Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Hilary Perez Brings Carries Familial Ties, Passion for Olympic Movement to USA Swimming
Hilary Perez joined USA Swimming in January 2019 as the Sport Development Administrative Assistant. She’s a proud Mexican American woman who talked about her background in athletics, her work as a key resource for her fellow team members on the Sport Development Staff, as well as what sports and life have taught her.
What brought you to USA Swimming?
“I got into this because of my determination and love for the Olympic movement — swimming just happened to be my way in. It all kind of worked together. I was in Taekwondo and I feel like the dreams of most kids are to compete professionally or at the Olympic level. A few weeks before the AAU, I had a grade three sprain to my ankle, and the same day, I broke my ankle. At that point I had already broken my ankle multiple times, had multiple grade three sprains and kind of fell into a depression and I didn’t follow suit. I let it affect me. Luckily my grandparents who raised me—they were very supportive—and one day just walked into my room and their literal words were ‘Get your sh*t together. If you’re not going to compete, you need to find something you’re into.’ They’re very straight-to-the-point people and it doesn’t work for everyone, but it worked for me. I needed to hear it.
I had to sit back and reflect over a few months and realized my heart was still in the Olympic Movement because my belief in the Movement saved my life. It honestly did. It’s what kept me on the right path. I could have easily fallen off where I grew up and how I grew up. I went to college, and I always knew that if I wasn’t going to compete, I was going to work here. After college I got a job at Deloite University, but I applied at the USOPC and any NGB where I thought I could do a good job and nothing happened, so I looked at my boyfriend, Jose, and told him I’m going to move to Colorado — join me or not. Luckily he followed me, and I just knew in my heart that I have the experience, and someone will hire me. I was here [in Colorado] for about two years, I volunteered a lot during that time to get my name out there, and then this position opened up and I knew I could do it and do a great job at it. Luckily for me, Joel Shinofield, MJ Truex and (former USA Swimming staff member) Tom Avischious saw that in me. I know that what sport could do for me, it could do for other kids, especially kids where I grew up. We just needed hope. And it was so easy to not have hope. You grow up and hear from some family you’re not going to do anything; you’re going to be like everyone else. You’re going to die, you’re going to be in a gang, you’re going to have kids too young…so having that hope kept me on track.”
Tell us about where you came from.
“I grew up in DFW [Dallas Fort Worth], more specifically, Fort Worth, Texas. More inner-city and grew up poor. We grew up poor until about high school then we were middle class. But in my head, middle class was money. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather is from Mexico — so I’m not first generation but people tend to think so because of who I was raised by. They have raised me since I was six months old until the day they both passed.
My grandfather moved here for hope. He grew up poor, working the land and just about anywhere they could find jobs in Mexico. The reason his family moved up here was for the Bracero Program. During World War II when a lot of U.S. men were sent overseas to fight, there was a shortage of laborers, so men and women came here to work the land. He was the first one over here from his family. They did immigrant work, they picked cotton and they picked grapes wherever they could find work over here. He just knew that if he went back to Mexico, he wasn’t going to have a better life. That was the one thing he recognized since he was young. I see a lot of him in me and how our stories relate. We haven’t made it out yet, but there has to be one. Just like him, I will be the one to sacrifice to make it out for future generations.
He was ultimately the first one who came over here and to live in the U.S. He went to fight in Vietnam and that’s how he got his citizenship, and then he met my grandma in between. But then again, growing up in a poor family and an immigrant worker – the stereotype held true: We struggled forever. One thing he always wanted to do was own a business. He was great at math, he was great at building things, and after the war, he came back and worked as janitor for a few years then went back to school – a trade school through Job Corps and learned how to fix engines on big rig trucks. He then went to work for a ma-and-pa shop that specialized in that and that’s about the time I was born. It was the only income we had.
My grandmother was a strong woman—whenever he was at work she had her own job—but when my tias [aunts] started having kids of their own and couldn’t afford to put them in childcare while they worked, my grandmother quit her job so she could take care of us. I’m the third oldest grandchild of 13.
About a year after my grandmother passed away, I found out just how much we struggled. I was talking to my grandfather and Jose, reminiscing, and one of the memories I brought up was how little she ate. It was then that my grandfather told me we didn’t have enough food for her to eat. I was like ‘How did we not have food? I never starved.’ We didn’t have enough food for her. I just thought she wasn’t hungry, but her logic was she wasn’t going to starve my grandfather because he did labor work and he needed energy and she wasn’t going to starve a child. The child didn’t ask for this so she wouldn’t eat or would eat what was left on our plates or scraps stuck to the pans. I love and respect my grandparents so much for that: When they struggled, I didn’t know.
We grew up in the barrio – right along the dividing line of different groups. You see in most cities there are pockets where different groups live. We could hear gunshots everywhere and didn’t leave because we couldn’t afford to leave. Around middle school, my grandfather was tired of not living his own dream of owning his own shop. He took the money he had saved and convinced the guy who owned the land across from where he was working to let him lease the land for a business and it took off. I remember during my teenage years we had times when we had money. We could all eat. We could all finally go out to eat. I didn’t have to buy my clothes at goodwill or have hand-me-downs. I could have clothes of my own.
When they put me in taekwondo, that was a struggle. Now we were having to pay $120 a month for me to go to this school right after he started his own business. I think that’s another part of me – seeing how much they sacrificed for me and realizing I had to succeed. I had to succeed in what I wanted to do, but for them, they were never like ‘You have to do this,’ it was just, ‘You have to get out.’ That was the common theme throughout my life. You’re the one that shows potential and cares enough, we’re going to do whatever we can. They would sacrifice whatever they had to see that I succeeded and did what I wanted to with my life and didn’t struggle.”
What did athletics teach you that you bring to this job?
Discipline. When I won my first state championship in taekwondo, I was on this high. No one could mess with me. My coaches were like ‘Don’t let this get into your head.’ The man who trained me knew my family background and jumped through a lot of the same hoops growing up. He was like ‘Don’t go down the same path. Don’t get into fights for the sake of getting into fights.’ I needed to remember who I was.
Part of the reason I got into taekwondo was that I was getting beat up, but he reminded me I needed to remember why I joined and why I came here. Even though I could defend myself now, I needed to help defend those who couldn’t. That was the logic behind it. I brought that here with me — the discipline. I can’t forget where I come from though. With membership, I think about how can I help THEM? If they want to be a part of swimming, I need to show them why we’re great and why they should come to us. What can we offer them to help them out? That’s what a lot of clubs look for — even if it’s something as simple as insurance. How can we help them? It’s the relationships, it’s not a one-way street. And I’ve taken the logic of helping the little guy literally and applied it to work. You just have to look at how does this apply to what I do. I remember where I came from, I took the discipline and now, how can I help people help themselves.
How can swimming become a more inclusive sport?
I think a barrier to this is comfort — we’re comfortable in what we’re doing because it has been successful for the most part, but then we’ll dip our toes into branching into more diverse regions and if it fails, we take a step back. I think what we can’t be afraid of approaching these areas. I didn’t even know there were USA Swimming clubs in my area growing up! I grew up in an area where we couldn’t afford a pool. It got filled with cement because the area couldn’t afford the costs and was turned into another basketball court. I’m sure there is a piece to this equation that has been discussed and I am unaware of, but looking from the inside out with my experience, I wonder what is being missed by not approaching groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs. These were active where I was growing up. They have the transportation for the kids from school; they have a lot of things going for them except the funding. That might be a missed opportunity. Maybe we can pair up with organizations like this — not just swimming at the national level but at the local levels. If we go to areas that are predominantly Hispanic, language is a barrier that prevents us from being able to just reach out to find those opportunities. Let’s bring in a translator and see what we can get going. Not being afraid to reach out to people we might not otherwise connect with is a missed opportunity and we just get comfortable where we are.
What has swimming taught you?
I’ve learned so much. The dedication! I thought taekwondo took a lot of dedication, seeing as we were going in six days a week, but we weren’t going two or three times a day at 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. When you have that passion and dedication, you don’t let it falter. I find it easy to keep that passion and dedication because I’m doing what I set out to do since I was 12. If I can’t be on that podium, I’m going to be behind that podium helping others. I think swimming has definitely taught me it’s not for nothing. The fact that they show up multiple times a day, seven days a week, that’s evidence of that.
What brought you to USA Swimming?
“I got into this because of my determination and love for the Olympic movement — swimming just happened to be my way in. It all kind of worked together. I was in Taekwondo and I feel like the dreams of most kids are to compete professionally or at the Olympic level. A few weeks before the AAU, I had a grade three sprain to my ankle, and the same day, I broke my ankle. At that point I had already broken my ankle multiple times, had multiple grade three sprains and kind of fell into a depression and I didn’t follow suit. I let it affect me. Luckily my grandparents who raised me—they were very supportive—and one day just walked into my room and their literal words were ‘Get your sh*t together. If you’re not going to compete, you need to find something you’re into.’ They’re very straight-to-the-point people and it doesn’t work for everyone, but it worked for me. I needed to hear it.
I had to sit back and reflect over a few months and realized my heart was still in the Olympic Movement because my belief in the Movement saved my life. It honestly did. It’s what kept me on the right path. I could have easily fallen off where I grew up and how I grew up. I went to college, and I always knew that if I wasn’t going to compete, I was going to work here. After college I got a job at Deloite University, but I applied at the USOPC and any NGB where I thought I could do a good job and nothing happened, so I looked at my boyfriend, Jose, and told him I’m going to move to Colorado — join me or not. Luckily he followed me, and I just knew in my heart that I have the experience, and someone will hire me. I was here [in Colorado] for about two years, I volunteered a lot during that time to get my name out there, and then this position opened up and I knew I could do it and do a great job at it. Luckily for me, Joel Shinofield, MJ Truex and (former USA Swimming staff member) Tom Avischious saw that in me. I know that what sport could do for me, it could do for other kids, especially kids where I grew up. We just needed hope. And it was so easy to not have hope. You grow up and hear from some family you’re not going to do anything; you’re going to be like everyone else. You’re going to die, you’re going to be in a gang, you’re going to have kids too young…so having that hope kept me on track.”
Tell us about where you came from.
“I grew up in DFW [Dallas Fort Worth], more specifically, Fort Worth, Texas. More inner-city and grew up poor. We grew up poor until about high school then we were middle class. But in my head, middle class was money. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather is from Mexico — so I’m not first generation but people tend to think so because of who I was raised by. They have raised me since I was six months old until the day they both passed.
My grandfather moved here for hope. He grew up poor, working the land and just about anywhere they could find jobs in Mexico. The reason his family moved up here was for the Bracero Program. During World War II when a lot of U.S. men were sent overseas to fight, there was a shortage of laborers, so men and women came here to work the land. He was the first one over here from his family. They did immigrant work, they picked cotton and they picked grapes wherever they could find work over here. He just knew that if he went back to Mexico, he wasn’t going to have a better life. That was the one thing he recognized since he was young. I see a lot of him in me and how our stories relate. We haven’t made it out yet, but there has to be one. Just like him, I will be the one to sacrifice to make it out for future generations.
He was ultimately the first one who came over here and to live in the U.S. He went to fight in Vietnam and that’s how he got his citizenship, and then he met my grandma in between. But then again, growing up in a poor family and an immigrant worker – the stereotype held true: We struggled forever. One thing he always wanted to do was own a business. He was great at math, he was great at building things, and after the war, he came back and worked as janitor for a few years then went back to school – a trade school through Job Corps and learned how to fix engines on big rig trucks. He then went to work for a ma-and-pa shop that specialized in that and that’s about the time I was born. It was the only income we had.
My grandmother was a strong woman—whenever he was at work she had her own job—but when my tias [aunts] started having kids of their own and couldn’t afford to put them in childcare while they worked, my grandmother quit her job so she could take care of us. I’m the third oldest grandchild of 13.
About a year after my grandmother passed away, I found out just how much we struggled. I was talking to my grandfather and Jose, reminiscing, and one of the memories I brought up was how little she ate. It was then that my grandfather told me we didn’t have enough food for her to eat. I was like ‘How did we not have food? I never starved.’ We didn’t have enough food for her. I just thought she wasn’t hungry, but her logic was she wasn’t going to starve my grandfather because he did labor work and he needed energy and she wasn’t going to starve a child. The child didn’t ask for this so she wouldn’t eat or would eat what was left on our plates or scraps stuck to the pans. I love and respect my grandparents so much for that: When they struggled, I didn’t know.
We grew up in the barrio – right along the dividing line of different groups. You see in most cities there are pockets where different groups live. We could hear gunshots everywhere and didn’t leave because we couldn’t afford to leave. Around middle school, my grandfather was tired of not living his own dream of owning his own shop. He took the money he had saved and convinced the guy who owned the land across from where he was working to let him lease the land for a business and it took off. I remember during my teenage years we had times when we had money. We could all eat. We could all finally go out to eat. I didn’t have to buy my clothes at goodwill or have hand-me-downs. I could have clothes of my own.
When they put me in taekwondo, that was a struggle. Now we were having to pay $120 a month for me to go to this school right after he started his own business. I think that’s another part of me – seeing how much they sacrificed for me and realizing I had to succeed. I had to succeed in what I wanted to do, but for them, they were never like ‘You have to do this,’ it was just, ‘You have to get out.’ That was the common theme throughout my life. You’re the one that shows potential and cares enough, we’re going to do whatever we can. They would sacrifice whatever they had to see that I succeeded and did what I wanted to with my life and didn’t struggle.”
What did athletics teach you that you bring to this job?
Discipline. When I won my first state championship in taekwondo, I was on this high. No one could mess with me. My coaches were like ‘Don’t let this get into your head.’ The man who trained me knew my family background and jumped through a lot of the same hoops growing up. He was like ‘Don’t go down the same path. Don’t get into fights for the sake of getting into fights.’ I needed to remember who I was.
Part of the reason I got into taekwondo was that I was getting beat up, but he reminded me I needed to remember why I joined and why I came here. Even though I could defend myself now, I needed to help defend those who couldn’t. That was the logic behind it. I brought that here with me — the discipline. I can’t forget where I come from though. With membership, I think about how can I help THEM? If they want to be a part of swimming, I need to show them why we’re great and why they should come to us. What can we offer them to help them out? That’s what a lot of clubs look for — even if it’s something as simple as insurance. How can we help them? It’s the relationships, it’s not a one-way street. And I’ve taken the logic of helping the little guy literally and applied it to work. You just have to look at how does this apply to what I do. I remember where I came from, I took the discipline and now, how can I help people help themselves.
How can swimming become a more inclusive sport?
I think a barrier to this is comfort — we’re comfortable in what we’re doing because it has been successful for the most part, but then we’ll dip our toes into branching into more diverse regions and if it fails, we take a step back. I think what we can’t be afraid of approaching these areas. I didn’t even know there were USA Swimming clubs in my area growing up! I grew up in an area where we couldn’t afford a pool. It got filled with cement because the area couldn’t afford the costs and was turned into another basketball court. I’m sure there is a piece to this equation that has been discussed and I am unaware of, but looking from the inside out with my experience, I wonder what is being missed by not approaching groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs. These were active where I was growing up. They have the transportation for the kids from school; they have a lot of things going for them except the funding. That might be a missed opportunity. Maybe we can pair up with organizations like this — not just swimming at the national level but at the local levels. If we go to areas that are predominantly Hispanic, language is a barrier that prevents us from being able to just reach out to find those opportunities. Let’s bring in a translator and see what we can get going. Not being afraid to reach out to people we might not otherwise connect with is a missed opportunity and we just get comfortable where we are.
What has swimming taught you?
I’ve learned so much. The dedication! I thought taekwondo took a lot of dedication, seeing as we were going in six days a week, but we weren’t going two or three times a day at 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. When you have that passion and dedication, you don’t let it falter. I find it easy to keep that passion and dedication because I’m doing what I set out to do since I was 12. If I can’t be on that podium, I’m going to be behind that podium helping others. I think swimming has definitely taught me it’s not for nothing. The fact that they show up multiple times a day, seven days a week, that’s evidence of that.