MechSE alum first in family to graduate from college

Jonathan Cifuentes Barrios (BSME ’22) dreamed of attending UIUC since his immigration to Chicago in 2015. The Guatemala native, who completed his undergraduate studies this past December, is the first in his family to graduate from college.

“I had all of my hope in U of I,” Cifuentes recalled of applying to universities. “I knew that if I could get here, I could do anything in my life.”

Cifuentes grew up in Villa Lobos 1, which he described as a dangerous neighborhood. “Sometimes I would go to a local store and then thirty minutes later, I would hear that someone was shot there,” he said. However, he also had a rich extracurricular life, acting in plays and participating in poetry competitions. He is an accomplished marimba player and had the opportunity to perform for the president of Guatemala as a high school student.

Cifuentes’s mother, Violeta, originally from Finca El Recuerdo, El Tumbador San Marcos, worked long hours in a factory when he was a toddler. “My father has been out of the picture since I was three years old,” Cifuentes said. “There were people taking care of me while my mother worked and they finally told her, ‘If you keep working [away from the house], your son is going to die of sadness because he doesn’t eat anything.’”

As a compromise, Violeta began selling fruits and candies out of a cart on the street. She would park the cart outside Cifuentes’ school so that she could be near him.

“To other kids, we seemed like the poor family with no aspirations,” Cifuentes recalled. “I was the one whose mother was right there on the street selling fruit, and I had big dreams.”

When Cifuentes was 17, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. To make sure she would receive the treatments she needed, their family encouraged them to immigrate to the U.S. A maternal uncle was able to make arrangements for Cifuentes and his mother to move to Illinois.

“At the airport, I grabbed my mom’s hand and said to her, ‘Come with me so we can fulfill our life goals,’” Cifuentes said. “I was leaving everything behind, everything that I was.”

After years of intensive treatments, Violeta beat her cancer. Cifuentes started his college education at Wilbur Wright College and then transferred to UIUC. “U of I changed my life,” said Cifuentes, who is preparing to start a rotational program in power systems at Eaton Corporation in Wisconsin.

More than two dozen of Cifuentes’ relatives now reside in parts of the U.S., with some based in Chicago and many in California. Eight were able to attend his graduation ceremony on December 17, 2022, and many more travelled to Illinois to visit and celebrate over the holidays. Cifuentes hopes that his accomplishment will motivate more family members to pursue their dreams and studies.

“My cousin told me that she has encouraged her twin daughters to keep studying so they can go to college like I did,” he said. “I have also made it a goal to support [the daughter of my maternal uncle] so that she can finish college. Everything is changing in our family.”

Cifuentes credits his uncle, Manfredo Barrios, with helping to make his dream of attending UIUC a reality. “[My uncle] gave up a lot and spent a lot of time and money for me and my mom to come to the United States,” he said. “Thanks to God and thanks to him, I’m an Illinois alum and my mom is alive after cancer.”

With a world of possibilities in front of him, Cifuentes believes in remembering his heritage. “Some people wonder whether I care to remember the place I came from because it was really dangerous,” he said. “But I love Guatemala and I’m proud of where I’m from. Anywhere I go, I’m always going to tell people where I’m from.”