ARLINGTON, Texas – Leticia Gallegos always saw North Texas as the land of opportunities, so when she had the chance to move to Arlington, Texas, at the age of 32, she took it.

Gallegos was born and raised in Harlingen, Texas. She said she didn’t realize during her childhood she lived in poverty. It wasn’t until she visited her hometown a couple of months ago that she said the poverty became evident.

“I didn’t acknowledge until we went to visit not too long ago,” Gallegos said. “We lived in the projects in Harlingen. When you lived it as a child, you really don’t know, you don’t know the difference. Of course, it’s different now. There’s definitely more crime and things like that. So we always, I mean, we did, we lived in poverty, all my childhood.”

At the age of 15, Gallegos got pregnant with her first boyfriend. Because the relationship didn’t survive the pregnancy, Gallegos navigated the ups and downs of pregnancy on her own. When her baby was 4 months old, she met her first husband. At the age of 18, she got married and had two more kids. Her first marriage lasted 11 years.

After her divorce, she focused on her kids, and it wasn’t until her daughter graduated from high school that she felt she needed to meet someone.

Her current husband, Salvador Gallegos, was the one who introduced her to real estate. After being retired for a month, he decided to start a real estate office.

“Being that he was college-educated at that time, you only had to take a couple more courses and then you were a real estate broker,” Gallegos said. “We opened up our brokerage like 23 years ago.”

Gallegos didn’t attend college because it wasn’t something her parents told her about.

“The way you’re raised in the mentality of your family, your parents has a lot to do with it,” Gallegos said. “I don’t know if your parents encouraged you to go to school,” Gallegos said. “Well, mine did not. That was not their thinking, they didn’t believe. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was a different time. The mentality was, you’re a woman, maybe you’re not meant to, that type in the Latino community. There’s no need to try because you’re not going to make it kind of thing.”

But she got knowledge from the different jobs she had over the years, as well as from seminars and self-help books.

Gallegos got her broker’s license in 2004 and started the journey of real estate with her husband. Nine years ago, they created The Hispanic Real Estate Brokers Association. Gallegos is the co-founder and chief executive officer.

“Our mission basically is to provide high-quality home-ownership information to the low- and moderate-income communities and also educate our members, our Realtors, so they can better serve that community,” Gallegos said.

On Sept. 21, Gallegos received the 2023 Texas Realtors Strike Force Award. This award honors commitment to political grassroots activism on behalf of all Texas property owners.

Gallegos is also involved in the community. She is the co-chair of the mayor’s Latino Advisory Council, a group of Latinos who meet with the mayor every month and advise him on what needs to be done in the Hispanic community.

Right now she is helping organize the Hispanic Heritage celebration scheduled to run from 7 p.m.-10 p.m.  Oct. 7 at the Levitt Pavilion.

To listen to an audio clip of a portion of this interview, click here.