citizen and shepherd
13 years ago, Julian Gerardo Rodriguez Hernandez came to Tulsa from Tlahualil, a city of about 22,000 in the northern Mexican state of Durango. On January 10, Rodriquez became a United States Citizen at a ceremony in his adopted city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. For Rodriguez, the day marked both the fulfilment of a dream and the beginning of a new chapter in his life.
When asked about the significance of the occasion, Rodriguez’s voice choked with emotion.
“This is a very important moment in my life,” he told La Semana on the auspicious day, “because one of the things we need, as Latinos and Hispanics, is speaking, voting, and responding on behalf of our people.”
Rodriguez said coming to this realization has been bittersweet, because he did not always see as great a need to exercise these rights as he does today, although even before he got his US citizenship he was not one to keep quiet in the face of injustice.
“I have never been silent,” Rodriguez said, “I have always had the opportunity to say what I want.”
Indeed, Rodriguez is well known in Tulsa’s Hispanic community for his activism on behalf of his fellow immigrants, both as a founding member of the Coalition for the American Dream shortly after he arrived in
Tulsa, and in his role as a Christian pastor.
“I consider myself pastor of the other shepherds in this city because I am already older and there are many young pastors and ministers,” he observed. “So I consider it my responsibility to help the mind of the ordinary worker, but also the people responsible for the spiritual state of our city.”
When others bemoan the challenges of today’s world, Rodriguez walks on the bright side of the road.
“The way I usually act is to try to look for the positive side of everything, even though the world is full of so much negativity,” he said. “We have enough opportunities to easily speak about what is negative, we can all see it, but we also need – and I think that we need to look for – a positive side, because the positive is what will help us to overcome the bad. We cannot just shout and curse the darkness, we have to be the light to be an example and support people who are truly doing something positive for our community.”
But no matter how far he has come in life, Rodriguez is a humble man who thanks God and his wife, Laura, for always being at his side. And what the pastor has received, he passes forward to others.
“I have always believed that I am here to give,” Rodriguez said. “I have been greatly blessed all my life, and I have always given in grace what I received from grace, but I still want to give more.”
Rodriguez has a clear message for his fellow immigrants.
“Don’t give up,” he said. “We have many opportunities in this country, and even without citizenship you have the right to speak, and the right to ask for help and to give help.” (LA Semana)