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SAN ANTONIO • Manuel Lozano, 87 years old, was paying his childhood home on the South side a visit. The trees he had helped plant more than 60 years ago towered over the front drive and the drone of a riding mower hummed in the background, as it briskly clipped the expansive lawn he had pushed a manual mower across in his youth.
The home to which he had returned was St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home (St. PJs) on Mission Road, where Lozano and four of his siblings were placed in 1927, following the untimely death of his father at the age of 38. His mother, with nine children to care for (the youngest born two months after her husband’s death), had no recourse but to bring them to the orphanage.
Operated by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, St. PJs became “home” to Lozano in every sense of the word. He has no memories of being homesick after his arrival. “This was home,” he says simply.
Along with the other children at the home, he received a strong foundation in the Catholic faith and attended daily Mass. He was taught by the sisters at the elementary school on the premises which extended through seventh grade, at which point he received his diploma and would have “aged out,” had the sisters not found a place for him at St. John’s Hospital in San Angelo, which they also administered. Here he ran the elevator and was a general “gofer.”
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A year or so later, he returned to San Antonio to enroll at Central Catholic High School, where the Marianist Brothers allowed him to pay his tuition by assisting the custodian. He also operated the laundry for St. PJs, rising at 3 a.m. every Monday to run the commercial-size machines, the size of 55-gallon drums. “I worked it by myself,” he says of the laundry, recalling the pride he took in “working like a man.”
“That was one thing that I learned real early, to work,” he said. “Do what I had to do and do it with a smile.”
After completing his morning’s work in the laundry (between 7 and 7:30 a.m.) he would follow his usual routine of jumping on his bicycle and riding across town to Central Catholic on North St. Mary’s. Often he would hitch his bike onto a passing bus for speedier transit, he recalls. “And every so often that bus driver would kind of swing it around, trying to run me into the curb, but I jumped it,” he says chuckling.
His junior year, he enlisted in the 36th Division of the Texas National Guard, earning the very adequate sum — for those times — of a dollar a day for doing two weeks of summer training.
He graduated from Central Catholic in 1940 and that October, with United States entry into World War II looming on the horizon, his division was called to active duty. He remained on active duty until mustering out at Fort Sam Houston at the war’s end in 1945.
After leaving the military, he, his wife and child (the first of two daughters) traveled the country as he attempted to find suitable employment. They headed first to Minneapolis-St. Paul, stopping at nearly every city along the way. Eventually, they ended up in New Haven, Conn., where Lozano applied and was accepted into Yale University. He remembers they were impressed with his having attended Central Catholic High School.
Realizing he could not support his family and attend school at the same time, however, he had to regretfully decline, and they headed back south. They made it as far as Arkansas before their funds ran out, and it was here that they settled down. The Korean War was escalating at this time and Lozano made a decision to re-enter military life — this time in the Air Force, which he retired from in 1963.
During the course of his military career he was stationed at various U.S. bases, including Little Rock, Ark., and served abroad in such exotic locales as Egypt, Peru, Greenland and Spain.
Following his retirement from the Air Force, from 1964 to 1987 he was employed by the state of Arkansas as a computer systems analyst and appointed Director for Planning and Data Processing for the Department of Revenues.
He then passed the state real estate license examination, working in that field from 1987 to 1989, but after working briefly in this field, decided it was not for him.
Along the way, he met and was impressed by an up-and-coming young man running for governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. “Go down to my headquarters,” Clinton told him. “I want you to work for me.” And Lozano did just that, working on Clinton’s three campaigns for governor. Clinton lost his second bid for governor, but was re-elected the following term, and Lozano recalls it was during this period between governor’s mansion residencies that the Clintons moved across the street from them, with the two families getting to know each other well. Lozano and his wife sometimes filled in as babysitters for the Clinton’s young daughter, Chelsea.
Lozano went to work for Clinton in 1990 and became the second person hired by the Clinton for President exploratory committee in 1991. He went on to serve on the staff for Clinton’s presidential campaigns, remaining with the campaign committee until 1998.
Recalling his humble beginnings at St. PJs, Lozano mused, “I never imagined I would be in such a position to know the president of the United States or be invited to his house.” But he was, and remembers he and his family being invited to White House Christmas receptions seven different times — all but one of which they were able to attend.
Lozano’s wife, Agnes Louise Vestle Lozano, whom he calls his “wife, best friend and mother,” passed away in 2003. The couple had been married 60 years and Lozano carries with him a photo of the two of them taken on their wedding day, along with one taken 50 years later. He notes he has written a 50-page story of her life.
He occupies his time these days working in his small garden and has returned to visit St. PJs from time to time.
A few years ago he attended a general reunion held for former residents of St. PJs. They came from across the country and, while none were from Lozano’s days there, he enjoyed the occasion and getting to tour the new facilities. All that remains of the campus he knew is the red brick chapel, with dining hall beneath it — and the trees he planted long ago.
Back in San Antonio to attend the college graduation of his grandson, Isaac Williamson, from UTSA, Lozano is impressed by St. PJs newest addition, the Valero Recreation, Therapy and Education Center, whose gym flooring is cushioned to prevent injuries. “Our gym was out in the yard,” he muses, noting their basketball court then consisted of a basket with net nailed to a tree.
He does not in the least feel deprived, though, recalling his “home” there as a special place. “It started me out,” he said, tears welling up in his eyes as he remembers those long ago years.
His advice to youngsters at St. PJs today would be, “You’ve got to work and you’ve got to have patience.” He adds that you also have to have the desire to do something. With that, he says, “you can do whatever you want with your future.” |