Students and staff at Harmony Science Academy-Brownsville welcomed U.S. armed services veterans to campus on Wednesday for a Veterans Day parade and catered breakfast to thank them for their service to the country.
Students and staff members invited individual veterans to the event as guests. As patriotic music played, hosts and members of the cheer and spirit teams accompanied the veterans along the parade route through the halls of the Harmony Pre-K to 8th Grade campus on Central Boulevard a day before Thursday’s national holiday.
Instructional staff member Elizabeth Garza sang a pitch-perfect rendition of the National Anthem in the cafeteria after the parade before Principal Joel Alaffa welcomed the veterans to campus and the spirit and cheer teams performed to patriotic music.
Trinity LaLande brought her father U.S. Army Col. Jose Esteban Rodriguez, who is on leave from the Pentagon and came in full-dress uniform.
“I never imagined such a warm reception from the community, especially the children,” Rodriguez said. The mother is a diplomat at the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros and Trinity is their youngest child among six and the only girl.
Rodriguez will complete 34 years of service in January. He enlisted Jan. 26, 1988 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“I have worn many uniforms and held many titles, but the greatest is ‘Dad,’” he said. “The most important thing is to help others develop and achieve their full potential.”
Dakota De La Cruz brought her martial arts teacher Jose Garza, who served four years in the U.S. Air Force based out of Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls and from 2012-2013 in Afghanistan.
Garza, who grew up in Los Fresnos and operates the Kuk Sool Won martial arts school in Brownsville, said he has spent a good deal of time this Veterans Day reflecting on his service and about his time in Afghanistan.
“I never want to forget why I joined. I joined to serve my country, not necessarily to fight. It’s about serving the country,” said Garza, now 29.
“The Afghan people needed help. I went to serve the people and to show them who the Americans are supposed to be,” Garza said. “A lot of my students want to serve and I don’t want them to do it the way I did it. … I had to do bad things. Being a veteran is a role model and I cannot forget that.”
Garza said he felt honored by the ceremony. “It’s the first time I’ve celebrated like this,” he said.
