Asylum seeker Dora Rodriquez shares her story at Kalispell event

Dora Rodriquez was 19 years old when she nearly lost her life trekking through the Sonoran Desert to seek asylum across the United States border. 

A deadly civil war erupted in El Salvador in 1980, and Rodriguez, a leader of a civilian youth group in the country’s capital, grew fearful for her safety as the government began targeting similar groups, according to an Aljazeera report.   

“I was a happy kid in my country. I was always jumping around, playing in the rain, running around,” Rodriguez said to dozens of people gathered on Thursday evening to hear her story at the Northridge Lutheran Church in Kalispell. “Until the civil war came, and that changed our lives and our country.”