The rusted, steel balcony of his modest apartment overlooks a parking lot filled with glistening new sports cars, but Jovan Barraza, 13, pays no attention to the symbols of success. He can only wonder if his family will continue to have a place to live.
A time to suffer
Jovan and his brothers Enrique, 11, and Alex, 9, live with their mother, Jovanna.
Jovanna, 34, is a single parent who works two jobs cleaning houses and selling meals to provide for her sons. The Barrazas are among an estimated 634,000 impoverished people living in Colorado.
The family didn’t always worry about whether they would have food to eat or a place to sleep.
Their lives were comfortable until Jovan’s father left the family and they lost their home, Jovan said.
“My dad left us the responsibility to take care of my brothers,” he said. “When my father was here I didn’t have to spend my money on my brothers and food.”
“It’s difficult being the man of the house,” Jovan said. “Sometimes we need my dad, but I think we are better off without him.”
“He is very understanding,” Jovanna said with tears in her eyes.
After being displaced from a relative’s home last year, the family spent nights sleeping in a park near West 20th Avenue and Carr Street.
“That’s the way life is,” said Jovan. “You have to suffer at some point.”
Jovanna waited tables and carried her life savings in a backpack, hoping to save enough money for a room or an apartment.
As days turned to dusk, and they continued to huddle together beneath the stars, Jovanna knew they needed immediate assistance.
Glimmer of hope
The Barrazas gathered their minimal belongings and found their way to the doorstep of the Jeffco Action Center, now known as The Action Center in Lakewood.
“They gave us a hotel for a week when we were on the street,” Jovan said. “They gave us blankets and everything we needed.”
The support from the center, and aid from family friend Anthony Alcarez, helped the Barrazas find their way into a more stable living environment.
“I couldn’t turn my back on them,” Alcarez said. “Alex grabbed me, hugged me and said, ‘Pray for us.’”
“They are angels to us,” Jovanna said.
The support helped the family secure an apartment in Lakewood where they have lived since September 2010.
The two-bedroom space is inadequate for a mother and three sons, but they have made it their home.
The bare walls of the children’s bedroom display three picture frames that house baby photos of the boys.
Slid between the glass and dented wood are their school pictures from the 2010-11 school year with the word PROOF scorched across the center.
Besides the donated clothing on their backs and the photographs on the wall, everything else they possess is borrowed.
The cycle
Before Christmas, Jovan won $100 in a drawing for honor roll students at his school. Pride resonated within him as he tore open the Velcro seal of his Spiderman wallet to display his new fortune.
He knew that he could help provide for the family.
Jovan purchased a birthday present for Alex, a couple of items for the apartment and a gift for his mother. The remainder was spent on groceries.
“We buy the food to make tamales, green chili and chili rellenos to sell,” Jovan said.
The money helps pay the rent and buy more food so they can avoid living on the streets.
“It’s like a cycle,” he said.
The Barrazas live off $800 a month, and $650 pays the rent.
At the beginning of each month, the process starts all over again.
“It’s hard not to think about it all the time,” Jovan said.
Jovan said he worries about his mother.
“She used to be happy, singing and dancing,” he said. “And now she cries a lot.”
“My mom only cries with me,” Jovan said. “She feels safe with me.”
His brothers’ health issues have become dominant stressors in his life as well.
Alex is on a Life Watch Arrhythmia Monitoring System for his heart but the family doesn’t have a home phone to report the results.
Enrique was diagnosed with sleep apnea and took part in sleep studies at Children’s Hospital.
“Sometimes we have nothing to eat,” he said, as he displayed an empty pantry. “We can’t waste even a dollar.”
“If mom needs money, I will sell pies on the weekend,” he said. “If you want money, you have to earn it.”
Jovan is a friend, brother and mentor to Alex and Enrique.
He helps them with their homework when they arrive home from school. He reminds them to wash their hands before dinner and leads the prayer around the table.
They discuss family matters inside the walls of their bedroom and Jovan tries to answer his brothers’ questions.
“Alex and I want a new dad, but Enrique doesn’t,” said Jovan “My brothers just don’t really understand about my father. They don’t remember.”
As emotions rested and smiles returned, the young men began joking with each other about having girlfriends and crushes.
Blushes complimented laughter while tears of pain still rested on their cheekbones.
Rediscovering childhood
The alarm rings throughout the small apartment at 6 a.m.
Jovan crawls over his brothers to get out of bed.
He rummages through the bare closet, searches for something to wear, grabs his backpack and says goodbye to Jovanna.
Jovan closes the door gently to avoid waking his brothers and begins his day walking a half-mile to the bus stop.
“When I get to school I leave everything out, but it’s hard not to think about home,” Jovan said. “I just try to forget as much as I can.”
The boys qualify for the free breakfast and lunch programs at their schools, which provide Alex, Enrique and Jovan their only stable and consistent meal of the day.
“Sometimes I cry watching them go to school,” Jovanna said. “They are my life and I thank God I have them.”
Jovan understands the importance of school and realizes his hard work will one day reward him with a different life.
“I want to be a vet,” he said. “So I can take care of her like she has taken care of us.”
After school is over and the boys finish their chores, they gather on the balcony.
Enrique collects pieces of paper from past school notes and notebooks while Jovan begins creating aircraft from the medium.
Alex observes with curiousity.
The eager pilots gather for an hour or so almost every day deploying pulp aircraft from a second-story perch as they compete for the most frequent flier miles.
Their childhood smiles reflect a time when they don’t have to face the obstacles of tomorrow.
An uncertain future
The Barrazas’ are tested every day by uncertainty.
A myriad of variables could alter their current status, force them back on the streets and engulf them at the bottom of the poverty cycle.
The only constant in their lives is the love and support they have for one another.
Their outlook on life is one of thankfulness, not ungratefulness.
“We are more united now than ever before,” Jovan said.