'My story is about the word hope' — Newcomer from Mexico shares story of renting in Calgary's northeast

"My story is about the word hope," said Ivan Limas.

"Because we come from a very hard environment in Mexico right now. Even though my wife and I were teachers, it was really hard to be safe there. We came here. We found hope. We found kindness within the community."

Limas documented his story in photos for CBC Calgary this year as part of a focus on renting. We signed up Calgary residents — from across the city — and they worked with us to explore this common and little documented aspect of city living. 

Their photo exhibit is free for public viewing at the Brookfield YMCA in Seton starting this week.

Limas took his camera with him to the three jobs he was working at the time — a patchwork of employment cobbled together to pay for the welcoming two-storey home his family secured in the northeast neighbourhood of Taradale.  

Here is his story. 

"I moved from Mexico to Canada because the inside Mexico, the real Mexico, it's unsafe. Dangerous. We got our house robbed twice. My car was stolen once. And well, we have to be scared, like, the whole time."

"Even if my kids' school is two blocks away, you have to take them or drive them there. And when they finish school, you have to be there 10 or 15 minutes before because you're afraid someone will kidnap her. And that's your reality there."

Both Ivan and his wife, Alejandra Enriques, worked as elementary school teachers in Mexico.

But he worked labour jobs in the United States during the school breaks to learn English, and retrained as a butcher so they could come to Canada as skilled immigrants. He came first, arriving three years ago in Trochu, Alta.

It was a warm welcome from the family who owns the Trochu meat-packing plant.

"I knew Canada was a really good place but still your heart struggles a little.… But right after I came in April 2019, I would say one week after, I called my wife. I told her sell everything. Sell the house, sell the cars and come."

She came. And it was good, perfect for a while. But the family wanted more.

After two years, they left Trochu for Calgary, hoping their daughter Maria will eventually attend university in the city.

But Calgary isn't like Trochu, says Limas.

"I thought that if I had a job here I could make it, and I was wrong. Even though the city has a lot of better things, it can be expensive, too. Real expensive. All the jobs I applied for, they were paying only the minimum wage."

"Until I got the right jobs, we struggled. We were behind a couple months and the landlord got mad. I had to call mom back in Mexico."

"It was supposed to be backward but I had to call her a couple times requesting money."

Limas documented his life in photos for two months. Then CBC Calgary stopped by for breakfast one Saturday morning to ask his family what they thought about it.

Enriques is learning English and cleaning houses with Limas. She dreams of working in child care and opening her own restaurant.

Maria and Emilio are in school.

Emilio sorts through the pictures on the dining room table. 

"I think this is my favourite one because I'm walking with my dad to school," he said.

As for which captures her experience of life in Canada, Maria points to a different photo.

"Maybe it's this one because we're together," she said. "It's my mom and I; we're in the kitchen. It's always the four of us. I think this one captures it the best."

She listens to old Spanish songs on her cellphone when she's lonely. 

Limas says he got a new job recently doing traffic control for a construction company, so things are looking up. Now he just has two jobs.

"So I'm with traffic control overnight. We start at 6:30 p.m. and we finish around 7 a.m. I come and take a shower and coffee, light breakfast, and then we go clean and usually we are home before noon.

"So that's another shower and quick nap. I have like four or five hours of sleep every day and I'm OK with that. Weekends, I'm in school. So that's from 8 to 4 Saturday and Sunday. And that's pretty much my schedule now."

They're happy in the house they found. It has space for a barbecue and trampoline in the back. It's furnished half from finds on Facebook Marketplace, half from freebies people gave them. They might search for something smaller and cheaper, Limas says. But it's all part of dreaming and rebuilding something here.

"Hopefully with this new job, I think I'm going to be able to save a little more money," he said. "But I always have this thing about giving them (his family) better than what they had then. We had a decent house back in Mexico."

Turn the lens on Renting

Check out photos from all 10 community photographers in the lobby at the Brookfield YMCA in Seton during the month of October.

The exhibit moves to the Genesis Centre in November. Read more at cbc.ca/renting.