Anthony Mondragon

How he got involved in Homeboy Industries  

I grew up in a rough community. So pretty much, I don’t have a father. My mom, she’s a drug addict. So pretty much, that left me on raising myself. And of course, you know, when you’re a little kid, you don’t know from right or wrong. So, you start to do the wrong and you learn from them. I grew up in a rough state with no support. My brother, he’s gang-affiliated. My sister, she moved to Arizona when I was young, so she was doing her own thing. I have two younger sisters as well. They live with my mom, but my mom, she’s not doing very well, so that left me to depend on myself and try to navigate through this world, you know, without anybody being there for me. So that’s what led me to… I mean I got incarcerated when I was 15. I came out of jail when I was 16, and then that’s when they contacted me from Homeboy Industries, and they asked me, like, do you want to get a job, you know. So, the first job I started working there was in the bakery. It was a good experience. I kind of learned how to bake, you know, got little inside details of what they got going on right there. The coffee cake, you know. So, pretty much I started off in the bakery. Then I went to the cafe. This is Homegirl Cafe and pretty much, like, I was the prep cook, so I prepped everything, you know. I mean, I started off from the bottom. But right there is an 18-month program. So, it’s maintenance, then you get into the business. So pretty much it’s just part of a business, and within, let’s say, half of the 18 months, you get into this thing called “3.0” where they start sending you to businesses to try them out. So, pretty much, I started out there, you know. It kind of gave me new learning experiences and things that I could take in my future. So, started off there. Then I came over here to recycling. But this was before, because me I’m chasing my higher education. So, because I got a strike and a felony. So, pretty much, it doesn’t stop me from being able to accomplish the majority of the things that I could, but it does, kind of like, it gives you that thought in your head where it minimizes your options. So that’s a struggle that we face, you know.