Milagro, born three months
premature, now 23, poor
but blessed
When I was attending the symposium on Peacemaking and Nonviolence in World Religions I noticed a young African male sitting behind me. Although there were other young people at the symposium he was the only African young adult I could find. At break times we began a conversation and I found his name was Milagro which is Spanish for miracle. During the day we talked and he helped me connect my cell phone to the Marquette Internet.
He told me that his Mom named him Milagro since he was three months premature and his mom thought he was a miracle baby. I also learned he was presently staying at a homeless shelter and was twenty three years. Afterwards I asked him if he would like to go out for some food and we went to a local pizza parlor. I learned his mother was extremely schizophrenic and as a youngster he moved around all over the United States since his mom felt someone was following her and out to hurt her and her son. As a young child he thought this type of life, living from shelter to shelter was normal. The government removed him from his mom when he was older but dropped him when he turned eighteen. He has a father and a brother around the area but is alienated from them. As far as he knows his mother is homeless and in a shelter in some other city.
His first name is Spanish and he could pass as a Hispanic. However, his mother was white and Native American and his Father was Native American and African American. He prefers staying at a shelter in a Spanish speaking neighborhood for people take him as Hispanic and let him be. Homeless African American males tend to make fun of him and his light African American skin color.
He spends most of his day walking around the city seeking out jobs and going to libraries to study and learn. He also is a rap artist when he can be.
But the real miracle of Milagro is that he is so peaceful and self confident of himself. He told me once when he had a therapist who told him to take all kinds of medicine for what she saw as his depression. He told her that yes he suffered from depression but that was only natural living the life he had lived. His maturity and sense of presence was the real miracle. Seldom have I seen such a mature young male at 23. He is out to learn but we all can learn something from Milagro.
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