Santiago– music maker and teacher alike

One of my first friends and one that I came to know very well was named Santiago, which translates to James in English.  Santiago is much prettier than James (sorry to all the James out there) so that is what we called him.  He too could sing, like one of the other boys, Ronnie that I wrote about earlier and Santiago also played guitar.  On top of that, he is english was almost flawless and he taught a class at the high school.  By todays standards, he would be hailed a renaissance man.  In the Dominican Republic, he was rejected by his family, tossed in an orphanage at a tender age and was ridiculed growing up due to his part Haitian descent.  There were no hand outs for him, except that he was lucky enough to be dropped off at an orphanage that was growing better and better each day.
Santiago has been at that orphanage since he was maybe 6 or 7 and is currently 19.  He is a gifted, amazing kid with lots of potential, but he has some struggles before him.  He finished high school two years ago, and was even teaching some of his one classes his last two years of high school.  He passed the difficult exam to get in to college and the orphanage was even willing to support him throughout college (college in the D.R. is only a couple thousand dollars for all four years).   However, he has no birth certificate and therefore the government will not let him attend college.  His father went AWOL after he dropped Santiago and his two brothers off at the orphanage and it has been increasingly difficult to locate him.  When they finally did, he didn’t have any birth certificates or any knowledge of where they might be.  Santiago persevered and is now petitioning the government to give him a birth certificate, but he is running into many barriers due to his Haitian descent.

It’s heart breaking to hear stories like these of teens who are denied college because of things like race and irresponsible, careless parents and yet it is the reality for many.  For now Santiago continues to teach classes at the orphanage and fight for an opportunity to go to college.

One thought on “Santiago– music maker and teacher alike

  1. Amanda Pina

    Reading stories like this can really put life into perspective. I took that fact that I was going to college as a given and it’s so easy to forget that not everyone in the world has it quite so easy. It’s amazing to hear about someone work so hard to be able to take classes, something that I so often feel burdened by. I hope things work out for Santiago! (and I agree that’s a much prettier name than James)

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