un hombre de esperanza

My father began working at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in 1981, receiving an insubstantial $4.50 an hour for his hard work. It may have been minimum wage back in the day, but each year he received the legal raise he was entitled to that amounted to $12.00 an hour in 2005. As a high schooler I was earning more than my father. A wife who pressured him to find another job, finally saw the fruits of her persistence twenty-five years later when my father went from being a cook at SFO to being a janitor earning $20.00 an hour. He went from un-union earnings, to unionized earnings. None of us thought he would make a job switch in his late fifties. I was away in college, so I missed the family discussions and the reasoning that prompted him to do so. I went home for vacation one semester and he had a different job!

Dr. King said “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Although he is many things outside of "street sweeper", my father exemplifies the image of the man Dr. King created. Yesterday, Carlos Chicas, received employee of the year at SFO. I honor the legacy he has left for me to follow. It is one of hard work, consistency and discipline. For thirty years he has sojourned the twenty minute car ride from San Francisco to San Bruno to earn a living to provide for three demanding children. When he was a cook he burned his hands for us. Now as a janitor, he bends his back to clean up spills, put away chairs, and heavy furniture, serving the many (including myself) who fly out of SFO. Because of my father's connection to SFO, it is always enchanting to walk the halls and fly on planes that leave out of that airport. I smile at every employee and I want to tell them I love them, because I know how hard they work. Over the years, I imagine employees become desensitized to the emotions thrust by frustrated personalities anxious to make their flight. As I grew up, less and less where the tales of these characters that had inadvertently ruined his day. Through it all my father has been persistent, always continuing his education at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Now his new venture is to be a carpenter. I think he's trying to be more like Jesus! But today, I pay my respects to the earthly man who gave me life, so I can meet my spiritual Father one day.