For over 20 years, automotive teacher Mr. Aguiar has been teaching the ins and outs of repairing cars to Miami High students. Teaching at many different levels, he knows almost everything about repairing all types of vehicles. However, many do not know his story, such as how he decided to be an automotive teacher, how the class is like being both a student and teacher in the automotive class here in Miami High, and what his life is like outside of school.
Mr. Aguiar was born in Cuba, but at 3 months old, his parents decided to move out of the country, first spending 4 years in Spain, and then settling in Miami, where he grew up and has lived till today. His mom and dad, along with his 8 brothers, all lived together and remain close to this day.
As a previous student of Miami High who graduated in 1989, Mr. Aguiar described the school as different from today, as they didn’t have access to the technology we use today. The school did have gangs back then, and with it came violence. Nevertheless, he still remembers that time fondly, saying that he thought the school was better back then compared to today. He was never involved at the school with activities like clubs because he wanted to be in the automotive class as much as possible.
Back when Mr. Aguiar was an automotive student, the class gave bookwork in class at the beginning of every week, and the rest of the week was dedicated to working on either the teachers’ cars or the students’ own cars. Besides that, the class has remained mostly the same.
Mr. Aguiar did not take the typical path to become a teacher, instead only taking the required college courses to teach vocational classes to become an automotive teacher. He really enjoyed taking the class as a student, and wanted future students to enjoy it just like he did.
As for his current time as a teacher, Mr. Aguiar chose to teach automotive, but was also considering teaching psychology. However, he decided to choose automotive because it didn’t require him to get a college degree, which he wanted to avoid.
He enjoys when students learn how to fix cars in his class, especially when they come back years later and tell him that they enjoyed the class. His most notable project as an automotive teacher was when they swapped out the body of one truck for another, which took him and the students the whole school year to finish.
He decided to be a teacher because the previous automotive teacher, Mr. Valdez (not to be confused with the principal), was wanting to retire, which gave him the motivation to become the teacher to teach the future students of Miami High. He believes that those who are interested in working on cars should take up his auto tech program to learn how to repair their own cars.
When Mr. Aguiar is at home, he likes to spend his time mowing the lawn and taking care of his home while listening to his favorite music. He never works on cars at home, only in the auto shop.
