Tom Whitehurst

A statistic we see in the mirror

Evidence that the Hispanic middle class grew 80 percent in the past 20 years is all around us. It is a statistic that we have lived.
   The recent finding derived by the Tomas Rivera Institute from census statistics reminded me immediately of several high school classmates. One now owns a Ford dealership in McGregor, near Waco. One is a successful petroleum engineer in Alice. One has prospered in oil and gas leases. One was involved in the making of what is now Qwest Communications. And none were exceptional students in high school.
   I can't think of any who haven't outdone their parents, haven't provided abundantly for their own children, haven't set an example for the next generation.
   Neither can Marco Arredondo, who grew up in a low-income household in San Benito, among low-income Hispanic classmates, and graduated from high school in 1976, one year after I graduated from Carroll High School.
   "I was trying real hard to think, Who went the other way in this economy?" said Arredondo, an engineering consultant who is a director representing five states on the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce board. "I couldn't think of any."
   The classmates he has seen prosper were not good students in high school. Their college academic records were much better, he said.
   One high school C student is now in charge of an engineering department with Texas Instruments. One friend who spent much of his youth chain-smoking and driving around in his car is now in charge of security for 36 car dealerships in Dallas, and has a business on the side.
   "The guy who was actually a thug in school and used to beat me up became a teacher," Arredondo said. "He's wearing suits and is clean-shaven. He's, like, born again."
   Working young and often
   Arredondo recalls a youth spent mowing lawns, picking cotton and vegetables, throwing newspapers, painting houses, roofing and any number of other odd jobs, as early as elementary school.
   "That was our pastime activity, raising money. The one thing that we all had in common is, really, none of us had any money. We were first-generation graduates, all of us, when we came out of college."
   College in Kingsville, 100 miles away seemed a world away.
   "If it's one thing I can tell you about our generation of Hispanics, it's that we all stuck together, even if it was out of ignorance. Leaving town was like a trip to Europe. I went to Texas A&I because my older brothers went there.
   "I was afraid to go to UT because it was too far away. My mother was terrified. She said, go where your brothers can take care of you. I went to A&I because it was safe, where my brothers were, and I was naive."
   Choosing a major
   So naïve that when he told school officials he wanted to major in engineering and they asked, what kind of engineering, he learned for the first time that there was more than one kind. He asked that they look up the kind of engineering his older brother had chosen, and it turned out to be electrical engineering.
   "And that's why I'm an electrical engineer today.
   "Now, the next generation, they're going to MIT, Notre Dame. They're all going out of state now because of the grant programs and the scholarships. That's what our kids are doing now. The parents aren't having heart attacks because their kids are going so far away."
   We've all heard the bootstrap stories about the Henry Cisneroses and the Condoleeza Rices who succeed in this world because they are overwhelmingly gifted. But what's inspiring to Arredondo and myself about the people we've seen succeed is that they are like us - maybe smarter, maybe not, but if so, probably not by much, unless they kept it a secret in high school.
   Then again, it's no secret to those who have gone car shopping in McGregor.
  
  

---

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

---

  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.