I am Juan José Alfaro, an Augustinian Recollect, born in Arandas (Jalisco, Mexico), and I am 54 years old. In my family, we are now six sisters and three brothers, but our parents had thirteen children in total.
Like most young people in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, I too longed to achieve the American dream: to cross the border through Tijuana, get a job, buy a nice car and a beautiful house, marry a blonde with blue eyes and have many children… An ideal life without deprivation!
When I finished high school, at 16 or 17, I saw that in my country, college and higher education didn’t lift young people out of poverty because of low wages and limited job opportunities. Adding to that the typical youth crisis and its inherent problems, and that uncertain, directionless future, I ended up partying and getting into excesses, fighting in the street, and even spending time in jail several times.
My parents’ constant warnings didn’t stop me from starting to drink and take drugs. I was broke, and my girlfriend wisely broke up with me. So I decided to try my luck and head North (as we say in Mexico). I wanted a different life.
I crossed the border illegally up to seven times. The first three times I was detained and sent back to Tijuana. The fourth time I had to navigate all sorts of obstacles through the hills and along the trails. I kept praying, saying many Our Fathers and Hail Marys, hiding from the helicopters and their powerful spotlights. I also hid in the bushes from a giant spotlight that was searching for us from the mountain on the American side.
It was important not to make a sound, barely even to breathe, so as not to be discovered by the police with their Ford Bronco and dogs. We had to avoid the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement trucks at all costs; they were guarding the giant metal fence that divides Tijuana from San Diego. After three attempts, I managed to cross again.
After so much yelling, threats, mistreatment, and beatings while detained, and after being sent back to Mexico time and time again, my parents reluctantly gave me their blessing to try again. My mother gave me 50 dollars, which I hidden by making a hole in my belt.
I took a bus to Guadalajara and from there to Tijuana, about a 35-hour trip crossing northern Mexico: Guadalajara, Nayarit, Ciudad Obregón, Mazatlán, Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mocorito, Sonorita, Nogales, Mexicali and Tijuana.
I never imagined that the Mexican Federal Police would be the ones robbing us that time at their checkpoints in towns and cities, gradually pocketing the migrants’ money at each control. The Central Americans fared much worse than the Mexicans. What saved my life was the money my dear mother had given me, which I hid in my belt; with it, I was able to eat something during that endless journey.
When I finally managed to cross the border with the coyotes, my brother Salvador was waiting for me in Los Angeles, California. He took me to his house, supported me so I could study, helped me find a job, and helped me start a new life in Anaheim, California.
During that time I came to live in Chino Hills, South Gate, Monterey Park, Santa Ana, East Los Angeles, and Los Angeles—all cities in California. But in 1994, there was another 180-degree turn when I met some Augustinian Recollect friars: José Luis Martínez, Ramón Gaitán, and Paco Legarra.
I had a van, and they would ask me to transport young people from different cities in California so they could attend vocation retreats in Oxnard, at the Recollect convent for vocation promotion. Other times, they organized the gatherings in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, where the Augustinian Recollect bishop Alfonso Gallegos, who is on the path to sainthood, served in his ministry with young migrants.
Uber didn’t exist yet, but I became the “vocational Uber,” helping young people participate in vocational retreats and gatherings. I saw some of them begin their journey to becoming Augustinian Recollects.
After a couple of years of going back and forth with those discerning their vocation, the friars invited me directly to experience it myself. After a thorough confession, I was the one who entered the Order.
I began that journey in Oxnard, overcoming the necessary stages: learning English, the aspirancy, the study of philosophy, some theology classes… After three and a half years I was allowed to enter the novitiate in Spain (2004-2005).
In Mexico City, I made my simple vows and joined the Order as a religious, and in 2009 I made my solemn vows and was ordained a deacon. Finally, in 2011, with God’s grace and the help of Saint Augustine, Saint Monica, and all the saints, I received priestly ordination at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Mexico City. It was July 31, 2011, and the bishop who conferred priestly ordination on me was the Augustinian Recollect Carlos Briseño.
That pursuit of the American dream led me to God’s great dream for me, this gift of being an Augustinian Recollect. To this day, I am happy and grateful for this sacred and beautiful calling. May God bless you and may Our Lady of Consolation accompany us and intercede for us all.
