Hecho With Corazón Profiles No. 1 — Ricardo Salcedo

Hecho With Corazón Profiles No. 1 — Ricardo Salcedo

The Hecho With Corazón Profiles features individuals who inspire us because of the heart they put into everything. Here we celebrate them, their accomplishments and the engine that keeps them going — the one heart that connects us all. Our series showcases these amazing people by sparking a conversation through three simple questions.

A Bilingual Clinician, Family Stabilization Program - MSW, LSW at Family Intervention Services, Inc., Ricardo is a father of two children and loves being a dad. That is why one of his goals, beyond helping others through psychoanalysis, is to positively influence the way men view their children and the fatherhood experience. To this end, he created a fatherhood vlog called www.SerPapaEsChido.com where he shares tips and advice to Latino Dads on how to show up and be your best self to your children.
Thank you Ricardo for sharing your amazing story with us.

WHAT DRIVES YOU TO GET OUT OF BED AND DO WHAT YOU DO EVERY MORNING?

I wake up every morning excited to learn more about the universes that people live in. I love to delve into people’s minds, and I look forward to it. I expect every client session to yield a valuable insight into the human experience. Every day I hope to discover ways to explain the importance of a father’s presence in their children’s lives. Every minute that I am with clients I feel that time ceases to exist. I embrace this responsibility with the utmost respect, and I cannot think of a better place to be.

WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOUR TRUE PASSION AND PURPOSE?

I was 33 years old when my first child was born. It was at that time that I began to wonder how my father could have abandoned me. I then began to wonder how men in general could abandon the children they were responsible for. 10 years passed before I realized that what I had long thought of as a part-time hobby philosophizing on fatherhood was actually an all-consuming full-time obsession. So, perhaps I was 43 when I fully realized my true passion and purpose to get men to fully commit to the fatherhood experience.

WHAT IS YOUR HOPE FOR THE NEXT LATINO GENERATION?

I owe the motivation I receive today, to continue my work, to Latinos. Latinos found me. The fatherhood message I flung into the vast ocean of the internet, several years ago, washed up on some shore and has been picked up by thousands of Latinos. Latinos, my people, have had the emotional intelligence to reach out and share their stories with me and the world. The burning question in my mind about a Latino father, my father, is being answered by Latino fathers, from North America to the very tip of South America. My hope for my children and for the next Latino generation of men is that they find inspiration in my work and in the work of other Latino fathers and want to become like the great dads they had, or like the dads they wished they had had.