Pursuant to my request for District 2 candidates to submit a write up for my blog, the following is the one submitted by Abraham Monteros. It is published as submitted to me by Monteros.
My name is Abraham Monteros. I was born and raised in District 2 and I’m proud to call District 2 my home. My story isn’t much different from many other hard working families in District 2. I’m a second generation Mexican-American who knows how it feels to be left out of the agenda. My father died when I was 9 years old and my life completely transformed. I went from a stable environment to not knowing what school I might end up at due to lack of transportation. One escape for me was being an altar boy at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
As the eldest of 3 young boys, I felt a responsibility to help my mother out. At age 12 I got my first job working at my uncle’s shop, Sanitary Plumbing Heating and Cooling, located on Piedras and Porter. At Sanitary Plumbing, I learned the harsh realities of manual labor. I remember digging trenches in the hot summer sun, and crawling underneath houses to take tools to the plumbers all day for $50 (which was a lot for me). At school I escaped into sports, playing whatever sport I could and falling in love with football.
My time at Austin High school was fast. My most memorable year was my Junior year 2005, when our football team made it to the playoffs for the very first time in decades. I’m proud to say that I was a starter on defense during that wild ride. Not having much direction or money for college, I made my mind up to join the U.S. Navy, like my father and uncles, instead of going to college.
I spent 5 years in the Navy. I was an aviation structural mechanic that worked on MH-60S helicopters, the equivalent to the Army’s Black Hawk. I was stationed on the island of Guam in the deep Pacific and was part of HSC-25 the only Search and Rescue squadron in that part of the ocean. During that time I was lucky enough to visit various ports and be part of various missions. The last mission of our detachment was Operation Tomodachi in Japan when the 2011 tsunami hit the Japanese coast. We were refueling in Malaysia when that occurred. I remember being off the coast of Japan and seeing the aftermath of the tsunami.
After my 5 year contract was completed I decided to return home and enroll in school. It was only after 5 years of serious labor that I learned the importance of an education.
I returned to El Paso in 2011 and immediately enrolled at EPCC. After one semester to work off the rust, I enrolled at UTEP. At UTEP I double major in Philosophy and French and minor in Women and Gender studies. I have been a full time student the entire time I’ve been back. When I wasn’t at school, I was doing side jobs for neighbors and friends for extra cash and helping out my mother. Most recently I have been lucky to be offered a research assistant position conducting Philosophy for Children classes. This is a great way to engage young minds into thinking critically about issues. In 2014 I married the love of my life and we both started a life in District 2.
Currently, I’m finishing off my senior year at UTEP. As it stands I will be graduating Cum Laude, with a 3.7 GPA. I hope to continue to pursue my education after graduation as well.
I know people have made mistakes and I’m no exception. But I speak from the heart and I won’t BS you. I’m running because I feel that there isn’t any transparent communication in our local government. I feel that it’s always 2 factions fighting each other over control of El Paso. As a lower working class, Mexican-American in District 2, I feel left out. I don’t feel that ANYONE is fighting for the majority that lives in El Paso. I don’t live in a nice neighborhood so we don’t have neighborhood associations. I work and go to school all day, so it’s hard for me to chair committees. I have to balance school, work, family, and my 2 weekly hours doing Philosophy for Children. All I know is working hard, staying honest, and looking out for my fellow neighbors.
My slogan is “Community, Compassion, Commitment.” Community because District 2 has one of the most diverse demographics in the city and it is CRUCIAL to understand our unique population. Compassion because we have to have compassion for our fellow neighbors, and be willing to help each other out. Finally, Commitment because we need to be committed to moving El Paso forward into a new era that is free of corruption. Look, a lot of issues are very complicated, and it is important to understand that there is no silver bullet for anything. I think it is important to be pragmatic about the solutions we come up with for El Paso and District 2. It is important that we bring in the community and business owners together to come up with pragmatic solutions.
What sets me apart from other candidates is that I alone chose to run for office. This was a decision between me and my wife. Nobody put me up to it, or financially backed me. I have no agenda because I feel that the PEOPLE should set the agenda. In the words of Shirley Chisholm, “I’m UNBOUGHT and UNBOSSED.” Thank you for the opportunity to share a little about me and my views.
What will you do to bring spending under control and keep the focus on the necessities not nice to have as is the current policy ?
What will you do, when as a council member, you are offered choice or free seats at entertainment or sports activities? Free parking, at the airport, while on personal business?
Will your votes be based on party affiliation or agenda? Are you will to expose those that pressure or go along with “wink” deals?
What will you do to promote representation for all ethic groups ?
How can you get council to plan and complete infrastructure in a more organized manner and push streets projects to be worked round the block to completion? Right now there is chaos with several main streets partially worked on a 8-5, 5 day work week schedule or cones for a mile to work one block.
How will you push to put some real teeth in the enforcement of ethics investigations?
What will you do to get the city council to force Wilson to testify about people and decisions affecting the Bonds issue? Will we get a specific vs a general non-answer as to why council takes no action to obtain testimony.
These questions should be answered by all candidates that submit information to the El Paso News.org. Thank you
Great questions. Mr. Monteros is obviously very smart, and that is needed on city CONcil. However, I fear with anyone with good intentions would go along with the flow or place not much impact on a very, very, corrupt government.
My main question is how can we as public keep more of our money and reduce the size of departments and government in our lives.
It used to be that political positions used be voluntary, and they didn’t require a lot of time. Government now violates our lives with so many fees, fines, unconstitutional regulations, and fake activities, and it forces really unnecessarily quality of life expenditures that are not approved by the public. And if these so-called quality of life projects were passed by the public, it was by deceptive practices by those politicians and managers in government.
I want to know if he is for a smaller government and refuse to back any projects not backed up by the public, and if lower taxes is in his realm of philosophy.
I’ll take this guy over Cemelli de Aztlan. At least it seems like he’s been a lifelong resident of the district. Not someone who has been consistently kicked out of apartments for what ever reason, and now happens to live in the district like Aztlan the mythical place.
Could you be a little more specific on the Cemelli de Aztlan comment. I really don’t know much about her.
Mr. Monteros states, “I work and go to school all day, so it’s hard for me to chair committees.” So how does he expect to devote the time to being a city rep?
I have known mr. Monteros for many years. District 2 needs a fresh face of somebody that truly represents the district. The days of Susie Byrd are over. We want a native of the neighborhood to represent us period I believe his upbringing education and service to our country speak for themselves. I am confident future efforts to represent District 2 will be successful. If El Paso can take somebody like Beto O’Rourke and support him in such a corrupt Congregation of District Representatives they can support a true patriot that will represent the people of his district!