Misfortune a Source of Motivation

Only three math classes at Valley College separate Heber Reyes from beginning to realize his dream of helping those who can’t help themselves.

Reyes, 25, who has spent four years at the Valley Glen school, hopes to transfer to Loyola Marymount University to study political science and earn a law degree. Eventually, he hopes to run for public office.

“I want to be the first Hispanic congressman in a wheelchair in the U.S. government,” he said. “I [want] to make this place better for my sons and the next generation.”

What’s clear now for the Burbank man--who is also a newlywed--wasn’t always so.

At 13, Reyes fell down a 35-foot shaft at his East Los Angeles middle school and fractured his skull and back in five places. He was in a coma for 13 days and lost the use of his legs.

“I was heartbroken; I was devastated,” he said. “I woke up one day and I wasn’t able to walk again.”

Now 25, the Burbank resident said he believes the accident may have saved his life.

“Most of my friends are either dead or locked up in jail for life,” he said of the neighborhood children from Aliso Village, an East Los Angeles public housing project. “I think the accident was a blessing in disguise.”

It set him on a new course. He moved out of the projects and into a physical rehabilitation hospital in Downey, where he stayed for 1 1/2 years. He studied in the mornings and underwent physical therapy in the afternoons. He often read books to escape his worries, he said.

He returned to mainstream classes for middle school and graduated a few months early from self-paced Monterey High School, a continuation school in Burbank.

“I was motivated to get out,” he said.

Reyes looks to state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) as a role model. He met the politician in 1998 when he worked at the then-Los Angeles city councilman’s office. Reyes got the job through the service-learning program at Valley College, in which students work in the community for credit. For nine months, Reyes worked the phones and shopping malls registering Latinos to vote.

He recently received a 2000 Leadership in Service-Learning Award from the California community colleges’ chancellor. Nominees were selected from service-learning students at 107 community colleges. Alarcon presented Reyes with the award in November.

“I can’t put into words how I feel about him,” Reyes said of his mentor. “He’s changed the future of blacks, whites and Latinos--everybody.”

He said he admires Alarcon for giving up pay raises as a councilman to help buy equipment and programs for the Los Angeles Police Department. His efforts to expand Neighborhood Watch and to develop programs to clean up gangs demonstrates his commitment to fighting crime, Reyes said.

“Heber will be a leader,” Alarcon said recently. “He will be there for people to move up based on the help he provides them. He is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.”

Reyes also volunteers at Rescate--Spanish for rescue--a family resource center at the Canoga Park Presbyterian Church, where low-income residents receive free clothes, food and after-school tutoring.

Although he is anxious to advocate full time, Reyes knows what comes first.

“Right now,” he said, “I’ve just got to get these math classes done.”

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