Deep Roots and Deep Faith

I was born and raised in a large Catholic family in San Antonio, Texas, by parents who understood the meaning of perseverance. My father immigrated to Texas from Santiago, Chile, at just 13 years old after his own father tragically passed away in a plane crash. My dad arrived in a new country without speaking a single word of English, but he built a life through sheer determination. My mother faced her own deep losses early on; her mom passed away when she was only five years old, and she was raised by her grandparents. They instilled in me a deep sense of faith and family.

My work ethic started early. At just 10 years old, my first job was pushing a hand mower around the neighborhood to cut grass to earn a few dollars. By the time I turned 12, I was riding my bicycle early every morning to deliver the morning newspaper, and I hit the streets again right after school to deliver the evening edition. I learned early on that if you want to see results, you have to show up, do the work, and be accountable.

The Family I Grew Up With

My Family /Mi Familia

Both of my parents are deceased and interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, honoring my father's service as a World War II Marine. I am the oldest of six children. Sadly, two of my brothers, Pat and Mickey, passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. My sister Nancy has been living in a San Antonio memory care facility for the past few years, and her health is rapidly declining. My other sister, a retired American Airlines flight attendant, now lives in Fort Worth. My youngest sibling, Brad, lives in San Antonio and has three sons, two of whom are married to wonderful Latina women. Brad serves as a Catholic deacon.

My Family Today

My wife's eyes still reflect the resilience built during a childhood of severe poverty in Juárez, Mexico, where she grew up in a home with dirt floors and a shared communal bathroom on the neighborhood street corner. Despite facing more than her share of disappointment early in life, she was happy and rose above those hardships to become the bedrock of our family. She moved to Guadalajara as a young woman for work and that is where we met, on a blind date set up my some mutual friends in Mexico City.

Her name is Norma Leticia Rodriquez Gomez de Wakely and she is the steady foundation I lean on—my woman, my woman, my wife.

We have 1 daughter and 2 grandsons. Our daughter's name is Kelly and her husband's name is Jason. Their boy's names are Casey and Sean. Both boys are men now. Casey is working with his dad in construction, Sean is a sophomore in college. They all live in Tennessee.

From Military Service to Faith- Based Community Organizing

After serving my country and receiving an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force, I immediately put my energy into fighting for working people. I joined the United Farm Workers’ Organizing Committee's historic grape boycott campaign. My pay: $5 a week plus room and board. It was there I met Dolores Huerta and it was she who helped me bring into focus my lifelong calling: standing up for individuals and communities who were being pushed to the margins.

Following my time working on the grape boycott campaign, I spent the following decade serving as a union organizer. First with the Service Employees International Union in Denver, then as an international organizer with the Office and Professional Employees International Union, traveling the country assisting local organizing campaigns, and finally as a Business Agent for an independent union in Milwaukee.

Seeking to ground my advocacy in deeper ethical principles, I left the labor movement to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary. My focus was on Liberation Theology, a Christian movement that follows Jesus's path by emphasizing that true salvation requires actively dismantling social, political, and economic oppression to achieve justice for the poor and marginalized. My seminary training led me into faith-based community organizing.

Grounded in my seminary training and the principles of liberation theology, my ministry has been defined by a commitment to servant leadership and the pursuit of justice for the oppressed. I began this journey as the Executive Director of Southern Lakes Communities Organized for Public Service, working alongside farmers in rural southern Wisconsin to help them secure bank financing for their farms, before returning to Texas to lead the Economic Justice Foundation in Austin. My work in Austin was recognized by the NAACP branch in that city, and they presented me with their annual Community Service Award for ensuring that local governments never ignored the voices of the marginalized.

A Lifetime of Care

Later in life, my wife Lety, and I, decided to take a step back from our often intense faith-based work and moved to the Pacific coast of Mexico, to Manzanillo in the state of Colima where we opened a beachfront jazz and wine bar called Viva Vino.

It was a wonderful chapter of my life, but when my mother’s health declined and she required hospice, we closed the business after 4 years without hesitation and moved back to San Antonio. We cared for her until her passing. That profound experience changed our lives. CHRISTUS Hospice was so impressed with us they asked if we would be interest in caring for other hospice patients by taking them into our home, and without hesitation we said yes.

Over the next 12 years, Lety and I took 84 military veterans or their family members into our home and cared for them until they passed. It was called Ann's Place after my mother. I served as hospice chaplain, cook and chief bottle washer. My wife provided direct patient care, and she is the hero of this story.

After a few years, in addition to continuing to operate as a hospice, we became a VA Medical Foster Home, a program designed to be an affordable, community-based alternative to a traditional nursing home.

Among those we cared for was our oldest, and most well-known patient, beloved World War II veteran Lucy Coffey, who at the time of her passing was the oldest living female veteran in the United States. Our home became a crossroads of history because of her; when Lucy turned 108, Vice President Joe Biden called our house to speak to her and wish her a happy birthday. At the end of their conversation, the Vice President invited Lucy to the White House to meet him and President Barack Obama. Lety personally escorted Lucy to Washington, D.C., to fulfill that historic meeting. We treated every single one of our 84 patients with that exact same level of honor, devotion, and absolute care.

The following year Vice-President Biden visited San Antonio to speak at a Veteran's conference and I took the opportunity to take Lucy meet him again but this time with his wife, Jill.

In 2021, my wife and I chose to close Ann's Place, and relocate to southern New Mexico to be closer to her siblings and extensive extended family in El Paso and Juárez. We chose Deming as our new home. I am running for Luna County Commissioner because every chapter of my life—from mowing lawns at age 10 to working on the grape boycott campaign for $5 a week, to answering White House phone calls and caring for veterans like Lucy Coffey in my home—has taught me how to listen to people. I will bring that same unshakeable, lifelong commitment to the residents of Deming and Columbus.