Campaign Story

My name is Adrian Aguilar and this is my journey to Fatherhood so far. Every child has it’s own dream whether it be being a famous celebrity or even being lead quarterback of your favorite football team but mine was always to be a father. I knew that I wanted to be a father when I grew up the moment I knew what my father wasn’t going to be for me. I was fortunate enough to be raised by my mother, stepfather, and my grandparents. My abuelo (grandpa) would always say “la sangre es sagrada” (blood is sacred) whenever discussing the loyalty behind being a family. As I grew older, those wise words proved to be right after all the struggles I had gone through personally. Things weren’t always perfect though, when I came out of the closet my family didn’t take well to a change in their own journey of raising a young man. That’s when my journey to find myself began, at the age of 17.

Most of my life I grew up in my father’s shadow. The son of an encarcerated addict and being from the small town of Sunland Park, N.M. made that dark title even harder to avoid since my family was one of the founding families of the town. The comment that really fueled my journey to Parenthood was “you’re going to end up just like your father” which I heard more than I could handle.

By the age of 18 in 2006, I moved to Dallas, Tx. I was already couch surfing for the two years after I left my family household so life in my hometown, in my eyes, was tainted and I desperately wanted a fresh start. Fast forward to 2015, I bought a house by the age of 22. I was finally able to work on my dreams now that I had a roof over my head and began saving money. After many years,  my family, my own flesh and blood, embraced me with love affirming the man I have become.

Since then, I have lost the living patriarchs of my family, on both sides. I was reminded of my life dream; to be a good father and be the one I deserved but this time being a married man was just not going to be a part of it . For so long, I looked at life as needing to find love and and have a family because it was instilled in me at such a young age by the ways my grandparents told me they did it. My grandmother somehow knew I was struggling to find myself and reminded me that I was the man I had become because I did it in my own way. To be the head of my family my way and that it would not change how proud and supportive my family would be at how I obtained my life’s dreams. I’m about to be 35 now and I am still working hard to make this come true. To have the chance to see my own family grow up and pass on all the beautiful knowledge and love that I learned in life would be so much joy in my life and my family’s. Thank you for taking the time to read this personal memoir. Your support is greatly appreciated.