When telling the story of her life from her childhood home outside Moyobamba, a city in northern Peru, to her last ten years or so in Mt. Pleasant, Julia, 65, describes what seems more like a cinematic adventure than a struggle or hardship.
Objectively, it has been both. The third of ten children, five of whom survived, she was “born on the floor” of a farmhouse, her family called Samabamba.
Her father was 100 percent Inca and her mother had both Inca and Spanish ancestry. They spoke the Inca language at home. Like other local families, they were very poor and had no knives, forks or plates. When a teacher arrived in the village “she used a knife and fork. I wanted that,” recalled Julia who was determined very early on to live a life that was different from her parents.
Nonetheless, she described her parents as loving and protective. The family had a goat and eventually saved to buy a cow. Under cover of night, Julia’s father took the cow out late at night to have her impregnated by a neighbor’s bull since he couldn’t afford to buy one himself. The cow provided milk for the family, and for Julia’s mother to make cheese to sell in nearby communities. Eventually, her father was raising beef for market and the family was doing well enough to have a more comfortable home. But, at age 13 Julia wanted more. She “escaped” by bus with a friend and at the same time maintaining a connection with her family.
Over time in Lima, she learned to be a good housekeeper and cook, while completing middle school and high school at night. She managed to keep her spirits up although the work was very demanding and the wages very low. After working for two years for one family, she was convinced by them to go to work for one of their children, a daughter who had just graduated from law school and was moving to Florida. The lawyer coached Julia on what to do and say and she secured a visa. But her controlling new boss held on to Julia’s passport to ensure that she would remain her employee. In time the job wasn’t working out, mostly because Julia’s boss wouldn’t support her using her day off to take English classes.
Deciding to leave that household, her next job was with supportive employers, a Cuban family who owned a supermarket. And, over the next decade Julia was making enough money to go out on her own, independent of housekeeping management services or living in her employer's homes. Now, she could have an apartment shared with a roommate and earn more for housekeeping and cooking.
She moved from Florida to Atlanta to start again and brought her brother and mom to the United States. She was living in Atlanta when she had a terrible car accident. Her head injury required intensive care, speech and physical therapy. A friend suggested a cruise would do her good. And like in the movies, it was over dinner one night on a cruise where she met her future husband. The couple married and had one beautiful daughter with many talents. “My daughter I love with all my heart,” said Julia. “And now we have two dogs we love so much. The dogs understand Spanish, English and Quechua.”
Though she’s never considered herself to be religious or a regular churchgoer, Julia feels that in some ways she’s been protected and guided by God. Since her accident, she’s become more focused on what’s important in life and committed to the idea of never giving up. She and her husband are involved as volunteers at the Mt. Pleasant and North Charleston locations of Seacoast, a non-denominational evangelical church, which offers supportive assistance to those in need.
Although her life has changed in many ways since growing up in poverty in Peru, Julia said she’s very much aware that she remains the same person inside. Also, always with her are the words of guidance her father offered her as a very young woman leaving for the United States, there will be lions and tigers, but look straight ahead.” At the time his advice didn’t make sense, but today it does, and she said she also finds that wisdom in the Bible where in the Book of Joshua Chapter 1, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous.
