SACRAMENTO, Ca. (NEXSTAR) — Guatemalan immigrant Wendy Aguilar says she’s living her American dream right now in California. But getting there was never easy.
Growing up in a small village in the South American country, her family didn’t have running water, electricity or modern plumbing. Then, when she was very young, her father came to the U.S. in search of a better life. He only planned to be gone for one year, just long enough to save some up some money to help his family get a leg up.
“But that didn’t happen,” Aguilar tells Nexstar’s Riley Carroll. “There’s not enough money that you can save in one year working at a car wash that can help us survive our life in a third-world country.”
So her parents made an impossible choice: Her mother left for the states, too. Aguilar was only 5 and her brother was 3.
“One of the hardest memories that I have is my mom telling me to take care of my little brother. And her saying that she was going to be back in one year.”
But that one year turned into five. Aguilar’s mom cleaned houses in the U.S. while her dad continued at the car wash. Meanwhile, Aguilar and her brother grew up in Guatemala with other family members. She says when she finally saw her parents, when she was 10, she didn’t even recognize them.
It was then Aguilar’s parents told her they would all be living together again, in Los Angeles, going forward. Surprisingly, the children weren’t sold on the idea at first.
“We didn’t want to leave our grandparents and cousins behind. So that was really difficult. Until they mentioned, ‘We’re going to take you to Disneyland.'”
Before long, and through many hardships, Aguilar and her brother grew up in America. She was accepted to California State University, Northridge, where she chose to study broadcast journalism, saying she was inspired by seeing news on TV back in Guatemala.
While working and going to school full-time, she finally graduated college: The first in her family to do. Eventually, she worked as a reporter in Arizona, Texas and finally, landed at Nexstar’s FOX 40 in Sacramento.
She left the news in November 2019 and transitioned to working with the Sacramento Fire Department, where she remains.
“It was the best experience of my life,” says Aguilar.
She says her background is an asset working in public service. It’s an asset for the firefighters who speak Spanish, too.
“When I’ve been able to see firefighters speaking Spanish to members of our community, the way that they feel is really amazing,” says Aguilar. “On a really bad day, when they’re experiencing something horrible, when somebody speaks their language it really makes a difference.”
Aguilar’s parents recently moved back to Guatemala to live out their lives with family, saying they feel like their goal in coming to America has been accomplished. Aguilar says she and her husband plan to make many trips back to visit.
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