All his life, three words meant more to him than any others he heard or read before them: honor, courage and commitment.
Although he can’t articulate just exactly why those words shaped his life, Phoenix resident, Dreamer and political operative Tony Valdovinos defies the odds and defines an experience uniquely Mexican-American.
Mr. Valdovinos bleeds red, white and blue.
“By the time I got into high school, I knew I wanted to join the Marine Corps. as my family and I learned very early on I wasn’t the valedictorian student,” he said. “At the time, I was very into weight lifting, and a lot of my life revolved around getting stronger — for me, it was mostly about survival.”
Growing up in south Phoenix, Mr. Valdovinos lived a uniquely American life complete with neighborhood schools, friends and working in the family business.
But Mr. Valdovinos lived a life with a potentially devastating underlying truth: He had reason to believe it was likely he was, in the blind eyes of law enforcement, an undocumented immigrant.
“From the beginning, I never really had the same experiences as others,” he said of the underlying truth of his immigration status.
“My dad was the only one who worked. We struggled our entire lives, but it is how we were raised and, for me, it was very important to be with my father. But I was forced to witness my dad get significantly hurt on the job, at the worksite.”
It was during those hard, laborious hours on construction job sites searching for long-buried utility lines Mr. Valdovinos dreamed of something more.