Juandiarte

Juan Jose DiArte (born November 23, 1979 in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico is a Mexican-American who currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, USA.

Bibliography

Early Years

At the age of four, in 1984, his family and him moved to San Diego, California to begin a new life in the United States. At the time they were undocumented immigrants and began working with an American taking care of his ranch. Later they moved to Long Beach, California when a relative provided a job opportunity for his father working at a rim shop. After going through the long process of becoming United States residents, his father began legally working at a cement factory in Downey, California. At this time, his family began getting deeply involved in church, which would later lead to his parents becoming pastors of their own church in El Ejido Valdez, Sonora, Mexico, near Sonoyta, Sonora.

When his parents moved to El Ejido Valdez, Sonora, to begin a Pentecostal church, he, and his two brothers and two sisters, were left without an education. Earlier in his parents life, they were also left without the opportunity for an education. It was then that his parents realized they did not want to disregard this privilege. So after approximately two years of living there, they decided to move to the nearest public school in the USA, which was Ajo, Arizona. At first, Juan DiArte, after losing most of his English language because of the lack of use, had a hard time fitting in at school and was an easy target for teasing. He had to relearn most of the language but was never held back a grade. In fact, after speaking to his teachers and requesting to be moved up a grade because he had missed two years of school, he was tested and successfully bumped up a grade to the seventh grade. In high school, he played all four years of basketball and played football his senior year.

Education

He graduated from Ajo High School and in the summer of 1998 he moved to Tucson, Arizona to enroll at Pima Community College. He received an Associate degree in General Studies. He immediately enrolled at the University of Arizona and after spending one year in the Architecture program, he decided to complete a bachelors degree in Communication. He graduated from the university on the summer of 2003. He began working as a special education teacher in the beginning of 2004 at the Calli Ollin School District. On May of 2008 he received his masters degree from Northern Arizona University in Education with an emphasis in special education. He graduated with honors.