Thank you so much for inviting me, Mario. I look around the room and there are a lot of people I admire, that I grew up with. A lot of business people here.
I started my business 30 years ago, and watching you guys grow and you do your business (was an inspiration). And I kept moving. Today, our business is the largest independent insurance agency in South Texas that has not sold out.
Basically, today you go to a large insurance agency, they're owned by banks, they're owned by big conglomerates, other international firms. That is where the Valley is growing. We're growing so much. I get two calls every day. One call is to ask me to donate money to some sort of organization, like RioPlex. That's every day. And the other call is somebody trying to buy me. Somebody out of New York City trying to offer me money to buy. I refuse to sell. And the reason I refuse to sell today is well, they haven't hit the right number, No. 1. But the thing is, No. 2, I feel that if I sell our business today, we're going to leave money on the table.
We are growing so much. I mean, when we became a metroplex, and that happened a few years ago, when we are now having SpaceX, LNG, and not only that, now we're having the refineries coming in, we are having Valeo coming in. There's so much business for us. There's a window of opportunity for us local people, for all of us that grew up and were born and raised here. But that window of opportunity is going to close.
So what are we going to do about it? My thinking is, I don't think the Valley in ten or 20 years is going to be our Valley anymore. It's going to be the big companies that are coming down here that are going to take over. So if that's going to happen, doggone it, I’m going to get as much as I can out of the Valley for me, and we should do it all for ourselves.
And that is what RioPlex is about. RioPlex is about taking us… like you said, Mario it's a club. It's about us trying to help each other, trying to do business with each other because we’ve got to better each other. I'm going to better you. You're going to better me. today for me, tomorrow for you, maybe vice versa. But we’ve got to help each other, and that is what RioPlex is doing.
The opportunity that we have today to eliminate poverty… I mean, we just saw the numbers on poverty. They're going down. They're going down in the Valley. They are not where we want them to be, but they're going down. We have got to help with that. We are helping with that. Whether it's education, whether it's helping people trying to move up, those that can't get a college education, maybe like you (Judge Cortez) said, teach them a profession, teach them a talent that they do, and have passion for it.
That's my biggest thing. Do we have passion for what we do? And if we can do that together, we can raise ourselves, and the Valley will be our Valley for many years to come. Not only for us, but for our kids. I hope that we keep working with this. I'm so excited to be a part of this group, and I hope that we keep planning. I may not sponsor every time. But thank you so much once again. It's great to be here, Mario, always a pleasure. Judge, always a pleasure. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: The above remarks were delivered by Abraham C. Padron, agency principal for SafeGuard Insurance Company, at a mixer held by RioPlex at IBC Bank in Brownsville. Safeguard sponsored the event. The “Mario,” Padron referred to was Mario Reyna, executive director of RioPlex. The “Judge” Padron referred to was Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez.
