Article Flashback: Jimmy Robles’‘Second Chance’
Today I revisit one of the many voices of hope I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing. The story of Santiago ‘Jimmy’ Robles, a Westside native who exchanged destructive habits for a relationship with Christ during a fateful men’s retreat weekend. I was a dual religion section editor and reporter for La Prensa at the time, circa 2006. They blessed me with several college scholarships so I was all too happy to begin my reporting career here.
You could call this a San Juan De Lagos Church retreat success story. I interviewed the ‘new and improved’ Jimmy over a cup of coffee at a downtown eatery. While he wouldn’t go into specifics, Robles admitted being deep into drugs, sex, and gang lifestyle and even taking some drugs with him as ‘entertainment’ going into the retreat weekend that changed his life. After watching a play re-enacting a man’s struggles and, ultimately, fight for survival against his vices, Robles, seeing himself, gave his life to Christ. Acting on his newfound faith, he promptly flushed the drugs he brought with him down the nearest toilet. “I got a second chance and now my goal is to let people on the Westside know that there is hope out there,” he said.
He turned his testimony into a drama play to warn young men and women to stray from a similar path. While I didn’t get to see his self-titled dramatization, ‘A Second Chance,’ firsthand, I do know it was well received and several local churches and YMCAs even offered to host it. I also remember our brief reunion years later when I was just starting as a customer service representative with Texas Workforce Commission. In-between answering queries he had about his unemployment claim, I cheerfully added, ‘I hope your play is doing well.’ It took a few moments to register, but once he got past the shock of someone remembering it and recognizing my voice, he sounded beyond excited and probably would’ve carried on longer had I not been forced to conclude our business.
I don’t know whether he has passed on or moved on since our 2015 impromptu phone conversation, but his redemptive arc always stood out to me among the dozens of profiles I’ve written. And while I couldn’t find the original photo I took with his story, I remember his pose leaning over a railing with a hopeful gaze well enough to sketch a photo reenactment seen below.
If you can’t find the original photo, draw it from memory. That’s the Creative Jason way.
Reminiscing on Jimmy’s story is a ‘Second Chance’ for me as well as it challenged me to put pencil to paper, which I haven’t done in a decade. I’ve attached a pdf of the original article to this post or you can read the article embedded below. Maybe I’ll start taking art more seriously again, especially if it helps me tell a better story.
