{"id":6914,"date":"2023-09-24T20:18:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T01:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=6914"},"modified":"2023-09-24T20:18:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T01:18:39","slug":"axel-diaz-fight-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=6914","title":{"rendered":"Axel Diaz: Fight for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Axel Diaz<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s absence, Axel grew up with his Grandfather. Around age 10, Axel\u2019s grandfather passed away, and the patriarchal duty fell upon his uncle. During this time, Axel found himself at the end of some disciplinary troubles. \u201cI\u2019m ashamed to say it\u2026but I was the bully, always picking on other people, really bad grades, all that stuff.\u201d His uncle, in looking after Axel, took him to his first Taekwondo class, \u201cHe was like,You wanna hit someone? Okay let’s go [To Taekwondo].-At least here, you\u2019re not gonna get in trouble\u201d. Influenced by his admiration for action heroes like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan, Axel discovered his fondness for martial arts. \u201cOnce I started training in Taekwondo, I was like, I can do that! I can do this! And I like it.\u201d From then on, his training in the martial arts began to feel like home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Axel joined his father in America, he referred to this as a \u201cComplete culture shock.\u201d He said, \u201cI got here on a Saturday, then Sunday we went shopping for clothes because I didn\u2019t bring anything, and then Monday I was in school.\u201d Axel spent time with his father\u2019s wife, Katy Diaz, who taught at Redwater Middle school where Axel attended. Being new to the country, Axel didn\u2019t speak fluent English so he received help from two elementary teachers. \u201cI feel like I learned more in those 6 months at Redwater because I didn\u2019t have an option.\u201d He continued, \u201cWhenever 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.\u201d It was here however where Axel met two inspiring teachers that introduced him to his favorite subject; History. \u201cIts funny, whenever I was younger I used to hate history\u2026 Like, what’s the point? I don’t care what a person did back in the 1800\u2019s.\u201d He attributes his fondness to his teacher\u2019s teaching styles, citing their passion for the subject and that, \u201cThey didn\u2019t make it boring.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his junior year of highschool, Axel was reintroduced to a local Taekwondo class. \u201cThe first time that I walked through those doors, it felt good, it felt like home.\u201d Axel split his time between school, training, and working, eventually taking on a new position as an assistant instructor at his gym. \u201cI went to work and it\u2019d just tear my soul out, whenever I went to Taekwondo I realized I was really happy there.\u201d 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. \u201cHow do you justify standing there getting hit, so that you can hit someone back?\u201d He continued, \u201cAs much as I hate to say it I kind of grew up in a hostile environment\u2026 I kind of grew up knowing what it was like to get hit.\u201d As he gained more experience, his love for teaching was truly realized. \u201cWhenever 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.\u201d He continued,\u201dIf I wouldn\u2019t have been in Taekwondo, I wouldn\u2019t have come to the realization that I could teach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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.      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s absence, Axel grew up with his … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[146,141],"tags":[63,590,189],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-am","tag-life","tag-martial-arts","tag-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3odG9-1Nw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6485,"url":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=6485","url_meta":{"origin":6914,"position":0},"title":"Interview with Sam Cannon","author":"andrewcobb21","date":"October 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Sam Cannon is from Paris, Texas and attended high school at Paris High. He moved to Texarkana, Texas after his dad took a job to be the head preacher at Walnut church of Christ. When his first school year in Texarkana began he enrolled at University of Arkansas Texarkana where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Uncategorized"","block_context":{"text":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?cat=141"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5526,"url":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=5526","url_meta":{"origin":6914,"position":1},"title":"Can I Have My Class Ring, Now?","author":"Julianna Summerlin","date":"October 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As I finish up my junior year here at Texas A&M University- Texarkana I have been counting down the days until my ring ceremony where I will receive my own class ring. While counting down the days I have also been finishing finals\u2026 i.e.: this blog post. As I sat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A&M"","block_context":{"text":"A&M","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?cat=311"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3774,"url":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?p=3774","url_meta":{"origin":6914,"position":2},"title":"Dallas Remembers Forgotten Monticello Slaves","author":"Tiffany Brown","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As the author of The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson promoted freedom and equality for all individuals. While describing slavery as an abominable crime, the third president owned over 600 slaves. \"That's what's most important about this exhibition. Thomas Jefferson enslaved throughout his eighty-three year life. That means he had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/?cat=346"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eagleeyemedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/monticello-25oct17-JL-0037_-1-300x207.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6931,"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eagleeyemedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}