Portraits of a New Beginning: Selena López

«When I tell my story, I feel liberated because I know it may be similar to many others. If they listen to me, I am sure it will motivate them to move forward — to keep fighting.»

The daughter of parents with substance abuse disorder, Selena López began using drugs and alcohol when she was 9 years old. The same week she saw her mother die, her father was deported back to Guatemala. “I didn’t want to feel what was happening to me; it was very hard,” she says. She was jailed several times, but never for more than six months. She lost custody of her son. When she got out at the age of 20, she found herself alone. She says she was living on the streets with no job and no family when she entered the A New Way of Life program. There, she received housing and emotional that helped her continue her studies and get her son back. “When I got out of prison, my first obstacle was to move forward on my own, without , in addition to overcoming the addiction I had,” she says. “Without this program, I don’t know where I would be. I could be dead or in prison. They gave me all the love that I didn’t get from my parents.” She left the program after nearly two years to get married and begin studying communications at the University of California. “I’m very grateful because I look back, and I never imagined that I would be where I am now,” Selena says.

^{* The testimonies in "Portraits of a New Beginning" were collected and edited by Ana María Carrano, María Gabriela Méndez, Olivia Liendo and Tamoa Calzadilla, under the coordination of Olivia Liendo and Ana María Carrano.}

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