Meet Hugo Rojo
Latino staffers at NPR share their family stories of perseverance, sacrifice, and hard work to achieve the American Dream. These stories are defined by universal values of pride, hope, and an endless determination to help shape the new American landscape.
I was born and raised in the border city of El Paso, Texas. My parents, Laura and Hugo Rojo, and grandparents are all from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México. My life has been built on the duality of the border — I’ve been witness to the parallels and intersections of culture between these two countries.
While my younger sister and I were born in El Paso, we lived in Ciudad Juárez with my parents. After my sister was born, my mom’s work ethic and that signature Latina charisma opened doors in the human resources industry, ultimately leading the four of us to Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. It was through a lot of hard work and dedication that my parents afforded a bilingual, Catholic education for us during our early years. I often tell people that I learned both English and Spanish simultaneously — a rigorous curriculum forbade us from speaking English during the Spanish sessions of the day and vice versa. Additionally, my parents spoke both languages at home. It was this dual-language education that allowed me an almost seamless transition into the U.S. public school education system in the fourth grade.
“My life has been built on the duality of the border — I’ve been witness to the parallels and intersections of culture between these two countries.”
At first, I was placed in a bilingual or English-As-A-Second-Language (ESL) class. It was jarring to realize that at such a young age, the ESL learners were often looked down upon by the English-speaking only classmates. A couple of weeks into my first school year in the U.S., school counselors realized my Ingles was too advanced to be in an ESL curriculum and moved me into the English-speaking only classes.
At the time, I fit right in, but I am forever thankful for my parents, and especially grandparents, for keeping my love and proficiency for my second mother tongue alive.
Up until it was time to go to college at the University of Texas at Austin, my life was made up of going to school in the U.S. and spending weekends at the different mercados across the border, stocking up on the ingredients needed for mole or arroz con leche. It was made up of catching up with relatives of my grandparents that had come up north from deep in México. It was made up of going to summer ferias and eating elotes with as much chile as we could find.
I look at things differently with this lens that has been handed down to me through a lot of effort and sacrifice. Knowing more than one language and being enveloped by more than one culture is enriching. It’s my duty and a personal hope to pass off a similar lens to my children one day.
