Pass the Mic with Oscar Riaz
Oscar is a barber and family man, seen here in a jersey for the Honduras national football team. This story was translated from the original Spanish.
I came to this country, this city, five years ago. It hasn’t been easy. I work some days in a barber shop, and other days I do what I can.
This city has been a sanctuary for us in a lot of ways. You can come to Baltimore and get support that you can’t get in other places. Most people won’t bother you. You can get your driver’s license, earn a living and take care of your family. In Honduras, if you don’t have money, you can’t live. But here, even if you have nothing, if you are down in the street—if you call, an ambulance will come.
Other times, though, it’s hard. We came legally but it’s hard here for undocumented people. If you don’t have a Green Card or if you don’t speak English, there are a lot of jobs you don’t even qualify for. My two sons are in school here in the city; there’s some good, and some bad. Most of his teachers are bilingual, but others aren’t, and then what can you do?
I went to the bank the other day and a woman treated me like I had no right to be there. “Why don’t you speak English?” she said. “Why don’t you speak Spanish?” I wanted to ask her. We’re all people. We’re all equal. But for some people, they act like we are animals. Pero vamos a luchar. I’m here with my family, giving them that opportunity, and one day we’ll be able to return and make a good life back home.
Yo soy de mi país. If you ask me what I miss about Honduras, I miss everything. I miss my family, I miss the weather. In Honduras, $10 will feed a family for a week. Here, I walk outside and find a ticket on my car for ten times that. It’s a different way of living. And it's not easy.
But there are opportunities here. Gracias a díos, I am where I am, and there are people who want to support us.
“Pass the Mic” is a storytelling space featuring the voices and stories of people with a lived experience of homelessness. Read other stories like Oscar's here.
More Recent News
After a year of serving as Practice Manager of West Baltimore, Alkema Jackson is moving into the new role of Director of Practice Operations, Community Sites! She joined Health Care for the Homeless in 2022 as the Client Access Project Coordinator, collaborating across departments to help more people connect to agency services, and in 2023, she received a Core Value Award for Hope. Read on to learn more about Alkema’s approach to this new position…
Meet Christana Greene, our new Director of Compliance! With more than five years in the compliance field—most recently as Senior Quality and Patient Safety Specialist at GBMC Healthcare—Chrissy brings frontline insight to the role. She began her career as a medical assistant, gaining firsthand experience in what it takes to keep care safe and operations running smoothly. In her new role, Chrissy is focused on building a compliance culture grounded in safety, integrity and accountability. Read on to learn more about Chrissy...
Baltimore gets dangerously cold, and too many of our neighbors are out there.Here are three simple things you can do to make a difference in someone’s life this winter.
Meet Lolita Wright, a mother and caregiver. Lolita is never leaving Baltimore. She shares her parents' love of music and determination.