Rachel Valadez – A Hero

I’ve met Mrs. Valadez. She’s the mother of a friend I met at University. If I had to describe her from the 30 minutes we’d spent together, I’d have to say she’s lovely, caring, and gracious. After learning her story, I’d now add “unassuming” and “heroic” to the list.

In 1995, a crime wave hit San Antonio, Texas, and her son, Mikey, was murdered in a frightening display of gang violence. To make matters worse, the witnesses that hadn’t been murdered became too scared to testify. Instead of allowing this to rip apart her family, she continued being “Mom” at home, kept up her day job, and used her on-the-side cosmetics business and a series of disguises to infiltrate the gang world to find the witnesses and evidence needed to convict her son’s murderer.

Please watch her story. Share it if it inspires you. Nevada and Pine is short documentary the family produced to raise funds for a feature film. If you are so moved that you’d like to help, leave a comment in the comments section of either the Youtube site or here and someone from the family will get in touch with you.