Latina Immigrant Lives Her Dream and Offers Hope to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities
By Melanie Slone
When Saraí Marcelín was 13, a woman whose house she was cleaning took her to lunch in her Lexus. Saraí looked at the Rancho Santa Fe neighborhood, admired at the car, and decided she would live there someday and own a Lexus.
“I would ask the homeowners, ‘how did you get here?’ And they would tell me, ‘get educated. There is nothing better than getting educated,’” she remembers.
“When you help people, when you grow your business and love what you do, you end up with these results without even realizing it,” Saraí has learned.
Today, Saraí is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and the co-founder of AVID Behavioral Day Program. Her second car was a Lexus. And she lives in Rancho Santa Fe.
The Dream Begins
Saraí was six when she came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Her dream was to go to college.
She began cleaning houses with her mother at 12 years old. Even then, she worked hard to earn her own money so she could buy the things she wanted. “Anytime I wanted something, there was always a goal.”
She remembers her childhood in Escondido. “There were a lot of gangs, a lot of teen pregnancies.” Her 7th-grade teacher told her not to speak Spanish and said, “You’re not getting anywhere in life, so why should you go to college?”
Saraí responded, “I am going to high school, to college. I’m going to do something with my life.”
She is grateful to have been a member of AVID in high school. “I want to focus on the greatness of all these teachers who believed in me, who led me in the right direction,” she says.
Her AVID teacher even helped her fill out immigration paperwork. Not trusting immigration attorneys because her parents had been victims of fraud, Saraí did the paperwork herself. She became a citizen when she was 17, and she was able to attend Cal State San Marcos.
Meanwhile, she wanted to help people. “I was in the special education classrooms helping out,” she says. At Cal State San Marcos, some mentors connected her with resources and hired her to work with the College Migrant Assistance Program (CAMP). She later joined the Rotary Club, which she says protected and guided her.
Although she wanted to become a lawyer, law school was too expensive. “I stayed here at Cal State San Marcos, which was a blessing.”
A Family Matter
Saraí held 3 jobs throughout college and was married to a Latino who didn’t believe education was important. “While I was trying to push forward, he was trying to hold me back.” She told him, “My parents came here to give me an opportunity to be educated, be independent and self-sufficient. You will not take that from me.”
During her master’s studies in sociological practice and special education with emphasis on autism, Saraí had her son Carlos, who became her inspiration and greatest blessing. She stopped working to take care of him. But “being a stay-at-home mom was not me…I felt like I went to school for so many years…and the fact that I had to ask for money was horrible.”
After having worked with abused and neglected children, she faced abuse at home. She thought, “This cannot be the end of my story.” Eventually, she left her husband. “There was no way I wanted to raise my son in that environment.”
The hardest thing she has ever done was pack her things and leave with no money. But her dreams never died. She and her friend Lorena Maharaj decided to use their skills to give back to the community and created a program for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Launching AVID Behavioral Day Program was another financial challenge. “We needed $200,000, and I remember asking for money from my mom, from my dad, uncles, friends.”
Saraí and Lorena had to deal with permits and building contractors. They worked with an immigrant friend and got their own hands dirty building their first center. “We would be putting up the two-by-twos, and he would run the electrical and the plumbing.”
Together, the three of them got the business running. In two months, they had paid everyone back. “You have to be fearless,” she says. Today, they have five centers in the North County.
Latina Business Power
Saraí honors hard work. “I was a housekeeper, and I loved it, and I learned a lot from it. And now I’m a business owner. I employ over 300 people.”
She believes the focus should be on Latinos who are successful. “Low-skilled workers have children who are attorneys, doctors, amazing children who are now contributing to this society,” she says. “You have families who came here for this type of opportunity for their children.” She is also grateful that some nonimmigrant families helped her family when they needed it.
She urges other Latinas to follow their dreams and passion while helping others. You can find all kinds of people everywhere, she says. “Go with the kind of people you want to be.”
Saraí is now a successful businesswoman, and her perspective has changed. She moved to Rancho Santa Fe for the school district but later realized Carlos would do better at a private school. There, “it wasn’t about who has more, who has less? It wasn’t about the shoes you’re wearing, the backpack you’re carrying, or the car you’re driving. It was faith formation and serving people.”
In the end, she says, it’s not so much about where you live. It’s where we can be helpful, useful, and beneficial to our community.
Latina and Latino entrepreneurship shouldn’t just be a dream. To make it a reality, she urges others to donate to scholarships for Latinos and DREAMers and to offer mentorship, inspiring others. “I’m grateful for the people who helped me get here because you don’t get here by yourself,” she says. And she is giving back, supporting many local causes through the Rotary Club and other organizations and helping families through her business, AVID BDP.
AVID BDP works with children with autism, Down syndrome, and related developmental challenges, helping them lead fulfilling lives with dignity and purpose. “We take clients that have high-intense behaviors—physical aggression, property destruction, severe injury behavior where they hit themselves, bang their head on the wall, pull their hair, pull their nails, bite themselves, take their teeth out.”
AVID ABA Services is an applied behavior analysis (ABA) program working with children 18 months to 17 years old. AVID Behavioral Program is a day program working with adults with developmental disabilities.
The day program manages behavior and teaches some adaptive and independent living skills, with the help of caregivers and registered behavior technicians. The facilities organize activities Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–2 p.m., and some community outings.
AVID BDP has contracts with all types of insurance providers and with the San Diego Regional Center (SDRC). Need for these programs has grown so much that there is a 2–3 year-long waiting list for families whose child is diagnosed with autism. Saraí tells families to get onto every waiting list they can and to call every week about openings.
AVID accepts Medi-Cal, as do some other programs that contract with SDRC. “I encourage families with special needs kids to be the biggest advocate for their children and not to give up. Contact SDRC. Get on as many waiting lists as possible. Find community resources that support autism,” she says.
Saraí is grateful for her career in behavioral health. “It’s extremely rewarding being able to impact and improve the livelihood of the individual, the family, and the community,” she says.
Remembering Her Roots
Saraí will never forget her roots. When she started first grade, she couldn’t ask to go to the bathroom because she didn’t speak English. Today, she’s proud of her bilingualism. “I want to embrace my accent, my culture.”
She adds, “I’m an immigrant, and I know my struggles and my challenges.”
Saraí supports other immigrants. “Immigrants contribute to our nation, our community, and our lives; they a bring so much to us.” She tells her son, immigrants worked to give you “not only the apple you’re eating, but the house you live in and the cars you drive,” she says. “People are dying out in the fields to bring food to your table. People are falling off roofs because they’re building your homes.”
She adds, “Latinos and Latinas, you came here with a dream. Don’t let anybody take that away. Work hard and you will get there.”
