Author Archive

Cami Canales was born and raised in South Texas.  She grew up hunting on her family’s ranch with her father, Gus T. Canales and her younger brother, Marc A.R. Canales (now deceased).  She attended school at Texas A&I (now Texas A&M Kingsville) and San Antonio Community College.  Then she entered the world of travel, where she worked for almost 20 years;  finishing her travel career at American Express.  She has lived in San Antonio, Texas for over 37 years, she learned about the San Antonio’s colorful history and beautiful culture from her aunts:  Bebe Canales Inkley and Mary Canales Jary. 

Cami feels that she learned about hard work from her mother, Pat Canales, who patiently raised 5 children.  She is very proud of her three sisters:  Dawn Canales, Carla Canales and Wendy Canales who are all teachers in Houston, Texas.  Cami has been happily married to her husband, Travis McLeod, a mechanical engineer for 21 years.  She is in currently charge of the human resources and the social philanthropy at Travis’ engineering firm, Silber & Associates of San Antonio.  Previously Cami was on the Parent Teacher League at her children’s school when they were in grade school.  She served four years on the executive board, two years as vice president and two years as president.  Cami is currently serving as a member of ImactSA, which is a women’s nonprofit organization that uses a collective giving model to make significant grants to nonprofit organizations serving the Greater San Antonio area.

Cami and Travis are the proud parents of two teenagers:  Brock McLeod and Kristin McLeod, who attend a STEM high school in San Antonio.  They are members of Concordia Lutheran Church of San Antonio.  They enjoy spending time with her extended family at the family ranch in South Texas.  Cami’s hobbies include: hunting, cooking, wine tasting, yoga, and travel.

Willie Vasquez Ng is a business and community advocate and philanthropist, a small business owner since 2003 and a Master Peace Officer serving San Antonio and South Texas in Law Enforcement since 1993.

Willie served the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office from January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018. Prior to joining the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office as Chief Criminal Investigator, Willie served the city of San Antonio with the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) for 22 years. During his time with SAPD, Willie began as a Patrol Officer patrolling all areas of San Antonio, then served as a Detective Investigator where he investigated various criminal offenses in the Repeat Offenders Program (ROP) and Financial Crimes Unit. Prior to retirement from SAPD, Willie worked with the United States Secret Service where he was deputized as a Special Federal Deputy Marshal and served within the unit for over seven years. Willie’s in-depth training as a law enforcement professional range from Hand-to-Hand Combat & Self-Defense, Hand-Written Forgery, Counterfeit Currency & Credit Card Fraud, to Lie Detection, Narcotics and Emergency Management training by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Willie is a certified Trainer for Active Shooter and Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response from Texas State University. Willie has a Master Certification in Law Enforcement by the State of Texas. Willie was deputized Special Federal Deputy Marshal with the United States Secret Service.

In 2003, seeing the need to support local businesses and law enforcement, Willie established a security business that focuses on providing a variety of security services to all types of businesses, communities, and organizations, for profit and non-profit, providing over 2700 jobs throughout Texas.

In addition to public service and economic development, Willie is tireless in his efforts toward non-profit work. Willie provides community support and consulting to business leaders, entrepreneurs, law enforcement and various local and national organizations. Willie contributes his time serving on various boards. Willie is a member of the Criminal Justice Reform Committee of the Texas Associations of Business (TAB) with headquarters in Austin, Texas, where he worked in conjunction with the team to create and implement the initiative Texas House Bill 918 which went into effect in January 2020.

Willie has a Baccalaureate (Bachelor’s) in Criminal Justice from Wayland Baptist University, a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) from St. Mary’s University, and Willie is currently working on his dissertation to finalize his Doctorate (PhD) in Organizational Leadership from the University of the Incarnate Word. Willie received the ASIS International Award for Exemplary Service to Business and Law Enforcement (2016), and in 2017, Willie received the award for Professional Achievement by the Texas Commission of Law Enforcement (TCOLE) for his service and accomplishments in law enforcement since his career began in1993. Willie is an award recipient at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Dreeben School of Education in Recognition for Academic Excellence (April 2019).

As a consummate professional and public servant, Willie regularly speaks about education initiatives, business leadership, economic development and modern law enforcement throughout South Texas, to include assisting local Churches to improve their security detail for their congregations, and Willie is frequently invited to speak to students in local schools, colleges and universities, such as University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, as well as multiple businesses where he provides Active Shooter training.

Willie and his wife, Ruby, established The Willie Ng Family Foundation, which is designed to provide a diversity of support to those in need. In 2017, Willie battled cancer, and today he is a cancer survivor because of his LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. Due to the life altering experience of battling cancer, Willie and Ruby devote their time to help those who must face the battle of cancer.

Willie’s devotion and tenacity as a public servant for 28 years is evident in his life’s work, and Willie is committed to the enhancement of the quality of life and prosperity for everyone for future generations.

Today we are celebrating the iconic Dr. Ellen Ochoa. She is an American engineer, former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Ochoa was born in La Mesa, California as a second generation Mexican American. She received her bachelor’s from San Diego State University, and her master’s and doctorate from Stanford. In 1993, Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012. She was the first Hispanic director and the second female director of Johnson Space Center.

Many know Lin-Manuel Miranda for his musicals and movies, so today we are highlighting this Puerto Rican playwright for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Born in New York City, Miranda began composing musicals while he was still in high school. During his time at Weslayan University, he would develop his first major musical, In the Heights. It would debut on broadway in 2008, and later would adapted to film in 2021. However, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton (2015) would sky rocket him into mainstream media. Since the success of Hamilton, Miranda has been a frequent collaborator of Disney (such as writing the music for Encanto) and expanded his projects to include film directing, acting, and activism. 

Lin-Manuel has been especially passionate about helping Puerto Rico through fundraising and speaking about assisting the country through natural disasters, erasing debt, and donating to the University of Puetro Rico. He has also dedicated time and money to organizations like Graham Windham, a nonprofit adoption agency.

State Rep. Liz Campos is a lifelong resident of her district HD 119, which covers San Antonio, Live Oak, Converse, and surrounding towns. She has a long reputation of service to her family and community, beginning with her supporting her family after the death of her father working shifts at her local H.E.B. 

In her career, Campos has spent 30 years as a legal administrator for major San Anotion law firms and worked her way up the Capitol ladder as a Constituent Coordinator, District Director, and Chief of Staff before running for office. All this time she was always serving HD 119. Campos’ major achievements in her freshman year as State representative include: authoring important legislation like certification of institutions that care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease; protection of personal funds of residents of long-term care facilities; and funding for support services provided by independent living programs. Campos also filed legislation to address homelessness and affordable housing in Bexar County. She pioneered transitional housing pilot programs; housing mobility investments; and the creation of an affordable housing trust fund to provide incentives for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing.

Today we honor Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, a Texan educator, and philanthropist. Teresa grew up on a dairy farm in Premont, TX. She graduated from high school as Valedictorian at just 16 years old and is the first Mexican American woman to hold a bachelor’s, master’s, and a doctorate in kinesiology. 

Lozano Long was renowned for her and her husband’s generosity. They began their philanthropy work in 2000 with their financial support of UT Health San Antonio so that the programs could better train physicians to serve South Texas. They continued to serve students through extensive donations for scholarships. She has received many high honors from her alma mater, UT Austin, such as its College of Liberal Arts Pro Bene Meritis Award, the UT School of Law’s Thurgood Marshall Legal Society for Commitment to Diversity Award, the recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts Award and an inductee into the Women’s Hall of Fame. She was honored by the Bullock State History Museum with its “Women Shaping Texas in the 20th Century” award and was the recipient of the inaugural Madeleine Rast Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Teresa also became the namesake for UT’s Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) after her and her husband’s generous endowment of $10 million for the institute. 

The reason for Lozano Long’s dedication to expanding and funding all these programs?  “Joe and I never had children, so we decided that if we could make enough money, we would help as many children as we could.”

Teresa passed away recently in the spring of 2021 at the age of 92, but she is remembered very fondly by her family and the UT Austin community.

Today’s important figure for Hispanic Heritage Month is State Representative J.M. Lozano! He is the son of a doctor born and raised in Premont, TX. Lozano is one of the first Hispanic Republicans in legislation, adding to the political diversity of our community! His platform focuses on small business interests, access to higher education, and environmental regulation. As Chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, Lozano advocates for funding for colleges, universities, and trade schools.

MAKE WAY! Today we are celebrating Dr. Juliet V Garcia, the first woman President of UT at Rio Grande Valley and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. In fact, Dr. Garcia is the first Hispanic woman to ever serve as a college president in American history. 

Dr. Garcia was born and raised in Brownsville, Tx. She studied at Texas Southmost College, Texas State, and received her BA and MA from the University of Houston. She would go on to earn her PhD from UT Austin. 

Over the course of her 30-year career, she would transform TSC, a community college, into UT at Brownsville, now renamed UT at Rio Grande Valley. She was appointed TSC’s president in 1986 after spending time as a faculty member, working her way up to a Dean’s position. She served UT at Brownsville as their president until 2014, when she stepped down. 

Dr. Garcia has this to say about her mission as a higher education professional, “My job was always to thrust open doors of opportunity for students to learn, compete, and succeed in the classics, chess, physics, or the performing arts. We did this by building a campus that unapologetically honors our cultural and environmental heritage, and then by filling it up with brilliant faculty and dedicated staff.” 

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom this past summer for her work at the community college level and her continued service to educating the next generation.

In June, Katya Echazarreta flew on board Blue Origin’s NS-21, becoming the first Mexican-born female astronaut and youngest American to fly to space. She flew on behalf of Space for Humanity as its first citizen astronaut ambassador.

Echazarreta was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and moved to the U.S. when she was 7 years old. Adjusting to her new home was difficult at first due to the language barrier, but she became fluent in English within two years.

After high school, she attended a community college before transferring to UCLA, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. During her time at UCLA, she earned an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Eventually, she transitioned to a full-time position as flight engineer and worked on five NASA missions, including Perseverance and Europa Clipper. Currently, she is pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University and has been featured in the Netflix Film Club YouTube series “Netflix IRL.”

Throughout her educational journey, she was very conscious about the lack of women in her field and now hopes to be able to help them be better prepared for their experience as women in STEM.

The Space For Humanity initiative selected Echazarreta out of over 7,000 applicants to fly to space with Blue Origin NS-21 as a Space for Humanity Ambassador.

Don Pedro Jaramillo, more widely known as Don Pedrito, was a community leader and curandero, or folk healer, around the turn of the 20th century. From 1881 until his death on July 3, 1907, he lived in a modest adobe hut near the banks of Los Olmos Creek in Brooks County, where he prescribed equal doses of Catholic faith and homespun remedies to heal the sick. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to him by foot or wagon from throughout the Texas-Mexico borderlands.

Curanderos remain active in communities throughout Latin America. Unlike some curanderos, Jaramillo never charged for his services and often gave away the remedies he prescribed. He accepted donations of money and food but was revered for redistributing nearly all of it. Jaramillo’s prescriptions, or recetas, often incorporated herbs, vegetables, and simple measures like drinking water and taking baths. Many people with deep roots in South Texas still remember the stories their elders used to tell about the effectiveness of his treatments.

Born in 1829 near Guadalajara in the Mexican state of Jalisco, Jaramillo was a poor shepherd who, when riding a horse one day, crashed into a tree branch. The blow knocked him unconscious and broke his nose, tearing his flesh down to the bone. He felt an irresistible urge to go to a nearby lagoon and soak his face in the mud. The mud brought immediate relief. After lying at the lagoon for three days, Jaramillo heard a voice telling him that, from then on, he would cure in God’s name.

In 1894, a healing trip to San Antonio put Jaramillo on a collision course with professional physicians. They saw him as a dangerous competitor for patients. The esteemed South Texas attorney and politician José Tomás Canales—who later became the only Hispanic member of the state House of Representatives at the time—successfully argued for the case’s dismissal. He noted that Don Pedrito “never charged a single cent for his cures.” One of those cures had even healed Canales’ own mother of a grave illness when a professional doctor had failed, he said.

Today, the shrine to Jaramillo stands on his patch of land. It’s open to the public every day.