Among my role models was Tony Rodriguez, a coach and mentor at the Wesley Community Center. Wesley, as we call it, was located on the corner of Colima and S. Leona and served the community with health and dental care. It had a gym on the second floor and that’s where we learned how to play official basketball. I say “official” because we would play each other in a makeshift basketball court outside next to the gym. No rules.

Tony was a tough coach who took no back talk from anybody. This was the time when we were not a team but, he made us into a team by playing us against each other. There were no uniforms. We were “skins” and “shirts”. The older kids like Johnny Gamboa and Edward Garcia, future Voks at Lanier High School were the ones who we emulated and also try to beat. There was no stopping them. They played to win.

As a coach, we respected him. He would go beyond the gym and talked with our parents and let them know that he was proud of us. He even went to the bar where my dad would hang out and let him know how I was doing. He didn’t just coach, he invited us to learn how to sing.  So we sang in one of the rooms with piano accompanying. He played well and I wanted to learn how to play piano. However, my uncles who were in the group talked me out of it. Calling me a sissy. I lived with them so, I had to take it.

Every year there was a basketball city tournament which all the recreational centers competed. When Coach Tony thought we were ready he got us a few games with the Denver Heights team and some with the Boys Club on Monterrey St. We didn’t have uniforms yet but, we did well enough that he convinced the Wesley Center to get us some hand me down uniforms. Later he registered us to play in the City Wide Tourney and compete with the other centers like Good Samaritan, House of Neighborly, Boys Club and others in the city wide competition.  Most of the games were played outdoors on asphalt. The centers didn’t have an indoor gym. That year (1954-55) we won the City Championship.

Tony was an all-around person. He taught crafts and when I was 7 years old he convince me to join the Cub Scouts with him as a leader. With that experience in scouting I matured and later on I became a scoutmaster. Not only did Tony have us play basketball. We played flag football and softball. We use the parking lot as a field. It was mostly gravel and we did have skinned knees and elbows.

When I joined the military, I lost track of Tony. I never did find out where he lived or if he was married. After I retired from the military I went back to Wesley to volunteer my services. It was then that the city decided to tear up the whole community surrounded by Wesley. It was called the Vista Verde Project. Wesley Community Center was moved to the Southwest side on Fitch St. When they had a Grand Opening they named the new gym after Tony Rodriguez and they unfurled a large picture of the 1954-55 City Champs.  They were Domingo Gonzales, Julio Gonzales, Fred Medina, Carlos – and myself among the others whom I can’t remember their names.

 Here is a picture of my grandfather on the right, third row

   I never knew my grandfather. My only information about him came from talks with my grandmother, Romana and my cousins from Monterey, Mexico. I also did some research about the orchestras at that time. Here is what I found.

  Juan Cortes was born in Real Catorce, San Luis Potosi in 1882. This was a typical mining town. His parents and brother and sisters were all miners. He had four brothers and two sisters. He would work as a miner until he was 25 years old. Then he married Romana Lopes.

  Romana was then about 15 years old and Juan was a drinking man who still had a lot of life in him and was not quite ready to settle down. However, the Cueva family, who were distant aunt and uncle to Juan saw fit to marry her to Juan. In order to do so they lied about her age.

  At that time they were living in Salinas Victoria, Monterey. Juan had continued to enjoy his way of living but was still married. While he was in Monterey, he found work with the railroad company named El Camino Real.

   Six or eight years later they decided to cross over into the US by way of Piedras Negras, Mexico. This was during the Mexican Revolution and just prior to World War I.

  During their stay at Piedras Negras, Mexico, they had a son and named him Eugenio. They already had two other sons previously and named Carlos and Alejandro.

  Upon arriving in San Antonio Juan went to work with the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad and took his family along with him. They would live in freight trains and wherever the job took, him the family went too. This is one of the reasons why some of the family like Carmen was born in Milan, Texas and the rest in other cities or states.

  Juan was not rich as most people at that time were barely making it with what they had. He had something else going for him that made him very popular. That was his accomplishment as a musician. He had mastered the mandolin and bass and played with a group as a way of earning more money. This he did while working as a railroad lineman.

  When the 1929 Depression hit, he was forced to work as a musician full time as part of the Work Project Administration that President Franklin Roosevelt set up in 1932. He worked in this capacity until 1936 when his health forced him to give up his position in the orchestra. His son, Carlos, took up that position himself being an accomplished guitar player.

  On August 16, 1936, Juan died as a result of an asthma attack. He was laid on his bed at the last house he lived in at 910 S. Laredo St. The musician that he played with took up a collection to pay for the funeral. It wasn’t a fancy funeral but it was rich with friends. The orchestra marching behind the funeral procession playing the funeral song. They played again at the cemetery where he was laid to rest. he was buried at San Fernando Cemetery #2.