Isla Gomez
Appearances
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
So I was in class. I was about to turn in all my work to the teacher. So I was already starting to pack up my things slowly. And I got a call from my mom. She seemed very down. And she was like, it's like when you hear somebody, they're trying not to cry, but like they're really like holding it in. And I could hear in her voice. And that's when I started to get a little bit worried.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
It's quite literally a prison where people that actually committed real crimes would be in. Like, he's in a jail cell where it's just like Ten times worse. Guards are completely strict. Like, there's no really sitting there conversating with them. Like, they're guards. And he says that it's a mess in there. It's just, like, very chaotic. Everybody's everywhere. Everybody's mixed.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
He was very sincere this time on this call. Like, it's not good. Usually he wouldn't really complain about Plymouth. But now, like my mom was saying right now to me, that since it's starting to hit two months and reality is really knocking at our door, especially with the deportation, Now I feel like he's really being sincere of how he's truly feeling like.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And I don't want to say he's in full panic, but he's really feeling it. Even so on the phone, like I can hear himself let go. I can hear his voice drop and I can hear that like excitement that he would try to have low.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
It's like this feeling of like life keeps going and life still feels normal, but there's something wrong. It's just all so real now. Within these last days, I felt like my anxiety has been over the roof. It just feels like it's so hard to get through your day. It's so hard, like, because I can't believe it.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
You cannot tell me they'll be taking my dad and he will be in Brazil for the next, like, 10 years up until we can reapply for him. Like, that does not cross my mind.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
As much as I would love to stay here and be like, yeah, my family is going to reunite in Brazil, it can't be a plan. And it's also, it can't be a plan due to the fact that my parents have worked way too damn hard, too many years of their damn life to come here. Mm-hmm. I will be continuing college. And if anything, I will be continuing their success times that by 100.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I refuse to believe that they'll be throwing that away. And if I can even continue my dad's company to keep going and get other people to manage it, I will be continuing to making their name. So Brazil was never in my plans. It's one thing to take my dad away from me. It's another to take everything that they worked hard for.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I'd get it if you're talking about a murderer that doesn't belong here and he's just out running on the street or I'd get that. But if you're okay with separating families because they're just simply immigrants, that's a battle you're dealing within yourself.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
If they're hearing my story specifically, I hope they hear that and that they try to picture one of their daughters sitting here and having to talk about one of their parents like this because somebody out there is wishing that on somebody else. And I just really want them to picture that.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I cannot possibly bear that at all. I can't even envision that. My dream was to have both of my parents see me walk the stage. That's within two years. I don't believe that my dad will not be there. Because at the end of the day, I really did it for him. And then in a couple of years that I'm supposed to like get married and have a family, like that sounds unreal doing that without my dad.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And it sounds like you're talking about somebody that passed away, but quite literally, I refuse to believe. Like those were my plans. Those are what I used to pray for God. Now that's not even my prayers anymore. That's how much I already feel like I'm changing my life. It feels like everything that I worked for has no meaning to it.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
Everything no longer has a value since it could all just be taken away from you.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
As of right now, there's like no dream, no goal. There's no that dream that you dream big of, oh, I really want to do this. It's just kind of like, I want to be like completely honest. It's just bland. It's just like, okay, well, my dream is to kind of just be able to push through this.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
That, I have, like, a literal ideal dream. Me just getting that call of being told, like, go pick up your dad. And all I could think of is me just, like, parking my car, getting out my car. He's standing outside, like quite literally the same exact person he left, like in his work clothes, just the way he is with his face, like his regular face.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
The same exact way he left is the same exact way I'll be seeing him in that vision.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
No, like literally no time has passed, but it feels like life spent upside down.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And just hugging my dad and all I could literally do is cry, like cry my literal heart out. You ever just cried as a kid where you would literally hiccup like so much? Like that type of cry, like everything that I've been holding in like within these two months, that's exactly how I see it. It's like a deja vu like vision. It's just like it just feels like it's going to happen.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And it's all I think about. That's all I can envision like over and over again every single day that I wake up. And it's just me like it's not like my mom's around my sister's around. It's just like me and my dad.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
My dad, he's Fabricio Gomez. He is 47 years old, and he works at a construction company of his own.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
There was a time when my father left Brazil. Sorry, I'm just asking like these questions for my mom because I never really went like in depth of. So my mom said it was due to the violence down there and like he couldn't make a living for himself, let alone have a family down there.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
They actually walked into each other and they were like, oh my God, like I remember you, blah, blah, blah.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
So he had been working like small jobs, almost like a handyman. And then he met somebody, which is my dad's old boss that still remains in our life, Ken. And he slowly taught my dad how to work. It went from like changing door panels, windows to fixing inside the house. And then it went to roofing until he gathered up all his knowledge that he had.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
She told me that like your father got detained. And then that's when it was just like, it felt like somebody put a little like 10,000 blocks of like bricks on my chest. I was just hearing mumbles. I felt like I was building up so many emotions and it was all gonna come out and I didn't want anybody to see me like that.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And then that's when he decided that he was ready to open his company and start start creating a life for himself and our family. And is your sense that he loves his job? Yes. My dad is actually very passionate for his job. You would think he wouldn't be because you're constantly going up a ladder. It's so cold since we live in Massachusetts. And it's really a hard job.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
My dad, wherever he walks, he talks out loud to everybody and he talks to people like he knows people. He's always talked to his clients like he knew them for so long. I don't know how he talks to them, like everybody understands him.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
As a little kid, I was like my dad's like kind of tomboy. I'd always buy construction, little kids kit, and I would always go around the house with like plastic toys. Me and my dad are the type of person where we take something that is not good and we reform it to make it into a better place. When something's not designed properly, it doesn't feel that good.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
Like walking into a house that is just like simple, there's no design. It just feels down. And when you reform it, it brings another life.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
Yes. So this was a fifth grade science fair. First, I have to do kind of like the blueprint. So I went to my cousin and we drew like the measurements and everything. And then I went to my dad. It was for a ramp to like define gravity. If we were to drop something, it would fall like on the ramp and it would flip up. My dad took me, one of my favorite stores, it's Lowe's and Home Depot.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And you know, that's my dad's automatic favorite store because he always has to be there. And we had to buy wood, nails, and we had to use like the saw because the corners had to connect. So we had to cut it diagonally to connect. So he taught me like measurements too. I got to do this with my dad. I was able to present it to my class. I was able to show it to my teacher.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And I got so congratulated for it at school that it's just like, oh my God, everybody's going to know me. Everybody's going to know my dad. I'd be like, do you know my dad does construction? He can build your house. And I'd offer, I'd be like, he can do things for you. He can build your house. I would actually walk around with my parents' card in my purse offering everybody.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I always wanted to work with my dad. I'm not going to be able to, you know, carry all the shingles, the roofs and everything that he does. But I'm going to like do what my dad does, which is why I went to college for architecture and interior design. So eventually in the future, I could work with my dad's company.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
His dream was always for us to go to college and pursue something that we have passion for because they weren't able to choose their own path. Like, you're not born saying, I'm going to clean toilets. I'm going to be a contractor. You're born thinking, like, I want to be a businesswoman. I want to go after this. I want to have my own company. I want to have my own home.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And it's just like, I feel like that's what their main goal for us was, that we're able to choose our own path. My dad, he's always been the person to tell us, work hard, nothing's gifted, nothing's handed, go after it.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
So I just gave my paper to my teacher and I like ran out the classroom and I tried to get in my car as fast as possible. And it's just like, you just start envisioning the worst. Like, he's in this terrible place. This is a hardworking man. No criminal record. Like, you guys just took him.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I would always ask my dad, like, should we worry? And he'd always tell us like, no, like there's don't worry as much as obviously when I'm alone, when anybody's alone, you always have that thought in the back of your mind. Like, what am I going to do? What if things go down? Well, like, obviously we worry at all times, but,
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
But I try not to because if my dad himself could be positive through something like this and always tell us that, don't worry, like, things are always going to get better, I'm not going to stay here and panic.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
We were all kind of like trying our best to treat it like a regular day. Like he literally called his clients, spoke to them that morning, said that after his court, he's going to go to work and he's going to fix so and so's roof and do this and that. So he just shows up for his yearly check in and you go there, you represent yourself, talk about whatever is being asked. And that was about it.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
After I was hyperventilating, I felt like my heart just left my chest. I think about him being there. I think about him being in this close-up space So I worry a lot at night. Like, what if he's panicking and we don't know? What if he's holding strong, but he's actually having the hardest time in his life? Like, that's what constantly replays in my head.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
So it just felt like my whole heart got ripped out of my chest because I never got to really say a proper goodbye. Like, I'll see you later.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I'll give it to my dad from the first day that he called us to speak to us. That man has holding strong. Every time we call, he has the most positive energy and so positive that he will see us and things will change. Go back to not normal, because I don't feel like anybody could really treat life as normal after this situation, but definitely better.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I'm the only one eligible to visit because I'm over 18 and I was actually filling out the papers and I was on the phone with him telling him when he called my mom, I'm filling out the papers to come visit you. I'm trying like, cause you have to send it through the mail. It's a whole process. So I tried to do as fast as possible.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
And he told me like, as much as I would love to see you guys so much, um, Just don't come here because this is not the person that I am. And he was just like, it would hurt to see you get up from that chair and turn your back and have to leave. That's when reality would hit. It's very hard to comprehend that. And it's very hard to imagine that.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
We open every conversation like he was here with us. Like I'm walking into the house saying hi to him. Ben said, hi dad, how are you? I missed you. We continue lives how it is. Like on the phone.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
I gave him updates on my grades. I gave him updates on my finals. Well, I can't show to him my projects since they're all like online based because they're all like floor plans, stuff like that. But I like give him the visual analysis.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
So my school requires me to do an internship within that day that I literally got that interview, like from the night before that I got a call to get the interview. As soon as he called, let him know. He's telling me, go look on your interview. My dad always says to be prepared. And be at least, well, my dad at his job, he was like, if you let him, he was an hour early.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
So he would at least tell me to be at least 30 minutes early. So I took that advice. I was 30 minutes early. And on top of that, I already had everything printed. I literally had in a folder. He was like, yep, that's how I like. So as soon as she was ready to like give me the opportunity, I could just give her the folder and I was automatically hired.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
Um, I just like, I couldn't hold it. I literally was like, hi, Bansa. Um, how are you? He was like, um, great. Your mom said you had great news for me. I was like, yep. And I told her, I was just like, I got the job. I'm working at the company, explain the company to him. And he was like, look at you. Like, I'm so proud of you.
The Daily
Family Separation 2.0
He would always tell me, like, these are the things that keep me going. You're going after your future. You're creating a future for yourself. And I need you to continue to do that for me.