 escaping, spending a few years recuperating in Mexico, where he helped Guatemalans fleeing the Guatemalan Civil War travel through Mexico and reach the United States and get linked up with American sanctuary activists. Juan eventually reaches the United States himself, ends up applying for and getting asylum, a real rarity at the time for Salvadorans, and becoming a community leader and a public health advocate, first in LA and San Francisco, and then eventually in Washington, D.C.,