PabloOlvera

I’m originally from San Jerónimo Xonacahuacan, in Tecámac, Estado de México.

My parents and I came to the United States together, so I’m a first-generation immigrant, and we settled in Boyle Heights in 1992. I finished high school at Woodrow Wilson’s Police Academy Magnet in 2007, and that summer I went into the Marine Corps.

I trained as a technical engineer at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and served with 9th Engineer Support Battalion in Okinawa. Then I went to Quantico as building manager for Marine Corps Combat Development Command. That’s where I became a citizen. On September 20, 2010, I was naturalized at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and led the new citizens in the Pledge of Allegiance. AFP photographed the moment. Shortly after, I reenlisted for a second term.

For that second term I made a lateral move to machinist and finished the machinist course at the U.S. Army Ordnance School at Fort Lee, Virginia, as honor graduate. Then I joined the Precision Weapons Section at Quantico, a shop with no equal in the Department of Defense. Its Marine armorers and civilian machinists repair, maintain and improve weapon parts and designs, and hand-build match-grade sniper rifles and competition pistols for the Marine Corps Shooting Team.

My main job there was producing M40A5 sniper barrels, threaded to high tolerances from the manufacturer’s raw stock. I also taught in the gunsmithing school for armorers and was named Instructor of the Quarter for the third quarter of 2012. That same year I did the research and development on custom recoil-reducing gas compensators for the Combat Match Team’s rifles.

I finished my eight years as Machine Shop Chief for 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. I learned to read a blueprint and hold a tolerance twice, first at Fort Leonard Wood and again at Fort Lee, and at PWS I learned how to teach both.

I got out in 2015 and went to work for Scoobeez, a delivery company in Pasadena. We launched Eat24, Thistle and Hopsy in San Francisco and Amazon Prime Now’s one- and two-hour delivery in Santa Monica. I ended up running 13 hubs across California, Texas, Michigan and Nevada before we moved into Amazon’s delivery partner program.

In 2019 I went out on my own. MoonStone PEO was my first client, and I’m still there as VP of Operations. I also consult for security companies here and in the UK and for a few employer-services firms, and I build web portals for businesses, parishes and nonprofits.

Since 2020 I’ve been the majority shareholder in Aurum Ortus, a gold and silver mine and processing center in Tototlán de Oro, Jalisco.

Most of the software on this site started as something I needed at work. TheotokOS and the rosary app are the exception. Those are for my faith.

Away from work I shoot film and print in the darkroom. I shoot everything from 16mm up to 6×14, plus 4×5 large format. Instant film is my favorite.

I’m married, and we have two kids.