Valente Rodriguez Visits Southwest Key Program In McAllen
You may recognize Valente Rodriguez‘s face from his role as Ernie on the sit-com George Lopez where he played George’s lovable, goofball best friend. Many people don’t know that Rodriguez is from one of the poorest regions in America— the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. For the second year in a row, Rodriguez made a trip back to the Valley to speak to youth and parents in Southwest Key’s Wrap-Around Program in McAllen.
Valente was born and raised in the small town of Elsa, Texas located just down the road from McAllen and a short drive to the Mexican border. Southwest Key Wrap Around Program Case Worker Giovanna De Leon, who coordinated Rodriguez’s visit, reports that he spoke to a group of adjudicated youth, ages 13-17, about his experiences coming from a poor, migrant family who picked watermelons. His brother was convicted of manslaughter and is spending 16 years in the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. Rodriguez described how his brother would tell him from behind the plexi-glass window that “making an ‘A’ in Math or English was much easier than spending one day in Huntsville.”
Rodriguez also has a sister who ran away at 15, had her first kid at 16, and had five kids by the time she was 22 years old. Despite coming from a family where the odds were stacked against him, he made a decision, “I am not going to [work in the fields] the rest of my life.”
Valente knew education was the key, and since the family was poor, he qualified for much financial aid. He was able to go to college and graduate from The University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg. Rodriguez told our kids that now is the time to change because they still have time to turn themselves around.
“My biggest obstacle as a Hispanic was believing I couldn’t do it because the people on the TV, they did not look like us,” he told the group. The theater department head of The University of Texas-Pan American, Marian Monta, gave him $2000 out of her own pocket after he graduated to help him get to Los Angeles.
Rodriguez answered questions from the group and took a photo with each client who wanted one. He even took time to speak with each person on a on-to-one basis if they chose. All clients will receive a print of their photo with him.
Rodriguez thanked Southwest Key for inviting him and we thank him right back! Kudos to this great guy who has consistently made an effort to visit the Valley and give back any way he can.
