What is the actual definition of “Poverty”? The dictionary definition of poverty is “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.” Poverty has been a very vague and misunderstood word for everyone. Although, many know it as that for me it has a completely different definition. Poverty in the Houston area has prevented individuals from meeting their fundamental needs for decent living standards. However, for me, poverty is affecting individuals and families through unemployment, being sick and not being able to pay for an appointment, not having access to education, and even protection from violence.
Poverty goes way back in my family, it has impacted my family in past years and even now. My parents don’t come from wealthy families, they had and continue to have rough patches. My dad grew up in a Salvadorian household, he is the youngest and only male of five of my aunts who lived in a small rough household. When my dad was around the age of five my grandma died of cancer and he never really had the experience to meet my grandma, even up to this day he doesn’t remember much of her. My dad was left with my grandpa but sadly he was an alcoholic, he was never around to take care of therefore leaving my aunts to raise him. My dad started working at the age of eight. He would clean other people's houses, wake up every day at four am, and go off to the farm to pick out cotton. Following this my dad had to work and go to school simultaneously to eat food to survive. My dad only had education up to the 9th grade because he had to work full time to survive. Due to this, he migrated to the U.S. at the age of 20 where the same story repeated. When he came to the U.S. he struggled to find a job, his first jobs were cleaning a daycare and a school at night. Despite coming to “the living dream of the U.S.” he had to sleep on the floor in an apartment because he didn’t have the full amount of money to buy his bed. For example, in the article “What's Poverty? Meaning, Causes, and How to Measure” James Chen states, “Poverty-stricken people and families might go without proper housing, clean water, healthy food, and medical attention.” Families including my own family went through these exact conditions which are a current problem not just in the past but even in the present time. Despite all of this he became the best dad ever, once I came into his new family he has always done everything to get me to be who I am. My dad has always sacrificed himself to get me everything I need. There have truly been times when there wasn’t money for him to pay the house rent or car payments but he has always brought food to the house. Although, currently he's not here at the moment and due to family problems he can’t be with us any longer I am still deeply grateful for everything he has done for me, I have no idea where I would be without him.
Poverty didn’t just affect my dad but my mom as well, she grew up in a Mexican household, and she is the oldest daughter of three girls and two boys. My mom only had her education till the fifth grade and although her family was seen as a “rich family” they were not they were the complete opposite. My mom’s parents owned their convenience store where they would sell food, beer, and many other necessities. For many years their economic status was great but then they fell into debt that caused many poverty issues. My grandpa had to migrate to the U.S. to send money to my mom for her to eat. Although he thought he was sending money to my grandma, they weren't receiving anything because some “narcos" from the neighborhood were stealing the money. Due to this, my mom didn’t have food to eat sometimes, and if they did they had to eat old expired food. Throughout this time, my mom had to wear ripped clothes, eat old food, and survive the winter without heat or electricity. The article, “Poverty and its Effects on Children” states, “These socioeconomic risk factors may include malnutrition, pollution, food insecurity, housing instability, economic hardship, led exposure, violence, and crime”. Families that experience these risks due to not having the money to live somewhere safe. Furthermore, my grandma decided to migrate as well to the U.S. with my mom and her siblings which was the best decision ever for them because my grandpa gave them a better life. Later on, my parents met each other and I still struggled with poverty as well. For the first years, we lived in a small apartment where in the winter season there wasn’t a heater which caused me to get sick 4 days after I was born. My parents didn’t have money sometimes to pay for electricity or even eat but above all of this, they still did everything for us and got everything we needed.
Now presently thanks to all the sacrifices my parents made we have never been through poverty and if we did we never realized it because they never told us or made us aware of it. My sisters and I have never been through a position where we didn’t have food or didn't have electricity. I still remember vividly that my dad would take us on family trips to Disney World and Colorado and he wouldn't continue with the house payments but he did anything for us to go on trips. Continuously my sisters and I have had catholic education throughout most of our lives and we haven't needed anything. Currently, we have been going through some hard times financially, emotionally, and mentally and it's not because someone died but losing connection with the most special person ever has been very hard. Even though my family isn’t all together, we have not lost our connection and hopefully, one day we will all be together again all of this is pushing me to continue in college to be a lawyer in criminal justice.
As we can see poverty did affect my family and though not everyone goes through these specific events research has shown that many families and individuals get affected from too many little aspects to very big aspects in life. For example, the article "Poverty and Child Welfare" states “Poverty can make it difficult for parents to maintain a work-life balance that allows them to spend time at home caring for their children and to be active and involved with school, extracurricular activities, and community life. Parents on a low income are more likely to work long hours in precarious jobs that do not provide basic support like parental leave and sick pay.”
This shows that poverty issues can affect the social activities of a family or even a singular individual through school or family events. This clearly shows the impact poverty has on families and individuals as well as on anyone who experiences this.
Poverty should be addressed since there are various reasons why so many individuals do not achieve in life, including mental health issues and the inability to receive therapy due to a lack of funds or being in a safe environment. It then leads to inequality since adults and children do not receive the same healthcare, and healthcare causes children to have developmental difficulties as they grow older. As previously said, there are several issues with poverty in anyone's life and personal life events in which it is difficult to live a stable existence. Living below the poverty line can put you in a variety of situations that make it difficult to thrive, but if you keep your head up and don't ever give up you can easily pick yourself up and leave the environment where poverty still exists.
The inspiration that helped me throughout this essay was the many experiences my parents went through in poverty and how they got through it. The stage I most enjoyed while writing this was connecting family and personal experiences to many other individuals. The stage I found most challenging was connecting artificial facts to family experiences. Another difficulty I had was using the correct grammar and transition words for my essay. One type of advice I would give to an individual is to not let poverty define oneself but rather look for ways to push through and become successful in life.