Guatemala Native Settles in Long Beach

Guatemala Native Settles in Long Beach

By Nicole Ramriez
Religion


Long Beach, Calif (Feb.27, 2008)--At 5 years old, Claudia Campos came to America from Guatemala and settled in Long Beach, Calif with her father and brothers to pursue a better life.

Campos is 25 years old and works as a cashier at Ralph’s grocery store. Campos has been working there for five years and says she appreciates her job more because of the pay.

“I have been all over the store,” Campos say’s. “It is a very physical job.”

Campos is currently attending California State University, Long Beach and is majoring in Journalism. Campos would like to one day write for a health and nature magazine or have a column.

“I just want to write, I don’t care where,” Campos said. “I would really like to write a book about women and their bodies.”

Campos has a really busy schedule with work and school and doesn’t have much time for extracurricular activities. She says she makes time for the gym. Campos feels that it is good to work out and stay healthy.

“I would like to learn how to swim,” Campos said. “I never really got the hang of it.”

Since Campos and here family settled in Long Beach, she has never been anywhere else.

“I’ve never been anywhere just in Long Beach.” She said. “I would like to travel on a boat and go around the world.”

Campos does have the desire to visit Alaska.

“Alaska is calling to me I don’t know why,” she said.

One of Campos’s favorite childhood memories is going to the park with her father when she was in fifth grade. This is really the only thing that she could remember that would be her favorite.

“I always took walks with my dad,” she said. “I didn’t really go anywhere I was homebound.”

An interesting fact about Campos that no one really knows about is that she struggles with neck spasms. Campos developed neck spasms when she got very ill when she was in high school. “They don’t seem to go away,” she said. “I have been dealing with them for 5-years.” She doesn’t like to tell people about her problem because she wants to be treated like everyone else. Campos said, “I keep going everyday.”

Campos said feels like she is a pretty broad person and is more in tune with herself. She says she is mellow and understanding. When asked what is the best thing that has happened to her she said,

“I don’t think it’s happened yet.”