This child was sent to the U.S. to live with her relatives. She now lives the dream of her parents and is a successful American. She is the mayor of Pomona. DP
The plight of immigrants in the U.S. inspired Norma Torres, who left Guatemala at age 5, to run for public office.
By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
latimes.com: When Pomona Mayor Norma Torres returned to Guatemala in October, it was the first time she had been back to her native country since she was a child.
But Torres got a hero's welcome.
As she toured the country she barely remembered, people everywhere recognized her on the streets.
"She's the mayor of Pomona," they said. Some brought magazines with her picture on the cover and asked for an autograph. They called her "the pride of Escuintla," her hometown, and "the hope of all migrants."
Crowds were so thick that the government sent police to escort her from town to town.
"It was like being a rock star," Torres said.
At one event, as she and her husband, Louis, got into an SUV, they were mobbed by people who threw handwritten notes into the vehicle. Some of the notes were pleas for help from people wanting to come to the United States.
Torres, 42, was deeply moved. After all, these were the same dreams her parents had for her.
"They sent me here for a better life," she said. "They wanted me to have a good job and maybe own a home."
Torres would achieve more than her parents imagined. In December, she became the first person outside Guatemala to be awarded the Order of the Great Knight, the country's highest honor.
Torres was only 5 years old in 1970 when her parents sent her to live with an uncle in Southern California. Guatemala was nearly a decade into a 36-year civil war that would leave hundreds of thousands dead and tens of thousands missing.
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