Bus Driver Didn't Stop Fort Worth Native From Finding Route To Success

Arlington TX

01 November, 2021

12:59 PM

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By Chris Cobler, Fort Worth Report October 31, 2021 Fort Worth Report's newest staffer, Cristian ArguetaSoto, doesn't like the phrase "product of my environment," but he says it sort of fits. He grew up on the South Side of Fort Worth and attended Alice D. Contreras Elementary and J.P. Elder Middle School for a year before transferring to Rosemont in seventh grade "because the bus driver would make me late to school every day, and I wanted to avoid having to go to court for truancy." Paschal High School was a struggle, too. "I say I attended Paschal in quotation marks because I was not all the way there mentally and academically due to having to work so much," Cristian, now 22, recalled. His family's support kept him grounded, though. His father, Alberto Argueta, 49, is a landscape worker at Texas Christian University while his mother, Veronica Argueta, 45, works there as a housekeeper. His older brother, Tito, works at a bank while his younger sister, Leslie, works at a doughnut shop. His father grew up in Arroyo de la Luna, Mexico, which translates to "River of the Moon." He worked on a farm during his childhood and was a standout futbol player. He migrated to the United States in 1991 for better financial opportunities, Cristian's mother, who grew up in a nearby rancho, or small town, came to the United States in 1993. They started their family in 1996 when Tito was born. As the middle child of immigrant parents, Christian learned hard work from an early age, but he never thought he'd make it to college. After he made it to TCU, he still didn't think he could make it through four years. Fortunately, he almost immediately met Jean Marie Brown, TCU assistant journalism professor and director of student media. She hired him as a photographer at TCU360.com the first semester of his first year and became his adviser, mentor and boss all four years. "She gave me the opportunity to travel to different cities to cover sports," Cristian said. "Who knew a young boy from the South Side of Fort Worth could be walking around Times Square in New York because he decided to become a photographer in high school? Jean made it possible for me to see things outside of Fort Worth and then come back to appreciate the best things about the city." Brown recommended Cristian, who graduated in May, for our first class of Fort Worth Report journalism fellows this summer. When I met him at Ascension Coffee, 1751 River Run, I knew right away he would be the first fellow we hired. He had the perfect blend of intelligence, humility and drive needed at a start-up publication creating a new model for local journalism. We extended his fellowship past the summer and were delighted when our members' support allowed us to add him to our staff as our first community engagement journalist. In this role, you'll find him all over Fort Worth and Tarrant County taking photos and telling the stories of underserved communities. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.