Marlene Perez is a junior at Birmingham Community Charter, born on the 25th of July in 2008. Marlene is the oldest child and has one younger sibling. She often wishes she had older siblings she could look up to. Marlene is very friendly and always likes to talk and make new friends. She always carries herself with a smile and is kind to others. Marlene is often quiet and keeps to herself, but once she gets comfortable, she can be a bundle of energy. Marlene loves to spend time with her family and travel to her parent’s home country, El Salvador, which she regularly visits because she loves everything about her culture and values it very much.
Marlene enjoys playing sports, and she was on the Birmingham women’s soccer team where she met her closest friends. She likes to go on long walks and go to the gym, but what she most enjoys is playing with her dog Dante, a 5-year-old German Shepherd. She cherishes her dog a lot, and he often listens to her talk about things when she has no one else to talk to.
Marlene aspires to become a lawyer in the future with hopes that she will be able to travel around the world, especially to Paris, Italy, Greece, and Switzerland. She has always been fascinated by nature and has a love for animals–minus the insects. Marlene is very indecisive which is why, when people ask her for her favorite color, animal, food, and other things, she never has just one answer because it changes every day. Except her favorite person who is her boyfriend.
Many people have brought inspiration to Marlene’s life, but the person who has most impacted her life was her father who immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. Her father’s childhood wasn’t ordinary as he was left to live on his own at the age of two living in the hidden campos (meadows) of El Salvador with only his elderly grandmother to care for him. Her father started farm labor work at just 5 years old in the corn plantations and would later go sell tamales that were made out of the corn he picked. He learned to fend for himself and work hard. When he got older, he began to work in the rivers loading bags of sand to sell into trucks. He never really went to school due to having to work and the highest his education went up to was the 7th grade. Marlene likes to say her dad lived like Mowgli from the movie “The Jungle Book” because as a little girl, her father would tell her about all his childhood stories. Many were unbelievable to her because of the different realities they both lived.
As Marlene grew older, she always felt like her father was never really present in her life. But she didn’t realize the sacrifices her father had made for her and the life she gets to live which many don’t get the opportunity to have. Her dad told her his biggest sacrifice was missing her childhood because he worked weekdays, weekends, day and night to give her all the things he had wanted as a child and could never have. This is why Marlene learned to be grateful for things in her life and take advantage of the opportunities she was given. Her biggest dream is to make her father proud, have a successful career, and not let her father’s work and sacrifices be for nothing.
