Joe and Alex Guzman two days after Joe arrived from Haiti.
Photos supplied by Guzman family.
Joe Guzman lived in Haiti for 12 years, but from the time he was 5 years-old he lived in foster care.
“I was born in Haiti and spent seven years in a foster home and those were the most painful years of my life because I was not 5 years-old when my mother died giving birth to my little sister, those people didn’t take good care of us and didn’t even send us to school, Guzman said.”
During the process for completing Joe’s adoption an earthquake hit Haiti and they couldn’t find Joe.
“I was still in Haiti during the January 12, 2010 7 magnitude earthquake,” Guzman said. “Two hundred thousand people lost their life and their houses in seconds, I lost a lot of friends and family in Haiti that I was close with”
Joe didn’t have the same childhood we had of Disney movies and friends, instead he struggled with not knowing if he was going to survive another day.
“You can tell that as a child growing up my life wasn’t too fun,” Guzman said. “Sometimes when I would wake up in the morning I didn’t know if we would get to eat any food that day, so lots of times I just went to bed hungry.”
Despite his rough beginning Joe knew he wanted to make something out of himself.
“I first started going to school when I got to the United States. I started in sixth grade at Bridgewater middle school. After middle school I attended West Orange high school and I got myself motivated and I am now attending Lake Sumter State for my Business degree,” Guzman said.
However, he didn’t have school as easy as most of us did, because when he arrived to the U.S. he had to deal with a struggle very few would understand.
“When I first came to the U.S. I couldn’t speak any English so when I went to school it was very difficult for me to read and write,” Guzman said.
However, being as relentless as Joe is, he didn’t let his inability bring him down.
“ Because I couldn't read or write I used a computer program called Rosetta Stone ever single day,” Guzman said. “However, I was a quick learner, and I had my brother Alex to practice talking with everyday. It took me six months to learn English.”
Being from Haiti Joe is the first of his family to have attended college and he doesn’t want to let that opportunity go to waste.
“I’m the first one to go to college from my family from Haiti. Going to college is one of my dreams and it should benefit me later on in life, and I know not everyone has the opportunity to go to college,” Guzman said.
While he didn’t come from much he wants to show kids like him that they can get what they dream of.
“I want to start my own business one day to give back to my community because without everyone’s help getting me to here I don’t know what my life would be like in Haiti,” Guzman said. “I know there is lots of opportunity in America to make a person’s dreams come true and it’s always been my dream to graduate college to show young children it doesn’t matter where they came from as long as they have the determination they can accomplish anything they desire.”
