On a typical day at Affordable Auto Detail, Christian Carranza is busy juggling incoming calls, dropping off and picking up finished cars, giving estimates, overseeing his hard-working crew and orienting new customers.
Already a business owner at 27, Carranza handles the daily chaos with the demeanor and ease of someone beyond his years. Perhaps he’s just wired that way, or maybe it’s because there are few instances in his life when he hasn’t known challenge and adversity.
Carranza was just a month old when he moved from Washington with his parents to Grass Valley. Things were challenging from the start — as early as second grade he remembers Child Protective Services knocking on the door in response to reports that all was not well within the household. To his dismay, no action was taken, and as he got older he got into physical fights with his father, who was struggling with drug addiction. Not only was he scared to go home, he was hungry. At times, the only meal of the day was his school lunch, he said.
“The drug use was too much — I had to get out,” he said. “At 15 I began couch surfing at friends’ houses and sleeping in my Ford Bronco.”
There were, however, three areas of his life where things were predictable and seemed to make sense: sports, employment, and his girlfriend, Nicole. He joined the wrestling and football teams, and began practicing Muay Thai, also known as Thai boxing. By 17 he was also holding down three jobs while attending Nevada Union High School. Another escape was the Grass Valley skateboard park, but occasionally he experienced hostility when other skaters would target him because of his brown skin and jump him or yell racist slurs. But little deterred Carranza, who had clearly developed strength and determination at an early age.
Read the full article here.