(HARLINGEN, Texas) – The hum of a household machine might be background noise to most people, but for Josue and Miguel Moncada, it was the start of a technical language.
The brothers, students in the Mechatronics program at Texas State Technical College’s Harlingen campus, were first introduced to the electrical field growing up watching their father, an alumnus of the same program, diagnose and repair complex machinery before his passing.
“My brother and I view our father as a master electrical tradesman,” Josue Moncada said.
They eventually developed an interest in the electrical world as teenagers, seeing their father work as a maintenance foreman at an express car wash company through his technical education, eventually inspiring them. They decided to chase their dad’s same level of expertise together.
That inspiration translated into action where both brothers serve as maintenance technicians for the same express car wash company across the Rio Grande Valley.
“Our job is to troubleshoot everything from hydraulic systems to solenoid values, and ensure each car wash location operates properly,” Miguel Moncada said.
This background provided a head start in their first semester of the Mechatronics program at TSTC.
“What we learned about electrical and pneumatic systems at the car wash helped us understand signals, programming and analog and digital inputs in our lab,” Josue Moncada said.
Jenaro Aram Flores-Jinez, a Mechatronics program instructor, said the brothers are examples of students mastering complex systems.
“Josue and Miguel once relied on intuition to troubleshoot, but now they apply a systematic engineering approach,” he said. “Their growth has helped them recognize that in automated systems, precision and safety protocols are the backbone of this industry.”
Beyond technical skills, the brothers carry their father’s most important lesson into the labs: the “triple-check” rule.
“Our father told us to triple-check our work because something could have been missed,” Miguel Moncada said. “We are honored to continue his legacy.”
According to onetonline.org, electrical and electronic engineering technologists and technicians earn an average of $69,720 a year in Texas. The website projected that there would be a 11% increase in the number of such jobs in the state from 2022 to 2032.
For more information, go to tstc.edu.