Oscar and Armando Gonzalez of San Jose, CA encouraged me to take advantage of my dual nationality and wrestle in Mexico. In the late 70's they had traveled and wrestled in Mexico. It was a great oppourtunity to travel and compete in the place of my birth. Officials in the Mexican government had been contacted and I had been placed in contact with Cesar Del Rio Gil, the then President of the Mexica
n Wrestling Federation. After half a dozen phone calls, I was able to reach Cesar Del Rio and I talked to him about my nationality status and my wish to wrestle in México. In December of 1990, I traveled to Mexico City and was meet there by Cesar Del Rio. I was taken to the Mexican Olympic Training Center to train and then put up at a local hotel. That weekend I competed in the Mexican Espoir National Championships and finished in 2nd place. That performance was good enough to earn me a position on the national development program and allowed me to travel to and from the US and compete in major national and international competitions. Later that spring and summer, I competed in the Central American Games, Mexico and the Espoir World Championships in Previdza, Czechoslovakia. In my formative years, I firmly believe this overall experience was a major contributor to my success as a wrestler and person. The next fall, as a sophomore at West Valley College, I finished 2nd in State Junior College Championships. That success secured a wrestling scholarship to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM. In 2000, after nearly ten years as a member of the Mexican Team, I finished a disappointing 4th in the Pan-American Games just missing a position for the 2000 Sydney Games. That event would mark the end of a life as a competitive wrestler, but a transition into other areas of my personal life. In the summer of 2006, as a local wrestling coach in the San Jose Bay Area I wanted to expose the athletes I was developing with an additional incentive to get them to see amateur wrestling from a different perspective. The answer was to organize and develop a cultural exchange team that targeted local and statewide kids. The vision consisted of providing wrestling opportunities for kids at the international level. In the summer of 2007, CAUSA conducted the first official cultural exchange trip to Mexico City. We were hosted by The National Autonomous University of México coached by Juan Carlos Delgado. Juan Carlos was a former opponent of mine that for years, that I had sustained a competitive rivalry with. Recently, Juan Carlos Delgado had recently been appointed Head Coach at this university, so this exchange was supported from the start.
