I was born in San Jose, California in the late sixties and had a seventies childhood which saw me become a teenager in the eighties. Life in California back then was a lot different than it is now. In the past, the working class had more realistic opportunities for home ownership. I grew up in Santa Clara with five siblings. My Mother is from Mexico and my Father is from the East Coast. They bought a home and a rainbow VW van on one income. My mother was a stay at home Mom which was a necessity with six children. We were a large family with only my Dad's income so there was no money for luxury, only necessities and plenty of hand-me-down clothes but we never went hungry. There was always a pot of beans and homemade salsa and tortillas made from the magic of a loving Mexican Mother.

Like many other people who grew up in the same era, my parents divorced when I was a child. It was an ugly divorce that saw my Father abruptly leave the house and, just like that, my Mother was a single Mom who had to get a job. Being a single working Mom with six kids must have been totally overwhelming and I cannot praise her enough for all of her dedication and sacrifice.

Me and my siblings shuffled through our new post-divorce reality like perpetual sleep deprived orphans looking for shelter from a storm of sadness. The public schools we uneventfully passed through like ghosts, paid attention to our obvious mental and emotional struggles with as much compassion and attention as a blind dentist checking for cavities.

We were pushed through successive grades, promoted onto the next irrelevant grade with straight F's only to realize how meaningless it all was and decide to drop out, which was easier to do in a household with an absent Father and a stressed out working single Mother.

Drugs and alcohol took the place of history and math class. My distrust of adults grew to a perpetual state of rebellion, finding solace in music and movies and books. Before I knew it, years had passed and the only work ethic I excelled in was petty theft and addiction. Which was clearly an incessant cry for help.

After my brother killed himself in 1992, God held my hand and guided me through sobriety and I will forever be grateful that I was saved from the eternal darkness that was beckoning to me.

After getting clean and sober I slowly made my way into the real world of responsibility and accountability and discovered something that I lost years ago when I was a small child: Hope.

Since then, I was married and had four children and have never stopped working. Being without the luxury of a good education I relied on my wits and my hands to earn money. Some jobs were great, some horrible, but once you have children you can't stop working just because your boss is a sadist. You have to sacrifice all for your children and that's what I did. That's what I do.

Having children opened my heart up to a Love that I never knew existed, I never thought possible. I was given a new version of Love that made me capable of sharing it with everybody and seeing how much we are all the same.

Getting a second chance at life allowed me to carry over that new capacity to Love into my everyday life, especially with others, strangers or acquaintances, coworkers, and friends. We are all human and need to Love and be Loved.

That's what made me start paying attention to social issues and, unfortunately, politics. I hate injustice. It is the most diabolical symptom of corrupted human behavior. I started being more proactive with helping others as much as I could, in this sense. In the early 2000's, I became a union steward while working at AT&T. I finally found a cause to put my energy and Love for others into that directly fought injustice, and provided help. I found a way to serve others and I really felt the importance of my work, not the importance of me, but my work. There is nothing more rewarding for me than helping and serving my fellow human beings.

I served as a union steward, officially and unofficially since and have looked for ways to expand my ability to help to a macro level.

Clearly, the current state of politics is horrendous. It is comparable to a low budget comedy horror film with interchangeable B-list celebrities and a group of directors intent on driving the audience totally and completely mad.

I have decided to try to help bring positive change instead of doom scrolling wasted hours and complaining. No, I was not privileged enough to attend an Ivy League college or any college for that matter, I am not a millionaire or billionaire and have never owned my own business (I have had plenty of side hustles though), I am not related to any members of congress, and have no familial connection to anybody anywhere in politics. But as we have all seen over and over again, none of those things make you qualified for office. There are very few natural born leaders and most are not in politics.

I am a good leader but only because of my compassion for others. You can't be lead by someone who doesn't care about you, who doesn't Love you. It never works. It will almost always turn into an abusive relationship. Which is where we are at, currently. Contact me for any reason and I will respond.

Vote for me. Write in my name. What have you got to lose?

Me and my siblings (and the rainbow VW Van), circa 1977

My maternal Grandparents from Sonora, Mexico. The older I get the more I look like my Grandpa.

Me and my Beautiful Mexican Mother circa 1973

Me and my rebellious misfit brothers circa 1985

Me, a couple of years ago after getting a haircut and realizing I am aging quickly so I better get evidence of a time when I was halfway decent. Why so serious?