Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 0:00

I ended up being detained for four months. This feels like purgatory. You're not dead. You're not alive. And life still goes on without you.

Erin Currin: 0:16

Hello, and welcome to the secret of my success, where we explore what it means to live a fulfilling life. I am your host, Erin Currin. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you have not yet subscribed, please go ahead and hit that button. And if you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to give it a like. Today I am speaking with Jeanette Garcia Blanco. She defines herself as a server of the universe. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Jeanette obtained a degree in law and created her career with the purpose to serve her community and touch lives. She discovered her spiritual path through yoga, and she sees it as another way of sharing her talents and helping others. Today, Jeanette assists with translations for immigration applications in court cases, and she also serves as a yoga teacher in her community. She plans to publish a memoir based on her experience of being detained in an immigration center for four months. Please help me welcome Jeanette. Jeanette, thank you so much for joining me today.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 1:30

Thank you for having me. For me, it's a pleasure and an honor to have this conversation with you and share my experience. And together, I feel that we'll find so many answers to so many questions that have been in my head and in my soul. So thank you for giving me that this opportunity. I appreciate it. You're very welcome.

Erin Currin: 1:50

You're you're very welcome. It's my pleasure. I'm excited to have this conversation too. So normally, where we get started is some sort of a life event that had a major impact on you and shifted how you view the world. Where would you like to get us started?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 2:10

Well, I can say that there has been there have been many life events that have changed my life. I can say that my life is never a dull moment type of life, but the most valuable, I will say, an impactful event that changed my life and my perspective. It happened in 2019 when I went to my immigration interview as a normal immigrant with my husband and my lawyer. Instead of thinking, well, it's going to be two or three hours. It turned into a detention. I was taken from my interview to a detention center, and what seemed to be resolved in two hours turned into eight hours, turned into one day, turned into three days, and I ended up being detained in an immigration detention center for four months. That that turned my life completely. It changed my perspective of life. It did change how I view others and how I view the world. And I can say, in general, I am I was you know a lot of emotions emerge. But after I see the experience from far, five years later, I am grateful that that happened to me in in a in the sense because it transformed how I view life. It transformed myself entirely.

Erin Currin: 3:31

Yeah, and for those of you who are watching me, not reacting horrified because of that. I mean, it's I I knew the story ahead of time, and like wow, four months in a detention center that must have been really jarring. You're you're prepared for two hours, and it ends up being four months of your life. So, get us into the experience of it. Like you said, there were a lot of emotion. Put us in that world at the beginning.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 4:06

Well, at the beginning, it was uncertainty and fear. It was always the perception that this is going to be resolved. I'm going to get out soon. When I was taken from that interview office, you know, my husband was separated. My lawyer was separated. They were very, they were very calming. They said,"This is going to be a process of two hours. Let's get in the car. We're just going to place these handcuffs, but it's just going to be for the purpose of taking you." And we started chatting with the driver and the officer that were there, you know, about my experience where I'm from, so it was very friendly. It was not aggressive. Then I started entering into the station, the place, the office where they're going to fill a form, and I sat there, and they still very, they were very polite. You know, I sat there, and I was. Even able to use my phone, and then I started seeing things, and I was put in a in another cell, if you might call it that way, with this girl. And I still remember. I don't know. I do believe in reincarnation, so when I saw that woman, I said, "Well, I know her from somewhere." And I just, without saying a word, I just gave her a hug, and she started crying, and we're still friends, by the way. And she started saying, "We're not getting out of here." And I start giving her hope, and I said, "Yes, we're getting out of here. You know, this is temporary." And she says, "No." She said, "No, we're we're staying. They're taking us somewhere." And I said, "No, this is not. It's not possible. We did what we need to do, and as hours passed, she says, "I told you we're we're not going anywhere." So we started talking, and there was a point where after several hours they took us out, and she was right. We were going somewhere else. So they chained us. They put us against the wall. I remember I had this stone. You know, I don't remember the type of stone. Like it was just to give me comfort or support. And they took it out from my pocket and they say, "What is this?" And I said, "It's just a stone." So they kept they kept everything, and they put us in this truck. It was, and they told, and they took us to a big another facility. I think it was a prison in reality, but just to to complete our files. And at that point, I it came my mind came back to the times of slavery because I said, "Wow, I'm being counted as a slave. I'm being being checked in as a slave because they changed my, they changed my legs, and then they put us on another truck, and we traveled with another group of people. I think they were male on the back, and this girl and I were there. And then when they took us to the facility, I remember coming in, and they left us in a room with other people. It was so cold. I cannot fathom like how cold my body, my bones were getting there, and I in my head I said like, "Wow, that's why they call it ice because it's ice. They put you literally in ice." I don't know why they do that. We were shivering. Shiver. I don't remember. I've been in Alaska and other places. I don't remember being cold. I don't know if it was the fear that was bringing us cold. So we didn't sleep, and we saw women coming in crying. And I remember one of the guards; she was compassionate. I met a lot of compassionate people there, and she gave us a jacket and blankets, and we were just waiting. We saw how people came in and they were wearing orange uniforms, and then the next day, you know, we didn't sleep. We just started talking. We talk about life, your family, where are you from? The next day, they brought us breakfast, and it was terrible. So I didn't eat, and then they came and said, "You have to change, take your clothes off, and just put wear these. So they gave us gray uniforms, and I looked back to the guard who was the intake, and I said, "My husband is gonna get me. I'm get. I'm going out in five days." And you know, she just laughed and she said, "That's not happening. You're delusional." When I came upstairs, you know, they went to show us our rooms, and I remember there was this lady, young girl from Haiti, and she was kind of the ambassador, ambassadress to the rooms, and she told me like, "How are you gonna make your bed? What are the rules?" And there were six bunker, three bunker beds where we were gonna be. There was a TV and air conditioning. It was not inhumane. It was it was kind of not a bad place considering, right? So I remember this Haitian lady was watching. I never watch TV. I'm not a TV person, and there that was the first change that I was forced to be watching TV every day. You know, novellas, TV shows. I we became like, okay, this is the the the schedule that we're gonna be. So her, she was very welcoming, and she told me,"This is what you need to do. This is your bed, this is the bathroom, and we were learning about the society because that's a society that is there. It's like a mini city, kind of. I remember we were crying. We were crying all night, and then we started adapting to the aspects of being there, being in that space. And I couldn't believe that that was happening to me, you know. It was between fear and shock. There was one point that I thought this is this feels like purgatory. You're not dead. You're not alive. You're in the middle, and life still goes on without you. And this is how it's going to be. But still, in my head, I said, okay, maybe I'm going to be here one day, two days, five days, and I kept. It's only going to be five days. I'm going to get a bail and I'm going to get out. You know, there's a way my husband is going to get me out. It was really interesting to see how in the external world we are so attached to things, and I myself have a problem with that too. Like I'm, I couldn't describe myself as a hoarder, but I like to have things like you know my clothes or my books, and there I was left with only two uniforms to wear, and four underwear and a pair of sneakers and flip flops. I think, but there was nothing else. You know, there was no makeup. There was nothing. It's like being born from zero and learning the aspect of non-attachment to the fullest. We had to share what we had. We had to learn how to be with other women, how to deal with their personalities. And I remember when I got there, I just started listening to a lady, a Mexican coach, and before in my life I learned. Okay, why you know you learn the hard way to say why is this happening to me? What am I gonna do? Why God are you doing this to me? But she showed me instead of saying why is this happening, she made you ask questions like what can you do with this? What is the goodness in this that you're not seeing? And one of the connections to that Mexican coach was another Mexican girl in Florida, and one of the first calls I made was to her, and she said, "Keep repeating that question. What is the good in this that you're not seeing?" And I used to cry and say,"Nothing. I'm not seeing anything good happening here. What are you talking about? I don't understand. There's nothing good about being detained, and she gets. She goes like, keep repeating the question, and the answers will come to you. And as time passed by, you know, like one week passed, nothing happened. You, we were kind of getting ready because they made you see your. We call them what was the word? Your officer, your immigration officer, that decided that you were going to be released or not. There was like a space, like of one or two weeks, where they were be able to see you. They were going to be able to see you. So we call them a funny name. It's like your, I think I don't know. It was like your judge. I don't remember right now. But it was like the expectation of you're going to see that guy, and he's going to decide whether you're leaving or not. And when I started seeing the faces of the women, that they were saying he said no. You know, he said I'm not going out. He said they they painted the worst possible picture. They say no, you're not eligible for a bond, or you go being deported, and from there you were led to take actions. Like, what do I do now? So when I realize I'm not getting out for a while, I just need to wait for my lawyer to do his job. I say, okay, what can I do here? What is for me to do in here. The place had a routine. You know, it was like any society. It was like a mini society. So there was you had to get up at before six to go to breakfast. There was 11am. exercise outside. Then you came to your room until two, and then two was lunch, and then three. If you were religious, you had prayers, or you could do art, and then at four you will go out to play in the there was a an outside like playground if you might call it that way, and then in the evening it was dinner, and then you will go to bed, you will go to your rooms and watch TV. They'll give you space to make phone calls. I say, what am I gonna do? I'm always a doer, and I always find things to do. You know, I can't stay still. And I think what that was the universe message saying, like, shut up, stop. This is your time to stop. So in one of those routines, I started going outside and walking around the premises, and then I started doing yoga by myself. I started breathing, and people would look at me like,"What is she doing? Is she crazy or what?" So I started, you know, stretching, and the other ladies were looking. And then one time, I remember one lady came. Okay, can I do it with you? And I say, "Yes, I'll show you." And then another one came, and another one came, so it became routine. So last thing I knew, I had like 10 or 15 women who will knock at my door every day at 7am. Let's do that thing that you do. For me, became a routine, so that was my first choice. Like I need to move my body. I'm always being connected to my body, and I said, I need to move my body, and as they saw me, it was you know it was growing. And one anecdote that I remember is that I was teaching at the common area, and when I was going out with our mat, I when I hear my name, my last name, they always call you by your last name, Garcia, and I just paralyzed. I say, oh my goodness, what did I do wrong now? And when I turn this bulky, tall lady, she goes, she approaches me, and I say, I saw what you did, and can you please tell me how to breathe? I'm so stressed here, and I say, of course, I can teach you. You know, come to me when you want. So I cannot say I had that I was mistreated only once, and I think it was a lesson. It was not mistreatment. It was one of the aspects of the life. There is you get to receive letters from friends, and I'm going to show you one of those letters. I one of my friends sent me that letter that I I sent her back. You know, she used to send me like a rosary to pray. And I remember my husband left me some books, and they couldn't find them. And I was angry. I yell at one of the guards and I say like, "You don't care about anything." And since then, that particular guard was like, "Not misreading me," but she was tough. She was tough with me. One of the times that I got sick, I I was anemic, so my blood count were really low, and I fainted in one of the rooms. And they had to take me to ER. So the guard that was with me was that guard that I had the situation with. Like we didn't like each other. And I remember one of the nurses when we arrived on an emergency. He she told her, "Can you get her a wheelchair?" And she goes,"No, I'm not paid for that. I'm paid to make sure that she doesn't escape." And I look at her, and I say, "Okay." And the nurse look at her, and she went and get the wheelchair. However, despite that, that guard we were overnight. We had to stay overnight, so she stayed with me. I remember she liked basketball, and there were basketball games going on. So there was a point that she told me, "You know what you should do? You should say that you're sicker than you are, so that we can have better food because they bring you chicken, rice, and beans, and I can eat from that. Is that a deal? And I said deal. So she kind of show a little bit of compassion that time. I have so many anecdotes. Is remembering them is just bring those emotions to me. And it was a difficult, difficult time. It was really. I think it was my spiritual retreat, and it was the universe trying to show me you have to have more faith. Anything that you want is possible, and you're here to help others. Whatever you do here is gonna count like tenfold. You know, it's your community service here. Then another of the jobs that I found because they found out well you speak English and Spanish, so I became interpreting for the for the people that were there. I don't want to call them inmates because we were not inmates, and I became the interpreter. So every time they needed, even if they were fighting, they were fighting with the guard. I will go, okay, she says that you're not doing the right thing, and the guard says, well, she said you should obey the order, so I became like the interpreter that had to be neutral. But then I also became the translator, so they knew that I had a way to write. So they started bringing me files. Like some of them were seeking for asylum, so I were I was reading their forms and filling their forms. So my mattress. There was a point that my mattress became my file cabinet, so I had classified bags with people's files, and I became the writer. So when you apply for asylum, you have to describe a story. So I had to write the stories for each one of them. Oh wow! And for me, like seeing those, like how you know how they crossed the border, how they were raped or they were abused in their country, and so I had to put them in a nice way and translate it to Spanish, there were even times where, even they will say,"No, let me." If they have lawyers, I even I will help the lawyers from. I was like the insider helping the lawyers organize their files, like labeling them. This is exhibit one, exhibit two, exhibit three. So it became like my routine. So every day I will just do yoga, then I will go to the activity room and I will sit in the computer translating, translating, and they will come one and the other and the next. So we create a beautiful community of women. That we were 97, and there was a point we were like 106. So it was strange to get attached to them and see them go, and so that was another lesson. Like today they're here, we're sisters, and the next day they're gone. But I still keep connections with some of the ladies. We still keep a chat, and we see each other. We celebrate each other. The birthdays was also something special. So there, it was. I said, you know, I put in my mind deadlines. Like, okay, I'm gonna be out for my son's birthday, or no, for my husband's birthday. On, I'm gonna be out for my birthday. For my birthday, I'm definitely out. So no, it was not possible. So I turned 50 years old in that facility, and of course, I didn't say my age there. They thought I was younger. But they prepare the activity room with such a party, like such a celebration. You know, we learn to use whatever we had to create happiness. So instead of a cake, they bought like little buns or little cinnamon buns, and they towered them into a cake. They decorated the room with whatever with the art. They borrow radio from the guards. So we had a party. We had a blast. We were dancing bachata and merengue, and we celebrated. And it was for me, wow, what a sisterhood of women. Yes.

Erin Currin: 21:01

No, I was gonna say that's really powerful. Do you mind if I circle back to a couple of things?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 21:06

Yes. Yes, that's okay.

Erin Currin: 21:07

Awesome. Like extraordinary storytelling. Fantastic. And I love the flavor of you continuing to bring it back to the positive and back to creation. Like I hear that you never lost hope. You continued to reset the mark, but you were also finding ways to occupy yourself because when you're in that kind of a situation, like you had said, you don't have a choice. You're

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 21:37

here,

Erin Currin: 21:38

right? And so, as you were saying, that Mexican coach that you had been listening to was like, "What can I take from this? What can I create with this? How can I be in this space?" The couple things that I want to point to is, you had become a yoga teacher not too long before your detention. Is that right?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 21:58

Yes, that's right.

Erin Currin: 22:00

So you actually were a yoga teacher who could teach people.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 22:04

Yes. So in 2017, I finished my 250 hours of yoga teacher training.

Erin Currin: 22:11

Yeah,

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 22:11

and that's remarkable. And I wanted to bring that up to the story as well, in the sense of I always tell people be careful of what of what you wish for and what you ask for and how you ask, because the universe is a chef, and he or she is ready to serve your dessert or your main course as you ask. So I remember that my one of the last days of our yoga teacher training, they ask us to okay, let's do a vision board and then let's divide in the quadrants and tell the things that you want to do moving forward. You know how do you want to serve the community? What do you want to do with these teachings? So I remember I drew a butterfly because that was my spiritual name. They always call me butterfly. In one of the side, I say, "Okay, I want to do this. I want to be closer to my family." But then on the right side, I still have that vision board, so I wrote,"What do I want to do? I want to teach yoga in jails, and I want to be an interpreter, and I want to help immigrants." Little did I know that the universe was like cooking, putting all those ingredients together. They came up up so high, and there I was detained, and I was doing the three things I was asked for. I asked for, which was they were teaching yoga in a jail, I was translating and interpreting, and I was helping immigrants. So you know, it's your wishes are command, and I forgot to say not this way. You know, we just change a little bit of the way that issue, my wishes should have been fulfilled. It's just, I still, I'm still grateful. I'm still grateful for it. Is I think it opened my heart to another level. It opened my consciousness to another level. Being there,

Erin Currin: 23:55

I think that's amazing because the other aspect that, of course, you know, I mentioned in your introduction, is like you are an attorney in your home country. Like you're legally trained, so it's not like oh look, you know this is so amazing. Anybody can go and help. No, you were specifically qualified to be able to help these women and their attorneys make their cases and bring their stuff together. So your unique set of skills and experience and life's shocking how perfectly it all lined up, right?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 24:41

Yes,

Erin Currin: 24:42

and I think the other dimension is one thing that you mentioned early on was I I just can't sit still. I'm always running. I I like. So was this also the universe telling you that it was time to slow down a little bit? Maybe.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 24:57

Absolutely. Yes, and. It was also the universe. It was a way to tell me to tell me you're not in control. I'm gonna rearrange your life. I'm gonna break the vase right now. So it is up to you to you know put it back together the way it needs to be. So I think the universe says stop. I think in in my lifetime I've experienced that when I want to do something and then I don't do it, the universe says,"If you don't want to do it, I'll make you do it, like right now." And this is how I'm going to disrupt your life, so you get in the path that where you need to be. So I think my life changed dramatically after that. I still have kind of back flashes of things that happened there, like little details. I'm still like paranoid of seeing hair in a bathroom in a bathroom floor because it was like always a rule. You need to pick up your hair. We were women, like we were shading our hair because of the stress. So I still like if I see hair on a floor in a bathroom, I just like bend down and pick it up, or other things is like seeing the empty toilet paper roll. It gives me like PTSD in a way because we had to show that toilet paper, empty toilet paper, to get more toilet paper. Like every day there was a line to get things, your necessities. And for me, like wow, you know, now I have still have so much stuff, and we were surviving with those things, and the things we were fighting for in there was like, oh, you got a better a new uniform, can you trade it for me, or, you know, I there was a time that I worked in the kitchen as well, so when I left the uni, the kitchen uniforms is like, can you give me your kitchen uniforms? Can you give me your shoes? Like, we see how humans. We still in the minimalism of life. We still get attached to stuff. It's impressive that I tell to myself. I'm able. I was able to survive with only two uniforms and four underwear. Like, why do we get more stuff? Why why are we seeking to feel in getting more stuff?

Erin Currin: 27:07

Well, does that also give you more of an appreciation for the things that you do have?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 27:13

Yes, and gratitude. Gratitude. I remember also one of my coping methods was writing. I was like journaling, like reading, writing, meditating, or praying. So every day, I I think I still have those notebooks. I will say day one, I can see the moon, the noises. I will journal everything I hear. Day two until I get like the 200 and whatever days I was there. I wrote every day. Like this is what happened today. I have my period. I'm suffering. I'm sad. I miss my family. So every day I will journal, and also I. It was um interesting because the moment I got there, there was like a luminous voice telling me, "You need to write. You need to write." And I started like outlining the chapters of a book, which I haven't written yet. But every chapter will have like the name of the person, one woman that I met, and my idea is okay. I met her there. This is how she was. Where is she now? What happened to her after? How this this experience changed? And that's I think my end goal to find those women that I listed there and said, "What has you know? How has your life changed? What did we do? You know, what brought you there?" Also, my aspect was like, "What brought each of us here? What was what were our lives like before, and what did we do? Who are we? Because over there is like you shed the layers of an onion and you become just a human. So in my mind, I still have the title for that book, which is the Human Actions Act, because the immigration law is like the immigration act. But I wanted to show that besides all of the regulations of immigration, behind everything there's a human story, and despite whatever the rules for immigrations are, is there's a human behind each person that it was in that detention center. There was an energy that moved energy, more energy in that detention center. There were connections between the guards, between the administrative officers, between the ladies who gave us art. There was a connection there, and there was a learning experience for each one of us. And I still, I'm curious. I still keep connection with some of the ladies. Some of the ladies have been deported. Some are still here, and I, I keep, I want to keep that connection, and I I really want to feed their stories because I think I could be like their pathway to their voices and their stories as well. And what were the life you? I listen to so many stories of how life is in some countries in Central America. How. How is it to live with fear? And I look at myself. I'm wow. I was so privileged. I'm not here because I'm afraid to be killed, or I'm not here because I was raped. So, all those stories are in my head to honor those ladies that were there.

Erin Currin: 30:16

I was going to say that's a really powerful point because, like, we might be in the same place, but for very different reasons. Like everyone is in a detention center. In your case, it was more of a clerical or an administrative error. Some sort of a date that was out of sequence. Like you did everything by the books. There were also probably many people in that facility who had just blatantly and flagrantly ignored and violated the law. And it can be true that there is a broad spectrum of experience, but there's still that core humanity. So it's not like oh, everyone in the facility was innocent, and you know nobody deserved to be there. And it's also not well. Everyone there was a horrible human being, and you know was irredeemable, and they should all be shipped off. The truth is never that black and white, right? And so, like the connections that you made, even with the guard that you had the falling out with, because you were having a bad day, you were angry at that point. You said something rude, or you know, yelled or did something to have that person see you in a particular light, and then after spending a day with you, seeing how sick you were, she started to soften. You started to soften, and the two of you found middle ground. Those are beautiful examples of the the truth of the humanity that we all live with, regardless of where we're from, or what we think, or why we're here.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 32:13

Yes, and even because the individuals that were there and the guards, of course, we were two sides of the opposite fences. They were there to guard us or to make sure that everything was orderly and the rules were followed. And we were there just because they put us there. We were there. We didn't want to be there. So it's incredible how still there was a connection between those group of women that were guards and us, and we became like a family. Like, oh, this guard. I remember there was an incident, and one guard was dismissed from that facility. And we were like, oh wow, she's gone now. So we were kind of missing. It's like the human connection. It doesn't matter what you're doing. There is still gets established because seeing each other every day, and you know they always sometimes had to be strict, but they joke sometimes. You know they they were happy when we leave when one of us left, they were happy. They were, you know, there was this ceremony when somebody left, everybody came out of their rooms and we clapped. We're celebrating, even if you was deported, even if you were being deported. We just clap. You're out of here. Is you have something happen? The best that could happen happened because you're out of here.

Erin Currin: 33:32

Yeah.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 33:33

So we had little ceremonies and little things to recognize each other and to support each other, even religiously as well, I I was said, wow! I discover God has ears no matter which language or which path you are. You see now nowadays like so many conflicts based on religion, and there we were women in one room, like 10 by 10, just praying. Each one was praying in their language, and there was no fight about it. We were just praying for the best for each one of us. And every day at 3pm, we will gather. It was not mandatory, but you could, and we just sit there and pray or hold each other's hands and be there for each other. So it was a mini community. You you learn how your humanness, your human being, is connected to another human being is incredible. And the support that each one of us gave to each other is was also a lesson for me.

Erin Currin: 34:38

What I hear in that is, it's funny because there are many people that I've spoken to who come from Russia or from Ukraine or from one of the Soviet or communist countries, and they they talk about how walking into an American grocery. Store for the first time is jarring because they're not used to having so much choice. They're overwhelmed by the totality and the size of the stores that we have. And when we are put in a situation where we don't have that many options, you just have to figure shit out. Yes, like you don't have a choice. Like it's not. Well, you know, I'd really rather have the red sheets than the blue sheets. Or you know, I I don't want to watch that on television. You know, it's it. You don't have separate rooms for each of the Spiritual practices, you you figure it out. You you're all in the same boat, and it's amazing how quickly a lot of those what seem to be super important arguments just go out the window the minute you're put in a situation where things really do have a different level of mattering.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 36:04

Yes, and it's important also how creative human beings and in general women we're so creative because we still wanted to look pretty. We still wanted to look our best. We still, you know, we want to be look our best, especially for visitation days, which were Sundays, so you had no makeup there, right? So, and you have there was a hair salon that was open, incredibly, amazingly, yes, but you had no resources, right? So the only thing that you had, so if you wanted to look pretty, for example, we did we created this way of creating lipstick with crayon. So when there was and our our eyela also Crayola was our like eyeliner as well for hair because we couldn't have like bobby pins or anything. You know we had shampoo barely, but you know everybody was shading their hair because we were nervous, so one of the ladies, one of my roommates, she said,"Well, I am an I I know agriculture, so if we put coffee in our shampoo, it's going to make our hair stronger." So everybody was like, "Okay, coffee is." So everybody was like washing their hairs with the coffee, and then there was these beautiful girls from Guatemala or Central America, and they were experts in braiding your hair. So you will see the most wonderful hairstyles, like even a heart or a bow. So when my husband would come and visit, I said, "Okay, you need to braid my hair because I have visitors, so that was a way to show, you know, we care for our visitors and we want to show our best. But we were very, very creative. Incredibly, it was we we we were so resourceful with the coffee. We also, you know, obviously we don't have a microwave. There was no microwave, but at night we will get hungry, so we'll buy these soups, the noodle soups. So we say, okay, we're gonna create a microwave. So we we have had their run the running water hot, and we will put the noodles there and cover them. And we will make one day. I may like, okay, let's have Thai. Let's imagine we're having Thai food. So I put peanut and season it, and we sat at that table like it was a banquet, like like the last dinner. We were make meals and celebrations, so decorations. They gave us our stuff. So our precious thing was like, who has construction paper read? You know, we started getting attached to those things, but it was a beautiful practice of non-attachment for me, also, and to be resourceful no matter how.

Erin Currin: 38:54

So, knowing, I mean, I'm sure that there are 1000 different dimensions that we could go into what I'm curious about is how is life for you now? how How is your project for teaching yoga, for teaching yoga in prisons, for supporting the immigrant community? How is your life different now after this experience?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 39:20

Well, after this this experience, the first thing I did was I needed to let it out. I needed to share it. I this is my first time sharing it in live or in video. I just like to write. So with Zaina, we I created. We work in a collaborative book, and I wrote one chapter of that book, so that was like my baby. Okay, somehow, and I kept also helping all these women. You know, their families, their friends that were coming. So I still help them doing translation for their cases. I still translate their cases and prepare, help them prepare files. But I'm I'm there for. For them and the other locally and coincidentially enough, and this I need to tell this story because that woman for me was the impersonation of faith. It was a tiny little lady from Guatemala. She was very quiet, and I she used to wake. She was one of the ones that used to wake me up for yoga, and one day they came and they said,"You're being, you're getting out, you're leaving, you're being deported." And she looked, and I was like crying. I'm like,"No, you know, if," and she was like so like a Buddha, technically, like literally, she was. I said, "I will. How are you? No banging the your head against the wall? Like your child is gonna stay in the U.S. United States. You're going back to Guatemala. Like, what are you gonna do? There's nobody there. There was nobody there to. There was nobody there to receive her. There, she had no money. And I saw how peacefully she looked at me and she said, "She said, Janet, don't you know that everything is going to be resolved?" So that same night, somebody gave her money to leave. Somebody found somebody to wait for her in Guatemala. She found the way the way out, and and surprisingly enough, she came back. She's back in the U.S. because she looked at me when she left and said, "I'm go. I'm coming back. You can trust that I'm coming back." I'm like how, you know this woman is crazy. So your mind puts all those obstacles, but she was so persistent. So what I wanted to say is that she called me the other day. I had been talking to her for years. I, I'm like so glad that she came. She called me back. Like, can you help me with something or can you find me? I'm like, yes, of course, because for me she's like the impersonation of trust, and this is where I'm going, and this is what I'm doing. And she's like a tiny little woman. She almost didn't know how to read or write, but she was smart, like street smart. And so many lessons from there. And how am I doing? Yes, I would like to do more of helping that. I think that my true purpose, and life gets in the way and derails you. But I think with this conversation, it's bringing me back to you need to do this. You need to help more people. You need to help immigrants. It's just that your mind deters you. Or in my head, I I go like, well, I have to study, or I'm not a paralegal. You know which who's gonna hire me? All these things, all those obstacles. Instead, I should go. This is what I'm here for, and I'm gonna find a way to do it. And my big project is to write that book. Actually, when we finish, I want to go back to my all. I brought a pile of stuff: the drawings, the writings, my books, the names of everybody I have it, and it's just been hiding there. I guess till today, because I when I started when I got out, I I started like really creative and helping people, but then other things came around, and I put it aside, and I I don't think it's fair to my story and to the women that I met, that it stays dormant. I think I I need to be more committed to to show and show support and show the love that those women gave me. I think I need to share it back. I wish some days I said I cry. Some days I said I should have helped more. You know, there's a scene on Schlinder's list that he takes there. He's there's a movie. He takes his watch. He was trying to help Jewish community, and he cries. And I said I should have done more. And that's exactly how I feel. I should have done more. I should have helped more people. But I think I might have the opportunity still, and

Erin Currin: 43:45

I think that that's that's a super valid point. And at the same time, there's only so much we can do, especially when you are one of the people who is in the same situation, but it it it really does bring about this idea of even if I feel like I'm in a place where my life isn't the best, I'm not in the greatest of circumstances, I can still be of service. There's still more for me to contribute, and my experience is it's the people who give that freely who are the ones who receive. I was speaking with someone a couple of days ago at a networking function. She's going to be one of my future guests. She was talking about how she once she got out of university, she decided to go into credit card processing of all things, but she's tied it to charity. She's tied it to making it a win-win. She creates spaces and opportunities. For almost everything she does to be in service of some greater vision or some greater project or some greater idea, and she fully believes that this is where her success comes from. Because when we're just focused on ourselves, it can feel like I mean, there's. I often say, put on your own oxygen mask first. You need to make sure that you're covered before you can give to somebody else. But you don't sit there and just go, "Okay, I'm fine. I'm just going to sit here and watch everything else burn." It's how now that I have my oxygen mask on, can I be a contribution? Like creating this podcast for me is a way for me to connect people with stories they wouldn't ordinarily hear. For this woman, her attaching the the charity to a credit card processing company, like who thinks of credit card processors in a positive light? Who thinks of attorneys in a positive light? But like, there is the the potential for being and doing who you are, and still being a serious contribution to community and being a stand for and a space for a community, I think that it's really powerful. Like you're talking about non-attachment, but there's non-attachment doesn't mean not caring, and I know you understand this, but I also think that it is really easy to get knocked aside, pushed over by the waves, and pushed off course. And then someone like Zaina introduces the two of us, and here you are to remember how moving this experience was for you, how many people you were able to support, and you're still in connection and communication and community with, and what else is there for you? So, my personal point of view is you might not want to wait until that next storm to get started with it. So, is there anything else that you wanted to share, that you wanted to circle back to and point out, or something that we hadn't touched on that you think is really important for people who are listening to understand?

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 47:34

Well, first of all, it's incredible that we're almost close to an hour. It feels like you said it, and I wouldn't believe it, but it's true. What I wanted to share is there anything? Is so many things I like to say that might be untouched, unsaid right now. I just want to share that being in community, being in connection with humans, is the most pressure, precious gift that we can have in this lifetime, like being connected to women, to communities, and serving is something that you couldn't. You, you must not let life pass without serving, without sharing, or not even serving, sharing your experiences with community. One of the other aspects that I learn is that no matter what goes on in your life, you always have the power to transform it to a beneficial thing for you or the others. No matter you know, might be a health challenge, might be financial challenges, might be relationship challenges. Always ask yourself

that question: 48:43

What is the good in here that I'm not seeing? Where is the good that I'm not seeing? Show me. Ask the question because the universe will always show you. And even to those ladies, I still talk to those some of those that have been deported and they don't accept that reality. I want to tell them that message. You were put where you are for a reason. Find the reason. Ask questions. Don't complain and don't look at the past. Just move on and embrace with gratitude. Gratitude is the is the door. Is the door for everything, and don't let life pass by you without sharing your gift, and that will be my main message as well.

Erin Currin: 49:27

I think it's a fantastic place to wrap up, Jeanette. You are an extraordinary storyteller. Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself with us today.

Jeanette Garcia Blanco: 49:37

Thank you, appreciate you. Thank you.

Erin Currin: 49:40

You're very welcome. My pleasure, and thank you for watching or listening for you know the duration of an hour to another episode of The Secret of My Success. Until next time. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of The Secret. My success, where we explore what it means to live a fulfilling life. I am your host, Erin Currin. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Make sure you hit that bell notification to be notified when our next episode comes out. And if you enjoyed today's conversation, go ahead and give us a like. You can also drop something in the comments to let us know how this episode has created some sort of a shift in your perspective about the world, or what you were able to get from this conversation. Again, thank you so much for tuning in and listening all the way to the end, we appreciate your support. Until next time.