‘You Gotta Fight for What You Want’

Cuban athlete Carlos Carrazana is a big, rugged guy, six-four or so, who works out all the time, and is, as they say, ripped. He’s taught judo and karate, and he’s a fighter. “I’ve always been competitive. Sports (he once trained for an Olympic rowing team) taught me that, if you want something, you’ve got to fight for it.”

Well, Carlos had to fight red tape, language difficulties, lack of money and family emergencies to get where he is today. Since leaving Cuba, he’s changed locations so many times—hauling his furniture from Canada to California to Florida—that his friends tell him he should moonlight as a truck driver. Today, 41 years old, he’s settled in as a ninth quarter student at Life University—and loving it. “I know my purpose,” Carlos says, “and this is it.”

Carlos finished his university education in Havana in 1988 and went into coaching.
He was organizing sports programs for a big hotel there when he met Canadian tourists and, for the first time, heard about something called chiropractic. He eventually moved to Canada and enrolled in massage school. “All the instructors turned out to be chiropractors, and when I graduated, I wanted to be a chiropractor.”   

When Carlos heard about the Life’s philosophy, it “coincided with who I am. As an athlete, I always knew health and strength come from within. I’d tell my family they should go for a walk instead of taking a pill. Life University was always Plan A.”

Carlos moved to the Cuban community in Miami where he worked to get his “green card” to qualify for financial aid. He went to Canada to visit and upon his return discovered he had broken the law. He had to wait another two years, raising money, and corresponding frequently with the U.S. Immigration Service. When it looked like things wouldn’t work out at Life, Carlos hauled his furniture to Life West in California. Plan B. “They were very helpful, but I still had the idea about Life in Georgia. Besides, it’s cold and expensive in Northern California.” Then, too, his father had died in Cuba, and he needed to be closer to his widowed mother.

The tipping point came when he heard Dr. Guy Riekeman speak at Life West and learned he would be the new president of Life University. “I wanted to be at the school where he was. Friends told me it was a risk, but I said, ‘What’s one more risk? Everything’s happened to me already.’” So here he is, a student at Life, getting ready to enter the clinic portion of his education. He plans to open a practice in a Hispanic community, but long-term he wants to teach Spanish-speaking people in Latin America about chiropractic.

How was Carlos Carrazana able to overcome all his frustrations? “I grew up in a culture where, if the mountain won’t come to you, you go to the mountain. When you start something important, you just fight until you finish.

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