El Tiburon Research

 

Heidi: Pastor Marvin Garcia, thank you for joining us today. Since writing El Tiburon (published by Vinspire), I’ve given many book talks and am astounded with the interest in the plight of the Guarejos—the people-group living in the Guatemalan garbage dump. At the time of writing El Tiburon, there were 11,000 people living there… 6,000 of which were children. Since that time the Guatemalan government changed the boundaries of the dump to place the Guarejos on the outside of the dump. Now they go through an opening in the fence. In response to their questions, I would like to return to you, my main source of information. In El Tiburon, the Guarejos play an important role in keeping the main character alive.

I will preface this with an introduction to our readers as to how I know you. About ten-fifteen years ago our church asked if anyone could house a visiting youth pastor from Guatemala for 6 months. We offered our spare room and now we consider you to be a member of our family, along with your sister, Karina (who came and stayed with us later).

Pastor Marvin, you were born and raised in Guatemala. When did you become a pastor?

Marvin and Karina

Marvin: Indeed, I was born in Guatemala City and all my life I have remained in the city. (I must confess I know very little about the rural area of Guatemala) Now I have tried to visit more of the rural area that definitely has beautiful places and views.

I was born in 1978 and when I was 9 years old I accepted Jesus into my heart in an American church (the pastor was an American named Charlotte Lindreng at Shekinah Church), I currently take the time to visit this church, every time I am there I feel I'm coming home. We were in this church for 6 years. Then we moved to another church closer to our home. When I was 20 years old, I was appointed youth pastor at the Iglesia Principe de Paz Central. We stayed there for 6 more years.

Then my dad received a call from God to open a church in the area we live in. And until today, Mission Maranatha has been an important part of our life. When I was 35 years old, I was appointed pastor at the Central American Theological Seminary in Guatemala. And I have spent 5 years pastoring a Ministry that together with my wife we form, called Ekklesia Guatemala.

Heidi: When did you first hear of the Guajeros at the Guatemala City garbage dump?

Marvin: When we are at Shekinah Church, they had an evangelistic program. Every December 23, they would give food baskets to each family that lived in the Garbage. Also, every day that Children's Day is celebrated, they had programs with piñatas, food, clothes and shoes for the children who lived there. I was probably 10 years old.

Marvin in California redwood forest

Heidi: What was your reaction when you learned about their needs? Were you shocked or did you not fully understand at that time what their lives were like?

Marvin: For a 10 year old boy, it was very difficult to understand the needs they had. I had a good childhood (to call it that) we had our needs at home, but when I asked mom about food, food would magically appear on the table. (That's how I saw it. Today I know we have to work so that there is food at home).

And when it was my first time visiting these places, it was creating in me a perspective that my needs, although for me they were enormous... they had many more enormous needs. And after my first visit, throughout the next year, I remember saving 5 cents every day, in those days with 5 cents you could buy a soda and a cookie. But I kept every day, (although there were days when I was hungry and spent those 5 cents for myself) but I remember that at the end of that year, I gave my shepherds an envelope with a 20-quetzales bill. ($ 3 USD) and so a need grew in me to see the gospel of Jesus reach those places.

Heidi: I know you’ve been involved in the ministry who helps the Guajeros… when did that start?

Marvin: When I was a youth pastor in the second church, one of the first projects was to create a program for the Guajeros. It was a difficult process because the churches were not knowledgeable in these areas of work. Since I was 10 years old, I had been gathering experiences that had marked my personal life and my ministerial life. And my wish was to transmit those emotions to others. Thank God the program that I founded, to this day continues to work for the Guajeros. Also to this day, I have been able to found 15 projects with different churches for the benefit of the Gaujeros. God has been good in every project and they are all working to this day.

Karina

Karina: This is true, the ideas of my brother and a group of people provided projects that made it possible for the Guareros to have a job and they received God in their hearts.

Heidi: Have you ever been to see the community they live in? Is that community called La Limonada? Were you ever there when it was actually inside the dump?

Marvin: When I was working on projects for the Guajeros. within their community. I heard about another community called La Limonada. This community is in another area of Guatemala City, with a population of almost 3,000 families living in extreme poverty [60,00 people in a massive ravine]. At that time, I left people in charge of the main project we had and I began to visit this new community. At that time I had the possibility of arranging mission trips for American churches. And in both communities we were very blessed, new projects were created that continue to function to this day.

Karina: I was part of these projects together with my brother. It was my beginning to support him in the ministry. He met many missionary groups and it was the way to learn to speak English by translating, also I still have friends who continue to volunteer for the ministry of La Limonada.

Heidi: What is the community like? Give me good and bad examples of life for them.

Marvin: The city of the garbage is a community where garbage from all over Guatemala City arrives in trucks at all times. The smell is hard to get used to. Their life is literally about garbage, they eat, they sleep on other people's garbage. Although there are simple house projects for them, the common denominator is trash. An area of 5 hectares is used for garbage and for the families of the Guajeros.

Now, the La Limonada community is a garbage-free area, but it is a ravine, with a river of dirty waters at the bottom, and all around the ravine, small houses were built of cardboard, wood, and sheet metal. And it is an area where the gangs choose to live.

I believe that only a person with the passion of Jesus in his heart can see the bad in the community and turn it into an opportunity to bless. Good and bad experiences I have lived in each of the communities. But the passion for them makes you come back the next day, knowing that another experience will come. I remember that one day I was walking with boxes of medicine for the Guajeros, in an alley, a young man stole my cell phone and money that he had for my whole week. And when the Guajeros found out what happened, they got together and looked for this person who did not belong to the community, they found him and killed him. Then the community put together some money and a cell phone used for me. Crazy right?

Karina: It is a community that continues to need help, but the type of people that live around it is becoming very dangerous.

Heidi: Do you know anyone personally who lived/lives there?

Marvin: Yes, I have very good friends who live in both communities, people I trust who always have the opportunity to sit down and have a coffee and dream of new projects for the benefit of both communities

Karina: My brother still has communication and friendship with the Guajeros, they keep calling him and asking for prayer for their lives when they need it.

Heidi: Do you have a special story about your work there that you’d like to share?

Marvin: I remember that with a missionary group we went to the La Limonada community and built a small house for an 80-year-old woman. At that time I had two jobs, I was as national director of the Festival with Luis Palau, a very important evangelistic event in Guatemala. One day before handing over that little house, I had a meeting with very important people in the local government. We went to a very expensive restaurant in the city of Guatemala. I remember ordering shrimp, (my favorite food) it was an incredible meal moment.

The next day we went to deliver the little house to Grandma. It had rained very hard the night before. We were wet, dirty, but with a smile on our faces from the old woman's expression. The impressive thing was that she in gratitude, took some corn tortillas, (I think they were there for more than 2 weeks) and took a pan, a small piece of butter and put the tortillas on the pan and moistened the tortillas with the butter, and he gave us 2 tortillas each, ... and said (thank you very much) for me they were the best tortillas that I had never eaten in my life. I enjoyed them so much that I am satisfied. The day before I was in a nice restaurant, the day after I was sitting on the wet floor of this old woman, and I remembered what the Apostle Paul said... In abundance and scarcity, I thank God.

Karina: Yes, I remember that moment. I was working on Luis Palau's project as a secretary and my brother was on both projects. I was not present at the old lady's house but I did know about that moment.

Heidi: Did my writing a crime novel set in Guatemala and the dump have any impact on you?

Marvin and his wife, Evelyn

Marvin: I think there is no better place to set a crime novel than Guatemala. But I also believe that if through this novel we can present a little of the needs that exist in our country and create awareness in people…I think it will be worth it.

Karina: It is worth continuing with that passion, my country continues to present these problems and no one does anything for them.

A Little Background on El Tiburon

Guatemala

El Tiburon (The Shark) was the second of the McGee spy series. The main characters, Sean and Sport, have a knack for getting in trouble. Quite honestly, they are fun to write about… Especially Sport. She is a feisty, athletic, physician, and she can usually take care of herself. She’s extremely independent, but when she is kidnapped by a drug boss and dragged south to Guatemala she must depend on others to survive.

She escapes the drug lord’s compound and hides in a garbage can. On garbage collection day. The garbage collectors toss her into the dump truck and haul her off to the Guatemala City Garbage Dump. She’s rescued by a group of Guajeros.

This is where the research became intense.

Let me give some background. My husband and I have been to Guatemala several times. In fact we’ve had a seven-month long exchange pastor. What’s that? Periodically churches will send a junior pastor to the states to make connections and to learn new things (and teach us new things). We are known for our spare room. I’ve lost count of how many people have lived at our home in the last thirty years. So Marvin came for seven months followed by his sister Karina for four months. We flew to Guatemala for Marvin’s wedding, in which we were the God-parents (a big deal in Guate). Each time we’ve gone we’ve stayed for a month to go to language school, and to loaf around as only Americans can do. As I write this, Karina—my Guatemalan ‘daughter’, is sitting across from me at my kitchen table. She came for a Christmas visit.

So I know Guatemala fairly well. El Tiburon takes place in Antigua, a town I know. The wine bar, Mexican restaurant (not to be confused with Guatemalan food), the textile shops, the rock-n-roll bar, are all real places. So research was easy for Antigua.

The garbage dump is a different story. This is a tremendously sad story of a people group who’ve lived for generations inside the dump, subsiding off the refuse and money from recyclable garbage. Their homes are made of discarded metal sheets and wood sticks.

Last count there were about eleven thousand people living there… six thousand of whom are children. Now the research had to kick into high gear. The Guatemalan government isn’t proud of this community. Many years ago a magazine did a story on these people and there was a general uproar from human rights activists around the world. The result? The government built a wall through the dump to separate the Guajeros from their dump. Now the government can honestly say, “No people live in the dump!” So they crawl through the fence and resume their work. The community is officially called La Limonada. It is extremely difficult to go there and help these people. To visit you must have a guide, which I couldn’t manage.

My story celebrates the strength of the Guajeros. I chose to make them the heroes and characters with integrity. They rescue and protect Sport. In exchange she provides medical attention and education. The little school, Vidas Plenas, is real, but I’ve never been there so its description is a figment of my imagination. Their struggle is real. The harvesting of their youth for gangs is real. Their medical issues are real. I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed writing about a group more in my life. It was incredibly challenging to place my main character there.

Currently there are several groups working with the Guajeros. There is much to be done, but it’s almost impossible to help them. The best way is to provide education and continue the fight against drugs. It makes me sad to think of the reality. The only way I could make the situation known was through my story-telling. Let me know what you think after you read El Tiburon.