Axel Armando Diaz Juarez was born in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico on March 6th, 2002. The same year, his father left the country and entered the United States for work. In his father’s absence, Axel grew up with his Grandfather. Around age 10, Axel’s grandfather passed away, and the patriarchal duty fell upon his uncle. During this time, Axel found himself at the end of some disciplinary troubles. “I’m ashamed to say it…but I was the bully, always picking on other people, really bad grades, all that stuff.” His uncle, in looking after Axel, took him to his first Taekwondo class, “He was like,You wanna hit someone? Okay let’s go [To Taekwondo].-At least here, you’re not gonna get in trouble”. Influenced by his admiration for action heroes like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan, Axel discovered his fondness for martial arts. “Once I started training in Taekwondo, I was like, I can do that! I can do this! And I like it.” From then on, his training in the martial arts began to feel like home.
In 2015, Axel joined his father in America, he referred to this as a “Complete culture shock.” He said, “I got here on a Saturday, then Sunday we went shopping for clothes because I didn’t bring anything, and then Monday I was in school.” Axel spent time with his father’s wife, Katy Diaz, who taught at Redwater Middle school where Axel attended. Being new to the country, Axel didn’t speak fluent English so he received help from two elementary teachers. “I feel like I learned more in those 6 months at Redwater because I didn’t have an option.” He continued, “Whenever I moved to Texas High and I had a lot more people to speak Spanish to, then it became a little more challenging to learn English.” It was here however where Axel met two inspiring teachers that introduced him to his favorite subject; History. “Its funny, whenever I was younger I used to hate history… Like, what’s the point? I don’t care what a person did back in the 1800’s.” He attributes his fondness to his teacher’s teaching styles, citing their passion for the subject and that, “They didn’t make it boring.”
In his junior year of highschool, Axel was reintroduced to a local Taekwondo class. “The first time that I walked through those doors, it felt good, it felt like home.” Axel split his time between school, training, and working, eventually taking on a new position as an assistant instructor at his gym. “I went to work and it’d just tear my soul out, whenever I went to Taekwondo I realized I was really happy there.” Early on, he found it difficult to explain concepts like self defense to kids after seeing how different life was for them compared to his hometown. “How do you justify standing there getting hit, so that you can hit someone back?” He continued, “As much as I hate to say it I kind of grew up in a hostile environment… I kind of grew up knowing what it was like to get hit.” As he gained more experience, his love for teaching was truly realized. “Whenever I was helping the kids..teaching on my own, whole classes full of kids and I was like, you know what? I think I *can* convey my messages.” He continued,”If I wouldn’t have been in Taekwondo, I wouldn’t have come to the realization that I could teach.”
Now a second degree black belt, Axel has invested several years into his training and has garnered numerous awards and trophies, going so far as to win consecutive national titles for 2020 and 2021. Axel is currently working towards completing his education degree and teacher’s certification. He plans on becoming a social studies teacher, eventually moving into history and hopes to teach at the collegiate level. He continues to teach alongside Gary Jones at the East Texas Martial Arts in Wake Village.
