Planting Roots Far from Home: Featuring David Rosales
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BY TYLER MAXWELL, Texas CRAC - Zone 5 Representative
n south Texas lies the historical city of Laredo, which is commonly referred to as the heart of Webb County. Laredo is home to David Rosales, a rangeland management specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Texas.
Rosales now lives in Bridgeport, Texas, and also serves on the NRCS Texas Civil Rights Committee as the Hispanic Emphasis Program Manager. The NRCS Texas Civil Rights vision is to be an inclusive, diverse, and equitable agency that delivers programs and services in a manner based on and consistent with fairness, equality, availability, and accountability, while ensuring that applicants and employees are treated with respect and free from discrimination. Prior to employment with NRCS, Rosales went to United High School in Laredo where he was heavily involved in the FFA Chapter. His desire and passion for farming and agriculture roots back to both sets of his grandparents that were cattle ranchers. Since the 1960s, his family has owned and operated a ranch in a small town called Ejido La Rosita, Coahuila, about 40 miles south of Big Bend National Park. “I remember my brother and I would help my grandparents farm and ranch every summer,” Rosales said. “Since high school, I have had the idea of working in an agriculture-related field.” To attain his goal, Rosales focused on school. “My mother attended school until she was in the sixth grade, that is all that was offered at the time in Mexico”, he said. “My brother and I are actually first-generation college students.” After graduating high school in 2014, Rosales enrolled in
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