Finding Refuge

Nineteen-year-old David Herrera escaped the Colombian guerrillas that killed his father and made it to Bowling Green, but life in America has given him problems he can’t escape from.

Herrera practices soccer outside his church, Corazones Cristianos. His family fled Colombia when guerrillas forced them off their land because they wanted to use it to grow cocaine. His mother and eight siblings made it to Bowling Green safely, but his father was not so lucky. “I was a kid, I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “I know I thank God I’m here.”

Herrera currently lives with his sister in a Housing Authority duplex. He had to drop out of high school and work full time with Construction Amigos to have enough money to live.

Herrera helps his friend, Mateo Lopez, 20, put a spoiler on his car. Herrera would rather work for free than have idle time to think about the state his life is in, he said. “When I’m not working I think about serious things like child support money I don’t have and that I’m an adult in this situation,” he said.

Most of Herrera’s daily work is painting and construction. When business is good he makes $300 a week, but usually makes less.“The only time I feel okay is when I’m working. When I’m not doing anything it’s depressing because I’m not getting anywhere,” he said.
Due to her mother having full custody, Herrera only gets to see his two-year-old daughter Angelica at church three days a week. He doesn’t argue over seeing her more often after her mother’s family called the police and accused him of being drunk and high when he was taking care of her. Nothing was proved in court, but he prefers not to deal with the law again.

“Nobody this young wants a kid, but when it’s there you have to take care of her, love her,” he said.

On Sundays Herrera plays electric keyboard in the church band. He doesn’t consider himself as faithful as most of the congregation, but takes comfort in the company of people he knows as well as getting to see his daughter. “I wish to be with her, but she’s always with her mom or grandma and they wont let me see her,” he said about Angelica.
Herrera watches indoor soccer games at the church after mass with one of the girl’s teams. He never played soccer in Colombia, but enjoys watching and playing now.
He uses church and work as means to avoid thinking about the trials he’s come upon in life.
Herrera is unsure what his future relationship will be with his daughter. He hopes that she will continue to love him as she does now, but fears that her mother will make her think he’s a bad person.

“The only girl who’s name I’ll get tattooed on me,” he said about the tattoo on
his back.

Herrera shares a room with his nephew in his sister’s house. “My sister’s the only one helping me out, letting me live in her house,” he said. He used to live on his own, but had to move in with his sister when child support became too much for him to afford. “I always think I want to go back to Colombia to get away from things I think about here, but here is okay,” he said. “But it’s not the country’s fault, it’s my fault what I’ve done.”