Sometimes the path to redemption begins deep in the soul, in a place where only loved ones can reach.
From 2004-08, Chad Bojorquez was homeless on the streets of Santa Cruz, having lost all hope for the future. Having reached his breaking point in his fourth year of homelessness, Bojorquez had one last lifeline — his grandmother, Dolores, who recently passed away.
Despite not having seen his grandmother for six to eight years, Bojorquez looked up her number in the phone book. Luckily for Bojorquez, his grandma, who was raised in Hollister and attended San Benito High up until her senior year, still lived in Campbell.
Even though the two had never been particularly close, Dolores welcomed her grandson back with open arms.
“It was really a miracle that there was someone left in my life who would help me,” said the 34-year-old Bojorquez, who is one of the best players on the Hollister Free Wheelers, a power soccer wheelchair team. “(Starting in my early 20s) I wasn’t doing a great job of keeping in contact with my family. But I was really tired of being out on the streets and racking my brain to find a way out. My grandma welcomed me back with a love you can’t describe. It was an unbelievable experience, and the great thing is we ended up being really close until the day she passed away.”
One could refer to Bojorquez as a miraculous story in overcoming the odds, and it would be an understatement. To wit: Bojorquez was born with arthrogryposis, a rare congenital disease that includes muscle weakness and fibrosis.
Bojorquez has basically spent his entire life in a wheelchair, and like most people who are born disabled, he struggled with his identity and sense of purpose growing up. But four years ago, Bojorquez found his calling when he started working as a volunteer and eventually getting hired as a caseworker at InnVision’s Georgia Travis Center in San Jose.
One of his main responsibilities was helping homeless individuals and families get back on their feet. Bojorquez literally earned his way to a job at InnVision, volunteering more than 20 hours a week for nearly a year before being hired as a caseworker.
His hard work and dedication earned him the prestigious silver bowl award at San Jose’s 42nd annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon on April 29, 2011. Bojorquez also met his wife, Mayra, while working at InnVision.
“Working in homeless and social services, it was the first time ever where I felt I had found a purpose in life,” said Bojorquez, who is now the director of services at Downtown Streets Team in San Jose, where he oversees all the case managers in the company.
Bojorquez realizes had it not been for his grandmother, he might have ended up like many of the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in the U.S. — either stuck on the streets permanently, or, in the worst-case scenario, dead.
Five months after he moved in with his grandma, Bojorquez had a chance encounter with his childhood friend, Don Jones, who along with his wife Susan founded the Free Wheelers 16 years ago.
“I didn’t have a power wheelchair at the time, so I called up the company that Don was working for at the time,” Bojorquez said. “I had lost all contact with him, but unbelievably enough, he was the one that came out to assess me for a wheelchair. When he walked through the door, I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ Both of us were pretty shocked when we saw each other. I guess some things are meant to be.”
During the meeting, Jones, who was the best man at Bojorquez’s wedding 18 months ago, told Bojorquez that if he would join the team, he would let him borrow a power wheelchair immediately, which was a huge deal since it takes up to six months to get a new one delivered. Bojorquez didn’t hesitate, saying he got a deal of a lifetime.
“Playing this sport helped me to build my life back together,” Bojorquez said. “It was exactly what I needed at the time.”
The two initially met while Jones served as a counselor at a summer sports camp at San Jose State. Bojorquez, who attended that particular camp three or four times, took an immediate liking to Jones.
“Don was a fun-loving guy, and someone who treated you well,” Bojorquez said. “When you’re disabled, having a positive person in your life is someone you always remember.”
The two got along so well that Bojorquez often spent the weekends at Jones’ place for several years before the two lost contact when Bojorquez ended up being homeless.
“I ended up being homeless for a combination of reasons,” Bojorquez said. “It came down to a lot of bad choices combined with a lot of struggles I was fighting my whole life, from my disability to family issues.”
Once Bojorquez started playing for the Free Wheelers, he started to gain a sense of direction and purpose. Shortly thereafter, Bojorquez started volunteering at InnVision, and now he’s empowering others through his life experiences.
“I don’t talk very openly about my homeless experience, but I know it drives me in my work and my relationships,” Bojorquez said. “In the last six years, I’ve done a lot of work to repair and amend relationships with my family members.”
The toughest part of getting off the streets? Getting off the streets. Once Bojorquez got over the initial shock of having a home again, he thrived.
“When you’re integrating yourself back into society, I call it a thawing out process,” Bojorquez said. “I literally had to get over the shellshock of what I had been through for four years, and learning new things again.”
Bojorquez, a center and forward, has been one of the Free Wheelers’ most consistent players for the last five years.
“Chad has a great attitude, and he really strives to get every player on our team involved,” Jones said. “He makes everyone on the team better by playing with an unselfish style.”
The Free Wheelers have a 3-3-1 record entering an important Jan. 25 tournament in San Jose. And even though the program has won five national championships, Jones’ greatest satisfaction has nothing to do with wins and losses.
“For some of our team members, this is the only outlet they have where they’re automatically accepted for who they are,” Jones said. “They may never gain this type of acceptance in society.”
Bojorquez has found his way, getting out of a hole that seemed too deep to recover from. It took plenty of determination and a loving grandmother to get Bojorquez back on track.
In the past, Bojorquez went through bouts of bitterness and emotional upheaval, as is the case with most individuals who are born disabled. Now Bojorquez wakes up everyday, knowing it’s a blessing just to be alive.
