NYC Edition: From Bryant Park

Bryant Park is calm at night. The lights of the surrounding skyscrapers keep the darkness out of the park. The scattered chairs are filled with people. Couples in intimate conversation, two girls taking pictures on the perfectly green grass, a flutist playing a sweet melody, and a man sitting next to the fountain engaged in reading his bible. The man with the Bible is named Wilmer Hernandez.

Hernandez is not a man who is fluent in English. His sentences are slightly jumbled, he struggles to find the right words in English to articulate what he is trying to say.

But one thing he is able to articulate, one thing he is sure of, is that "God is real."

He is a newcomer to the city. Hernandez has only been in New York City for three years working in a local restaurant. After living in El Salvador for 19 years of his life he came to Long Island, and shortly moved to the Big Apple when he was 24. "It's a good city," he says.

The most important thing to Hernandez however is God. While looking thoughtfully at his Bible he tells me, "I'm a Christian--I feel good because of God." His jumbled and soft spoken voice get lost in the sound of the lighted founded he is sitting next to but he keeps saying that God is what makes him happy and that God is good.

After asking Hernandez about how he came to be in New York he says "it's a long story," and that it is too difficult for him to tell because of his struggles with the English language. He struggles with trying to answer questions fidgeting in his chair, but he wants to be able to tell his story.

New York City is a place that contains the kinds of people who have depth, character, and are full of personality. People like Wilmer Hernandez have stories that the world needs to hear.