About Los Hermanos Familia
Los Hermanos Familia, 501(C) (3), is a collaborative group of
men, women, and youth who value God, family, and community.
OUR OBJECTIVE: "Strengthening Families, Building Community"
Los Hermanos Familia holds the annual “Vamos a Pescar, Let’s Go Fishing” event in Lubbock, Texas that uses fishing to bring families together, and, encourages the community to Get Involved and support their many events and programs that
encourage family and community engagement.
Who is Los Hermanos Familia?
Originally, we started with "just a fishing event" but over the years our programs award and scholarship opportunities for the community and its families have allowed us to grow and allow folks to Get Involved in much more, including having access to better health via our HealthBeat equipment, as well as having a chance to apply for scholarships to obtain a higher education, and thus, a better future.
Our fishing event, however, does allow us to use fishing as a hook to bring families together. We are organized by Los Hermanos Familia, including the Vamos a Pescar Committee, Lubbock’s Fishing Future, the Lubbock Master Anglers, Knights of Columbus #8097 San Jose, Knights of Columbus # 11807 Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Grace Guadalupanos, Knights of Columbus # 15876 St. Patrick’s Church, Knights of Columbus #16210 St. Phillip Benizi Idalou, Catholic Daughters of America, LULAC #263, Catholic War Veterans #1942, 4th Degree Assembly 1101, Los Carnales La Familia, Purple Heart South Plains of Texas #0900, American Legion Riders, Knights of Columbus #12803 St. Elizabeth’s, Knights of Columbus, #16394 San Ramon, Los Seguidores de Cristo, Brownfield’s St Anthony Council #12292, VFW Lubbock Post 2466, Church of the Latter-Day Saints. First Baptist Church, the Dallas Cowboy Fans of Lubbock, Sigma Lambda Beta, Omega Delta Phi, Sigma Lambda Gamma, Delta Alpha Omega, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Lambda Theta Phi, Lambda Theta Alpha, Kappa Delta Chi, the Society for the Advancement for Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), Lubbock P.A.G.A., Junior Catholic Daughters of America, Latino Medical Association of TTU, First Baptist Church of Lubbock, Our Lady of Guadalupe Guadalupanas, and many more volunteers, working collectively to carry out this event.
How We Got Started
A last request to go fishing with the entire family was filled by Frank Garcia, whose father, the late Gonzalo Garcia Sr., made a day before his death.
While he was a loving and dedicated father, Frank said that often the demands as a farmer would prevent his dad from being a part of family outings and activities.
The death of his father impacted the family severely, as his death was sudden. Every year on the anniversary of his death, Frank would discuss the family fishing event that never was.
One day his wife, Christy suggested that he hold a fishing event in honor of his father, but for fathers much like Gonzalo whose jobs prevented them from having that time with their families.
As a result, Frank and Christy, invited friends, family, and many active organizations to form Los Hermanos Familia (The Brothers and Family), an association of men and volunteers who value God, family, and community.
Together, in 2009, they coordinated the “Vamos a Pescar” (Let’s Go Fishing) Fishing event to bring dads together with their children/families. The event was deemed to be free, with no fishing license, no registration fee, no cost for lunch – as to not hinder families, or discourage their participation in the event. The event was a hit and drew 1,800 participants.
“Time with family is precious… and our event was done to encourage families to value that time, as well as the sport of fishing,” said Frank Garcia, event Co-Chair/Co-Founder.
In 2019, the fishing event grew to over 4,500 participants - despite inclement weather!
Who We Serve?
Los Hermanos Familia offers a variety or programs and activities for families of all backgrounds and from varying cities and counties beyond Lubbock. Our activities have participants from the following areas in West Texas and even families as far as New Mexico.
We welcome and serve families from these areas:
-
Bailey
-
Cochran
-
Crosby
-
Dawson
-
Floyd
-
Fort Sumner
-
Garza
-
Hale
-
Hockley
-
Lamb
-
Las Cruces
-
Lubbock
-
Lynn
-
Terry
Our events require registration. Data is collected and used for grant purposes and for future planning event planning.
Angler Educators
To better serve patrons of the annual “Vamos a Pescar, Let’s Go Fishing” event, 19 members of Los Hermanos Familia, a collaborative group of men, organizations, and volunteers who value God, family, and community, attended a training course to become certified Master Anglers.
The group from Los Hermanos Familia was started by Christy Martinez-Garcia and Frank Garcia, along with Danny Garcia, Fernando Garcia, Rey Martinez, Moses Torres, Mario Gutierrez, George Stockhausen, Raymond Thackrey, Andy Cognasi, Armando “Mandito” Garcia, Ted Olbera, Pete Pina, Jordan Garcia, Mario Heredia, Amaris Garcia and Lorenzo Eden. The late Tony Maldonado, and Pat Thompson also served as Master Anglers.
In 2015, a second group of 25 became certified angler educators. They include: Christy Martinez-Garcia (Not Pictured/photographer), Celisse Charles, Maria Sanchez, Brenda Hernandez, Joe Martinez, Richard Hernandez, Jeremy Sedeno, Richard Mendez, Sylvia Leos, Joe Leos, Montana Buendia, Minerva Sanchez, Henry Lopez, Robert Urrutia, Lupe Carrillo, Harold Castillo, Derick Medina, Armando Perez, David Lucio, Vincent Santini, Ernest Acuna, Nicholas Estrada, David Estrada, Nick Muniz, and Monica Lopez.
Fishing's Future Lubbock Chapter
The group went a step further and formed the Lubbock Chapter of Fishing’s Future, dedicated to bringing children and their parents together through the outdoor experience of fishing.
Fishing’s Future combines – the fishing experience with outdoor education including learning different fishing techniques, teaching the “Leave No Trace” philosophy and addressing water and outdoor safety practices. The overall goal of Fishing’s Future is to reconnect kids and parents with nature while strengthening family bonds.
The Impact
Fact: Children with involved, caring parents, especially fathers have better educational outcomes. A number of studies suggest that fathers who are involved, nurturing, and playful with their infants have children with higher IQs, as well as better linguistic and cognitive capacities.
Toddlers with involved fathers go on to start school with higher levels of academic readiness. They are more patient and can handle the stresses and frustrations associated with schooling more readily than children with less involved fathers.
The influence of a father’s involvement on academic achievement extends into adolescence and young adulthood. Numerous studies find that an active and nurturing style of fathering is associated with better verbal skills, intellectual functioning, and academic achievement among adolescents.
For instance, a 2001 U.S. Department of Education study found that highly involved biological fathers had children who were 43 percent more likely than other children to earn mostly As and 33 percent less likely than other children to repeat a grade.
Of course, mothers are equally important to the growth of children.
Through its programs, Los Hermanos Familia has also witnessed the growing number of kinship families and is also creating programs like Warm Hearts to support the needs and offer accessibility to these families.
In addition, a key element in promoting health and physical fitness and engaging the community is making programs accessible. Addressing the need for this type of event in a population that is underserved is the second goal of this proposed project. The population of the lake area shares a lower socio-economic class. The demographics of the user group indicate that the event/location hosting an activity like this fishing event will be highly used. Research indicates that public parks are critical resources for physical activity in minority communities. Hispanics and blacks are the predominant races in this area of Lubbock and are the predominant users of parks in this neighborhood according to 2010 Census data. By creating such an event at the Buddy Holly Lake, it brings a successful, vibrant amenity to the north side of town. By bringing the fishing event into this neighborhood, the existence of such an activity is tangible evidence of success.
As part of our many efforts, Los Hermanos Familia has provided over $32,500 in scholarship awards since the inception of the Adelante Awards in 2014. Scholarship opportunities are opened after each banquet as part of our funding comes from the Adelante Awards banquet.