The life of Teresa de Jesús Fierro Pérez could have been lost along the way. However, she found a refuge. She cannot conceive her story without Casa de Jesús, a boarding school for girls in Ciudad Juárez where she grew up and was trained to face the challenges of each day.
A Refuge That Changed Her Destiny
Today, at 68 years old, Teresa is a retired teacher, has lived a happy life, and considers herself a successful woman. She raised two children, now married, and sees herself as a person with high moral values. She is also a writer, with one of her books titled “El Año del Renacuajo” (The Year of the Tadpole).
In an interview, she asserts that her life could have been dramatically different if she hadn’t arrived at Casa de Jesús as a child, along with her sister Silvia. They could have fallen prey to crimes or even become offenders. However, an institution rescued them.
She recalls that her family lived in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, where her mother became paralyzed. “My mother died when I was 10, my sister 13. My father, who had converted to Catholicism, moved us to Ciudad Juárez, to Casa de Jesús. I’m talking about the year 1968,” she recounts.
There, she encountered the work of the Catholic nuns of the Institute of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who, she says, cared for them as their own daughters. “For me, the Casa de Jesús boarding school was something wonderful, which arrived at the exact, precise moment, because my life was preserved from many dangers; my life was guided with many religious values and values that we human beings should possess,” she emphasizes.
Time has passed. Teresa now lives back in Casas Grandes but maintains a permanent bond with Casa de Jesús. Every “sister” who arrives as a manager seeks her out, recognizes her, and she makes herself available, as a way of giving back what she received.
“I have not stopped being at the forefront with the mothers, with the girls,” she says. Of the nuns who cared for her, she comments, only one still remains at the boarding school. “They are all my mother to me. That is my home. When you arrive home, you eat a tortilla with beans, you eat what there is. That’s how I arrive at the boarding school. I go into the kitchen, I go to the chapel to give thanks, to remember. In every girl, I see myself. And of course, I am very sentimental; tears always well up as I give thanks to God that I can still be there to help a little.”
Life Within the Boarding School
She remembers that in those years, the boarding school was a modest place, sustained in part by the work of the girls and adolescents themselves. There was an industrial workshop where they sewed and knitted sweaters for various schools in the city.
“In those days, we sewed, we knitted sweaters for Lina Zaragoza, El Teresiano, Teresa de Ávila, all the schools here; we worked a lot,” she says. There was also space for sports. “My best moments were playing basketball and swimming. We had a pool; those were the most fun and exciting moments,” she recalls.
At Casa de Jesús, she also found friendships that endure to this day. “I still have friends from that time,” she says.
At that time, there were two dormitories for a total of 60 minors, divided into groups of 30. The spaces rarely remained empty. If one girl left, another took her place. The need was constant: poverty, abandonment, lack of opportunities. “We have been very happy, but also thanks to my father who never neglected us. We were able to get to the boarding school. My life would have been something else if I hadn’t passed through Casa de Jesús,” she affirms.
A Work That Remains Relevant
Currently, the director of Casa de Jesús is Sonia Barrera, who explains that the first address of the boarding school in Ciudad Juárez was on Francisco I. Madero Street number 278, in the city center.
According to historical records, Mrs. Lupita Bermúdez, widow of José Montaño, expressed to Father Jesús Alarcón, parish priest of the Sacred Heart, her intention to support with her assets to found a space that would protect and educate girls, adolescents, and young women at risk.
Thus, on August 24, 1955, the first three nuns arrived: Julia Jaime Romo, as superior; María de los Ángeles Romo, and Raquel Álvarez Gómez.
The official inauguration of Casa de Jesús in Ciudad Juárez took place on August 22, 1956. On November 11 of the same year, Lupita Bermúdez, the first benefactress of the work, passed away, whose legacy-more than half a century later-remains relevant.
Source: nortedigital.mx
