad. He asked her, "How is my dad?"

So, even in his anguish he was still asking about my dad. Because my older brother also saw that my dad was shot. And my mom told him that he was alive. Then he stayed in the hospital. My mom had to go back to the house, and now the house was completely empty. About an hour later, they told us that my brother had also died.

Reflection - Impact on family

It was very hard. It was very hard. To tell the truth, yes, it was very hard. I do not wish it to anyone. Losing two loved ones is very hard.

From there, we were left totally alone. Everything was very different. My mother no longer wanted my brother to go to Nicaragua, she wanted him to stop doing that [transporting merchandise]. My mom had never worked. We began to run out of money. She started selling all the things that my dad had left, his truck, his car. And little by little, we were out of money. My aunts from here, they helped my sister to come to this country. Because, well, there was no more -- my dad was gone.

Whole Family is threatened and unsafe

And besides that, my brother didn’t think of anything other than “ where is that man?” That man, together with an uncle of his, also threatened my brother saying that if he did not leave there, he was going to start killing us, the sisters, too.

My brother decided to go to another city, to Soyapango, with an aunt. And after that, that's when he came here, to this country. That same year, in '98. We also moved from there, because we were very scared. We were very afraid that he would do something to us too. And my sister also came to this country. I couldn’t continue studying after high school, I couldn’t go to the University. We didn't have money. There was no money, my dad was gone. Everything changed completely for us. And my mom has suffered a lot as well.

Mom Files Police Report: Police didn't keep them safe

My mom filed the complaint. In fact, I have the report of all that here with me, because I asked my mother for it. 16

I sent it to my brother so that he could present it to the court. But it is a pity that they do not see things, well in detail, because everything is there. The whole truth is in there. It is written in the report, it even says that my dad died instantly. That even his heart, supposedly, was reached [by one of the bullets] and split in two when he got shot. All of that is in the report. I have it with me. But that went unpunished. In other words, you can’t trust the authorities there for anything. They did nothing.

Impact on brother: family separated since they lost father and brother

My brother changed completely, he started to drink and when he drank he said that if he saw this man, well, that he wanted to kill him. He would only think things like that, he was different.

And he took refuge in drinking. It wasn't that he was drinking like that every day. But it was something he had never done before. That’s what happened here in this country.

He drank and he also knew that we could no longer live in El Salvador. Because we all came here. We are all here, those of us who remain. We were two females, two males and here we were the three of us. Since my dad and my brother died, we have never been together again. We have all been apart.

And so it happened that one day my brother started drinking and the police stopped him. That was his big ... mistake. And now that he is in custody, he calls me and he says that he has learned his lesson.

Second chance. He's been punished enough

I think we all deserve a second chance. I would like him to be released and be with my sister, my mother, since only the three of us are left. He's going to come out, he's going to change, he's already changed now. I feel so. He has already been detained too long. He has learned his lesson, apart from the suffering that we have had because they killed my father and my brother.

If Deported ...

If my brother gets deported, he will be in danger there [In El Salvador]. Because that man is still there. Some neighbors that I don't know, I don't know who they are, they tell my mom they've seen him. And, actually there in the same neighborhood, he killed a boy about five months ago.

He shot that boy seven times, and he was also a neighbor. I am sure that if my brother goes to El Salvador, they will kill him too.

My hope is…

I wish my brother could get out because it is a suffering that my mother and my sister and I have. There is not a day that I don’t ask God to help him get out of there. That he moves the hearts of the people who have to make the decision so that he can get out of there. And I will receive my brother in my house. I will have him here in my house. And I promise to help him too. Help him, take him to his court appointments if necessary, so he can fight his case from outside.