Dedicated to Making The World a Better Place

Jonathan was a native of Artesia, New Mexico and an esteemed graduate of Artesia High School, where he played on two State Championship football teams. An athlete his entire life, Jonathan also played soccer and little league baseball from a young age, winning a State Championship in soccer at age 11. In addition to sports, Jonathan excelled in the theatre and student government, serving as both senior class president and student body president in the same year at Artesia.

A senior English history major at the University of New Mexico, Jonathan planned to become an educator. He was a passionate reader and writer and kept personal journals since the second grade. Jonathan was a gifted young man, very close to his family, easy to smile, and always ready to lend a hand to someone in need. Ultimately, as an organ donor, Jonathan gave his body for the life and better health of others.

Jonathan was an avid, proactive New Mexican who believed in our state’s excellence. He devoted himself to making New Mexico and the world around him a better place.

Jonathan loved people and people loved Jonathan. He never passed a hitchhiker and he took care of the homeless in many ways. Particularly, Jonathan abhorred racism and discrimination of any sort. Rosa Parks was his heroine.

On October 4, 2001, just days before his accident, Jonathan wrote the following in his journal:

"People would have you think - and when I say people, I mean society, and when I say society I mean the majority and when I say the majority I mean the dominating public perspective - that ethnic groups are so different from each other. But do we not experience joy the same, and when I say joy I mean laugh. Do we not feel pain the same? Why must place and time of birth forever define status in the eyes of people?"