Note: To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Northwest Catholic reconnected with some of the people whose stories have resonated with readers over the years.

As an undocumented 18-year-old, Mateo Santiago made the dangerous overland journey from Guatemala to the U.S. in 1999, hoping to find a way to help support his parents and siblings.

Some 23 years later, in May 2022, Santiago became a U.S. citizen. Two months later, his wife Reyna and daughter Abigail (Abby) received visas and came to the U.S., ending a four-year wait for the family to be together year-round.

“It’s been such a blessing to be able to bring them up here,” said Santiago, a member of Prince of Peace Mission in Belfair, near Bremerton. And in April, the couple welcomed their second daughter, Isabel, named after his mother, Isabela.

It’s the latest chapter in Santiago’s story, shared with Northwest Catholic readers (“Risking life, trusting God”)  in the January/February 2018 issue.

When Santiago decided to leave his tiny community of Yincu, San Pedro Soloma, it took three tries before he and two cousins crossed the border into the U.S., where Santiago eventually joined his oldest brother in Belfair.

It was 17 years before Santiago saw his parents again.

For 13 of those years, he mostly worked in the Western Washington woods, cutting greenery for use in the floral industry. He became an active member of Prince of Peace and began assisting the area’s Guatemalan community as an advocate and interpreter. (He speaks English, Spanish and Q’anjob’al, his native Mayan language.)

Over the years, Santiago got his GED, earned an associate degree, received his green card, was hired as a school district interpreter and became Hispanic ministry coordinator at his parish.

After returning to Guatemala for the first time in 2016 (he met his future wife that year), Santiago felt called to do something to help impoverished communities there.

Since then, he has worked with his parish, local community members and others to raise money for projects, returning to Guatemala every summer to visit family members and work on those projects. Since 2017, Santiago’s efforts have resulted in building three schools, reroofing two others and installing solar panels, giving computers to more than 30 schools and providing school supplies and clothing. He now is working on project to provide wheelchairs to those in need as part of a Rotary Club global grant.

Mateo Santiago gathers with the children of Floresta, Guatemala, who now attend school in a building erected in the summer of 2017 with money Santiago raised in the Belfair, Washington area. (Courtesy Mateo Santiago)

Today, Santiago is a community liaison for the school district and serves as assistant coordinator of Hispanic ministry at Prince of Peace, where the community is growing. (There are two Masses in Spanish  every Sunday.)

Santiago said it’s important for him and Reyna to pass their faith to their children, teaching them “to pray to God and to take them to church and to have their sacraments and all of that.” When they pray at the altar in their home, 5-year-old Abby “prays the way she knows how to. She thanks God for having a house, for having shoes,” Santiago said, laughing. Abby is also learning English and Spanish as well  as Q’anjob’al.

This is the first summer Santiago won’t be traveling to Guatemala. “But when it comes to supporting Guatemala with projects, we’re still doing that,” he said. “And I’m hoping to continue doing that in the future.”

Read more Northwest Catholic 10th anniversary content. To read the complete August/September 2023 issue of Northwest Catholic, click here.