Electrical career put a charge into Juan Puentes' life

MATTAWA - Most of us feel as if we need a spark in our lives from time to time. Probably not Juan Puentes.

The Mattawa electrician, owner of JP Electric, seems to be perpetually lit up. He's always smiling and upbeat.

Puentes has reason. From the time he sneaked across the U.S.-Mexico border at the age of 19, life has gone well.

Puentes had no life plan when he left Isaac Arriaga, Michoacan, in 1985 except to get to Mattawa and a "better place." He knew there was no prospect for a "life" in Mexico.

Puentes was told there'd be an opportunity here to earn a living. For that he was willing to brave possible assault and robbery from Mexican authorities along the path.

"The danger was on the other side," he said. "If immigration caught you on this side, you were safe. They did their jobs, but they were professional and treated you right."

Puentes' only plan crossing the border was to get to Mattawa and find work. He did, in the apple orchards.

"Picking, pruning, thinning, tractor driving, I did it all," he said.

Because of the toil of the fields, a life plan developed rather rapidly. Puentes became determined not to live out his life in an orchard.

Puentes decided to take advantage of two years of schooling in electricity in his last years of high school in Mexico. But he was turned down by the first few electrical service companies at which he asked for a job.

"They said they weren't hiring, but I think it was because I didn't speak English at all," Puentes. "I might have thought it wasn't fair back then but, looking back, it was. It was hard for them to talk to me. What if they sent me for a tool and I got the wrong one?"

"Electricians have people's lives in their hands," Puentes added. "You have to know the codes. If a sheet rocker makes a mistake, he changes the sheet rock. If a plumber makes a mistake, he fixes it. If an electrician makes a mistake, it could start a fire and kill people."

Puentes' interest in electricity came early in life. He was five when an electrician sent him out to buy a switch for his family's home.

"He said he'd put it in after I got back," Puentes said. "But he wasn't there, and he didn't come back right away. I looked at the switch, and it had two screws. The wall had two wires. I put it together, and it worked.

"I did it, and it was wow. I was amazed. I was just a little kid. It was fun."

Puentes, who became legal in 1986 and a citizen in 1998, couldn't find an opportunity until he moved to Los Angeles in 1990 for a couple of years. A company there gave him a shot.

"I was able to carry on a conversation (in English) by then," he said.

Puentes came back to Mattawa and worked for Dill Electric from 1992-94, Barber Electric from 1994-95 and Farmer's Electric of Othello from 95-99.

About half a month into his employment with Farmer's, Puentes asked the owner why he'd been hired.

"The truth?" the owner asked.

"The truth," Puentes said.

"Because you speak Spanish," was the answer.

Puentes got a kick out of that, and a new plan was hatched. If he was valuable because of his dual language abilities, maybe he should start his own company.

Puentes made that decision in 1999. His boss at Farmer's offered him better pay to stay, but the decision wasn't about money. It was about wanting to be his own boss.

"I knew if I didn't act, someone else would start up, and I'd be left out," Puentes said.

Before he left Farmer's, Puentes was warned that being on his own would not be easy. Things have worked out, but the early going was rough.

"When you sit there waiting for a phone call, you get nervous. You start wondering," Puentes said.

After the business got its legs, Puentes started to take advantage of other opportunities. One of them was buying land.

"I couldn't believe it when I got here," he said. "Lots were going for $1,500, and nobody was buying. If I had had money then, I'd be rich now."

In 2003, Puentes bought two properties across the street from his home. He rented them out at first and eventually sold them.

"A man said he would give me $50,000 cash and pay me the amount I was getting in rent for 20 years," Puentes said. "I told him I was in."

Puentes used that money to buy a house in Pasco he currently calls his second home. His second daughter lives there while she attends Columbia Basin College.

Puentes's first daughter is already a college graduate and working for the Columbia Basin Health Association in Mattawa.

"She's on her own now, and that takes off a lot of pressure," Puentes. "Now I don't mind if the phone doesn't ring sometimes."

Another opportunity Puentes enjoyed was playing and coaching in the Othello Soccer League. He was a player-coach for nine years and a coach for four years for a team named Tenencia.

His teams won seven league titles and finished second three times. It also won invitational tournaments in far away places - San Francisco twice.

"Soccer is in our blood," he said. "We go the extra mile for our sport."

Sort of like going the extra mile for life, like from Isaac Arriaga to Mattawa.