Hector Gonzalez

Born in the Bronx and reared in the Dominican Republic, I moved to the States in 1997 after my family faced economic trouble on the island. I learned English at 7 years old and proceeded to live life as a “West Sider”/ “Invader” in West Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Having picked up sports here and there (football, wrestling, tennis), I was never an athlete, always an actor. Pretty much through all of high school I was the theater nerd who took dance and wore weird things to school and sang along to showtunes while driving.
However, at the beginning of second semester of my freshman year at Columbia I decided I didn’t want to be the same old fat, pimply, short Spanish kid I had been my whole life. My buddies told me to pick up a rugby ball and honestly everything has changed since then. I lost 28 pounds on Jenny Craig for the small price of $20 plus the price of food–okay I didn’t use Jenny Craig but I did lose the weight by joining the CURFC bootcamp which kicked my ass to say the least.
And I still get to sing (much better songs than those on Broadway). Live fast, die ugly– join Rugby. Long live the IRFU.