Hispanic youth serves, shares faith to show thanks, praise to God

The family of 17-year-old Pablo Ortega is divided between the United States and Mexico. His older sister, Andrea, 18, returned to Guadalajara City, Mexico, to attend college this fall. His mother, Modesta, and younger brother, Felipe, 14, followed. That left Pablo and dad, Leon, behind in El Dorado. It has been a difficult adjustment.
Ortega, who is a senior at Parkers Chapel High School, said when he comes home from school his house is quiet because his dad is still at work. He is a chemical engineer at Chemtura Corporation. He began there four years ago, after the company offered him the job and moved his family to El Dorado.
When his sister, mother and brother decided to go back, Ortega chose to stay.
“I knew the consequences of it,” he said. “It’s really hard. I miss them so much,” but he wants to be a chemical engineer like his dad and go to college in Arkansas.
He comes from a large Catholic family in Mexico, but has no other family in El Dorado. That is why finding the Catholic Hispanic community at Holy Redeemer Church was so important.
“It’s really, really important because that’s my faith,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for nothing.”
He and his father attend Spanish-language Mass with about 120 others. Ortega, who sings and plays guitar, leads the choir and translates the homilies of Father Gregory Pilcher, OSB, from English into Spanish. Ortega did not speak English when he arrived in El Dorado.
“It took me six months to learn it and a year or two to speak it fluently,” he said.
Adjustment issues plagued him until he went to a Búsqueda (Spanish Search) retreat in April 2005. He said being exposed to Hispanic youth statewide helped him feel connected and led him to start a Hispanic youth group at Holy Redeemer. Today he helps lead the group, which meets after Sunday Masses.
Ortega has served on the Búsqueda leadership team since November 2005. These retreats are held each spring and fall. Last April he was chosen to lead the team and will do so again at the Nov. 16-18 retreat.
At Búsqueda, “I see people crying, teens crying and reconciling with their parents and it fills me,” he said of his participation.
Ortega is one of three Hispanics at his high school and he is the only one who was born outside the U.S. He said that is how he learned to speak English so well. “I didn’t have anybody to speak Spanish with.”
He plays football and belongs to lots of clubs at his school, including the Brothers and Sisters in Christ, which, he said, has given him the chance to learn about other Christian beliefs while also sharing his Catholic faith.
For Ortega, the most important part of being Catholic is giving back, which comes from his family’s example back in Mexico.
“I remember my grandfather telling me that if you want to thank God because he gave you life, you might as well help build his kingdom,” he said.

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Tara Little

Tara Little joined Arkansas Catholic in 2000 and has served in various capacities, including production manager and associate editor. Since 2006 she has managed the website for the Diocese of Little Rock.

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