“He’s not heavy, he’s my brother”

Amilcar and Selvido are brothers who will forever be connected. Sixteen years ago Amilcar was born with a severe cleft lip. He traveled here with his brother Selvido for 8 ½ hours on 4 different buses, leaving at 2:30AM to get to Guatemala City. Because another sibling had died during an operation for a similar deformity Amilcar’s mother refused the surgery, as she was too afraid to risk the loss of another child. Selvido, being the older brother and seeing the suffering Amilcar had to endure decided he had to go against his mother’s wishes.

Amilcar is one of 11 children in his family. Not one of them can read or write, or have had a day of education. His father was shot and killed one year ago by his neighbor. Selvido and another brother are the only monetary support for the entire family. Now in the home there are four brothers and two sisters, and 3 of the sisters have abandoned the family. Amilcar does not work or go to school. He spends his day gathering wood on his bike. Selvido earns $130 for two weeks of work, and the trip to Guatemala City cost $490 for the two of them. Besides the cost of the trip Selvido had to challenge his mother and face her anger in order to make the trip. Neither he, nor his mother, will ever regret his decision.

Selvido has always been concerned about his brother. Amilcar is the only one in the village of 600 with a cleft lip. Amilcar has never left his town in 16 years. Because of the cleft lip, he would never look someone in the eye, lowering his head every time someone would come near him. Not wanting to face the taunting of other children he refused to go to school. Loving his brother as much as he does Selvido always wanted to do something for him. This week he did.

After 16 years, surgery lasting about an hour has now created a new person. Amilcar can walk into a room without shame for his looks. His brother is thankful. He says, “Thanks to God, the doctors arrived. Without this opportunity, we would have had no other.” Selvido is the kind of person who will continue his support of his brother as Amilcar tries to improve his life, but more importantly he is the kind of person we should all aspire to be.

Amilcar now can look people in the eyes, and he can say, “I’m like you now.”