{"id":255,"date":"2012-10-26T21:07:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T14:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaccent.org\/accent2\/?p=255"},"modified":"2022-02-08T02:32:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T19:32:00","slug":"omar-lopez-super-humanist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/omar-lopez-super-humanist\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Lopez: super humanist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volunteering and activism bring joy to a former ACC student<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story by Janice Veteran \u2022 Staff Photojournalist and Abra Gist \u2022 Online Editor<\/p>\n

Photos by Janice Veteran \u2022 Staff Photojournalist<\/p>\n

Omar Lopez helps people. All people. Even if they only need help carrying a package or translating English posters to Spanish. His passion for helping others is unequivocal.<\/p>\n

This former ACC student was offered a position at the City of Austin\u2019s Infectious Diseases Divi- sion, after doing the same job for free at Community AIDS Resources and Education program or C.A.R.E, the place where he volunteered to help others in the community.<\/p>\n

Lopez worked at CARE in addition to his full- time restaurant internship, his ACC organization memberships and his full course load while at ACC.<\/p>\n

How does a culinary arts student end up working for Health and Human Services?<\/p>\n

He evaded the question on numerous occasions. For someone so outgoing and energetic, he was hesitant to reveal much about himself. He\u2019d rather talk about human rights, the fight to end the HIV\/ AIDS epidemic and the struggle to mobilize a disenfranchised population of minorities.<\/p>\n

Lopez was born in California to Mexican parents. He lived near Sonora Mexico until about age 8. Then he went to school in Arizona, but lived across the border. His parents still live in Mexico today.<\/p>\n

His parents made sure that all their children would be United States citizens by being born in the U.S. Lopez grew up with compassionate parents and though he saw a lot of poverty, violence and misfortune in Mexico, his parents instilled in their children the importance of helping others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t at a disadvantage growing up. I had loving parents who did all they could to provide better opportunities for me and my siblings,\u201d said Lopez, \u201cI was lucky, but they always told me to look around and help anyone that I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez joined the U.S. Navy after high school and served his country abroad for approximately 5 years.<\/p>\n

However, that service was cut short when Lopez was discharged under the \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d policy. He participated in a documentary called \u201cMarch On\u201d and shared his experience and spoke about being asked to leave the Navy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough on me. I needed a change after that whole experience,\u201d said Lopez.<\/p>\n

He and his former partner moved to Austin. Lopez had heard that Texas was a great place for bilingual spanish speaking people, so they came to Austin to start a new life.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Lopez began ACC\u2019s culinary arts program and studied to be a chef. However, his volunteer work would lead him in a different and unexpected direction.<\/p>\n

At the AIDS Walkathon on Oct. 21 at City Hall, we had the chance to speak to Lopez, his co-workers, fans and friends.<\/p>\n

Lopez began volunteering at the C.A.R.E program, which partners volunteers with HIV, AIDS or cancer patients for the duration of their illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just recruited me right off the street. I was getting tested and I was bilingual, so they told me I should volunteer,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Omar about 3-4 years ago, and like most of our volunteers, he came to our training and was matched with a patient…but Omar was different. As the program continued I just saw him blossom and he really got more active and more involved with it. He just had this huge desire to help,\u201d said Roger Temme, Director of Volunteer Recruiting at C.A.R.E.<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s passion and commitment impressed his mentors and peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always has a smile on his face. He comes from parents that  taught him how to be an activist even on a really bad day,\u201d said Lisa Medina, Director of Client Services at Project Transitions. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of \u2018My Omar\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOmar never stops,\u201d said friend and C.A.R.E co-worker, Ryan Broussard. He has this amazing ability to commit so fully to a cause.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a great friend, a cool guy and he genuinely wants to help people. That activist side of him never shuts off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking around the event and talking colleagues, we learned Lopez never stopped being an activist or advocate.<\/p>\n

People constantly came up to talk to him and he always paused the conversation to assist others, give hugs and words of encouragement or smile and wave enthusiastically at friends.<\/p>\n

We asked Omar again, really though, how does a culinary arts student end up in this line of work? What about this line of work motivates you?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s quick to say cooking and being an advocate are not so different.<\/p>\n

He does mention that he has his own personal motivations for his overzealous activism. Recently one of his family members was diagnosed with HIV.<\/p>\n

He makes sure to point out that this family member is only in his early 20s. However he reiterates it\u2019s more than that though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it sounds corny but someone smiling motivates me. Even in the kitchen, that saying goes, \u2018a way to a man\u2019s heart is through his stomach\u2019. It\u2019s not just men…I think the way to everybody\u2019s heart is through their stomach,\u201d said Lopez, \u201cthe energy and the love that you bring into it [cooking] just mean everything. You prepare something for someone and you nourish their stomach and their soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in this new role, I\u2019m giving people something. I educate, I advocate and get them all the resources I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s eyes look off into the distance, he watches as crews clean up the tents and haul away trash after the AIDS Walkathon. He bites his bottom lip and murmurs that his dream is to expand his work beyond the U.S. borders. Then he asks us to include a graphic with the list of places that ACC students can use to seek HIV testing and mental health. Lopez never stops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volunteering and activism bring joy to a former ACC student Story by Janice Veteran \u2022 Staff Photojournalist and Abra Gist \u2022 Online Editor Photos by Janice Veteran \u2022 Staff Photojournalist Omar Lopez helps people. All people. Even if they only need help carrying a package or translating English posters to Spanish. His passion for helping others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4015,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}