Roger Huerta's early childhood was marked by a tumultuous and challenging journey, with his life being described as having the "life that Hollywood producers make movies about". Born to Lydia and Rogelio Huerta in Los Angeles, California, he spent the first six years of his life in Texas.
His father's increasing involvement with drugs and alcohol, and subsequent affair with another woman, led to a separation with Lydia. Huerta's mother, who was already struggling, became physically abusive, and the boy was often left with bruises on his body. Child Protective Services intervened, placing him in a foster home for a short time.
In 1990, Lydia lost the custody battle for Huerta and fled the United States with him, age seven, to her parents' home in El Salvador. However, she abandoned him a year later, leaving him in the care of his grandparents during the El Salvadoran Civil War. When she returned, she left him on his father's doorstep in Texas, an event that would mark the last time he saw his mother.
Huerta openly talks about the mental and physical abuse he endured from his father and stepmother during this time. The next year, he was relocated to Mexico and left with his father's parents, living in poverty. He would often venture out into the streets to sell picture frames to tourists to make money.
For a brief period, his father and stepmother returned to his life, enrolling him in school in the Rio Grande Valley. However, his father left home again, and soon after, Huerta was kicked out by his stepmother. He spent many years living on the streets, surviving by joining a youth gang and often sleeping in alleys and on rooftops.
Despite these challenges, Huerta's friends encouraged him to remain in school, where he could eat a provided breakfast and lunch. He occasionally stayed with friends and just before his freshman year, his life began to turn around for the better.
Maria King, his friend's mother, obtained legal custody of him, and the three moved to Austin, Texas, where he attended Crockett High School. For the first time in his life, Huerta found himself in a stable environment and became popular in school, joining many of the school's sports teams, including football and wrestling.
It was during this time that he met Jo Ramirez, his English teacher, who learned about his troubled childhood and his future ambitions. Bryan Ashford, the school's wrestling coach, also took a special interest in Huerta, continuing to support him in division wrestling.
Ramirez, who was already a mother of seven, adopted Huerta in 2002 at the age of 19. Ashford coached Huerta and, with the help of Ramirez, aided him in applying for a collegiate wrestling scholarship. Huerta currently attends Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with one year remaining in a Business Management bachelor's degree, and resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.
