My Success Story
by Raymundo Rebollar
My name is Raymundo Rebollar. I was born in the state of Mexico. I
grew up with my parents and sisters. My parents worked in agriculture. They
sowed corn, beans, pumpkins, peanuts, etc. They had cattle, goats,
chickens, and pigs. I was very happy in the farm with my family,
until one day my father passed away when I was 9 years old. Three
years after my father’s death, my mother decided to move to a small
town called Bejucos. In this town I went to school for 3 and a
half years. I stopped my studies because my mother could barely
maintain us and there were occasions that I was not able to afford and
buy a notebook that cost fifty cents; for that reason I stopped going
to school. On September 9, 1968 I asked my mother permission to
leave to the United States. When I crossed to the United States
I suffered hunger and thirst. Tired and exhausted, my companions
and I walked for 4 nights and 5 days. On the fourth day, the man
who directed us along the way stopped at this place that he was familiar
with and asked for food. The people there gave him a loaf of bread. We
were 22 in total. The man leading the way and his brother each
got to eat half of a slice of bread while we got one slice of bread. We
all shared a 16 ounce can of beans. We continued walking until
we arrived to a ranch that the man was familiar with. In that ranch
we knew this American man who was happy to see our arrival. The
American man gave us food and shelter. That ranch was the last
place we were all together as a group for the last time. The following
day we all went to different places in the state of Texas.
When I began working I suffered a lot. In the first place, I did
not have any family members here and secondly, I was barely 16 years
old and the jobs they gave me were extremely hard for my age. But
with a lot of bravery I did what I could. Thanks to God I began
to meet nice people who offered and gave me support. The 70’s
were tough years for me because we were not be able to go out and even
wash our own clothes or even have a light turned on because the police
would come. They would come and start investigating you if you
did not have papers. If you did not have papers, the police would
send straight back to Mexico.
I always stayed in contact with my mother. After a year and half
of working in the United States I returned back to Mexico, but during
that year and a half that I was in the United States, I saved a lot of
money to build my mother a house. I repeated my trips back and
forth from Mexico to the United States. In 1985 I got married
with my wife and brought my wife and mother to the United States. We
lived in Austin. I have a family of 5 children of whom I am really
proud of. My oldest daughter in her second year of college and
my second oldest will be graduating this same year and will be attending
a university in San Antonio. My only son is in the eleventh grade,
my fourth daughter is in the ninth grade and the youngest of my daughters
is in the seventh grade. They all live with me right now. For me,
my children are the reason for me to live and keep on trying hard in
life because I love them so much.
My wife and I have a little boutique where we sell specialty clothes
for baptisms, communions and such. It is small but we have had
success running it. I am attending English classes at La FUENTE
Learning Center. I am in the advanced class. I have been
taking classes for three years. I feel like I have learned a lot
in those three years. I like to study and go to class. I
want to show my children that age does not matter if you really want
to learn. Like I said, I am very proud of my children and I want
them to be proud of me too. This is but a part of my life.
Thank you,
Raymundo Rebollar
La FUENTE Learning Center
2115 E. 2nd Street
Austin, Texas 78702
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