Jon@JonGarrido.com

Present:

The Jon Garrido News Network

Owner and CEO,

Former:

Scottsdale, Arizona

Valgroup Wal-Mart

Managing Partner, Valgroup Wal-Mart

Scottsdale, Arizona

Valgroup

Vice President for Planning and Development

Scottsdale, Arizona
 

Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community

Director of Community Development

Scottsdale, Arizona

 Jon Garrido Gonzales Manufacturing Company

Owner and CEO

Cuidad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico

City of El Paso, Texas
Executive Director of Economic Development, City of El Paso, Texas
Director, City of El Paso Industrial Development Authority (Industrial Development Bonds)

City of Tucson, Arizona
Federal Public Works Coordinator, City Manager's Office

Economic Development Coordinator, City Manager's Office

Economic Development Specialist (Planner II, III), Department of Community Development

History:

Jon Garrido March 19, 2009

Jon Garrido is a 5th generation American Hispanic born and raised in Superior, Arizona moving to Globe, Arizona to attend and graduate from Globe High School. After three and a half years serving with the 760th Medical Detachment, 34th General Hospital, APO 58, U.S. Army, Paris, France during the Vietnam War, Jon Garrido returned to Superior, Arizona to work underground at the Magma Copper Mine in Superior, Arizona for one year and three subsequent summers as he attended and graduated from Eastern Arizona College and then moved on to the University of Arizona and eventually, the University of Texas majoring in real estate development.

After the University of Arizona, Jon Garrido went to work for the City of Tucson as the Manpower Specialist (Planner I) then Economic Development Specialist (Planner II, and III) in the Department of Community Development. Jon was assigned to work with the inner target population in a task force structure to identify manpower, jobs and economic development need assessments then planning and developing programs and projects to address said assessments. Tucson was one of the first Model Cities and Planned Variation HUD programs in the United States. A primary component was working with residents from the redevelopment/revitalization area.

To prepare for economic development, Jon Garrido was awarded a fellowship to study economic development at the University of California, Berkeley, California, sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce where a curriculum of business loan packaging including financial statements, cash flow analysis, proformas, market and feasibility studies, and development of a business park, industrial park, commercial downtown and residential development were taught. A major component was learning to work with private lenders, the U.S. Small Business Administration's loan programs and federal procurement programs.

After returning to Tucson, the City Manager appointed Jon Garrido Economic Development Coordinator for the City of Tucson and was assigned to the City Manager’s Office.

As Economic Development Coordinator, Jon Garrido prepared grant applications and received Federal approval for 12 public works projects. The City Manager assigned Jon Garrido as Public Works Coordinator to oversee the operation and administration of these projects. The 12 construction projects were street paving, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, sewer and water lines, park development and construction of the 22nd Street Bridge over the Santa Cruz River.

Jon Garrido took first in the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration national grant competition of states, counties, cities, school districts and Indian tribes to secure public works grants. Competitors around the country called the Tucson City Manager to find out how Tucson had succeeded in securing grants from the federal government. The Manager asked Jon Garrido to return calls. One call went back to the City of El Paso which resulted in being offered the job of heading up economic development for the City of El Paso.

The last Tucson project was preparing the application to establish the Papago Foreign Trade Zone at Tucson International Airport. Approval from the U.S. Foreign Trade Zones Board of the U.S. Department of Commerce was obtained and upon arriving in El Paso, Jon Garrido began preparing the application for the El Paso Foreign Trade Zone on 600 acres of land belonging to El Paso International Airport. Three months after submission, the El Paso Foreign Trade Zone was approved by the U.S. Government.

While heading up economic development for the City of El Paso, Jon Garrido as a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Washington D.C., developed an urban design team within the department to plan revitalization of the El Paso central business district. As a member of ULI, Jon Garrido visited most major cities to learn downtown development but the most significant visit was New York City which included a tour and briefing by NYC developers who developed most major buildings including the former World Trade Center.

The most significant El Paso project undertaken by Jon Garrido was a new proposed port of entry in eastern El Paso duplicating the El Paso-Cuidad Juárez Bridge of the Americas which is the largest U.S. Customs and Immigration bridge crossing operation along the U.S. Mexico border. This was a massive planning operation including U.S. Customs, U.S. Immigration, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the State of Texas, the City of El Paso and the Mexican federal government, the State of Chihuahua, and the Municipio de Juárez, Cuidad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Two years after the El Paso Foreign Trade Zone had been approved and had become operational, Jon Garrido moved to Mexico and become Jon Garrido Gonzales in Cuidad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico where he established, owned and operated a manufacturing company (Maquilidora) with 80 Mexican and 20 American employees producing automotive parts for import into the USA.

Upon return to Arizona from Mexico, Jon Garrido became Director of Community Development for the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community and negotiated development of the Scottsdale Pavilions and the Pima Freeway including design with the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Then back to the private sector as Vice President for Planning and Development for Valgroup, then the largest real estate development company in Arizona, responsible for planning, entitlements and development of 5,550 acres of land adjacent to Surprise, Arizona. Jon Garrido spearheaded a major concept of a three runway airport capable of accommodating air cargo and Luke Air Force F15 and F16 operations. Buffered by a business park, commercial and green belt was a 1000 acre master planned residential community west and adjacent to Sun City West.

The first phase of development was annexation of 215 acres of land into the Town of Surprise. This included responsibility for all entitlements and subdivision master planning. 

In addition to the Surprise master planned community was Tonto Verde, a 614 acre master planned community in northeast Scottsdale, Arizona, north of Rio Verde. Two championship golf courses were planned with residential lots along both sides of golf fairways.

As managing partner with the founder of Valgroup, Jon Garrido developed a Wal-Mart in Scottsdale and continued on as a real estate planning consultant developing plans for Main Street Revitalization of Main Street, Payson, Arizona; Superior, Arizona; Gilbert Downtown, Gilbert, Arizona; and numerous other real estate commercial developments including in 2003-2004 serving as a consultant for a Texas pharmaceutical research company on developing a research facility near Austin, Texas.

In addition to a professional career, beginning in Tucson where Jon Garrido founded and was elected president of the Tucson Hispanic government employees organization that became the largest Tucson Hispanic advocacy organization began a journey of Hispanic involvement in affirmative action, social, political and religious issues. In addition to serving as president of the Tucson Hispanic government employee organization, Jon Garrido was also elected Chairman of the Spanish Speaking Council for the Diocese of Tucson spearheading change within the Catholic Church to accommodate needs of Hispanics in southern and eastern Arizona.

Involvement in Hispanic affairs led to the acquaintance of Patrick Apodaca, Associate Legal Counsel to the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. Mr. Apodaca visited El Paso at the invitation of Jon Garrido to be the guest speaker at the LULAC district annual convention. Patrick Apodaca subsequently invited Jon Garrido to the White House and Treasury Department for interviews for the position of Director of the Office of Federal Revenue Sharing. The position did not materialize because President Carter was not re-elected.

The highlight of working in Texas political campaigns was attending the White House Rose Garden ceremony at the invitation of President Reagan to announce the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. On a subsequent trip to Washington at the invitation of an Assistant Secretary at Interior, Jon Garrido was offered a deputy assistant secretary position at HUD (FHA Commissioner). Jon Garrido declined because Jon Garrido Gonzales Manufacturing in Mexico had just been established.

The most remembered event in Washington was a private breakfast at the Washington Press Club with Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush who requested and received a campaign pledge to obtain support from the Hispanic community on becoming President of the United States.

The first stage of Jon Garrido's life was heading up economic development for two medium size cities and an Indian reservation.

The second stage was development chief of major real estate commercial, industrial, housing and airport real estate developments.

The third stage self taught was learning to do one website growing into a network of 40 websites under the auspices of The Jon Garrido News Network with a market niche being Hispanic/Latino. Of the 40 websites, 5 are now ranked number 1 on Google searches. The next level being developed is daily news video broadcasts of national and local news to be offered at The Jon Garrido News Network, Hispanic News, Arizona News and The US Times.

On April 20, 2003, Hispanic News, a national Hispanic news venture targeted to English speaking American Hispanics, had its initial publication. Hispanic News is now the largest website in the United States publishing daily. Google ranks Hispanic News number 1 of some 25 million websites. Yahoo and Bing now also rank Hispanic News number 1 in the category "Hispanic News."

On September 28, 2005, Arizona News, ranked 4 by Bing of 5,700,000 websites, and The US Times ranked 1 by Bing of 37,000,000 websites, had their initial publications.

On November 20, 2005, 51 Plus, ranked 1 by Google of 212,000,000 websites, and Latin American News, ranked 1 by Bing of 5,000,000 websites, had their initial publications.

On December 24, 2005, JonGarrido.com had its initial publication.

On January 7, 2006, For Sale By Owner USA was published on the Internet.

On March 4, 2006, Subete, Latina and Act Arizona were published on the Internet.

On March 10, 2006, Mujer and Nuevo Hispania were published on the Internet.

On March 12, 2006, Amermart, World News, Aqaba, and Chica were published on the Internet.

On July 7, 2006, JGNet.net was acquired.

On August 26, 2006, Hispanic News was ranked number 1 by Google of 65,000,000 websites.

On December 10, 2006, Americause and the Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party were published on the Internet. Jon Garrido is president of each national organization now being established preparing for the 2008 national elections.

The 4th stage of Jon Garrido's life is to run for political office. In 1985, Jon Garrido returned to Arizona from Texas and moved to the Town of Paradise Valley, Arizona. Jon Garrido on September 13, 2007, moved to Phoenix, Arizona. On June 2, 2008, the Statement of Organization was filed with the City of Phoenix to enable Jon Garrido to become a candidate for the Phoenix City Council representing District 8.

On March 19, 2009, a press conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona announcing the candidacy of Jon Garrido to the Phoenix City Council from District 8.

The 5th stage will be to retire to Pinetop, Arizona and a ranch outside of Superior.

The last stage will be to be interred in Superior, Arizona.

The Hispanic American from Superior, Arizona

Jon Garrido Alvarez Gonzales Ledesma

Spanish Conquistadors led by Indian guides painted by Frederic Remington Superior, Arizona.

The first historical writing of Juan Garrido in the Americas is in 1508 when Juan Garrido joined Juan Ponce de Leon with about 50 conquistadors to explore Florida. Juan Garrido then settled in Mexico.

Sometime between 1522 and 1523 ln Cuyuacan, Mexico, Juan Garrido took the initiative for which he is best remembered: he sowed wheat for the first time in Mexico and produced flour in commercial quantities at his plantation near the gate of Tenochtitlan, on the road to Tacuba.

Later, in 1523, Juan Garrido took part in the exploration of the rich region of Michoacan. Upon his return to Tenochtitlan in 1524, the city council appointed him to a post equivalent to that of city manager which he retained for about three years.

350 years later, in the 1800s, my maternal Mexican great great grandparents arrived in the Arizona Territory. My great great grandmother was named Andrea. She had blue eyes. My great grandmother was named Longina. My grandmother, Maclovia Ledesma, was born in Morenci, Arizona, a copper mining town. My other maternal great grandparents, Antonio and Maria Alvarez Gonzales, entered the USA about 1912. My grandfather, Francisco Alvarez Gonzales, born and raised in San Miguel de Horticasitas, Sonora, Mexico, followed his parents into Arizona by walking across the USA Mexico border in 1917 and arrived in Superior, Arizona where he began work for the Superior copper mine as a underground hard rock copper miner working the one job until he retired. It was my grandmother, educated in the Morenci, Arizona public school, who helped my grandfather get a green card. My grandfather was not undocumented because he walked across the border prior to any immigration law preventing him.

Juan Garrido, my fraternal grandfather, was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. The second time I visited Spain I was armed with address and telephone number given to me by my dad of my grandfather's relatives in Madrid. I called but no visit materialized. In 1920, my grandfather came to the United States arriving in San Francisco and then traveled to Jerome, Arizona to work in the Jerome copper mine until it was mined out. In Jerome, my grandfather married my grandmother, Carmen, and they had three sons: Alex (my dad), Henry and John (Johnny). They divorced and my grandfather fathered Edward (Eddie) Garrido. My grandfather and dad, Alex, born in Jerome in 1923, then moved to Superior, Arizona, where my grandfather went to work for the Superior copper mine and my dad met my mom, Carmen Gonzales, in the Superior High School. They married and I was born and raised in Superior. My mom was born in Superior, Arizona in 1922.

I was named after my grandfather, Juan Garrido, but I was given the name — Jon. I grew up speaking English. I never learned Spanish. Even my grandparents spoke to me in English. As an adult a few years ago I decided to learn Spanish and finished the Rosetta Stone but my fluency came from television novellas beginning with Ruby and then Victoria — I became addicted to the evening soaps in Spanish.

After serving in the U.S. Army during Vietnam, I followed my two grandfathers into the Superior copper mine to work as a copper miner.

My other grandfather, Francisco A. Gonzales, also developed silicosis but with treatment at the Arizona State Sanatorium in Tempe, Arizona, my grandfather lived to be 89.

It was Johnny Garrido, my uncle, who as a mine level boss got me my mine job a few days after I arrived back from the U.S. Army. On my first day of work, my uncle Johnny stayed by my side (My uncle thought it would be scary riding the cage down the shaft for the first time) as we descended down the shaft in a cage and then my uncle proceeded to give me an underground tour of the mine.

I made my uncle proud. With my first job on level 3100 (numbers were used to signify how far down from the surface each level was. 3100 meant 3100 feet below the surface), miners soon gave me the name Jonny Muck because I broke the record for loading muck (copper ore) from a shoot and hauling the muck using a mule (battery powered engine) with two cars and dumping the muck a short distance away into a bin below the rail tracks moving the muck eventually to shaft 3 where it was loaded onto a skip above the cage and taken to the surface.

Then when a hard rock miner did not show up for work, I would fill in as a miner. I liked doing this because it meant more money. After a few months I was moved to work on the cage and this became my primary job moving muck up to the surface using the skips above the cage in the shaft.

I once asked my uncle how he came to be a mine boss because he was the only Mexican American mine boss. He laughed and told me it was because he and my dad looked "white." My dad had green eyes. Once when my dad grew a beard to celebrate the old west festival in Globe, my dad's beard came in red! My dad did not follow his dad into the mine. My dad's first job was working at the copper smelter in Superior. He did not like it and became a butcher. When my dad told me the smelter job was not for him, I remembered, my dad's dad had died a few years before I was born, killed from breathing silica dust from working in the mines.

I once asked my dad about my grandfather and my dad told me the end time for my grandfather was very hard. My grandfather coughed without stopping as blood flowed from his lungs destroyed by silicosis dust he had inhaled working underground as a copper miner.

My grandfather died while my dad was still in high school forcing my dad to quit high school to find a job. My dad went to work in the Superior copper smelter for a short time until he found a job cutting meat in a small store on Main Street in Superior. My dad continued on as a butcher until he retired.

I liked working at the mine. 98% of the workers were Mexican Americans and they all knew my family in Superior. Countless times an old miner would say to me, "Look at those caps and posts down that drift. See how they are all in perfect alignment. It was your grandfather Chico (my grandfather's name was Francisco and so his nick name became "Chico") who put those posts and caps in." When I worked at the mine, I alternated living between Superior and Globe depending on which shift I worked. If I stayed in Superior it was with my grandparents. If Globe, I still had my old room at Mom and Dad's.

When I stayed with my grandparents, I had daily conversations with my grandfather. I would share my work and the miner's comments with him. He would just smile.

I worked underground at Magma Copper Company for one year and three summers as I first went to Eastern Arizona College (EAC) then the University of Arizona. I graduated 16th in my class at EAC with a biological sciences major and a split minor in chemistry and physics. I could have placed higher in graduation but the first semester I got a "D" in chemistry which locked me out of taking second semester chemistry. I wanted to be a doctor so I absolutely needed chemistry. I went to plead with the chemistry instructor. We looked at my test scores and the cause of my "D" was I never went to class on Fridays. This was my undoing because each Friday there was a pop quiz. I scored high on the final exam and with a promise never again to cut Friday classes, I was allowed to continue with second semester chemistry. I got an "A" in the second semester final exam, so I received an "A" in second semester chemistry. The following year I received an "A" in Chemistry Qualitative Analysis and an "A" in Chemistry Quantitative Analysis so I had learned my lesson about cutting classes. My third year I transferred to the University of Arizona and finally, the University of Texas.

Family is the key Hispanic building foundation. Church is second. From my own childhood, I remember everything happened at my Gonzales grandparents at 245 Pinal Avenue in Superior. I was born on Silver Street five houses northeast of my grandparents. The first memory I have of my parents was on Stansberry the next street over from my grandparents. I remember a sand box my dad made that was in front of the house. I distinctly remember my dad used tar to seal the corners. The house I remember most after my grandparents' was our house on Porphyry directly across from Roosevelt School where I went to elementary school.

My Grandma was a strong matriarch. My grandfather was quiet — yet strong and a thinker. I still remember my grandfather in 1967 telling me some day cars would have telephones. The one that was hard to accept is the one about some day cars would not need drivers. I remember distinctly asking who would drive them? My grandfather gave me a one word answer — magnets. I did not understand and so he added: cars would have magnets and the roadway would have a rail in the asphalt that would hold the car down along a path in the highway. Both grandparents had good minds and work ethics.

It was the same with my parents. My dad never missed a day of work. He was a butcher/meat department manager so I grew up on steaks. My dad had a second job and on Sundays after Mass, we would pick up the milk truck parked at a small depot on Pinal Avenue and drive to Mesa to pick up milk for the stores in Superior. Many times I went along to Mesa about 50 miles west of Superior.  On the way back my dad had numerous stops from Mesa into Apache Junction stopping at small stores to deliver a few crates of milk. The round trip took about 5 hours and I was happy to tag along because my dad would let me ride in the back of the truck that was refrigerated and I could drink all the chocolate milk I wanted. I could ride up front with my dad or in back between Mesa and Apache Junction stops. Then I would ride with my dad up front from Apache Junction back to Superior. This was quality time I remember with my dad and it was priceless.

In Globe where I went to high school, my mother worked first at JC Penny's and then Sears as the credit manager. In Superior, I always remember my grandfather and grandmother working. My grandmother in the kitchen, unless As the World Turns, the daily soap was on (In English), and my grandfather outside on some project. Even on his day off as a underground copper miner, work was a priority. It was cement that was the foundation for all building. I remember numerous times going to creek beds outside Superior to shovel pick-up loads of sand to make cement. From the cement foundation for the house, a cement driveway leading into the carport, cement was God's gift of durability for house foundations, walls, driveways, flower boxes and even building Saint Francis Catholic Church where I served as an altar boy for countless years and where the thought germinated some day I would become a priest. If I was not at church, I was around the neighborhood with my friends and our BB guns. Then came our 22s for rabbits and then 30-30s that took us looking for deer out in the hills and mountains surrounding Superior. From the importance of family and Catholism flows moral conservative values.

15 years ago, I did study to be a deacon but I quit because I had a fight with Bishop O'Brien on his treatment of Hispanics as second class citizens.