Father’s Day Gifts from Guatemala

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Every morning, when the sun barely rises over the foreign place where I now live, I feel a renewed stength to keep going when I look at the caps my children sent me in the mail. They decorated them by hand for Father’s Day, embroidered with colorful threads—awkwardly stitched, but full of love. They remind me of home.

Although the distance weighs heavy, every time I see those caps, humor and hope return to my life, like a secret joke shared between a father and his children.

José Morales • 40 • Petaluma resident

José Morales arrived to Sonoma County from Guatemala in 2019, leaving behind his three children: 9-year-old twins, Maria and Diego, and his 11-year-old daughter, Lidia. He has not seen his children in seven years. The twins are now 16, and his older daughter is 18. Name changed at the author’s request 16, and his older daughter is 18. All names changed at the author’s request.