County judge-elect Kleberg County Judge-Elect Juan Escobar As a young boy, he learned and accepted adult responsibilities helping his family work on a farm. He first demonstrated leadership qualities through his successful participation in elected school offices, sports and other activities and later as an adult in his various fields of endeavors. The former border patrol supervisor, school board member, District 43 State Representative, Marine and public servant has worked diligently to achieve his successes throughout his life. He reflects on his future leadership goals and his life.

Juan Manuel Escobar’s latest accomplishment was being elected Kleberg County Judge in the March Democratic and Republican primary. He began campaigning in August 2009 after announcing his candidacy.

He attributed his winning campaign because voters related to him they were ready for a change.

Juan M. Escobar and his wife Rosie and children Bonnie and Eddie are pictured at the State Capitol in Austin in 2005. “People wanted a change, and it was time to make some telling me ‘you have our support.’ ”

Political observers recalled the county judge’s race was one of the most heated local races. Escobar won the post by 122 votes defeating the incumbent Kleberg County Judge Pete De La Garza who has been in office 12 years. He has no Republican opponent in the Nov. general election and will take office Jan. 1, 2011.

“Change is healthy,” he said.

Escobar describes himself as a happy energetic person who is willing to accept challenges that people would not take.

“I treat others as I want to be treated,” he said. “I consider myself a good listener and respect other peoples’ opinions.”

In his future role as county judge, Escobar prioritizes housing as a real need in Kingsville. He wants to find ways to bring more housing to Kleberg County especially for border patrol families, Navy, and Texas A&M University personnel who live out of town.

Juan M. Escobar served as Student Council president of Roma High School. This picture was taken when he was 18 years old in 1969. “About 100 border agents would move here from Corpus if they could find a house here,” he said.

As a former school board member in two school districts, he is aware of the high school drop out rates and wants more students to graduate from high school and develop their highest potential.

A third priority would be to improve the infrastructure overall especially the parks and golf course. “We need to improve the image of Kleberg County where we can be the leader in Coastal Bend,” Escobar said.

He plans to participate in more activities in the community such as the economic council and to encourage the utilization of the pharmacy school in more research and development.

Escobar, a genealogy and history enthusiast, believes this area saturated with historical ranches has much of offer.

“We can develop our eco-tourism because we have very much to offer the world,” he said.

During his seven year tenure as District 43 state representative, Escobar cites helping establish the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy as his most memorable accomplishment. While many people believed the professional school would not open because of lack of operational funds, Escobar remained consistently positive by stating the school would find funding to open its doors which it did Aug. 2006.

Escobar became District 43 state representative after he defeated eight candidates and won in a run-off to fill the unexpired term of the late State Representative Irma Rangel in May of 2003. District 43 encompasses Kleberg, Brooks, Cameron, Jim Hogg, Kenedy and Willacy counties. He ran unopposed in 2004 and with his down to earth, sincere, approach Escobar continued to sponsor bills by Rangel, a Kingsville native, who had served 27 years as a state representative.

He helped pass Senate Bill 25 that created the Kenedy County Groundwater Conservation District. In the March 2008 Tara Rios Ybarra, a South Padre dentist, won the District 43 state representative post. (J.M. Lozano, Kingsville businessman defeated her in the March 2 election). Soon afterwards, Escobar announced he would run for the Kleberg County judge position.

Escobar and his family moved to Kingsville in 1988 when he was assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol in Charge from the Falfurrias location where he had been 10 years. His exemplary work with the Border Patrol resulted in his promotion to Senior Special Agent with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. He retired from the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 with the grade of GS-13.

While living in Falfurrias, he served three years as president on the Brooks Independent School District board. He served as president of the Kingsville Independent School District board for eight years with a total of 10 years of service ending in 2003.

Escobar credits his mother the late Rosita Vera Escobar for instilling the work ethic, the virtues of honor, honesty and the love of country to her family. He helped his mother and four siblings because his father, an enlisted military man, was away from home most of the time and money was scarce. He had an older sister who died as a child.

“As far as I can remember I have been involved in adult responsibilities,” recalled Escobar. “I’m a country boy and would not change anything about my life.”

Family Life

He was born to Filomeno Escobar, and Rosita Vera Escobar, and is a direct descendent of Jose Maria Escobar, who founded the Escobares settlement in 1753. His father was a career Navy veteran of World War II, Korea, and the Viet Nam wars. Escobar was born March 11, 1950, in Escobares and raised in the small ranching community in Starr County. Escobar and his family also helped his paternal grandparents who lived nearby.

Work began early in the morning for the Escobar family and the work continued after they came home from school. On weekends, they continued with their assigned chores and working on mending fences and also plowing the land with mules. He learned to work cattle as a young boy.

“We, not only, picked cotton; we picked carrots, cabbage, green beans, grapefruit, oranges, cantaloupe, and watermelon,” he recalled.

Family meals consisted of wild game such as quail, beans, rice, potatoes, corn and plenty of home made flour tortillas. Today Escobar does not relish eating wild game.

A typical day for the Escobar family began early in the morning. His mother woke up at 4 a.m. and made donuts, cooked breakfast. and helped the children get ready for school. The children worked on chores that included milking the cows, feeding the chickens, and watering the pigs. His mother went to school and worked in the cafeteria until 3 p.m. and after school to work at a restaurant until 10 p m. The donuts were sold to band members for 10 cents and the band kept 5 cents.

“My mother worked three jobs and she died young,” Escobar recalled. She died at the age of 59 in 1981. His father died at the age of 80 in 2005.

Their home did not have air condition or a telephone and sheets were used on the windows for privacy. His mother bought a television when Escobar was a freshman in high school. He recalled watching “Rifleman,” “Have Gun Will Travel” and “The Rebel.”

His education began in a two-room country school in Escobares where everyone spoke Spanish and later learned to speak English as a kindergarten student. When he became a second grader he rode the bus to attend Florence J. Scott Elementary School in Roma. He joined the band in the fifth grade and played the cornet all the way until the eighth grade where he excelled as first chair first stand.

Escobar became captain of the of the Safety Patrol in the seventh grade that was his introduction to law enforcement. The Safety Patrol members’ main duties were to ensure safety in the hallways; crossings and help the students behave when needed.

During the seventh grade he remembered Mr. Eugenio Arce the choir teacher from Kingsville. “He taught us a lot of patriotism and we used to sing ‘God Bless America’ often.”

Elected Officer

During the eighth grade, Escobar was elected captain of the Safety Patrol again and he also became involved in sports serving as captain of the basketball and track teams. He broke the track record with the 100-yard dash while running in 10.5 seconds. The sport participants ran on a dirt track.

The ninth grade class elected him president. He continued to participate in the basketball A team and also track. He continued to be a top track star and participated in meets at Texas A&I University and was the first time he was in Kingsville in 1966.

Escobar made good grades throughout high school naming math and biology as his favorite subjects.

By now Escobar enjoyed social activities like going to dances. One time he attended a dance and no one would dance with him. He later found out that he smelled like onions because he had been picking them that day.

He continued as a stellar basketball player on the varsity team and track during the rest of his high school years where he made all district teams. He came back to Kingsville in 1967 and 1968 for regional final track meets and later in state competition. He remembered the team going to eat at Whataburger.

During the junior year, Escobar maintained first chair, first stand in band with the cornet, varsity basketball player, Student Council treasurer, and treasurer of the Rio Grande Valley Student Council Association and in the top 10 percent of his class.

“After practice I would walk three miles home because we did not get a car until I was a senior in high school,” Escobar said.

During his junior year he became very conscious of the Viet Nam war because one Roma student and three Rio Grande students had gotten killed.

“I had a passion and desire to join the Marine Corps,” he said.

Escobar’s leadership goals continued when he became a senior and was elected Student Council president defeating three opponents.

“It was a full blown campaign with debates and I had the same supporters and won by a landside,” he recalled.

During his senior year he participated in the District 32 A first team and selected all state first team. The Laredo Times newspaper editors voted him the Most Valuable Player.

Escobar took classes in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, zoology, chemistry and well prepared to go to college and was offered a track scholarship to attend Texas A&I but he wanted to join the Marines.

The night he graduated in 1969, he performed solo on the cornet and played “The Impossible Dream.” “That night I placed the coronet in the case and never touched it again,” he said.

Enlisted Marine

Shortly after that his mother, sister and brothers went work in the fields in West Texas. His mother urged him not to join the Marines but he was determined to become a military man. He hitchhiked to Harlingen 130 miles away and joined the Marines and was sent to San Diego, California. Within a week he was squad leader for Platoon 2129 for 10 weeks and later transferred to Camp Pendleton for Infantry School. Later he was sent military occupational skill training and advanced infantry school to Ocean Side, California. He graduated and was promoted to Lance Corporal meteriously.

During a 15-day pass, Escobar returned home and by now his father had retired from the Navy but decided to join again. Both father and son drove back to Camp Pendleton and formed a unit together. His father was deployed to Vietnam and he was deployed to Japan and flown to Viet Nam. While in Viet Nam, Escobar became an assistant squad leader in the infantry unit. The squad leader got killed and Escobar became squad leader. He was promoted to corporal and within 15 months in the Marines he was promoted to sergeant.

A harrowing event for him occurred Aug. 4, 1970 when the unit was operating on a patrol and the soldiers were ambushed killing two Marines and seriously injuring one. The man he was conversing with was killed and Escobar was seriously wounded.

“It took me many years to get over the trauma,” Escobar said.

While on leave he met Rosie Gonzalez from Rio Grande City on Jan. 1971. The couple married Jan. 8, 1972.

He returned back to Camp Pendleton and was there for two months and through a selective process was assigned to Washington D.C. and became section leader in charge of a unit. He was assigned to prestigious U.S. Marine Corps Presidential Honor Guard in Washington D.C. Escobar served as a pall bearer for Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Harry S. Truman, and J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, Lt. Gen. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller and Gen. Alexander Vandergrift. He also served with the White House, Pentagon and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier details.

Escobar completed his tour of duty in 1973 when he was honorably discharged. The couple returned to South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. Escobar earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a biology degree in 1978. While in college he became a certified peace officer and worked as a Starr County deputy sheriff. He worked as an algebra teacher and coach at Rio Grande City High School. Later he joined the U.S. Border Patrol and graduated from the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Glynco, Georgia in 1978.

Throughout his life Escobar earned much recognition having received the Purple Heart Medal and numerous other military awards. The Kingsville Record and Bishop News named him Newsmaker of the Year in 2004. He received the Coastal Bend Pharmacy Association Irma Rangel of Excellence in 2005.

He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, Fourth degree, Kingsville Assembly 1303 and serves as an administrator for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. He is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign War, disabled American Veterans, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

“I have the utmost respect for veterans because they have given us the right to be true Americans,” Escobar stated.

Juan and Rosie Escobar’s two children, both H.M. King High graduates, are following their parents examples by becoming working professionals Yvonne “Bonnie” Yvette Escobar, who graduated with a humanities degree from Texas A&M University Kingsville, and works in the Attorney General’s office in the Child Support Services. Their son, Eduardo “Eddie” Escobar, also a TAMUK graduate, is a special agent with ICE assigned in Del Rio. He married Marleena Rodriguez, from Premont, daughter of Mario and Isabel Rodriguez. Rosie Escobar, a Texas A&I graduate, worked as a Food Service Director in Falfurrias, Robstown and Bishop and retired in 2005. She volunteers at her church and the local hospital.

Escobar enjoys genealogy research and writing family history and other historical topics. He recently completed a 900-page book titled “Gonzalez Family-Forgotten Pioneers” based on his wife’s family. He has also written a book on Escobares, Texas. He likes to sing and taught himself to play the guitar. He has written 70 songs with 10 of them being corridos, Spanish ballads. Escobar began singing in 1988 at Our Lady of Counsel Church. His mother was very strict and would not let him sing at home.

The Kleberg County Judge-Elect acknowledges his newly elected position and it is apparent he has participated in leadership roles throughout his life.