The Road Not Taken : Gangs or Football? Tino De La Cruz Chose Latter, Never Regretted It

Tino De La Cruz, UC Berkeley graduate and construction company owner, understands some of the forces that drive the young gang members in his hometown of Paramount.

At 13, he fought alongside his neighborhood friends, stole bicycles, scrawled graffiti and skipped school. “They took the place of my family for a while,” De La Cruz said. “The gang will never let you down. They were there for you.”

Some of those boyhood friends became hard-core gang members and still live in one of Paramount’s toughest neighborhoods. One is now hooked on drugs and has been in and out of jail. Another lost an eye in a gang shooting.

But De La Cruz traded his khakis and other gang attire for a football uniform. He became a star linebacker and student body president at Paramount High School, and parlayed his gridiron success into a college degree.

Now, he is one of his barrio’s success stories. At 28, he is owner and president of De La Cruz Construction Inc. of Whittier, a small firm that installs and replaces gas lines for Southern California Gas Co. He lives in Lakewood with his wife, Bertha, and his 1-year-old daughter, Norma.

Shortly after starting the firm, he also set up the Barrio Employment Program to train and employ troubled Paramount youngsters. The first trainee joined De La Cruz’s fledgling company seven months ago.

“I want to give them an education, give them skills, give them something so they can have a life,” he said. “There are a lot of people like me who don’t get the opportunity. I was lucky.”

De La Cruz got involved with gangs when he was 12, and seemed destined for gang life. His older brother, Jesse, was a gang member, and his parents, Faustino and Raquel, who immigrated from Mexico, worked long hours to make ends meet.

The family lived in a two-bedroom house on the border of an area plagued by gangs, and Tino De La Cruz virtually lived in the streets and at the local park. “The shootings, the fights, I thought it was normal,” he said.

De La Cruz said he probably would have graduated to hard-core gang activity if he hadn’t tried out for football as a high school freshman--and come under the influence of coach Tom Davies.

Davies and the other coaches quickly pegged De La Cruz as a good prospect because of his size and ability. When the youngster showed up at the school in gang attire--khaki pants and long T-shirts--Davies laid down the law, De La Cruz recalled. “He said, ‘You have to be a cholo (gang member) or a football player. You can’t have both,’ ” De La Cruz said.

“I tucked in my shirt and kept going. This was my way out,” he added.

Davies said De La Cruz became a tireless worker who would show up at school at 6:30 every morning to train with weights before class. “The word ‘can’t’ was never in his vocabulary,” Davies said. “He was an overachiever.”

Davies, who is now an assistant principal at Bellflower High School, became a second father to De La Cruz. The teen-ager would go to the coach’s home to visit and discuss his problems. Davies continued to encourage De La Cruz to set his sights on college.

With a reputation as one of the hardest-hitting linebackers in the area, and a “B” average in class, the 6-foot-2 De La Cruz was heavily recruited by top colleges. He decided on UC Berkeley.

But he says Davies’ support throughout high school was crucial.

“For every one time (Davies) told me I can make it, there were 100 people telling me I couldn’t. I had to decide my teachers are wrong, my counselor is wrong, my friends are wrong,” De La Cruz said. “I felt no one believed in me except the coaches.”

Even after he accepted the scholarship to UC Berkeley, one of his teachers said the college was wasting the scholarship, and a counselor gave him a magazine about joining the military. “If I was a good student and they gave up on me, you can imagine how they’ve given up on the gang members,” he said angrily.

College was a struggle. De La Cruz suffered a neck injury during his freshman year, and was unable to come back. But he concentrated on his studies. “I was like ‘Rocky,’ I just wanted to prove I’m not a bum,” De La Cruz said.

De La Cruz graduated from UC Berkeley in four years, receiving a BA in Social Science with an emphasis in economics. He held management jobs with two other construction companies, then formed his own firm last January, listing his home as collateral for a start-up loan.

The company, which has 29 employees and four crew trucks, received a big boost when it was included in a Southern California Gas Co. program to use more minority contractors. De La Cruz estimates that his firm will perform $1 million worth of work for the gas company this year.

De La Cruz said he is trying to pass on some of his good fortune through his Barrio Employment Program, which provides four weeks of training through a local union and additional training on the job.

Al Barragan, 19, who graduated from Paramount High in 1990, became the first participant. Barragan, who was recommended by a city official, said he had socialized with gang members, but never became one.

Barragan earns about $12 an hour running a jackhammer and other power tools at work sites. He practices welding after work and hopes to be promoted soon. “I’ve been pretty lucky that Tino has taken me under his wing,” Barragan said.

The second trainee will be De La Cruz’s 31-year-old brother, Jesse, the former gang member who recently served about two years in prison for possession of drugs.

Paramount officials, who have been wrestling with Paramount’s growing gang problems, praised Tino De La Cruz’s training program.

“He’s come back and is doing something positive for the community,” said Tony Ostos, who heads a city program that attempts to steer Paramount youths away from gangs. “Every little bit helps. I hope others will emulate him.”