Written by: Robert L. Santos, Director

Chapter 2

This blog post is the second in a series on Hispanic Heritage Month.

In my last blog I recounted my fateful encounter with a prickly pear cactus and how that helped me later in life to be true to myself as I explored my identity. Today I’ll share with you more about the genesis of my ethnic identity.

Believe it or not, my journey of identity commences before I was born!  The lives of my abuelos -- my grandparents -- played an enormous role in my identity.  A milestone occurred about a half a century before I was born with a special journey taken by my grandparents to my place of birth: San Antonio, Texas. 

Here is a picture of my grandparents and their growing family.  We see my dad (Raul) who’s atop that way-cool tricycle, my uncle Juan Jose, Jr. (Johnny), and my Aunt Consuelo (Connie) in the stroller.  My grandparents would have two more daughters.    

Like many families in their generation, my grandparents fled Northern Mexico to avoid the violence of the Mexican Revolution in 1910.  My grandparents set their sights on San Antonio, Texas. My grandfather quickly found a job tending to one of the greenhouses at the Brackenridge estate in San Antonio.  Anyone from San Antonio knows Brackenridge Park – they’re the same family.  This picture was taken in front of a house on the estate grounds in an area known as Alamo Heights.

My grandparents came to San Antonio by simply crossing the Texas‐Mexico border sin papeles. They were refugees. Both of my parents were second-generation immigrants, born in San Antonio, which makes me a third-generation immigrant.