Born in Mexico, UT runner goes after dream for US

Tag : straw cowboy hat

AUSTIN, Texas  Leo Manzano runs with world-class speed in burstsof just under a mile, listening to the rhythm of his breathing andfootfalls on the track.
He thinks about winning another NCAA championship, about making theU.S. Olympic team. And he thinks about his father.
Through hundreds of miles of tough Texas wilderness, JesusManzano's constant companions were the crunch of dirt under hisboots and thoughts of how far he was going  from a no-prospectsMexican village to odd jobs on the fringes of the American economyso he could send money home.
Jesus walked for his family. By his early 20s, he had slippedacross the border more than a dozen times.
Today, more than two decades later, Leo runs to win, yes, but alsoto honor his family.
"If he hadn't come to the U.S.," Manzano says of his father. "Iprobably wouldn't have even gone to high school."
Instead, he's a senior at the University of Texas, and at thisweek's NCAA championships he'll be chasing a second title in hissignature 1,500 meters. It would be his fifth career nationalchampionship. Come July, he'll be at the Olympic trials in Oregonwith a legitimate shot of competing in Beijing for his adoptedhomeland. Move came in '87 Leo was 12 years old and skinny strong when he knew he wanted torun.
Anything was better than cutting lawns and digging flower beds inthe sweltering central Texas summer. If he was going to be thishot, he might as well be having fun.
"What is that going to get you?" his father asked.
Who cares, Leo thought. It was better than work.
Leo's father was granted legal residency in the U.S. in 1987. Tohim, an education and a job that put food on the table were allthat mattered. That's why he crossed the border 16 times, fordingrivers even though he couldn't swim, walking all those miles tired,thirsty and hungry. Once as a rancher chased his group, he heardwhat sounded like gunfire.
Compared to all that, running for the fun of it seemed like folly.
Eventually the father relented  though he insisted that if the sonwere to run, he'd better be good.
Leo, now 23, has been that. At 5-5, 125 pounds, he shares hisfather's short stature, but is big on determination.
He won nine Texas state high school championships to earn ascholarship with the Longhorns. At Texas, he has been dominant,with NCAA titles in the 1,500 meters, two in the mile and one aspart of a relay team. He first ran for the U.S. as a surprisequalifier at last year's world championships in Japan, gainingvaluable international experience but leaving without a medal. Across the river Jesus Manzano was about 17 when he first stood at the banks of theRio Grande and watched the water swirling dark and cold at hisfeet. On the opposite bank, the United States awaited.
Sinking to his waist, he churned ahead, fighting the current andhis fear of drowning, concentrating on the mud and brush ahead ofhim  and the opportunities beyond.
He was crossing the border for the first time and the hard part wasjust beginning. Next came five days of walking. The scrub brushscratched his arms, dust choked his lungs and he shivered throughcold nights. Food ran out after three days, so he and hiscompanions hunted rabbits.
He was leaving a tiny farming village outside the central Mexicotown of Dolores Hidalgo, the legendary cradle of Mexico's fight forindependence from Spain in the early 1800s. There was little workto be found, and even less education. By coming to America, Jesuswas following a trail cut by young men before him, his own fatheramong them.
"That's how life was," Jesus said, using Leo as a translator in arecent interview which brought together Leo's parents, his twosisters and brother.
Short like Leo, Jesus is stocky and strong, with a firm handshakestrengthened by years of hard labor. He's worked the last 18 yearsat an asphalt company  first shoveling gravel, now operatingmachinery  in Marble Falls, about an hour outside Austin.
Wearing a straw cowboy hat, jeans and a western style shirt thatseems to deepen his tan, Jesus is a quiet talker who at firstdidn't quite understand why anyone would want to know his story.
"It was just something they had to do," Leo explained.
But while his wife, Maria, remains subdued and shies fromquestions, Jesus is quick with a smile when asked to recall hisexperiences. It seems as if he's not only relating the stories to astranger, but teaching his children as well.
Jesus Manzano would spend months in the U.S. before periodic tripshome. Once, in the Dallas area, an immigration agent knocked on hisapartment door. Thinking his friends were playing a joke, heanswered and quickly found himself being deported.
The Rio Grande remained his nemesis. During one crossing, the riverwas running high and he had to use a rubber raft. When a branchpoked a hole in the side, Manzano held the puncture closed so theraft wouldn't sink and he wouldn't drown.
At first, his goal was to send some money back to his parents.Within a few years, it was to support a wife and a growing familyliving in a one-room adobe hut. They had no electricity anddrinking, cooking or bathing required shouldering five-gallon jugsfrom a village well. Citizenship in 2004 Leo was born in 1984. Soon he was joined by Laura, Jesus andMaria's oldest daughter. The family's big break came in 1986 when afederal amnesty law allowed Jesus to apply for legal residency.Maria crossed the Rio Grande herself. When he was 4, Leo and hissister were driven across the border by friends already living inthe U.S. who posed as their parents. Two more Manzano children werelater born in Texas.
It would take about 10 years for the government to grant the entirefamily U.S. residency.
Leo Manzano became a U.S. citizen in 2004 and last year qualifiedfor the world championships with a surprising second place in the1,500 at the U.S. championships, finishing just ahead of two-timeOlympic medalist and American record holder Bernard Lagat.
The world meet offered a hard lesson that international distancerunning can be a cutthroat, contact sport. Manzano was only a fewmeters into his first race when another runner popped him with ahard elbow to the chest.
Each time he tried to make a move, another elbow, bump or shoveknocked him back. He didn't qualify for the final, which Lagat won.
It wasn't exactly crossing the Rio Grande and trudging through thewilderness, but it was tough and Leo wasn't up the challenge.
"Those guys are claws and teeth," Manzano said.
He's a wiser and better runner because of his loss. But if hedoesn't make the Olympics, he'll have plenty to fall back on. Wherehis father only finished grade school, Leo is scheduled to graduatefrom Texas in the fall and hopes eventually to work ininternational business.
His parents have taken the family back to Mexico several times toshow them their old home, to see their roots and to be thankful forwhat they have.
Leo knows that in a different life, that could have been him.
"I'm 23 and I feel helpless when I have to take a final exam," Leosaid. "They were worried about life."