Roxy Hernandez

In 1983, Roxy Hernandez and her sister emigrated from El Salvador, after their mother became concerned that women were going to be recruited to fight in the country’s civil war.

“I didn’t see much of the armed conflict; we would just hear things,” she said.

Hernandez has lived in Aurora for about 13 years. But she first immigrated to Arkansas, where she had a hard time adjusting to a new diet, because much of it consisted of canned food.

“It’s like, ‘How can people eat this so often for a meal? It’s not a meal,’ ” she said. “So it was kind of tough getting used to the different tastes.”

Now, Hernandez, 54, runs a catering company — Angelitos de Cuscatlan — as well as a cultural dance company, Eco Folklorico Cuscatlan.

“I started this cultural dance group because in no cultural event did I see any Salvadoran roots, so I thought why not? Someone needs to start,” she said.

Preserving her cultural heritage has always been a concern for Hernandez, who said she hesitated when she first became eligible to apply for citizenship.

“I was still so Salvadoran that in my head, I was renouncing that, I was losing my roots,” she said.

However, after many conversations with family, Hernandez eventually changed her mind.

“My relatives’ questioning kind of did it,” she said, “but I also saw things going on in this country that I thought, well, if I become a citizen, I can vote and have a say.”