Pittsburgh became an unexpected refuge for Ivan Cordoba and Maria Paparoni when they had to flee their native Venezuela in 2017. Working respectively as an attorney and a judge, the couple enjoyed a comfortable life with their young daughter in their oil-rich homeland. But when Paparoni began resisting political pressures in her courtroom, the family faced escalating threats and harassment from corrupt officials. After Cordoba was kidnapped and severely beaten during a cross-country road trip, they decided it was time to get out. They joined a friend in Pittsburgh, where they planned to stay indefinitely — but after a few weeks they felt they could not return home. They abandoned everything and began piecing together a new life in a city once built by immigrant labor. Just a few years later, the couple were running their own roofing company, Pittsabana Contracting Services, and had settled into a spacious suburban home in Bethel Park.

Photo Credit: Jared Wickerham/Pittsburgh City Paper