Ariel was hoping for a fresh start when he arrived in San Francisco nearly nine years ago.
Ariel grew up in Tekax, a small town in the Mexican state of Yucatán. His lifestyle — drugs, parties and long nights — didn’t keep him from working or hiding his addictions from his parents. By 27, he was already the director of Tekax’s water program. But his habits did begin to weigh on him.
“My life started to derail. I thought that by changing my life completely — the friends, the city, even the language and the country — I could leave those habits behind,” Ariel said in Spanish about his decision to leave Tekax…