Candidate for
Council Member; City of Downey; District 5

I was born in East Los Angeles, the oldest of four siblings, and moved to Downey in 1983. My parents, Cesar and Maria Consuelo Orozco, remain my role models. He's a civil engineer who works for Caltrans. She's owned and operated the Orozco Family Day Care in Downey for the past twenty years.

As firstborn, I've always felt a sense of personal responsibility toward the people around me. My mother also instilled in me a sense of leadership. She enrolled me in Little League, which gave me an early sense of the importance of discipline and teamwork, and to learn to deal with people of different ethnicities and diverse backgrounds, as well as handling conflict and stress. I attended West Middle School and then went to Warren High, I loved taking government with Mr. Doty and playing baseball for Coach Taylor. After graduating from high school in 1989, I attended ELAC and helped lead the "Huskies" to its first league championship in 1992. In the first round (best of three), I started game three pitching and helped lead my team to series clinching victory over Long Beach City College. This victory propelled us to the Southern California Regionals (final four).

I was then blessed to play professional baseball in the Mexican League with Tigres de Mexico amongst. Baseball provided me an atmosphere of coexistence and an ability to highlight family values. Confidence and enthusiasm are some traits one picks up along the way.

Education has been a top priority with my entire family. Recently, I earned a degree in communications, with a minor in sociology, from Çal Stat Dominguez Hills.

In November of last year I married the beautiful Marty Teran, who works as a special needs expert at Rossier Park School in Buena Park.

Originally published from: http://www.gabrielforcitycouncil.com/meet-gabriel/biography.html