| THE FATHER THEY NEVER KNEW |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, September 09 2002 |
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| Wilson and Ricardo were only 3 months old when their father, Manuel Asitimbay, left his native Ecuador in search of the American dream. He settled in New York City and took a job as a chef at Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the World Trade Center. He worked tirelessly, hoping to save enough money to be reunited with his family.
Last October -- after 12 years of separation from their father -- the twin boys finally came to the United States. But the family reunion was nothing like they had expected. Wilson and Ricardo never got a chance to meet their father. The father-son relationship they worked so hard to build through pictures and telephone conversations ended before it even began.
Manuel usually had Tuesdays off. But on the morning of Sept. 11, there was a large breakfast meeting at the restaurant, and he felt inclined to go to work. He hoped to make it out in time to pick up his youngest son, Edwin, on his first day at preschool. But he would never make it out of the World Trade Center.
I met Wilson and Ricardo at the Brooklyn apartment that they share with their mother and their two younger brothers, Edwin and Wilmer. The twin 13-year-olds, who just entered high school, are well-behaved teenagers who like watching television and playing with their computer, donated by a Good Samaritan. They also help their mother maintain the apartment, which resembles a shrine to their father.
Even though he was living in the United States illegally, Manuel loved this country as if it were his own. He had no plans of returning to Ecuador. In fact, when the twins were 5 years old, he had saved enough money to pay a lawyer $6,000 to obtain visas for them. The lawyer took off with the money. That's when Manuel's wife, Carmen, made the difficult decision to also leave Ecuador and join her husband in New York. Together, they felt they could better support their boys back home.
Manuel's story is typical of many undocumented immigrants. He came to this country illegally, became separated from his family and worked hard to send money back home. His dream was to one day bring his family to his adopted country. What makes his story unique is that his dream ended in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Tragically, his sons received their long-awaited visas after their father's death.
No one knows how many undocumented immigrants died at the World Trade Center. Asociación Tepeyac, a New York-based advocacy group, knows of at least 60, but the number is believed to be much higher. The group believes there are many so-called "invisible victims" who lived in this country alone and had no one to claim them, or might have relatives who are themselves undocumented and fear coming forward.
Many of these families are now struggling to receive the much-needed aid that has been earmarked for the victims' relatives. On that dreadful day, terrorists did not check immigration documents. They killed people from more than 90 countries.
On the one-year anniversary of Sept. 11, Carmen is trying to put her life back together and is making ends meet with help from the American Red Cross while she awaits word from the authorities on the possibility of legalizing her status. In the meantime, she still wonders how she will mourn her husband's death. Will she go to the cemetery where his body parts are buried? Will she go to the site of the World Trade Center? Or will she go to her church to thank God for having her children with her?
As for Wilson and Ricardo, they will look back on the father they never knew without resentment for having left them at such an early age. Like children of other immigrants, they understand that he wanted the best for them. They told me that their only regret is that they never got a chance to hug him and thank him for the sacrifices he made. |
