Jose Alonzo Corpus is a first-generation Mexican American born in Eagle Pass, TX. He was raised in the sister city of Piedras Negras Coahuila, Mexico. After moving back to Texas, he was able to get his GED and later became a migrant worker.
He noticed that every year many agricultural, poultry and meat processing companies travel to South Texas from all over the US to recruit workers to work in their companies, which offer no benefits at all. At a young age he was asked to lead a group of migrant workers to fight for benefits and better pay. Although the workers did not win at that time, he realized that institutional discrimination is real and an everyday struggle for many migrants, immigrant workers and people of color across the US.
He later joined other nonprofit organizations as a community organizer to fight for fair wages, humane treatment, health care and to combat discrimination for migrants, immigrant workers and people of color in the State of Minnesota. He also has many years of experience in the oil and gas field as a Pipe Fitter Helper, Foreman, and Utility Inspector. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a minor in Nonprofit Management from The University of Texas at San Antonio.
He joins Commission Shift in order to organize community members around issues to improve social, economic, and environmental impacts in Texas’s oil and gas producing regions.