By Manny Romero

In 1967, Victor Fontes of Nogales started a tradition of achievement at ASU. Now, more than 20 of his extended family members are Sun Devils

In 1967, Victor Fontes, a young man from the small Arizona border town of Nogales, graduated from ASU with a B.S. in construction engineering. He was the first in his family to set foot on a college campus. He was the first to graduate from a university.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Victor Fontes had begun a family tradition.

“ I’m very proud of my family,” Victor said recently at the Nogales home he built himself. While looking at the large collection of framed family pictures on the mantle of his living room fireplace, he talks of his family’s success and the ties to ASU. “I am most proud of the achievement of immediate relatives. We’ve come a long way as a family y vamos a continuar (and we’ll continue to do so).”

Today, Victor is a builder/engineer, developer and owner of Nogales Engineering, a company he and his younger brother Gene ’69, B.A. civil engineering (now deceased) revived in 1975.

Victor’s ASU experience has had a tremendous effect on him and his family. In fact, 13 immediate family members and two generations have followed his example and become ASU graduates; three more are ASU students now. The extended family counts 21 Sun Devils in their ranks.

Deciding to attend ASU was an easy choice for Victor, who says being Hispanic and growing up in a border town provided him with assurance that he could accomplish anything.

“ Down here (in Nogales),” Victor says as he reaches for an Arturo Fuente cigar, “for us Hispanics, it was our turf and we were very confident.‘Está fácil’ (It’s easy) we would always say.”

This confidence was instilled in Victor by his parents. Florentino and Artemisa Fontes had six children: (in birth order) Victor, Gene, Daniel, Norma, Robert and Jaime, all of whom earned degrees from ASU. Artemisa was a housewife and Florentino, who once served as Nogales’ mayor, worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad for 40 years; for 17 years, he also had a second job as a custodian at the Santa Cruz County Court House.

“ We always worked for what we wanted,” says Victor, who put himself through college with part-time jobs as a busboy and dishwasher in the Memorial Union. “You gain a better appreciation for what you achieve. Our parents always made sure we understood that.”

Victor made many friends at ASU, including future U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor.

“ We still keep in touch,” says Victor. They both lived in Haigler Hall, which between 1941 and 1978 was located on the east side of the old football field (now Parking Structure 1) and was built to accommodate seating for 5,000 additional spectators, as well as serve as a men’s dormitory. “Haigler Hall was nicknamed the ‘animal kingdom’ because of the noise that would come from crowds attending the games. Ed and I had a great time going to the games and hanging out in the rooms.”

Like Victor and Gene, the other Fontes brothers earned ASU degrees and went on to become successful, productive Arizona residents. Jaime ’79, B.A. Political Science, was recently appointed Nogales city manager; Robert ’76, B.A. Secondary Education, is a Nogales High School counselor and teaches history; and, Daniel Fontes ’72, B.A. Business, ’79, M.S. Communication Disorders, is superintendent of Tubac Unified School District No. 35.

The first Fontes female to attend ASU was Norma (Fontes) Ahumada ’74, B.A. Elementary Education. Currently serving her fifth year as principal of Challenger Elementary School in Nogales, Norma says the university opened many doors for her. Many of her close mentors were in the Chicano Studies office.

“ You have to understand, the college experience was completely foreign to us,” says Norma, who worked four years as a college work-study student with Christine Marin, the creator of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department. “I got so much encouragement from Christine, and it helped that she knew my brothers, so I really felt at home being there.”

Norma’s office at Challenger Elementary serves as something of a mini ASU Museum. Among other memorabilia, it houses an ASU banner, ASU desk clock, and a collector’s miniature truck that bears Sparky’s image — all gifts from her husband. “I had a blast,” she says of her time at ASU. “My girlfriends and I would venture out to Mill Avenue. Back then it was filled with very hippy shops, real artsy and filled with different things. It didn’t cost you an arm and a leg to buy something there.”

Fontes family members have many memories of their years at ASU, but one event remains significant and close to their hearts — Gene’s wedding.

Gene married his college girlfriend, Paula Hudgens (now Paula Fontes Hamby) ’72, B.A. elementary education, at Danforth Chapel on the Tempe campus. “They met while they were in college,” Norma says. “Eventually, they decided to tie the knot.”

Gene and Paula had three sons, Kelly; Martin ’04, J.D.; and Eugene, who attended ASU in 1998-99. “It (the wedding ceremony) was great,” says Victor, who served as a groomsman. “Getting married at your alma mater — not bad for a kid from Nogales.”

Victor’s son, Adrian ’98, B.A. Communications, says that he knew from an early age which path to take. “I was brainwashed as a small child to believe that Wilbur (the University of Arizona mascot) was the root of all evil,” he says. “But, seriously, it seemed like there was never a doubt. Both my parents were avid Sun Devils (Adrian’s mother is Linda Carol Puchi ’66, B.S. Education), and there was always an unspoken assumption that ASU was the only choice. I had my dormitory reservation completed while I was still a sophomore in high school.”

Adrian left ASU after his third year and joined the Marine Corps. Four years later, he returned to the Honors College. Realizing he wanted to attend law school, he turned his communications major into a preparatory program. “Professors like Dr. Kristen Valentine, Dr. Fred Corey and Dr. Jerry Buley took my energy and helped me focus,” says Adrian, who is now an assistant attorney general with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. “These folks cared about their students.”

Norma’s son, Jaime Ahumada, a sophomore pre-business major, is the latest member of the Fontes family to roam an ASU campus as a student. He represents one of 6,649 Hispanics who enrolled in fall 2003, making up 22 percent of the total student body, an increase of 10.4 percent over the previous year.

“ It (ASU) fits me. There’s a lot to do here,” says Jaime, who is just one of three Fontes cousins currently enrolled in Tempe. Bianca Michelle Fontes is a graduate student majoring in secondary education and Andrew Daniel Fontes is a sophomore biology major.

Coming from a close-knit family and unaccustomed to being away from home, Jaime admits his first semester was difficult. “Every other day, if not everyday, I would call home,” Jaime says of his first semester. “I’m fortunate. My parents always tell me ‘It doesn’t matter what you do, we’ll support you. As long as you finish it, get an education. Whatever makes you happy.’ I appreciate them very much.”

Only 25 to 30 percent of Nogales High School graduates go on to attend a four-year university, according to the Nogales Unified School District. The Fontes family has defied these odds. They want Latino students, and all students, to remember — “Si se puede” or “It can be done.”

“ Let no one tell you that you can’t do it,” says Dan, the first and only Fontes family member, to date, to earn two ASU degrees. “You can do anything you want to do if you want it badly enough. I don’t know about anyone else, but being Latino gave me a great sense of pride. Being Latino is an asset not a liability.”

“ Don’t give up!,” Norma echoes. “When we were in college, there were not as many programs available. ASU now provides more assistance for Latinos through agencies and organizations ready to help minority students get their bearings. There are classes geared to helping minority students adapt to college life, which my own children have had the opportunity to attend.”

The Fontes family supports ASU President Michael Crow’s vision to transform ASU into the new American university. “He’s a visionary, at the right place and the right time. I was very impressed by him when he spoke to the Nogales alumni (during a visit in 2002) about his initiative to take ASU from a traditional agency model to an entrepreneurial model,” Norma says, from her viewpoint of an educator. “He expressed the need to ‘evolve or die,’ which is an honest assessment of the choice that ASU is now facing.”

Today, Victor looks back on his life and the ASU ties. “You go toward what makes you happy,” says Victor, as he sits outside his home enjoying the panorama. “I followed my bliss by attending ASU and building this house. More people should do that.” When it came time for Victor to find a middle name for his nephew and godson, Martin, he chose Cayetano, after the San Cayetano Mountains, one of the mountain ranges surrounding his home. (The Huachuca and Santa Barbara Mountains in Sonora, Mexico are also visible.)

Living out a dream is what defines success, according to Victor. ASU has given him and his family the opportunity to make their dreams a reality. As Victor moves through his house, he heads toward one of many book shelves in his living room and says, “Here’s one of my prized possessions.” It is a copy of  “Essentials of Structural Design,” his old ASU textbook (published by John Wiley & Sons Inc.). “I still refer to this book when I’m working on different projects. ASU gave me what I needed to follow my bliss. I’m not gonna throw any of it away.”

Manny Romero is director of Hispanic media relations at ASU.

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Photo: Megan Keenan

Victor Fontes

Enriching the college experience for minority students at ASU

Photo courtesy of the Fontes Family

Two generations Fontes Sun Devils pose in Nogales. Standing from left are: Daniel Fontes, Andrew Fontes, Zachary Fontes, Jaime Fontes Ahumada, Victor Fontes, Robert Fontes, Jaime Fontes, Adrian Fontes, Victor Fontes Ahumada, Timothy Fontes and Eugenio Fontes. Seated, from left are: Anneliz Fontes Ahumada, Kris Cleary Fontes, Norma Fontes Ahumada, Clarice Spence Fontes and Ramona Lorhman Fontes.

Photo: Megan Keenan

Victor Fontes cherishes and still uses one of his ASU textbooks.

Photo: Megan Keenan

Norma (Fontes) Ahumada laughs with students at Challenger Elementary School, where she is principal.

Fontes Family Photo

Gene and bride Paula Hudgens during their on-campus nuptials.

Photo: Megan Keenan

Jaime Ahumada, right, chats with friends as he explores Mill Avenue's nightlife.