Jeff & Frank

Frank L. Renteria

Born in California,  December 1960

Dental Sales 

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Hobbies: Linguistics, Singing and Traveling 

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Chapters 1 to 17

I was born on December 24, 1960 in Oxnard, CA to a Spanish mother (Sevilla, Spain) and a Chicano father (Phoenix, AZ) who had met and married the year before in Spain, where my father was stationed in the Air Force.  My first years were in a small cabin for migrant farm workers, until my Dad used his GI Bill benefits to go to trade school and become an electrician.  He then started working in Civil Service for the Navy back in Ventura County, where I grew up.  He got a job at the Rota Naval Base in the Bay of Cadiz (Spain) where I had my high school years, and where I graduated Valedictorian in 1978.

While there those years in Spain, we were able to connect with, and get very close to, all of Mom's family in Spain... as well as firmly connect to my Spanish roots.  Anyone who knows me, knows how strong an influence that has had on my life, and how strongly the DNA of the Andalusian Conquistadores is represented in everything about who I am!  =)  

Chapters 18 to 39

After graduating, I returned to CA and studied for a year at Cal Poly University under full scholarship in their Civil Engineering & Architecture program, until I accepted the calling that I felt from God to dedicate my life to serving in the ministry.  I left school and started as a minister/missionary in 1980, at the age of 19.  I started out in the San Diego area and across the border into North Baja, Mexico, also spending a few years in different areas of the California Central Valley and Bay Area.  Some experiences during those years led me to offer to go serve in Romania, which was still part of Communist East Europe at the time.  Over the next 13 years, I ministered in Austria, Romania (6 years), Ukraine, Albania (3 years) and lastly Greece (when things got so bad in Albania that it wasn't safe to stay there full time).  It was at that time that I was "outed" as gay, which led to my eventual "unwelcoming" from the ministry and my church.

Chapters 40 to 60

A couple months shy of 40, I landed in San Diego to start over.  Since music has always been part of my core, it's fitting that the San Diego Men's Chorus played such a vital role in my "transition" from the church and religion that had been my whole life for 40 years.  It was the way that I officially "came out" to my family, and it was where I met my husband, Jeff, and started my own "new" family!  

Because I always won all the fundraising contests as a kid, my mother had always said that "if you never make it anywhere else, you can always do sales"... Well, as it turns out, she was right about that (as well)!  Starting over at 40, with no "corporate experience", no credit history, no funds, etc. it was quite a challenge to be able to launch a new career, but through a church friend in the dental field, I landed a job with a German manufacturer of Dental Rotary Instruments.  I was soon winning sales awards and leading the West Region, and the company, in most product lines we sell... and after 20 years, I finished 2020 still at the top!  =)

The Next Chapters...

So now as I enter another decade, and "the third stage", my story continues...  with a beautiful husband and a relationship that continues to grow and develop with each passing year; with a deeper faith in God and his grace, and with a deeper commitment to love and serve all the best way I can; and with the hope and joy that all these things bring.