Camilo participates in our Digital Dividends program at East Boston Senior Center. Born and raised in Medellin, Colombia, Camilo, 63 years old, lives in the city of Revere. Camilo has been living in the USA for 38 years. When he first arrived, he worked in a salvage yard, then he worked at Framingham Hospital. He used to live in Marlborough, Massachusetts and worked in its police department for 23 years. He describes his time there as an enjoyable experience. Camilo now is working on his retirement and plans to completely leave the working field soon.
Most of his family lives in Colombia and he travels every 2 or 3 years to visit them. However, his own family, 5 children and 14 grandchildren, reside in the USA. Camilo adopted his kids when they were infants. He taught them Spanish, but they learned to speak English and Portuguese too. Now adults, his sons and daughters live all over the country. Besides his children, Camilo has family in the USA, whom he visits regularly.
I first met Camilo this summer when I was attending programs as a coop. I remember he welcomed all of us with such a positive attitude and “despite” the language barriers he was an active participant in classes. Going to programs and watching Camilo and his friends learning or just talking made me feel closer to home and my culture. Initially, I was intimidated to lead the class but Camilo’s eagerness to learn and outstanding positive attitude in no doubt changed our classes for the best.
When asking Camilo about his time spent in programs, he describes it as a place where he made new friends. He likes taking tango classes with his friends at East Boston Senior Center. He has attended the senior center for a year and participated in most of the programs. Camilo wants people to know that there is nothing more beautiful than a nice friendship. Sincere and respectful relationships are something he values a lot. Every week I visited East Boston Senior Center it was heartwarming to see the sense of community and friendship he follows in and out of classes.
As programming reached its end for this summer semester, I asked Camilo what advice he would give to the young people. Camilo shared advice saying, “Study because that’s the possibility of a future for all of us.” At the end of our conversation, Camilo shared his gratitude for the time spent in classes learning new things and building relationships.
-Written by Laiying Kanyat, LBFE Boston Co-Op Student from Northeastern University