Pubdate: Mon, 13 Aug 2001
Source: The Express-Times (PA)
Copyright: 2001 The Express-Times
Contact:  http://www.pennlive.com/expresstimes/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1489
Author: Rudy Miller

A MASON'S FOUNDATION: RECOVERY IS A LONG TRIP

Xavier Mendoza was setting cinder blocks in place one day when he looked up 
and had a revelation.

It dawned on the 34-year-old mason from Reading that the juvenile center 
addition he was building sits in the shadow of the imposing walls of the 
Northampton County Prison.

Mendoza may live in Berks County, but he's got a special connection with 
Northampton County.

This is where he got clean from cocaine. And this is where he counseled 
other people to join him in being drug free, right at the prison on the 
hill above him.

Mendoza blames peer pressure for his decision to try smoking pot when he 
was 13. He moved to cocaine at 15, and started going "downhill" by 18.

He helped bring drugs from New York City to Hudson County, N.J. He had to 
support his habit.

"I'd steal where I could," Mendoza said. He said he used $150 to $200 worth 
of cocaine a day. The former high school football fullback and tackle 
weighed 143 pounds at the peak of his addiction, which is more than 100 
pounds less than the strapping bricklayer's current weight.

A few prison stays convinced Mendoza to get serious about getting clean and 
on Aug. 28, 1989, he moved to Hogar Crea rehabilitation facility in Bethlehem.

"It's like my new date of birth," Mendoza said.

He's pleased his father saw his son's life get turned around before he died 
in May. No amount of reform can make up for what he put his family through, 
Mendoza admits.

The best he can do is to counsel prisoners and addicts about the dangers of 
drug use. He does it regularly in different states. He plans, while 
vacationing this December in the Dominican Republic, to talk to addicts there.

Laying block in the shadow of the prison for six weeks this summer brought 
back memories of the early days of his recovery, when he counseled at 
Northampton County Prison. It wasn't easy, and he wasn't sure he was making 
a difference.

"In there, these inmates, they know the song a lot of people want to hear 
so they sing it," Mendoza said.

He still counsels because it helps him reaffirm his beliefs that the life 
of a drug user usually ends in one of three ways: death, prison or 
recovery. Even if only a small percentage of addicts take what he says to 
heart, it's worth the effort in Mendoza's mind.

Life is a lot different for the husband and father of a 2-year-old than it 
was for the man just trying to turn his life around more than 10 years ago.

"I went to see the Phillies on Sunday (July 22) instead of going on 
Saturday night and getting drunk and feeling awful on Sunday," Mendoza 
said. "I went to sleep Saturday, instead of being at a club and getting 
drunk and worrying about being shot at. Then I went to church on Sunday 
morning."

Laying blocks may be a lot less lucrative or glamorous than being a dope 
peddler, but there's a much smaller chance of a mason being shot at by a 
rival gang.

"An honest living is a hard living," Mendoza said. Drug dealers "feel, they 
believe in power, money, women. (The drug culture) is far from that. The 
humbler you are, the further you're going to get."
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