Life Story

Julio Cortez Gutierrez was born on Dec. 19, 1978 to Julian Cortez Vergara and Maria del Rocio Gutierrez Olvera. Born at 2:15 p.m. at Hospital Primero de Octubre in Mexico City. He is the eldest of four and he is the first child of his generation on both of his parent's sides. At a young age Julio had a strong love for sports, particularly soccer. Julio played for his elementary school club and had no intentions of playing any other sport. That was until the age of 10, when the Cortez family moved to California. It was there where he was introduced to other sports. His love for sports would lead him to join football, baseball, basketball and cross country teams. Julio was a multi-sport athlete in junior and senior high school. Being named "Most Athletic" of his graduating class. One of his life-long passions is running and has finished all 26.2 miles of the Los Angeles Marathon six times. The love for sports was so strong at 12 years of age he predicted his future saying: "if I don't play professional sports when I grow up, then I will be part of sports as a sports journalist." On May 31, 2006 Julio will do a feat not previously done by any one in his family - graduate from college. The education career path that Julio been on might not be a normal one by four-year-plan standards. However, Julio was able to make himself a college graduate by studying while juggling jobs such as managing a restaurant, working as a part-time sports writer for the Los Angeles Daily News and by taking time off school to take part of important internships in Nevada, Texas, Florida and New York.