DIVERSITY, LIFETIME EXPERIENCE DRIVE ANA FUGGINS' WILL TO HELP OTHERS

By: SARAH HEISKELL, Tyler Morning Telegraph 03/13/2004

THE GLOBETROTTER: Hispanic American Association of East Texas Executive Director Ana Fuggins stands outside the Hillside Community Center on Tyler's East Erwin Street. (Staff Photo By D.J. Peters)

Ana Fuggins grew up Catholic in a Texas border town where Spanish was spoken as often as English. Considered the creative one in her family of five girls, Mrs. Fuggins had a relatively normal childhood.

At the age of 6 her father, a fireman, began taking her to see the Ice Capades when the show made its way to town. The bright lights and glistening costumes inspired Mrs. Fuggins to bring the act to her neighborhood.

"I would gather all the kids in the community and put on a show," she said. "I had a little machine that I used to sew the costumes. We'd invite all the parents and charge a nickel to get in."

She put her version of the Ice Capades on until she was 9 and learned at a young age that she wanted to be involved in the lives of the people who lived in the houses around her.

At 15 she became involved in volunteer work and developed a passion for teaching others about the Bible.

"I started studying the Bible myself and then I started studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses and I became a Jehovah's Witness," she said. "That's when I started to do a lot of volunteer work."

GOING HER WAY

As a child, Mrs. Fuggins said, she attended Catholic school but was such an inquisitive child she began seeking answers outside the church.

"I asked about religion and I asked about everything else," she said. "That's when I began studying the Bible and started going out to the neighborhoods and offering Bible studies."

Like most teenagers her age, Mrs. Fuggins listened to music and hung out with friends, but what she wanted more than anything was to change people's lives for the better.

Living in Laredo gave Mrs. Fuggins the opportunity to learn more about her heritage, since both her parents were born in the United States. During the summer she frequently rode the bus to Guadalajara to visit friends in Mexico.

When she graduated from high school Mrs. Fuggins went to work at Franklin Stores Corporation as a credit manager during the '60s where she worked for about 8 years. While working for the New York-based company she was responsible for helping introduce the idea of credit to Mexico.

"At that time they weren't able to purchase things with credit," she said. "It was something totally new to them."

It was difficult to convince Hispanic populations that credit was beneficial. People living in Mexico saw those who needed credit as "deadbeats" because they didn't have the cash to pay for what they needed.

While working for the company Mrs. Fuggins had the opportunity to travel to Canada, South America and five countries in Europe.

"Several times a year I had to go somewhere," she said. "My hobbies when I wasn't traveling were painting, sewing, decorating and shopping."

Still a single woman, Mrs. Fuggins accepted a job with Margo's La' Mode in Dallas and purchased her first home.

"Margo's used to give a 40 percent discount when ever we had a sale on shoes and I would buy boxes and boxes for myself and my sisters," said Mrs. Tillis.

SAYING 'YES'

In 1982, at the age of 40, she attended a convention and met the love of her life, Eddie Fuggins.

The couple was an unlikely pair. They had different ethnic backgrounds and Fuggins had been married before, which didn't sit well with Mrs. Fuggins' father. But once he got to know Fuggins it was obvious he was perfect for his daughter.

It took Mrs. Fuggins four years to finally say "yes" to her "first official boyfriend." They've been married for 20 years.

"I tried to do everything I wanted to do before I got married," she said about why she waited so long to marry.

In 1994 the couple moved to Tyler because Mrs. Fuggins had visited the Rose City before and thought it was "the prettiest little town." She convinced the rest of her family to move to East Texas and her father bought acreage in Edom.

After moving to Tyler, Mrs. Fuggins began working on a grant at the Tyler Public Library to promote the library's services to the Hispanic community. Through that experience she knew she wanted to work in the non-profit world.

She later went to work for the police department, but didn't stay long when she saw how desperate the Hispanic community was for immigrant assistance. Mrs. Fuggins approached the Hispanic American Association about a job in 1994 but the organization had no funds to pay her.

"I came in as a volunteer and waited until there were funds for a salary," she said.

However, she didn't wait for the city to give her a building. She knew exactly where she wanted the non-profit to be located, in the heart of the Hispanic community.

A Spanish-style building at 1111 E. Erwin St. had been sitting vacant for years. It was vandalized and close to falling apart, but Mrs. Fuggins wanted it anyway.

"There was some competition with the police department over getting this building," she said. "But we got it."

With the Hispanic American Association headquarters secured, the turning point for the organization came in 1998 when the non-profit was accredited by the Board of Immigration Appeals to assist low-income immigrants in becoming legal citizens.

The organization also expanded its services to Longview and Marshall. Other services include tax information, English as a second language and computer instruction. No other non-profit in East Texas provides similar services to Hispanic immigrants, said Mrs. Fuggins.

"Our goal is to make them productive U.S. citizens and get them involved in leadership in their community," she said.

© 2007 East Texas Hispanic Leadership Council. All rights reserved.
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