PART OF MY STORY:
My journey coming to America is a trip. Like many of you know I wasn't born here in the states. When I was about 8yrs old my parents, invited by a drug lord from southern california during that time, decided to make the journey and cross the border. I remember coming over was not too long after my confirmation. Because I wore the white outfit I used for my confirmation and usually you just get rid of those clothes after confirmation, I had a white polo shirt and white bell bottom pants. We got on a plane in Colima City to Tijuana were we were picked up by my uncle rafa and his wife. From there we went to this raunchy hotel. Which was used to hide immigrants until their coyote came to get them across the border, it had secret exits in the back, and the rooms had at least four ways to exit, just in case you had to do this. Well, we were suppose to wait for a guy that was going to pick us up. I think we were there for two days. The first day we tried crossing, we failed. Appearently, the coyote that showed up wasn't the guy that was going to get us across. He was just some dude trying to make a quick buck off of whom ever, and I kind of knew that. This guys breath smelled like liquor. I knew it wasn't the style of the people who were getting us across, he was dirty and had low dignity. All of this made sense after afterwards, becuase we got detained by the TJ police twice. And we had to pay them off with a good chunk of money. Well, it seemed a lot to me at the time.
The second day, early in the morning, someone in his early thirities shows up at our hotel door, and told us he was sent by Chuy, which is my moms brother. I remember he was wearing a burgandy, windbreaker suit and running shoes. Hair was slicked back and a gold chain around his neck. He reminded me of Manny from Scarface. We took a taxi to the ouskirts of TJ. Then we went down this dirty hill, crossed the freeway and walked along the long fence. I remember a lot of benders. People were selling tacos, tostadas, candies, sodas, all kinds of goodies.
After that, I remember walking across a field, I remember hiding from a helicopter. After the field, we were going through this green bushy area, we passed three guys sitting by a creek that were lost, like many people they didn't get a coyote who knew the way so they got lost. Then, we ended up behind a row of warehouses. As I remember, it looked like we were behind a plaza, imagine how the back of all the stores would look like. No division between the wall, just a door that leads to the particular store and a garbage dumpster. After walking for a couple minutes, two young guys came rushing asking us if we wanted a ride. Our tour guide agreed and paid them off. They put us in a brown chevy van with no windows and drove us passed all the warehouses. Then we got dropped off at a parking area. We got into our tour guides car, which was a like metal brown mercedes. It was a nice car. I remember my mom sat in the front passanger side and me and my dad sat in the back.
From there we got driven to Ontario were people were waiting for us.
And like promised, my dad got a job working for this drug lord. We moved in with my uncle at first, whom lived on the ranch owned bt this guy, after my uncle and aunt moved out and we stayed at the house. We lived on the ranch and kept watch after it, my dad took care of some of the animals on the ranch. They had horses and fighting cocks. Since, my dad knew got to train fighting cocks, his main job was training the fighting cocks and making sure they were healthy and in good condition to fight. This guy also, owned a construction company where my dad would get extra hours it he needed to. This guy would buy homes remodel them and sell them. Everytime this happened my dad would put in extra hours doing construction. Thats what I remember about my dads job. My mom cleaned homes for his associates wives.
I loved living at the ranch. It was my second experience being around drug dealers. And when I say drug dealers I don't mean your local guys hanging out on the corner selling dimes and nickles. I mean big time. These guys were the ones that received shipments coming from the south and enjoyed profit that came from it, and they sure knew how to do it. Cars, clothes, their houses it was easy to tell who was banking in the doug. I remember the guy we worked for. He had a big house were he spent most of his time which was near the ranch. The house had a big swimming pool. And he had some cool cars that he kept there. He had a corvette, a ford short box truck and an old but well maintained chevy. All of them black.
Back in Mexico, I remember going up into the mountains to take food every once in a while to guys growing marijuana. These guys were not dressed up nice or drove nice cars. They did have a lot of fire power. They also had horses but no cars. The first time I saw a field of it, it was amazing to me. Luscious green leaves, it was pretty. Over in the states, I didn't see much drugs. But I knew what was going on. I remember seeing heroin for the first time. It looked like black clay.
My life there at the ranch was waking up in the morning to help feed the animals. Which were alot. About 500 fighting cocks and like 40 horses. I went to schoool, came back and went to ride horses all afternoon until it started getting dark. That was my life every day. On the weekends, there would always be parties at the ranch. My dad and my brother, build a lienso charro. Which is a rodeo Mexican style. All these guys would come and compete with each other, other times they would have cock fights. Most of them were part of the same organization. There was one time two guys were betting like 5 grand on a cock fight. And it wasn't only Mexicans that came. There was one Italian guy who was connected. Everyone, reffered to him as el italiano, And just one time I remember some guys that were like middle eastern. They had those rags they wear on their heads. I remember all these nice trucks showing up. Mexican drug dealers have a thing with trucks.
But one thing that I remember that was significant, was that I was liked a lot by all of them and I remember looking up to them. I remember getting advice from them as well as money. Kind of like the white dude from "Good Fellas" or the Itialian kid from "A Bronx Tale." Life was good.
This was my life when I first came to the U.S. I went through some racial experiences. I remember getting punched by this black kid, but it might of been by accident. And I also remember being called beaner and wetback, even by some of the Mexican-American kids. That was the worst, being put down by my own race, Crespo talks about this. But it didn't affect me much because I had a certain confidence. I felt I had power behind me. And I did.
I remember standing out by the entrance of the ranch with a friend of mine and one of the muscles. While were standing out there one of the older kids that teased my friend and I, walked by. I remember saying something about this kid bothering us at school. And the kid said something back. And flipped us off. The muscle guy(i don't know what else to call him) walks across the road and beats the crap out of this kid. Now, the muscle was problably in his early twenties.
After being in California for a while. My dad decided that it was time to move again. At the time another brother of mine was living in Washington state. So, after knowing about the job opportunities in Washington state, we decided to make the move and go live with my brother and his familiy. We landed in Moxee Washington. Not too far outside of Yakima. While my parents were working in the orchards moving around from crop to crop. I was attending school at East Valley Central in Moxee. My parents would follow the crops in between Yakima and Walla Walla. I remember every time they got to Pasco I would end up moving in with my aunt in Pasco and attend school there. That was my life as a school kid, son of immigrant workers. Another part of my life was my training as a bill collector for a drug mob. I didn’t realize this until my junior year in high school. The same brother I talked about during living in California was doing drug business up and down the west coast. Everytime, someone would not want to pay for the drugs they recieved in eastern Washington I would go and talk to them and encourage them to pay up. I never had to hurt anybody. Everytime I had to do this, I had a couple mean looking guys who would intimidate the buyers (mental thought: I wonder if I can put that on my resume; Sergio Castaneda-bill collector). This part of my life went on since Junior high all the way until my late teens. I knew the business and knew all my brother's buyers. Being intimidating and able to speak both English and Spanish. Plus, I was family. All these made me the perfect candidate for the job.
In 1994, after moving around following the crops my parents moved into Vista Hermosa, a Christian community developed for the employees of First Fruits of Brotje Orchards. Both my parents decided to move in and live there. They were both hired year round and I like it because we had some stability. In ‘95, I began attending Jubilee Christian Academy. It was my first experience within a Christian environment.
I accepted Christ in 1995, the first year I began attending Jubilee Christian Community. But I didn’t make a concious decision to follow Christ until 5 years later. I attended Jubilee all the way until graduating high school. After graduation I moved out of my parents home and began attending Columbia Basin College. And my life took a wrong turn. Here I was on my own away from Christian community living my life and not doing anything else. I was older and away from my parents. I started getting more involved with all the drug scene. Thats how I lived my life for two years. At some point, after having walked away from any type of Christian Influence. I crossed paths with one of my Jubilee teachers. His name is Phil Bullard. After year of teaching at Jubilee he was fired and moved into Pasco the city that I had mentioned early which was were I was attending college. All in Gods plan me and phil to see each other and it didn’t take many minutes before he invited me to his church the next day. To which I gladly reply yes. For the next six month or so. I was attending West Side Presbyterian in Richland Washington. And at the same time trying to go to school and do my drug stuff.
At some point I began getting convicted about the things I was doing. I knew it was wrong and I had already been talking to God about the way I felt. Not too long after that, I get a vision. And I don’t like saying vision, cause i’m not worth it. But thats what it was. As it matter of fact It wasn’t just one it was two.
In the first one God showed me my life where I had been in the last few years and where I was headed. So, then I understood what had happened and where I went wrong. So, I prayed and asked God what he wanted me to do with what He showed me. The second one was about starting some type of place. It was God's answer to the my question. A half way home for lack of a better name. A home for high school graduates. Who would be interested in achieving a higher education, who love God and have a heart to serve. Who know there is something more then what we see and would be willing to let go of themselves and let God. So, I had the second vision and I didn’t know what to do with it. Not too long after that, I got a call from Rudy Carrasco and Derek Perkins. Both urban pastors in Northwest Pasadena, Southern California who run Harambee Christian Family Center. They call and get me on speaker phone. They ask me whats going on and I unload all the things going on with me. And I share with them what God had been showing me. And I tell them I had to get my life back no track, I wanted to finish school and learn about ministry. They both invite me to come down and serve with them and learn from them as much as I could. So I did, and moving to California was one of the best moves I’ve ever made.
I’ve been able to get my life back in order and pointed in the right direction, I’ve learned a lot about youth ministry and i’m still trying to finish school. I’ve gonne throug(spll?) a tremendous amount of urban ministry and dicipleship training. The experience has been very rewarding.
I’ve lived here in Pasadena since January 2000. In my time here at Harambee I’ve done interships with Phil Jackson and Wayne Gordon out of Lawndale Community Church in Chicago Illinois and Jason Johnson and the Northwest Neighbors Ministry. I’ve visited a large number of ministries accross the country and build strong connections with several universities, ministries and churches around the country as well. At the present time. I’m working for harambee as a do it all. I would say i’m like an intern youth worker. I live in the ministry house and host workgroups that come to the center. I tutor the third and fourth grade class in our afterschool program and do ministry outside of that with the families in our community. And on Sundays I take kids to church with me. Thats kind of what I do. And go to school at the same time. I also fundraise to be able to stay here and continue to go to school.
My next goal is to finish school. My desire is to be a professional counselor.
Funny story about counseling. I've always wanted to a be a counselor. I was looking back at my life. And I remember my first counseling session was during all my drug adventures. I got a call at one time from one of my brothers buyers that her boyfriend had take the drugs so I grabbed one of my guys and headed out to her house. She lived in a trailer park in Benton. We got there and I noticed that she was pregnant. We came in and she was real paranoid about the situation. Appearntly her boyfriend had takem the drugs she had gotten from us and wasn’t willing to give them back to her. Which was like 5000 dollars worth. She was real upset so I asked her for some water and got her to sit on the couch with me. She started sharing about the baby she was expecting and her issues with the babies daddy. About 30 minutes later we hear a car pull into the driveway. She looks out the window and sees its her boyfriend. As soon as she said it was him. My guy without me telling him anything pulls out his gun and gets behind the door. As soon as the guy and an uncle that was with him walk inside, my guy pushes the door shut and starts telling them to sit down. At the same time the girl is like get him, get him. I’m like no, calm down. The boyfriend is freaking out, he pulls the eight ball out from one of his pocket and throws it on the coffee table. I finally get everyone to have a seat. And we began talking about what is going on between them. The boyfriends starts saying that he took the drugs because she was gonne use them and he was afraid for the baby. So, I start talking to her about the danger of her using drugs while pregnant. So, that night I had a drug, marriage and relationships session with these people. It was serious at the time. Now, I’m able to laught about it.
I want to finish school and go back to washington state and take everything I’ve learned in college, ministry and life in general, all my connections and friendships. And do the same thing in Pasco Washington under the umbrella of the Center for Sharing. Maybe take a group of people and start a community of Christians whom would be willing to serve God in Pasco with me. Thats is the direction that i’m headed right now. I’m sure God knows better about all this than I do. And until He directs me in a different direction this is the way I’ll be heading.
