My name is Camilo Gutierrez. I am 30 years old. I am Latino. I am Hispanic. I am Colombian. I am American. We consider many places homes. Here is home. I have lived in Fairmont for just three months, and we love the lakes and kayaking. Colombia is home. I am from Bogota, Colombia – the capital. There are many many poor people. They don’t have water because it is a desert. They don’t have many opportunities. Yeah, I would say wherever my wife and I are. For me, home is when you are raised with your mind and you can be peaceful. My childhood was good with so much love from my mom and my sister. I had fun.
I have a degree in Communications and Journalism from the Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga in Colombia. I do not have work in the area right now. We are looking for work. My proudest accomplishment is learning another language (I am fluent in English, Spanish, and a little bit of Portuguese), studying and starting my career. I am also proud of helping my mom with my sister. My mom inspires me. She is strong and smart. She fights for me and my sister. She is still looking for the best option for us every day.
In my free time, I like to play videogames, watch movies, and cook. When I was younger, I used to play soccer but not anymore. I am very passionate about fútbol. I love fútbol. I love sports in general. I love cooking too. Family. I love to work for my family. Now, my 5 month old baby nephew is her passion.
My values are love, gentleness, generosity, helpfulness, and understanding. I am Catholic. I was born and raised in the Catholic church. I don’t know how to describe faith. For me, it’s like. In Spanish, faith is fé. Fuerza del espíritu or the translation would be strong spirit. We need to work together with God like a team. Everytime we play a fútbol match. If the defense doesn’t work well, you are going to lose even if you make many goals. God is the front position and I am like the defense. We need to be on the same team as God. Family is really important. For me, family is for every life. You show your best person for the family.
In Bogota, where I am from, the culture is more open. There are sexists but not as extreme. It’s not like the Guajira culture. The woman’s role in Bogota is many times to take care of the children and work. The man’s role is work and “help” with the household work. It is not really much help.
Christmas and New Years are important holidays to me. We celebrate December 24 for Christmas. We open gifts in the evening before Christmas.
The Colombian burgers are another level. They are really good!!! I love meat as well, barbecues are really good for me.
I haven’t experienced much discrimination. We haven’t experienced anything here in Fairmont. One time when I was in Washington DC. A guy listened to me speaking Spanish. He knew I was from Colombia. He asked me, “Do you have drugs guys? You’re from Colombia, right?”. Yes, I am from Colombia but I am not selling drugs. I consider that really racist. I think we are the same, no matter what your skin looks like, where you’re from. It’s important to get the same opportunities for everyone. The culture and education at home is important everywhere. There is racism all over the world. There are racists in Asia. There are racists in Africa.
This year has been a challenge. We had to run away from Colombia because a group (Paramilitares) was trying to kill us. Paramilitares was a group that was created to defend the land and property from the Guerrillas. They were supposed to do that. Now, they are just narcos. If they feel like somebody is doing something different to protect people or change the country for a good thing, they try to kill the people.
I worked in politics there, so I worked for the president’s campaign. There were no good people at all. Politics is really dirty and it sucks. I left politics because I was tired of this. I thought politics could help my country to be better. When I left politics, Paramilitares tried to kill me.
We were in the park with our dog at night around 8PM. Two guys on a motorcycle with a gun asked for my name. I said, yes, I am Camilo. They held up a gun and said, “You know what this is.” We started to run. They were on a motorcycle and they chased us. We ran. Then a car pulled in front of us so we didn’t have a choice. We knew the neighborhood, so we ran all the way to the police station. There, they told us we should be thankful we are here. This same thing happened six months ago to another man. Unfortunately, he was killed.
They sent me text messages. They sent notes under the door at my house. They targeted me over social media on Instagram and Facebook. That was the last thing that happened to us in Colombia. We decided to run. I had to leave my mother, father, and our beds. I had to run away from my country. That is probably the worst part of my life. It was a hard decision to decide to run away to the US this January because we were deciding to leave our country and our life there. We can’t go back to our home country. We were told many times what to do, where we can go, and where we can be safe. We cried many times and felt very anxious. We are in the process of applying for asylum here. We feel very safe here.
My personal dream is now to find economic stability – a really important dream. I want to work again in my career. I love my career. I want to be a good person, a good husband, a good brother, a good son, and eventually a good dad.
My hope is that this community will offer opportunities to improve my abilities and the best part of me. Respect is really important. I want to be able to take care of my family.