The Most Beautiful Words In The World

It was December 1^st and I had rolled over to my alarm promptly at 2:30 AM. I was to meet my host brother, Juan Fernando Alvarado Villatoro, outside at 3 AM. He had assured me in the upcoming days that we would leave promptly at 3 AM on the dot. However, I, having now lived two years in Guatemala, knew that he would be late. It’s as if Guatemalans strive to be on time but for some reason always end up late. In my time in Guatemala, I’ve waited for up to two and a half hours for a teacher to come to a Healthy Schools workshop. Thus, only having to wait 30 minutes was like Juan Fernanado arriving early. It was a cold brisk morning in the western highlands of Guatemala and Juan Fernando and I were headed to the nations capital. We were headed to the US embassy to be exact. About a month earlier Juan Fernando had set up a cita or appointment with the US Immigration services in hopes that they would finally grant him a B1/B2 tourist visa. This would be his 4^th time applying to get a visa. His brother Miguel and his father have had visas now for quite some time. They go to the US multiple times a year to see family, friends, and simply enjoy the land of milk and honey.

The trip from my small town in the department of Huehuetenango to the capital in camioneta or Guatemalan chicken bus takes about five and a half hours. Although, we were lucky enough to make it in about four hours in Miguel’s pick up truck. We arrived in the capital around 730 AM but didn’t make it to the US embassy til around 830 due to traffic and finding a place to leave Miguel’s pick-up. Juan Fernando is a Huehueteco and was born in Malacatancito. However, he knows his way around the capital city of Guatemala better than most that live there. His knowledge of the capital city was a plus as it is one of the most dangerous places in our hemisphere in terms of deaths per capita. As we approached the US embassy more and more people with manila folders seemed to appear. They were all there for the same reason. They had come from all parts of the country with their paperwork in hand, the land of the US and family members abroad on their mind, and about a two minute interview in front of them that would have them walking down the cold granite embassy stairs in tears of sorrow for what could have been or with a smile of relief for what’s to come. As we stood in line to enter the embassy I noticed that I was the only one who didn’t have a manila folder in my hand and a nervous look on my face. I needed only my US passport to gain entry into the embassy. My host brother on the other hand had to present his ID and a receipt declaring that he had in fact paid the 1,500 quetzales fee for the visa interview. 1,500 quetzales is about 200$ US dollars and in Malacatancito is more than the average month’s salary. Needless to say, in order to apply for a US B1/B2 tourist visa you have to have some money. You not only have to have money in the bank, but you must have a compelling story at the immigration interview window that makes it seem that you have reason to return to Guatemala.

After entering the steel gates of the US embassy we passed through a reception room where we were informed of what we would need to do once inside the actual US embassy doors. We had to wait in line for fingerprints and then continue on, according to the number we were assigned, to the actual interview. Juan Fernando’s cita was for 9:30 AM and we made it through the fingerprint process by about 9:15. From this point on it was a waiting game. We were seated in front of 4 glass windows like one would see at a local bank. Behind each window was a gringo or US citizen who worked in the embassy administering and denying visa requests. We waited patiently for about 15 minutes until finally it was Juan Fernando’s turn. Those were some of the longest minutes in my life. I can only compare it to being a goal up in a big game where the minutes seem to drag on. This was going to be his 4^th time trying for a B1/B2 tourist visa and I might have been more nervous than he was. Our interviewer was a middle aged American woman and the interview lasted a total of four minutes. This may seem like a short period of time, however it was in fact longer than the average interview that we were able to see from the waiting area. (A friend of mine, who went for his visa about two years ago, said that he was rejected after about a minute and a half simply because he had no children and wasn’t married. He has his own graphic design company and does fairly well for himself, although in the eyes of the US embassy he didn’t have enough to come back to in Guatemala, so they rejected his visa request). 

The interview consisted of a multitude of questions from marital status, amount of children, work salary, job position, bank statements, personal assets including property, autos, etc and finally reasons for wanting to go to the US. It was at this point of the interview that Juan Fernando presented the woman with a letter of invitation that I had written in the previous days along with my US passport and Peace Corps ID. She glanced over the letter for about five seconds and then continued to ask me why I wanted Juan Fernando to visit the US. I simply told her that I wanted to welcome him into my home as he had so graciously done for me. His family has been a vital part of my PC service and I simply want him to have the opportunity to get to know my family, country, and culture as I have got to know his. I also added that his brother and father have B1/B2 visas and have come and gone without any problem multiple times a year since receiving their visas almost 10 years ago. It was at this point when she asked Juan Fernando about how much he made and what kind of job that he had. He answered all of these questions to the best of his ability and presented her with the family’s business diploma, which, in essence, certifies that the family-owned local transportation business is real and recognized by the National Transportation Authority. It was around this time of the interview where I started to get very anxious. We had been at the interview window longer than anyone else that I had seen that day and I could only hope that she would see Juan Fernando a fit candidate for a visa.

So, it was without any further to do that she granted Juan Fernando a B1/B2 tourist Visa. As we were walking down the steps leading back into the reality of Guatemala City, there was a tranquility around him as he leaned over and said to me that those were the most beautiful words he had ever heard. He was referring to the end of the interview when the woman told him that “su visa ha sido aprobado” or “ your visa has been approved”. It was the 1^st of December and I may never really know what that visa will mean to Juan Fernando. Hopefully, I’ll have a better understanding of what that visa means to him when I see him one day in the US. In the future, I look forward to showing Juan Fernando, his brother Miguel, and their father Don Willy around the Northeast.