Hispanic Heritage Awareness Month 2024

Rodriguez Carbajal Family

Hispanic Heritage Month Ambassador Family

We are honored to be chosen as Cottonwood’s Hispanic Ambassadors family for this month. A little bio on our family: we are a family of eight, with a new baby on the way. He will be born in 2025 so we will soon be a family of nine. We have been married for 15 years and our goal always was to raise a family with our faith, morals and traditions handed down from our families. Thanks to God we had the opportunity to have a big family. We have seven children and five that are enrolled at Cottonwood.

We also have a little homestead on our 5-acre farm. As a homeschool family we have the flexibility to teach them what our parents were taught growing up in Mexico as farmers and still what they do every day at work as farm workers in the fields in this new age. We have farm animals and our own home-grown vegetable and fruit organic garden that we all planted and take care of to help grow, so that when the time comes for harvest, we can feed our family. We even learned to butcher our own farm animals with no pain for them.

We can also teach them some of the things my husband was taught growing up in Mexico and brought as a little kid to the USA and then taken back to Mexico to later come as a teenager to get scholastics awards in high school and later get a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering. He is an example to our children to never give up on your dreams even if all odds are against you.

I was born in the USA, and I wanted to be a teacher when I was little, but later grew up and became a model and a soccer player at college. Little did I know God would give me the opportunity to become a teacher to my own children. We have been on the journey of homeschooling for 6 years and I have not looked back.

Our first daughter was introduced into homeschooling when she was going into third grade at the time she lacked the confidence in herself. Coming from a public-school, when tested she was assessed to be at first grade level in reading. I am proud to say now as a 9th grader she has tested at a 12.4 reading level.

Homeschooling was the best choice for our family. We have done more things together, from growing together, helping each other, and knowing how to better help our children to also trying new things. They have tried piano, horse riding, and enjoyed each other and new friends along the way at school field trips. The opportunities they’ve had would never be available at a traditional public school. We are not alone, and we have a great group of teachers wanting to help us achieve our kids’ best potential in their educational life, to later help them achieve their goals in life.

So, thank you to all the teachers and all the parents that have chosen to be part of our children’s lives, because it takes a village to raise a child. Our fellow Cottonwood families are just that, our village. We all have a purpose in life, and one is to make this world a better place. All we must do is be ourselves and share with the world what we have to offer. Our family hopes to meet you all soon at future school gatherings.