Oh Say Can You See...

This July I am thanking my father for teaching me to appreciate and respect the freedoms we have in this country. There are many things my father didn’t do well, and that is all behind me and my siblings. As years have passed, we have sifted through our childhood and have come to reconcile his shortcomings, we unanimously agree, our father was a true patriot.

​Dionicio Villaverde was born in 1926 in Mesa, Arizona to a Yaqui Indian woman from Mexico working the melon fields. His father Cliofas Villaverde, a Mayan Indian, also from Mexico worked the railroad. At the age of six, his parents moved back to Mexico where he grew up until the age of twenty when he relocated to Ajo, Arizona as a laborer in an open-pit copper mine for the next 42 years. I do not use the word ‘laborer’ lightly. Standing at five feet, two inches tall, working manual labor during day and night shifts, no matter the circumstances, time or weather conditions, he was committed to earning his stay in this country. He also worked a second job on weekends as a musician and singer to earn extra money. Reciting the words from President John F. Kennedy, my father would often paraphrase, in his broken English: Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. He paid taxes, voted at every election and learned to read and write English. Without a doubt, Dionicio loved the United States. His gratitude to have been born a citizen was a sign for him of a lucky man.

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