STC Professor Finds Success After Life Struggle

Among all the obstacles he has overcome, South Texas College history instructor and department chair Joel B. Rodriguez says his greatest challenge came as he struggled to support the people he loved most.  

From moving every year as a child for over 20 years or working full-time in fast-food jobs while still in high school, Rodriguez said his upbringing is a cautionary tale that straddles the line between two generations – and like many in the region, fighting hard to break the cycle of poverty.

“Maybe some people have the luxury to take their time and have some sort of leisure time but the world that I lived in, there was very little of that,” he said. “Sometimes you have to work two or three times harder than the person next to you. “

Growing up in San Benito, Rodriguez said hard work was expected but also admits that opportunities were sparse. His mother worked in the fields picking onions and strawberries just like her father before her, who picked cotton for over 40 years. On his father’s side, he and his grandfather worked in cattle. Both his parents were a product of a time and place where work and supporting the family were priority, but college itself was a distant dream, he said.

“It was the only opportunity that was given to them at that time, and because of that I think it's important that we don't take for granted the opportunities that we have here now, where we are encouraged to go to college rather than the way it was back in the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies where you weren't necessarily encouraged to go to college,” Rodriguez said.

He fell into the cycle of work early. When his father suffered a heart attack during his junior year of high school and couldn’t work anymore, Rodriguez said he turned to small jobs with long hours out of necessity.

“I did the whole fast-food tour as they say,” Rodriguez said. “I worked at McDonald's. I worked at Popeyes. I worked at Whataburger. I worked at Burger King…I've been working nonstop since I was 15 years old so basically for about 17 years straight. I didn't really have a choice to work. I had to work.”

Rodriguez remembers his grueling schedules while managing his school work in high school and then in college.

In 2010, Rodriguez said he was employed as a humanities tutor at STC’s Center for Learning Excellence (CLE) while pursuing his undergraduate degree at the University of Texas-Pan American as well as managing a full-time job. 

He would go to class during the day, then after school would head immediately into work until late night, do his homework when he got back, and then wake up at eight the next morning to do it all over again. He followed the same routine for years, he said.

Through the difficult years however, Rodriguez said he was constantly reminded that the situation was not permanent. His parents were always quick to remind him that if he wanted out of his circumstances his only choice was to receive an education.

“I had to support my family at a very young age, but it's worth noting that my parents always stressed education,” Rodriguez said. “Their message was that education was the ticket out of this cycle where it was all about providing for the family, and education taking a backseat. That cycle had to stop.” 

Then came a turning point. Rodriguez said he was 21 when he left home to make his own way.

“We moved, on average, every single year, whether it was getting kicked out of an apartment because we couldn't afford the rent, whether it was leaving the place because we couldn't afford the utilities. It was either we got groceries and we couldn’t pay the rent or pay the rent and not get groceries,” Rodriguez said. “But it was that last house that we moved into, that last property where we lived as a family, it was condemned immediately after we left. That made me realize – what other motivation do I need to finish?”

Through hard work and sacrifice, Rodriguez said he worked his way from tutor to assistant chair and finally chair of STC’s History and Philosophy Department in 2020. Despite the odds, his siblings also received an education.

Rodriguez said he uses his experience to guide his students, and takes it a step further by giving it a historical perspective.  

“I give examples in my classes about the fact that whether it’s migrant workers, whether it's industrial workers, whether it's railroad workers; whether it was the agricultural workers, and people who have been underrepresented through history…whether it's the 19th century or the early 21st century, it's easy to just give up. But at some point, you are going to have to stand up and change your life, because that’s what these people did,” Rodriguez said.

Like his own challenges, Rodriguez said learning about the past and the constant struggles people faced should serve as an inspiration for students to make a better future. 

“You might have to crawl, scratch your way out of it. But there is a way out. And I would say wholeheartedly that the way out of that cycle is through education,” he said. “I was breaking my back in those fast-food jobs working 40 hours a week but earning minimum wage. I mean, you can only do that for so long. It was all about hard work every single day because it was going to pay off and it has.”