Immigrant Story – Robert Larios

Two Hundred Fifty Years of Freedom… And Fifty Years of Mine

A warm, painterly illustration in golden-hour Americana style, evoking the mid-1980s. A backyard Fourth of July gathering at dusk, a multi-generational family, some members Caucasian, some Latino, all mixed together warmly with no visual separation between "host family" and "guests." A hand-crank ice cream churn sits in the grass, children taking turns at the handle. A woman carries out a homemade peach pie from the kitchen door. In the foreground, a young Latino boy holds a watermelon popsicle (paleta de sandía), seeds visible, dripping slightly in the summer heat. In the background, a man is lighting modest home fireworks, sparks catching the last light of sunset, while a distant fire truck's lights are just becoming visible down the road. Warm amber, peach, and dusty gold color palette. Nostalgic, intimate, cinematic wide shot. No text, no logos, emotionally warm rather than dramatic.

Fifty years ago, my parents carried me across the border as a one-year-old. A stranger’s kindness on a highway changed everything. On America’s 250th birthday, this is a story of belonging, gratitude, and what it means to become American.

Robert Larios – CEO Bio

At one year old, my parents carried me across the Mexican American border with nothing but hope and the clothes on their backs. I grew up the son of farmworkers on an avocado and citrus farm in Southern California and eventually became President and CEO of one of the nation’s largest public sector employee associations. This is the story of how a Mexican immigrant and first generation American turned struggle into strength and rose from the fields to the CEO seat.Along the way, I share lessons on resilience, leadership, faith and the power of education that speak to immigrants, founders and leaders everywhere.

They Died for Someone They Didn’t Know. That Someone was Me. And for Many of You.

On Memorial Day, Robert Larios, President and CEO of the Employees Club of California and son of Mexican immigrants, reflects on the known and unknown American war dead who sacrificed everything for a country he was still trying to become a legal part of. Drawing from a deeply personal visit to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Larios weaves together the stories of those who shaped his American journey… a World War II Purple Heart veteran, a submarine sailor turned mentor, and the nameless soldiers whose marble headstones read “known but to God.” A meditation on remembrance, gratitude, and grief from one of California’s most distinctive voices on service, sacrifice, and the immigrant American experience.