Last week at the state high school wrestling championships in Prescott Valley, Sunnyside senior Marco Frias came out on top. The 18-year-old took the crown in his 170-weight division, two years after he joined the sport.
But this isn’t a sports story.
This is about a Tucson family. This is an immigration story. This is an American success story.
Before we go there, let’s hear from Marco, who started out far from success on the wrestling mat.
In his first year with the Blue Devils, a school with a rich wrestling legacy, Marco lost nearly every match as a junior. But he loved the intensity and discipline of the sport and he returned for his second and final year.
He trained hard and long, lifting weights, running, doing all he could do to compete — and win.
“I had a lot of catching up to do,” he said.
He focused on his goal and changed his mental approach.
“I said, ‘I was going to win,’” said Marco, who will soon change his focus to national competition and later getting into college.
His entire family shares his achievement — as well it should. They were behind him all the way. His family was a big reason for his success, Marco said.
His parents, he said, raised him right. “I bought into what they told me,” he added.
Those values, the drive to succeed, to do right, came with the Frias family when it immigrated 12 years ago to Tucson from Ciudad Obregón, Sonora.
“This country shows you, gives you opportunity,” said Marco Frias, the dad. “But you have to work hard.”
The elder Frias said when he and his wife, Martha, talked about immigrating, they were unsure because of cultural differences, language and job prospects in this country. But they made the decision because they believed that north of the border awaited something better for them, for Marco and his 14-year-old brother, Carlos, a student at Sierra Middle School who plays for two soccer clubs.
They arrived in Tucson and Marco, 50, and Martha, 47, went to work. He found a job repairing air conditioners and heaters, and she found part-time jobs in the morning so that she could be home when her sons got out of school.
The couple focused on what they had to do. They took on the attitude that they incorporate the family into their new community. They learned English. They became U.S. citizens.
Marco Frias now has his own air conditioning repair business and Martha prepares income taxes. She also volunteers to prepare taxes for people who are unable to do their own.
As the Friases have adopted a new life, the family has maintained its connections with Mexico. “We should not forget our roots,” said the elder Marco Frias.
The Friases also have extended their hand to their family in Sonora. Their 14-year-old nephew, Roman Cuevas, is living with the family. He hopes to follow the path of his cousins, get an education and engage in sports. In his case it’s baseball.
The family’s story is not unique. Countless immigrant families in the U.S. have achieved, to some degree or another, what the Friases have earned, and what they will continue to accomplish. They identify with other immigrant families, specifically Mexican, who bravely ventured north to begin new lives.
These stories, and the Frias family story, slap down the political pablum of some U.S. presidential candidates and their nativist supporters who continue to insist that immigrants take and don’t give, that immigrants don’t learn English, that immigrants have eroded the country’s values.
The Friases see a different picture. They are proud of their immigrant values of hard work, devotion to family and focus on education. And they are grateful for the doors that have opened for them in this country.
“I see the three boys going to college and moving forward,” said Martha Frias. Her husband envisions professional careers for his two sons and his nephew.
They’re on their way.
