Henry Berganza didn't know he was glimpsing the future when he took a casual snapshot of his family.
They were vacationing in El Salvador when their trip turned arduous — beset with car problems, money woes, and other obstacles. Berganza, his wife, her mother and sister, and the couple's two children pulled together to make it back home to Guatemala.
Berganza says the experience foreshadowed another difficult trip the family would make later when they fled Guatemala for Northern Kentucky.
"The very curious thing is, the same six people came," Berganza says about their immigration to the United States six months ago. "I think [the photo is] like a premonition of this journey."
The snapshot and the Berganza family's story will be among about 30 lining the Purple People Bridge this fall.
They're part of a FotoFocus exhibition called "More Than Meets The Eye."
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The community storytelling initiative A Picture's Worth is currently putting it together. Executive Director Elissa Yancey says it's a good way to broaden peoples' ideas about immigration.
"There are a lot of narratives about immigrants and refugees that are in headlines," she says. "We understand that those aren't complete stories and that there's a lot more to the immigrant experience and the refugee experience than people are being exposed to."
Berganza's wife was a prosecuting attorney in Guatemala. She tried cases involving government corruption. Some of the people implicated in those cases recently gained more power.
"These people have taken control of the country, and so our family feels that it is in danger," he says.
So they fled, seeking asylum in the U.S. and ending up in Latonia.
Kentucky Refugee Ministries has been helping put together the Fotofocus project.
The Ministries' Jarret Lopez says one key part is the storytelling around the photos. Each picture will be accompanied by a QR code that links to audio of people like Berganza telling their stories, with translation when necessary.
"Whatever voice they felt the most comfortable using," Lopez says. "Whether that's the language they grew up speaking in their country of origin, or some who chose to do their interview in English. And some jump back and forth, we've seen."
Another exhibition participant, Muhamed Hassan, fled his native Syria for political reasons.
"When your country is in a crisis, you lose some people who are really close to you," Hassan says. "Maybe you've known them since Year One in your life. We had some problems there with some hotshots in the government. We had to flee the country."
Hassan and his siblings haven't all been together for more than two decades because of the political climate in Syria. When one died two years ago, Hassan lost the chance to make a long-held wish come true: taking a picture with all of them together. But he's hopeful for the future. He's contributing a photo of his three children holding hands.
"I'm happy that I had the chance to take at least one photo where they are together physically," he says. "Because I don't have that photo of me and my siblings. We never thought we might not have the chance to take it together."
Hassan and Berganza are two of four immigrants serving on an advisory board for the project. Project organizers wanted people who have lived the immigration experience to steer the exhibition's theme. The board insisted on an uplifting message emphasizing resilience. That, Yancey says, was a great idea.
"They guided us in a very different direction," she says. "They said 'No, we want to share photos of peace, photos of hope, photos that show the resilience of our communities and our families.' "
Berganza was a web developer in Guatemala. Now he's working to get the certifications he needs here. Hassan says despite the struggles, he's settling in nicely to Northern Kentucky, which in some ways reminds him of home.
"First time I put my foot here, in Park Hills, it strangely reminded me of my hometown. Same altitude, same greenness of the area, even the same design of the house. I'm like, 'They're building a replica of my hometown,' " he laughs.
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Work continues gathering stories ahead of the Fotofocus exhibition starting Sept. 10. A related exhibit about young immigrants will run concurrently at the Walnut Hills Library, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra will play a concert in October featuring music composed by immigrants.
Berganza says he hopes when it's all done, people walk away with a better understanding of his family and others who have had to make hard journeys to Greater Cincinnati.
"We are people who work, who care about our families, our neighbors, our cities," he says. "We want to share that. We want people to see we are like they are — good people."