United States

Jaime Palacios

By: Voces Staff

Jaime Palacios was the first of three children, born in San Juan, Texas on November 15, 1960, to Berta (Saenz) and Hector ‘Tito’ Palacios. From an early age, Palacios looked to his parents for guidance on education. After graduating from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School in 1979, Palacios weighed his options: he could join the military, or play football or baseball. Eventually, his mom convinced him to stay in the Valley and start school at a Pan American University in Edinburg.

Carmen Danna

By: Voces Staff

Carmen Danna was born in San Antonio, TX and grew up in Devine, TX. As a former elementary school teacher she experienced different forms of discrimination throughout her life. She reflects on her experience growing up in a small town and the importance the role of education had on her. Danna discusses the many disparities she experienced in the education system and why she still believes that education plays a vital role in our lives.

Emiliano Espinosa Gimeno

By Brandon Fields, St. Bonaventure University

Emiliano E. Gimeno remembers that when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, he initially did not realize how the event would change his life.

Born in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 24, 1921, and raised in Denver, Colorado, Gimeno was the eldest of 10 children. His mother, Marcelina Fuentes Espinosa de Gimeno, was the main provider for the family. His father, he said, drank and gambled.

Gimeno married Irene Arellano on June 7, 1941, in Denver. He and his wife took care of his siblings in addition to their own children.

Francisco Armando Ríos Padilla

By Bryce Spadafora, St. Bonaventure University

During the Korean War, Francisco Ríos Padilla, a high school dropout, was determined to leave Denver, Colorado. One day, he walked past a Coast Guard recruiting station on 15th Street. He went in and enlisted on March 10, 1950.

“I didn’t tell anybody,” Ríos Padilla said. “They sent me to Cape May, New Jersey. I jumped at the chance to get out of Denver.”

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