Roberto Perez

One Full American Life Roberto Perez

When I obtained my PhD in 1978, I acquired the confidence to write this book. We are a family of first generation Americans who have contributed positively to the making of this country. Three brothers fought during WWII. An additional two of us also served during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Four nephews saw action in Vietnam and in the Gulf War. None of us entered military service because we are gung ho and patriotic, we did it because we are contributors to this country we love and wish to carry our weight.



The year 2015 and the emergence of one Donald Trump gave me a very different motivation to complete this book. In my humble opinion, any one of us Perez men has more of what it takes to be a true American in one fingernail than Mr. Trump has in his whole body. But we are more than volunteers for the armed forces. We are teachers, school principals, college professors, counselors, nutritionists, lawyers, craftsmen who have businesses and employ hundreds of Americans, and much more. So I reflected on my own personal life in America. From high school dropout to earning a PhD from a prominent American university, to serving in the military for twenty years in four different continents during times of war, to teaching very successfully in a middle school and serving fourteen years as an effective school principal. I capped off my working career with adjunct professor positions at two prominent universities for fourteen more years. Upon further reflection, I now feel I have led more than one full American life, in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.







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