August 28, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Aron Marquez’s American Dream began with dirt under his fingernails and sweat in the fields. The work was grueling, but it taught him lessons he never forgot: discipline, endurance, and responsibility. Those same lessons paved the way for him to enter the oil industry, where he founded a company (Wildcat Oil Tools) that today generates over $100 million in annual revenue.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we're back with our American stories. Up next, we
have a classic American story, a classic immigrant story. Aaron
Marquez was born in a small town in northern Mexico.
Oh Heinaga. Here's Aaron to tell us his story.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My dad worked in the United States most of my childhood,
and mom had two jobs. You know, She'll work in
a local factory sewing Levi's mom work there in the morning,
and she'll come and pick us up from school and
fed us and then went back to work and worked
in a double shift.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
And she did that for as long as I could remember.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And my grandmother would come and babysit us until mom
got back from work. And that's what she did every
day growing up. My mom was such a incredible figure
for us. And it was very motivating to me to
see my mom, you know, work two jobs and have
four kids, and I mean, it was very it was
(01:15):
very difficult.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
And I would always tell her, I said, Mom, you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Know, when I grow up, you're not gonna have to work. Mom,
You're not gonna have to work. I'll promise you that.
And my mom would always just grab my cheek and
and she's like, I know you will, and I I said,
but work. There's nothing wrong with working hard. So she
would always tell me there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
With working hard.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But whenever you see your parents and do that, the
stuff that they sacrifice, it makes you appreciate the little
things in life, you know, that kind of shape the
way you look at things. We we all had a
conversation as a family and they decided to to move
to the United States. It was never explained to me
like a level of opportunity. It was more of us
(01:55):
being together because Dad missed out on so much. And
when I was in the second or third grade, that's
when all the conversations began, and honestly, that's something that
I didn't want. We never traveled anywhere. We never went
to camp, we never did anything. We literally just we
were just there, went to school summertime. It was no
different because Mom worked every day and Dad was in
(02:17):
the United States working. So I didn't know any better.
But what I knew is that I was comfortable where
we were. I didn't know anything.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I went to school, we played soccer, we played basketball, baseball.
The only thing that I did not like is Mom
having multiple jobs, and back then I resonated that so
whenever Dad and mom we're talking about moving to the
US and things like that. I was like, I asked Mom,
I said, well, you're gonna have to have two jobs
or're gonna have to have two.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Jobs mom, and she's like no, no.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So it took a while for us to even get
a some type of correspondence back from the immigration saying
that we're reviewed your application and everything. So we're finally
able to get a temporary VA to come to the US.
We moved to the US when I was eleven. So
we moved in with my unt and uncle. It was
(03:06):
six of us and we were sharing basically a room
and a half in this house. And we came in
into Odessa, Texas. We were there two days and we
left to Kyonosa, which is a town that everyone picks
onions and that's how they get paid.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
They pick you up at three.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
O'clock in the morning and they would charge us to
pick us up and bring us back. And you worked
there till about seven pm at night. And you do
it every day. It doesn't matter where it's Monday Sunday,
you do that. Every day. We worked twelve fourteen hours
and you're exhausted because the heat so bad and it's
one hundred and ten one hundred and twelve degrees constant
(03:48):
on your back. So my dad was able to find
a one of those pop up trailers, the small ones.
That's where we lived in the summer, my mom and
dad and my brother other that's what we worked out of.
And you know, my and and uncle would take care
of my sisters and during the week and we'll go
in there, in and out. But we worked all summer
(04:09):
picking onions. You know, as an eleventh eleven year old,
I kind of had different ideas of what I would
be doing with my time, but we needed to do
that in order for us to save money to buy
a house. Every time that we would do that, I
would think of my mom leaving the house early and
then coming and feeding us, then going back to work,
(04:31):
and that motivated me more like, Okay, if mom did this,
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna and I'm gonna be
good idea. So we picked onion saut summer. The back
of my neck was peeling so bad. It was terrible
because it gets so hot in the summer, one hundred
and ten degrees and.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I can't eat onions.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I can't even look at onions right now, so you
can imagine just because of the smell. And I'm pretty
fair skinned, so I would peel so bad. And I
remember just telling Mom and Dad and I said, I
don't want to do this again, but I'm gonna work
hard where we don't have to do this. We left
on a Saturday and school started on Monday, and they
(05:12):
gave us, you know, one hundred dollars to go buy
some back to school clothes, which I thought it was great.
And I remember seeing the first pair of Polo boots.
I was like, oh man, he's like, I want those.
And I asked how much they were. They were like
one hundred and forty something dollars. I was like, geez,
I got a hundred bucks. There's nothing I can I
can't even get close to that. But I was like,
(05:34):
I'm going to work hard to get those. I knew
exactly what I wanted. I want to go look at them.
I was like, maybe they're on sale or something. I
wanted those boots. So we go get dropped off at
the mall in Odessa and I go to Dillards and
I went and put boots on legwai as the first
time I ever heard of the term leyway.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But yeah, if you give me one hundred.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Dollars, you steal forty five dollars and you have sixty
days to get them out of there. So I went
back and met my brother at the food court and
my brother asked.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Me, Hey, where's your where's your stuff?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I said, My brother's name is Freddy, I said, Freddie,
I'm actually put the boots on their way. I'm gonna
come get them out. Oh man, my mom and dad
are really going to be upset with you. And we
walked over to the food court and my brother had
money to buy me a hot dog or something. I
don't know what it was. So I walked out of
the store with nothing, and my brother had all.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
This clothes to go back to school.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And I did it, and looking back, I would do
it the same way because I didn't want to settle.
I'm going to come back and figured out how I'm
going to make another forty five dollars because I know
I couldn't ask my parents for it on how to
get this, but I bought a cheap lawnmower and I
(06:47):
started mowing yards around the neighborhood, asking people and It
was difficult at first because I did not speak English,
so I would knock on the door and if somebody
that didn't speak English answer the door, I just pointed
out my lawnmower and said ten dollars.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Some of the people were so nice.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Uh, I was like, okay, and then when i'll go charge,
they'll come and point at me. Were all the different
spots that I left that didn't look good, so I
had to go back and mold remote some of the
yards and everything.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But they were all very very kind.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
But I quickly realized that I wasn't I wasn't very
good at it.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I didn't want to be good at it. That was
the point.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I was like, I don't want to be a good
grass more because then I'm gonna like it. No, honestly,
I was just I was trying to be quick, and
I would always just leave strips of grass and my
lawnmower too. I'm gonna blame it more on the lawn
more than me. My lawnmow was not very good and
I didn't have a bag on it, so the grass
that I mowed just kind of ended up like right
where I cut. So that was you didn't give me
(07:51):
the right visibility of realizing if I missed the spot
because there's grass kind of going everywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
That's my excuse, man, I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And I was able to get my polo woodside in
a couple of weeks, and I was very pleased with
what I did. I was like, Okay, I've figured out
what needed to be done to do this, and so
it was. It was very crumbling trying to look back
and see what I can do, you know, to make money,
and especially with the language barriers.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And we've been listening to Aaron Marquez tell his story,
a classic American dreamers story, and we love sharing these
stories with you all year long. He was looking for
his independence, he was looking for his freedom, and still today,
that memory and that feeling burns deeply in any immigrant
who's come here from anywhere, be it Africa or Asia,
the Middle East like my family, or Italy like my
(08:53):
mother's side of the family. When we come back more
of Aaron Marquez's story on our American Stories, and we're
(09:39):
back with our American stories and Aaron Marquez's story. When
he was eleven years old, Aaron's family immigrated from Mexico
and he spent his summers picking onions in the hot
Texas heat. Let's pick up with Aaron as he enters
the American school system.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I remember going to school on the first day. I
remember they had taken me to class for the first time,
and everybody in there only spoke Spanish. The teacher spoke Spanish.
The books that I received, they were written in Spanish.
We didn't go to pee with the rest of the school.
(10:19):
Our lunchtime was different. I mean, it was just it
was very isolated and not even like that. And so
I told the teacher, I said, hey, I want to
be in a regular class one because I want to
play soccer. Like in two. I speak Spanish, I read Spanish.
I want to learn to speak English. I want to
do everything in English. And I'm not going to learn
(10:40):
no offense, but I'm not going to learn how to
speak English when you're teaching me everything in Spanish and
everything that I'm reading is in Spanish.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So this is this is not going to work for me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And she told me, I remember vividly, she said, this
is your first day. This is your first day, so
I don't know how you're drawing those concludes and this
is not for you. It's not for you to decide,
it's for your parents to decide. And I just I
just politely asked and said, well, how different is this
going to be tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
And the next day I got back to our house
around seven.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It was the bus travel was brutal because we changed
buses three different times to go to the north side
to the from the north side of Odessa to the
south side of Odessa. And I told my mom, I said, Mom,
I can't do this. I'm not going to learn to
speak English with you know, in this A and SL class.
I said, you need to put me in the regular classes.
That's that's what I prefer, and that's what I want.
(11:38):
Mom's like, if that's what you want, that's what we'll do.
And Mom went over there and it's like, put them
in regular classes. And that's when life began for me.
So I remember going to class for the first time
and really not knowing much at all and how to
say my name, and I loved it.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I loved it. I was never embarrassed of not speaking English.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I would tell all my cousins, all my friends and everyone, hey,
talk to me only in English.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I don't want you to talk to me in Spanish.
Talk to me only in English. That's what I would
tell him.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And that's why I was able to able to learn
speak English quickly compared to anyone else, because everyone speaking
to me in English.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And that's the way you have to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I remember being picked on for I was reading out
of the book it was my turn to read it
in class, and I pronounced the word Iceland instead of Island.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Everyone started laughing.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Then one of the kids next to me went to
break He's like Iceland. He kept calling me Iceland and
he was laughing at me for not speaking English, and
I was like, I told him. I said, man, you're
laughing at me because I can't speak English. But I'm
learning to speak two languages. I said, I speak Spanish
and I'm learning to speak English. I said, I'm going
(12:58):
to learn to speak English in the next three or
four months. I said, and still, and you'll still only
be able to speak one. I said, imagine if you
try to read Spanish. Imagine if you try to speak Spanish.
I said, so, I don't understand. I think that the
joke's on you, that you're making fun of me. If
we're trying to learn to speak two two languages when
(13:19):
you're speaking when you can only speak one.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I'm not gonna make fun of you for that. And
that changed everything.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
He never never said anything again, and no one else did,
and no one laughed.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I remember no one laughed. Everyone kind of just processed that.
But like, that's so true. And I think he felt
bad with my answer.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And I wasn't trying to be, you know, kind of
sending it off, but you know, I just kind of
snapped at that, but with that answer, and it's just
literally what rolled out of the tip.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Of my tongue.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
My add and Uncle's like they would use me in
the summertime to go interview with them. You know. I
remember my uncle had a job interview and he came
pick me up. He said, hey, I want you to
go to this interview with me because they don't I
don't speak English.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And I was like okay.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So he picked me up and we went over there
and he just taps me on the shoulder and I like, okay,
this is my uncle. He has an interview today at
nine thirty or ten o'clock or whatever.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
And he's like, okay, and who are you?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I said, that's my I'm his nephew, and he's like, Okay,
does your uncles speak English?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I was like, no, man, and my English was not
very good back then either.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And I went in there at the job interview with
him and they're asking him, you know what, he was
an insulator, insulating pipe and everything, and he was telling
him like tell him that I've been doing this for
ten years, and tell him tell him that I can
do this and this, and there's some words that I
don't know how to translate. So I didn't really have
anyone that was really successful in the immediate family that
(14:49):
I knew at all. Everyone kind of worked and knew
what they could provide for their family, but no one
was No one ever mentioned college, no one ever mentioned
or in their own business.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
No one mentioned anything.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
But whenever I graduated high school, I started working for
refinery Huntsman Polymers and then going to school at night
or Desta College. So I will leave at eight o'clock
or six o'clock in the morning, come back at six
forty five, and then class will start at seven thirty
and finished at ten thirty Monday through Thursday.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
So I wanted to do that just so I can at.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Least save some money and then look at a four
year school. Did that for a year working in the
planets of labor, cleaning tanks and being inside of the tanks
and a very very dirty type job. But within six
months I worked for a company called jay Merritt. They're
at that Huntsman refinery, and I got promoted as a leadman.
And I was making eighteen nineteen dollars an hour as
(15:45):
an eighteen year old, which at that point was more
than what my dad was making. So I had my
group of eight men that I led, and they will
sign those different projects, you know, cleaning tanks, cleaning.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Just the dirtiest jobs that you could.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
But at that point I was no longer I was
no longer doing it physically. I was just leading my
team as a leadman.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Every job is that they'll give us. You know, they'll
give you a job order, and they said, Aaron, here's
your job order for your team, and you get five
hours to finish it, and then here's another one you
get four hours to finish it. I focused on doing
it faster, safer, cleaner than.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Any other other leadmen.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I always try to find a way that we can
do things that show that hey I'm going above and
beyond what's expected. And we finished some of those jobs
that were supposed to take a week, We'll finish it
in a day and a half. And people started taking
notice of that, and within a year I got promoted again.
And what was great is that the people where I
(16:46):
was getting promoted, they were very receptive. They're like, hey,
you you want more out of life than this. And
I was a young kid man leading these guys have
been there a while, and I earned their respect because
I always I was worked hard and smart.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
But I was doing that also.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Going through school, going to school at night, and they
will see me at lunch when everybody will eat lunch
and talk and play dominoes in the break room, I
will be in there with my book wide open, doing
homework because that's the only time that I had, so they
would see they will see that, and I would mean
I was taking eighteen.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Hours of school.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
So it was very It was difficult to do that,
but nothing worth having is easy, and it was important
for me to get a degree.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
And he did from Yukon the University of Connecticut. He
then went on to work at the energy company Neighbors,
getting six promotions in five years.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I received the twenty two to twenty three thousand dollars
bonus my first year, and what I did was paid
for everyone in my family to become American citizens. I
never seen that much money made out to my name
on one check, Like, Wow, this is amazing that you
can get this much money.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
There's nothing that I wanted more than have the security.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Of my mom and dad, and my brothers and sisters
to be American citizens. I think the United States of
America is the greatest country in the world because it's
the only country that as an immigrant, you can accomplish
whatever you set your mind to. It's a blessing to
be an American citizen, and I held that paramount among
(18:27):
anything else. And that's probably the best gift that I
could have given my parents, everyone in my family, and
to date, that's something that I'm the most proud of,
is being able to make sure that my parents and
ever wanted my family, all of us are American citizens.
You know, to me, whenever you hear like the Star
(18:49):
Spangled Banner, Mason Grace, those two songs, no matter what
where I am, what I'm doing, if I hear those
two songs, I just automatically want to cry, you know,
and it just the flag means so much to me
as an American and everything. So for the first time
hearing that and your ceremony and they're playing that, and
(19:12):
among the groups of so many different people from a
different backgrounds, it's I remember just looking around and everyone
in our family would just had tears coming down their
eye because we felt that, Man, we're American citizens.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
How cool is that?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And a great job on the production and storytelling and
editing by Alex Cortez and Robbie Davis. And a special
thanks to Aaron Marquez for sharing his story starting picking
onions in West Texas under one hundred degree heat and
then making his way through oil patch work and hustling
and working hard and hustling some more. And when he
(19:54):
says at the end, when I hear the star spangled
banner or amazing grace, I automatically want to c The
flag means so much to me. The story of Aaron
Mark has the story of this great country. Here on
our American Story
And we're back with our American stories. Up next, we
have a classic American story, a classic immigrant story. Aaron
Marquez was born in a small town in northern Mexico.
Oh Heinaga. Here's Aaron to tell us his story.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My dad worked in the United States most of my childhood,
and mom had two jobs. You know, She'll work in
a local factory sewing Levi's mom work there in the morning,
and she'll come and pick us up from school and
fed us and then went back to work and worked
in a double shift.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
And she did that for as long as I could remember.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
And my grandmother would come and babysit us until mom
got back from work. And that's what she did every
day growing up. My mom was such a incredible figure
for us. And it was very motivating to me to
see my mom, you know, work two jobs and have
four kids, and I mean, it was very it was
(01:15):
very difficult.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
And I would always tell her, I said, Mom, you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Know, when I grow up, you're not gonna have to work. Mom,
You're not gonna have to work. I'll promise you that.
And my mom would always just grab my cheek and
and she's like, I know you will, and I I said,
but work. There's nothing wrong with working hard. So she
would always tell me there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
With working hard.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But whenever you see your parents and do that, the
stuff that they sacrifice, it makes you appreciate the little
things in life, you know, that kind of shape the
way you look at things. We we all had a
conversation as a family and they decided to to move
to the United States. It was never explained to me
like a level of opportunity. It was more of us
(01:55):
being together because Dad missed out on so much. And
when I was in the second or third grade, that's
when all the conversations began, and honestly, that's something that
I didn't want. We never traveled anywhere. We never went
to camp, we never did anything. We literally just we
were just there, went to school summertime. It was no
different because Mom worked every day and Dad was in
(02:17):
the United States working. So I didn't know any better.
But what I knew is that I was comfortable where
we were. I didn't know anything.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I went to school, we played soccer, we played basketball, baseball.
The only thing that I did not like is Mom
having multiple jobs, and back then I resonated that so
whenever Dad and mom we're talking about moving to the
US and things like that. I was like, I asked Mom,
I said, well, you're gonna have to have two jobs
or're gonna have to have two.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Jobs mom, and she's like no, no.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So it took a while for us to even get
a some type of correspondence back from the immigration saying
that we're reviewed your application and everything. So we're finally
able to get a temporary VA to come to the US.
We moved to the US when I was eleven. So
we moved in with my unt and uncle. It was
(03:06):
six of us and we were sharing basically a room
and a half in this house. And we came in
into Odessa, Texas. We were there two days and we
left to Kyonosa, which is a town that everyone picks
onions and that's how they get paid.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
They pick you up at three.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
O'clock in the morning and they would charge us to
pick us up and bring us back. And you worked
there till about seven pm at night. And you do
it every day. It doesn't matter where it's Monday Sunday,
you do that. Every day. We worked twelve fourteen hours
and you're exhausted because the heat so bad and it's
one hundred and ten one hundred and twelve degrees constant
(03:48):
on your back. So my dad was able to find
a one of those pop up trailers, the small ones.
That's where we lived in the summer, my mom and
dad and my brother other that's what we worked out of.
And you know, my and and uncle would take care
of my sisters and during the week and we'll go
in there, in and out. But we worked all summer
(04:09):
picking onions. You know, as an eleventh eleven year old,
I kind of had different ideas of what I would
be doing with my time, but we needed to do
that in order for us to save money to buy
a house. Every time that we would do that, I
would think of my mom leaving the house early and
then coming and feeding us, then going back to work,
(04:31):
and that motivated me more like, Okay, if mom did this,
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna and I'm gonna be
good idea. So we picked onion saut summer. The back
of my neck was peeling so bad. It was terrible
because it gets so hot in the summer, one hundred
and ten degrees and.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I can't eat onions.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I can't even look at onions right now, so you
can imagine just because of the smell. And I'm pretty
fair skinned, so I would peel so bad. And I
remember just telling Mom and Dad and I said, I
don't want to do this again, but I'm gonna work
hard where we don't have to do this. We left
on a Saturday and school started on Monday, and they
(05:12):
gave us, you know, one hundred dollars to go buy
some back to school clothes, which I thought it was great.
And I remember seeing the first pair of Polo boots.
I was like, oh man, he's like, I want those.
And I asked how much they were. They were like
one hundred and forty something dollars. I was like, geez,
I got a hundred bucks. There's nothing I can I
can't even get close to that. But I was like,
(05:34):
I'm going to work hard to get those. I knew
exactly what I wanted. I want to go look at them.
I was like, maybe they're on sale or something. I
wanted those boots. So we go get dropped off at
the mall in Odessa and I go to Dillards and
I went and put boots on legwai as the first
time I ever heard of the term leyway.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But yeah, if you give me one hundred.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Dollars, you steal forty five dollars and you have sixty
days to get them out of there. So I went
back and met my brother at the food court and
my brother asked.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Me, Hey, where's your where's your stuff?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I said, My brother's name is Freddy, I said, Freddie,
I'm actually put the boots on their way. I'm gonna
come get them out. Oh man, my mom and dad
are really going to be upset with you. And we
walked over to the food court and my brother had
money to buy me a hot dog or something. I
don't know what it was. So I walked out of
the store with nothing, and my brother had all.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
This clothes to go back to school.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And I did it, and looking back, I would do
it the same way because I didn't want to settle.
I'm going to come back and figured out how I'm
going to make another forty five dollars because I know
I couldn't ask my parents for it on how to
get this, but I bought a cheap lawnmower and I
(06:47):
started mowing yards around the neighborhood, asking people and It
was difficult at first because I did not speak English,
so I would knock on the door and if somebody
that didn't speak English answer the door, I just pointed
out my lawnmower and said ten dollars.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Some of the people were so nice.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Uh, I was like, okay, and then when i'll go charge,
they'll come and point at me. Were all the different
spots that I left that didn't look good, so I
had to go back and mold remote some of the
yards and everything.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But they were all very very kind.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
But I quickly realized that I wasn't I wasn't very
good at it.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I didn't want to be good at it. That was
the point.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I was like, I don't want to be a good
grass more because then I'm gonna like it. No, honestly,
I was just I was trying to be quick, and
I would always just leave strips of grass and my
lawnmower too. I'm gonna blame it more on the lawn
more than me. My lawnmow was not very good and
I didn't have a bag on it, so the grass
that I mowed just kind of ended up like right
where I cut. So that was you didn't give me
(07:51):
the right visibility of realizing if I missed the spot
because there's grass kind of going everywhere.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
That's my excuse, man, I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And I was able to get my polo woodside in
a couple of weeks, and I was very pleased with
what I did. I was like, Okay, I've figured out
what needed to be done to do this, and so
it was. It was very crumbling trying to look back
and see what I can do, you know, to make money,
and especially with the language barriers.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And we've been listening to Aaron Marquez tell his story,
a classic American dreamers story, and we love sharing these
stories with you all year long. He was looking for
his independence, he was looking for his freedom, and still today,
that memory and that feeling burns deeply in any immigrant
who's come here from anywhere, be it Africa or Asia,
the Middle East like my family, or Italy like my
(08:53):
mother's side of the family. When we come back more
of Aaron Marquez's story on our American Stories, and we're
(09:39):
back with our American stories and Aaron Marquez's story. When
he was eleven years old, Aaron's family immigrated from Mexico
and he spent his summers picking onions in the hot
Texas heat. Let's pick up with Aaron as he enters
the American school system.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I remember going to school on the first day. I
remember they had taken me to class for the first time,
and everybody in there only spoke Spanish. The teacher spoke Spanish.
The books that I received, they were written in Spanish.
We didn't go to pee with the rest of the school.
(10:19):
Our lunchtime was different. I mean, it was just it
was very isolated and not even like that. And so
I told the teacher, I said, hey, I want to
be in a regular class one because I want to
play soccer. Like in two. I speak Spanish, I read Spanish.
I want to learn to speak English. I want to
do everything in English. And I'm not going to learn
(10:40):
no offense, but I'm not going to learn how to
speak English when you're teaching me everything in Spanish and
everything that I'm reading is in Spanish.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So this is this is not going to work for me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And she told me, I remember vividly, she said, this
is your first day. This is your first day, so
I don't know how you're drawing those concludes and this
is not for you. It's not for you to decide,
it's for your parents to decide. And I just I
just politely asked and said, well, how different is this
going to be tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
And the next day I got back to our house
around seven.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It was the bus travel was brutal because we changed
buses three different times to go to the north side
to the from the north side of Odessa to the
south side of Odessa. And I told my mom, I said, Mom,
I can't do this. I'm not going to learn to
speak English with you know, in this A and SL class.
I said, you need to put me in the regular classes.
That's that's what I prefer, and that's what I want.
(11:38):
Mom's like, if that's what you want, that's what we'll do.
And Mom went over there and it's like, put them
in regular classes. And that's when life began for me.
So I remember going to class for the first time
and really not knowing much at all and how to
say my name, and I loved it.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I loved it. I was never embarrassed of not speaking English.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I would tell all my cousins, all my friends and everyone, hey,
talk to me only in English.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I don't want you to talk to me in Spanish.
Talk to me only in English. That's what I would
tell him.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And that's why I was able to able to learn
speak English quickly compared to anyone else, because everyone speaking
to me in English.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And that's the way you have to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I remember being picked on for I was reading out
of the book it was my turn to read it
in class, and I pronounced the word Iceland instead of Island.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Everyone started laughing.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Then one of the kids next to me went to
break He's like Iceland. He kept calling me Iceland and
he was laughing at me for not speaking English, and
I was like, I told him. I said, man, you're
laughing at me because I can't speak English. But I'm
learning to speak two languages. I said, I speak Spanish
and I'm learning to speak English. I said, I'm going
(12:58):
to learn to speak English in the next three or
four months. I said, and still, and you'll still only
be able to speak one. I said, imagine if you
try to read Spanish. Imagine if you try to speak Spanish.
I said, so, I don't understand. I think that the
joke's on you, that you're making fun of me. If
we're trying to learn to speak two two languages when
(13:19):
you're speaking when you can only speak one.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I'm not gonna make fun of you for that. And
that changed everything.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
He never never said anything again, and no one else did,
and no one laughed.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I remember no one laughed. Everyone kind of just processed that.
But like, that's so true. And I think he felt
bad with my answer.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And I wasn't trying to be, you know, kind of
sending it off, but you know, I just kind of
snapped at that, but with that answer, and it's just
literally what rolled out of the tip.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Of my tongue.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
My add and Uncle's like they would use me in
the summertime to go interview with them. You know. I
remember my uncle had a job interview and he came
pick me up. He said, hey, I want you to
go to this interview with me because they don't I
don't speak English.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And I was like okay.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So he picked me up and we went over there
and he just taps me on the shoulder and I like, okay,
this is my uncle. He has an interview today at
nine thirty or ten o'clock or whatever.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
And he's like, okay, and who are you?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I said, that's my I'm his nephew, and he's like, Okay,
does your uncles speak English?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
I was like, no, man, and my English was not
very good back then either.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
And I went in there at the job interview with
him and they're asking him, you know what, he was
an insulator, insulating pipe and everything, and he was telling
him like tell him that I've been doing this for
ten years, and tell him tell him that I can
do this and this, and there's some words that I
don't know how to translate. So I didn't really have
anyone that was really successful in the immediate family that
(14:49):
I knew at all. Everyone kind of worked and knew
what they could provide for their family, but no one
was No one ever mentioned college, no one ever mentioned
or in their own business.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
No one mentioned anything.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
But whenever I graduated high school, I started working for
refinery Huntsman Polymers and then going to school at night
or Desta College. So I will leave at eight o'clock
or six o'clock in the morning, come back at six
forty five, and then class will start at seven thirty
and finished at ten thirty Monday through Thursday.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
So I wanted to do that just so I can at.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Least save some money and then look at a four
year school. Did that for a year working in the
planets of labor, cleaning tanks and being inside of the tanks
and a very very dirty type job. But within six
months I worked for a company called jay Merritt. They're
at that Huntsman refinery, and I got promoted as a leadman.
And I was making eighteen nineteen dollars an hour as
(15:45):
an eighteen year old, which at that point was more
than what my dad was making. So I had my
group of eight men that I led, and they will
sign those different projects, you know, cleaning tanks, cleaning.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Just the dirtiest jobs that you could.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
But at that point I was no longer I was
no longer doing it physically. I was just leading my
team as a leadman.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Every job is that they'll give us. You know, they'll
give you a job order, and they said, Aaron, here's
your job order for your team, and you get five
hours to finish it, and then here's another one you
get four hours to finish it. I focused on doing
it faster, safer, cleaner than.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Any other other leadmen.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I always try to find a way that we can
do things that show that hey I'm going above and
beyond what's expected. And we finished some of those jobs
that were supposed to take a week, We'll finish it
in a day and a half. And people started taking
notice of that, and within a year I got promoted again.
And what was great is that the people where I
(16:46):
was getting promoted, they were very receptive. They're like, hey,
you you want more out of life than this. And
I was a young kid man leading these guys have
been there a while, and I earned their respect because
I always I was worked hard and smart.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
But I was doing that also.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Going through school, going to school at night, and they
will see me at lunch when everybody will eat lunch
and talk and play dominoes in the break room, I
will be in there with my book wide open, doing
homework because that's the only time that I had, so they
would see they will see that, and I would mean
I was taking eighteen.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Hours of school.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
So it was very It was difficult to do that,
but nothing worth having is easy, and it was important
for me to get a degree.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
And he did from Yukon the University of Connecticut. He
then went on to work at the energy company Neighbors,
getting six promotions in five years.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I received the twenty two to twenty three thousand dollars
bonus my first year, and what I did was paid
for everyone in my family to become American citizens. I
never seen that much money made out to my name
on one check, Like, Wow, this is amazing that you
can get this much money.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
There's nothing that I wanted more than have the security.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Of my mom and dad, and my brothers and sisters
to be American citizens. I think the United States of
America is the greatest country in the world because it's
the only country that as an immigrant, you can accomplish
whatever you set your mind to. It's a blessing to
be an American citizen, and I held that paramount among
(18:27):
anything else. And that's probably the best gift that I
could have given my parents, everyone in my family, and
to date, that's something that I'm the most proud of,
is being able to make sure that my parents and
ever wanted my family, all of us are American citizens.
You know, to me, whenever you hear like the Star
(18:49):
Spangled Banner, Mason Grace, those two songs, no matter what
where I am, what I'm doing, if I hear those
two songs, I just automatically want to cry, you know,
and it just the flag means so much to me
as an American and everything. So for the first time
hearing that and your ceremony and they're playing that, and
(19:12):
among the groups of so many different people from a
different backgrounds, it's I remember just looking around and everyone
in our family would just had tears coming down their
eye because we felt that, Man, we're American citizens.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
How cool is that?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And a great job on the production and storytelling and
editing by Alex Cortez and Robbie Davis. And a special
thanks to Aaron Marquez for sharing his story starting picking
onions in West Texas under one hundred degree heat and
then making his way through oil patch work and hustling
and working hard and hustling some more. And when he
(19:54):
says at the end, when I hear the star spangled
banner or amazing grace, I automatically want to c The
flag means so much to me. The story of Aaron
Mark has the story of this great country. Here on
our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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