WEBVTT

00:01.049 --> 00:03.716
(dramatic echo)

00:09.045 --> 00:11.854
- I was born in Puerto Rico, San Lorenzo.

00:11.854 --> 00:15.192
And I say that with my heart on my hand.

00:15.192 --> 00:17.698
I would like to say I
was born in a hospital,

00:17.698 --> 00:20.085
but my mom gave birth
to me in a parking lot,

00:20.085 --> 00:22.380
(laughs) on the way to the hospital.

00:22.380 --> 00:24.909
So with that being said, my parents found

00:24.909 --> 00:27.292
that it was a struggle in Puerto Rico

00:27.292 --> 00:30.606
at a very early age, early eighties.

00:30.606 --> 00:33.114
So they went ahead and migrated to Chicago

00:33.114 --> 00:35.276
when I was six months approximately.

00:35.276 --> 00:37.979
I was raised in a rough side of Chicago,

00:37.979 --> 00:39.530
Illinois, towards Humboldt Park.

00:39.530 --> 00:42.447
I grew up in a working environment,

00:43.864 --> 00:44.697
like we can say we weren't rich,

00:44.697 --> 00:48.936
we weren't dirt poor,
but we had to struggle.

00:48.936 --> 00:51.230
I noticed at that time at an early age

00:51.230 --> 00:54.331
that if I wanted something,
I had to go for it,

00:54.331 --> 00:55.792
I had to do me regardless.

00:55.792 --> 01:00.090
So I went to high school and
I focused and I went all out.

01:00.090 --> 01:01.322
And when I say I went all out,

01:01.322 --> 01:04.484
while everyone in school was
wearing blue jeans and a polo,

01:04.484 --> 01:07.037
I was wearing blue dockers
and a buttoned white shirt.

01:07.037 --> 01:09.842
I met my wife then I told
her, from the beginning,

01:09.842 --> 01:13.203
this is what I want, this
is what we have to do.

01:13.203 --> 01:15.731
Life isn't perfect, it's not easy,

01:15.731 --> 01:17.486
and I can tell you the stories,

01:17.486 --> 01:19.306
but we're gonna live through this.

01:19.306 --> 01:21.662
You're gonna notice it's not easy.

01:21.662 --> 01:23.912
My wife came from a
comfortable home, I didn't,

01:23.912 --> 01:25.996
so I was trying to paint her that picture.

01:25.996 --> 01:28.876
At the age of 17 almost turning 18,

01:28.876 --> 01:31.050
I graduated at the age of 17,

01:31.050 --> 01:32.879
a little bit younger than others.

01:32.879 --> 01:35.169
I was being trained to fight fires,

01:35.169 --> 01:37.159
I was being trained to deal

01:37.159 --> 01:39.300
with combustibles and a
whole bunch of things.

01:39.300 --> 01:40.758
Things that wasn't normal

01:40.758 --> 01:43.708
for someone of my age that I found.

01:43.708 --> 01:46.420
And I was rather skinny, rather small.

01:46.420 --> 01:48.361
So again, I was struggling.

01:48.361 --> 01:51.392
I noticed that my marriage
was starting to take a toll.

01:51.392 --> 01:54.684
Luckily, I created a
foundation of my marriage.

01:54.684 --> 01:56.486
Like I said, my parents
who aren't perfect,

01:56.486 --> 01:58.723
but they told me and they
taught me the principles

01:58.723 --> 02:01.099
of relationship, of family, of hard work,

02:01.099 --> 02:03.074
and they said it was always forever.

02:03.074 --> 02:06.561
And that's something I've
installed in my marriage.

02:06.561 --> 02:08.256
I reached to compromise with my wife,

02:08.256 --> 02:10.139
we talked about it,
and said you know what,

02:10.139 --> 02:11.260
let's join the Air Force.

02:11.260 --> 02:12.594
And she's like, here we go again,

02:12.594 --> 02:13.947
so you're trying to leave my side.

02:13.947 --> 02:15.078
I'm like, no honey, you know,

02:15.078 --> 02:17.148
definitely you're gonna be coming with me.

02:17.148 --> 02:18.557
You know, wherever I
get stationed you'll be

02:18.557 --> 02:21.163
with me and we'll get through this.

02:21.163 --> 02:24.498
I get here, I get separated from my wife.

02:24.498 --> 02:26.271
We go to BMT, I go to tech school,

02:26.271 --> 02:28.434
I come here, I'm stationed here at Eglin,

02:28.434 --> 02:32.072
and I can honestly say it's
been a blessing in disguise

02:32.072 --> 02:32.905
while I'm here.

02:32.905 --> 02:35.106
In disguise, why, because
I'm away from home.

02:35.106 --> 02:36.832
Home is Puerto Rico for
me, but it's a blessing

02:36.832 --> 02:38.533
because I can honestly say,

02:38.533 --> 02:41.137
above all struggles
that I've gone through,

02:41.137 --> 02:46.137
I've been prepared for
something that's been so strong.

02:46.482 --> 02:48.337
Puerto Rico was hit with
a hurricane recently.

02:48.337 --> 02:51.986
It was hit with a devastating
hurricane that everyone knows.

02:51.986 --> 02:54.952
The structure of my
home, my family's home,

02:54.952 --> 02:59.148
where we grew up, is no longer
home, it's just a house.

02:59.148 --> 03:01.157
It's just a house because
the structure is still there,

03:01.157 --> 03:03.531
but the hurricane destroyed a window,

03:03.531 --> 03:05.477
destroyed a second window,
destroyed the doors,

03:05.477 --> 03:08.085
it wiped out everything and
anything inside the house,

03:08.085 --> 03:10.052
like it did to the rest of the island.

03:10.052 --> 03:14.252
So something that took my
dad, my mother over 50 years

03:14.252 --> 03:16.983
of earnings, of hard work,
of struggle to obtain,

03:16.983 --> 03:18.752
they lost it, they lost everything.

03:18.752 --> 03:22.381
But going back to what I said,
it's a blessing in disguise,

03:22.381 --> 03:25.696
I joined the Air Force,
I was able to progress.

03:25.696 --> 03:28.720
While I'm here, I was able
and blessed to buy a home.

03:28.720 --> 03:31.311
At that moment, at that moment
when the hurricane struck,

03:31.311 --> 03:32.711
the first thing that came to my mind is

03:32.711 --> 03:35.369
like my family isn't perfect,
but they're my family.

03:35.369 --> 03:37.743
I have this home, I have space for them.

03:37.743 --> 03:41.438
And they lost everything so
they came to live with me.

03:41.438 --> 03:45.438
And it wasn't easy, you
know, it was a struggle.

03:46.663 --> 03:49.440
Not only financially, emotionally,

03:49.440 --> 03:52.013
but we got through it, we got through it.

03:52.013 --> 03:54.371
And it got better, right?

03:54.371 --> 03:55.901
It got better like I always say and

03:55.901 --> 03:57.533
like I tend to say, if you fall,

03:57.533 --> 03:59.308
fall back because if you
look up you can get up.

03:59.308 --> 04:03.495
That's just something that
it's true and it's been proven.

04:03.495 --> 04:06.912
(uplifting piano music)