Believing That You Can
Saulo Cortes, Youth & Wisdom
Someone whom I greatly admire is my brother and best
friend, Saulo Cortes. When my parents came to the U.S. in
1990, Saulo and I unfortunately had to stay in Mexico with
my uncle and his wife. My other two siblings, Stephanie
and Apner, had not been born yet, so it was only he and I.
He was 10 years old and I was 11. My uncle’s wife was not
kind at all: she forced us to do different duties like making
tortillas or doing their laundry by hand. During vacations
my brother, usually positive and full of good humor, and I
planted corn with my uncle. Saulo and I learned to take care
of each other. For instance, he was very smart so he made
and sold plastic necklaces so we could buy something to eat
at school because school snacks are not free in my country.
To be honest, my brother and I were always together, so
it was natural for us both to come to Florida and be reunited
with our parents. God blessed him; at only 23 years of age
he was a manager of a construction company, and what a
good job it was! He never acted with arrogance; on the
contrary, he was humble and considerate of others. In fact,
when the wife of one of his workers had cancer, my brother
tried to do the man’s job for him when the man had to miss
work because of his wife’s appointments. Saulo also visited
them many times. Also, because his wife loved classical
music, Saulo always persuaded my father to play the violin
for her.
Not only was Saulo an amazing person, but he was also
generous and compassionate. I remember one freezing day
while we were outside of a store and saw a homeless man
with no jacket. Suddenly, my brother took his jacket off and
gave it to the man. I was surprised, so I asked him why he
gave the man his two hundred dollar jacket. He answered,
“If you want to give something, you give your best.” He
was teaching me a lesson, like always.
As a final point, I admire him because he was so mature
for his age. As I mentioned before, he was a good person
and a good role model—even though he was younger than