Rose Caballero looks deeply into the eyes of her son, Patrick, and studies his expressions intensely. Her face is a mere five inches from his, a distance so close that it seems at once uncomfortable but also extremely loving and moving.
"Patrick, I'm here. What do you want her to know?" she asks.
Ms. Caballero takes a few moments to listen to her son speak, then shares with a visitor the message he cannot easily say for himself: He wants to go to the University of Houston-Downtown's graduate school to get his master's degree. He just hasn't decided which program it will be.
Caballero, 44, is the embodiment of determination against great odds. He has Huntington’s disease (HD), a rare, inherited, progressive, and incurable neurodegenerative disease that affects the brain and nervous system. He was diagnosed with it when he was 33, his mother says, after having car accidents he could not explain.
There are about 41,000 people in the U.S. with HD, according to the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. These days, Caballero experiences involuntary muscle movements and has difficulty speaking and standing.
But none of these symptoms stopped him from getting college degrees. Caballero was one of more than 1,200 UHD graduates at NRG Stadium in May 2024. He was wheeled across the stage wearing his UHD gown and stole; fashionable, pink suede loafers; and a smile as wide as the sea of attendees in the audience who cheered him on. Caballero received a Bachelor of Arts in English through in-person and hyflex classes.
“I was so excited because I accomplished it. It was validation,” he says proudly.
“To see Patrick succeed and graduate from UHD is a beautiful reminder of why we do what we do,” says Dr. Janina Arrington, UHD’s Assistant Vice President for Student Success. “We are so proud of him.”
Caballero has a long history of high achievement. He began reading at age 3, and finished his schoolwork before his classmates, his mother says. He started taking piano lessons at 10 and taught himself to play the clarinet, flute, baritone, and cello.
He is a poet, reads dictionaries for fun, loves to infuse long words into his essays, and taught himself to speak four languages fluently: German, French, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese.
A 1998 graduate of Clear Creek High School in League City, Caballero started as a music major at the University of Houston. He also received an associate degree from San Jacinto College in 2008.
Caballero’s passion for education never waned. In 2010, he enrolled in both a theological seminary and UHD. But in 2013, he was officially diagnosed with HD. The realization led him to depression, and he eventually dropped out.
For the next nine years, Caballero used his extraordinary intelligence to discover all he could about his illness. Then, in 2022, he heard a sermon by Bishop T.D. Jakes on TV and told his mother he could do it.
“Do what?” his mother asked.
“Go back to school and complete my degree,” Caballero replied.
In August 2022, Caballero returned to UHD. “As a student, I have significantly grown both as a writer and critical thinker,” he says.
Today, Caballero is an ambassador and leader in the HD community, and he encourages others with HD to keep striving and reaching higher. And he is proud to be a UHD Gator.
“If you start something, you should finish it,” he says. “It’s all in a person’s mind. As for me, I always want to be the best.”