Journalism Project | Stories | Contributors | Journalism Links

They'd left California to get away from the crowded schools, violence and gangs of Los Angeles.

"People are just nicer compared to California," he said. "I was looking at the bigger picture for the kids."

But that doesn't mean it was easy when the Moncadas arrived here. He had no job and no driver's license. His wife, Maria, wasn't a citizen.

Working through the Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Moncadas had transformed their lives.

Now, Pedro Moncada works at Cash Wise, and he has a driver's license - "I treasure it like gold."

The Moncadas now own a home. It started as a fixer-upper, but now it's a comfortable home with freshly painted walls and new carpeting. A shiny Ford station wagon sits in the driveway.

Maria Moncada is a U.S. citizen now, something he said opened many opportunities for her.

Pedro and Maria Moncada also have a busy licensed child care business in their home.

"We were in the program for three years, off and on," Moncada said. They've been off it for more than a year.

He admits to a pretty bad attitude at first, but he agreed to do what was required of him. He attended meetings and listened to the success stories of people who'd worked their way off welfare. Later, he went to those meetings to tell others about his successes.

"It was hard; it was frustrating," Moncada said of his first efforts to find a job in Willmar. His job at Cash Wise is the first one he found, he said, and he plans to stay there, because he likes the people and the professional atmosphere.

The financial workers and job counselors helped him get started toward finding a job, he said, but he's quick to say that he got the job himself.

"You need to work with the program for it to work for you," he said.

"The program has helped us in a lot of ways," he said. There were classes at the Workforce Center about writing resumes and searching for jobs, and they helped him figure out how to get his driver's license and the license to do child care.

The child care business is a whole family operation. "It keeps us busy, and it keeps us going in the right direction," he said.

The girls remember when times were harder, he said.

"We hope to be an example to them of where we started and where we've come," he said.

His wife wasn't interested in talking with a reporter, but he wanted to tell his family's story, Pedro Moncada said.

"It's where I'm at and what I'm doing," he said. "If it can help somebody, it's worthwhile. ... If I can do it, anybody can do it."

Moncada said he thinks sometimes about the people who are about to hit their lifetime limit on welfare. He worries about them and wishes they would have been able to succeed in the program as he and his family have.

"I would talk to them if it would help," he said.

---

Journalism Project | Stories | Contributors | Journalism Links

ABOUT US | ACTIVITIES | NEWS | RESEARCH | TEACHING | CONFERENCES | LECTURES
PUBLICATIONS | FELLOWSHIPS | HISTORY CENTER | SEARCH | LINKS

BACK | CRRS Home | SMSU Home