Reuben Vasquez

If you truly, truly, work hard it will pay off in the end! It will, I promise, but you really have to put all your effort into it. Think about what you want to do with your life, have a goal in mind, and do what you can. Ask for help - and I really, really mean that. Know that there are people out there who are truly there to support you.

Reuben Vasquez

My name is Reuben Vasquez. I was born in Mexico City. My family emigrated from Mexico City when I was ten years old directly to St. Paul, Minnesota. My dad’s family, his brothers, his sisters were all here, that’s part of the reason we came straight to Minnesota.

My mother, my two younger brothers and myself, we crossed the Rio Grande River that divides Mexico and the United States in the middle of the night—in December 1979. It was very, very dark. We were dressed in black. We used black shoe polish to cover our faces and our hands so that we would not be seen. For us it was more of an adventure, but for my mom, it was very, very scary.

So, I was an illegal immigrant. My dad and my sister were already in the United States. They came here on an airplane, so they didn’t have to go through that. My mom didn’t think that she was going to be able to do it with her three little sons. But the three of us told her that we needed to do it. We needed to stick together and be a family. You know, you do what you need to do to be with your family.

When President Reagan started the amnesty program in 1986, then we did all the things and submitted all that documents that were required to become citizens.

After high school, it took me a long time to figure out what my life was about and what I wanted to do with my life. I traveled to different countries in Europe and South American. Everything kept coming back to the same thing. In order for me to be successful in whatever I wanted to do, I knew that I needed to go to college. It was a really strange experience for my family to hear that from me, because nobody in my family had ever gone to college before. They knew that you graduated from high school, and then you started working.

I enrolled in Metro State University in St Paul and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science. I worked as a paralegal for about twelve years. I enjoyed that, but I knew that I did not want to be an attorney. I wanted to do something where I could work with the community. So, I went to Hamline University to get my Masters in Public Administration, so I could join an entity like the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Now I am Director of Family and Community Engagement. My job is to help parents, families and community members that surround you to get them more involved in your education, and to figure out what is the best course of action to get you guys to be successful, to graduate from high school and to go to colleges. I really, really enjoy my job.