We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hank Estrada. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hank below.

Hank, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

After years of silence and shame about being sexually victimized as a child, and hiding experiencing domestic violence assaults at home, I learned that a younger nephew was exhibiting problematic behaviors resulting from exposure to the same relative who had abused me for over 10 years. Despite my shame, I confronted my immediate family with my experiences and told my story for the first time, I was 20 years old. I was so angry and felt responsible for what had happened to my nephew but did what I could to support him as best as I could. The abuse stopped.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So much improved AFTER I told my story about surviving sexual assaults as a child. I learned that many other boys and young men had also experienced similar assaults but were just as ashamed and humiliated into remaining silent about telling anyone what and who had assaulted them. I learned that there is nothing to be ashamed about what was done to us and remaining silent only protects the perpetrator and permits them to continue abusing others. Perpetrators do not stop with us, they continue on to others, experience has proven time and time again. I was a very artistic child and student but my talents were sidelined and disrupted during the assault years, from age 5 to 16. I became a serious student and turned away from creative play and art. In 2009, I signed up to take a beginners class in landscape oil painting, something I had always thought about trying but never made the time to do. I fell in love with oil painting and my dorment skills and talents just bloomed. I’ve discovered tremendous joy, peace and fulfillment in my paintings and vividly remember my first unexpected sale. I was selling a property and had a few of my landscape paintings on display throughout the home, when a buyer made me an offer, they asked how much for two of the landscape paintings? I asked another landscape artist what would be a fair price for my paintings and the buyer accepted my price. From this point forward I felt comfortable listing myself as a landscape oil painting artist.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In college I studied to become a Catholic priest and was four years away from ordination. I was groomed and assaulted by a priest who was assigned to supervise me. With the help of professional counseling I was able to publicly expose this predator priest and reported him to authorities. I was told that he was confronted and removed from further supervisory roles with young male students. The experience devastated me and I left the religious life. I learned over the years that this priest remained in the church, was assigned to other positions of leadership over young men and has never been convicted. I have spent my entire adult life exposing this priest, his protectors and the Catholic church for their refusal to permanently remove this predator from the priesthood. I was not his first or last victim but by my publicly identifying him, he has lost positions of power and placements among unsuspecting communities.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2019, my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. It was a complete shock and without any noticeable signs of tremors. We have been together since 1983, and have shared a tremendous life of love, joy, travels and adventures. I have become his full time care partner and the sole provider of all of our domestic and business responsibilities that we both shared. In addition, he has become physically unable to stand, walk or move without my assistance and support. I prepare all meals, clean and maintain the entire inside and outside of our home, including landscape upkeep, pets and finances. I’ve had to take over our publishing business as well and have very little to no personal time for myself. It’s a total life change, one that I never expected to be living, but I am committed to doing whatever I can to provide us both with a safe, peaceful and comfortable home life. One saving grace through all this is my love and enjoyment of creating rustic benches from reclaimed lumber and recycled headboards. I love building these and selling them online and at a local antique store in town. Just like my oil painting projects provide, I feel serene and validated in every bench I complete and sell. Everyone needs to find those project skills that inspire, encourage peace and satisfaction when completed. Both oil painting and building garden benches have remained such a steady healing resource for me over the years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.HankEstrada.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hankestrada505/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hankestrada/featured

Image Credits
Photos & art images provided by Hank Estrada