Immigrant family refuses to be oppressed by hardship

Indira Pintal in a recent photo

Indira Pintin, then 8 and dad Miguel

  An uplifting story about an immigrant family that overcame intense financial hardship after arriving in Montreal from Central America.
   Gloria Pintin and her husband Miguel Pintin left war-torn El Salvador in 1982 and moved here with their daughters Indira, born in 1976 and Amena born 1977.
   Their poverty was so intense that in 1984 they could barely afford their shabby apartment at Sherbrooke and Frontenac. Mom was a cleaner and dad struggled to find work.
   The family was deemed ineligible for subsidized housing because their landed immigrant status was pending.
   Many who read about their plight might have assumed that the family had been launched into an inescapable cycle of multi-generational poverty.
   But fast forward 30 years and little Indira has not only thrived, she has excelled, having graduated McGill and become a Certified Business Analyst Professional.
   In spite of the oppressive poverty the family ensured that academic studies be a priority.
   "You have no idea how I was raised to be a hard worker and I really had - and still have - to work much harder to get to where I am and will be," Indira Pintal told Coolopolis.
   "As a child I couldn't understand what my parents were going through nor why would my parents push me so hard to achieve things on my own. They even propelled me all the way to my McGill University graduation to a very successful career and life with my husband and two wonderful kids," she told Coolopolis.
    "Now as a mother, I wouldn't hesitate to do the same for my kids. I totally get it," she says.