Three siblings, two grades, one family

This year, there are three students in the Ortiz Lopez family on the Armijo campus. Next year, there will only be one.

Angela and Manuel Ortiz Lopez have gone to school together their entire life, since they are twins. “Things that are good about having siblings on campus are that you’re never alone; you have someone to be there all the time, especially when you have a twin,” said Angela. “My brother and I have been together since the day we were born so honestly, everything about having him by my side is amazing.”

While having someone there all the time can be a blessing, it can also be a curse. “Having both my twin and my youngest brother here at Armijo is sometimes difficult,”

Angela said. “They are always in my business and it gets annoying at times.” They attended the same schools and were in the same classes throughout elementary school, but when middle school came, they were able to forge their own paths. Trailing not far behind was their younger brother Angel.

This is the first year the three had been together on Armijo’s campus because of COVID. “Having to do online school and not having any interaction with people was hard especially coming back,” Angela said. “Anxiety came back. Lucky I had my brothers by my side to support me, but it was way better coming back on campus. It was way easier learning at school than at home on my own.”

It has also been easier to participate in ROTC, a program she has been involved with since her freshman year. “This year, I’m in senior staff,” she said.

Besides sharing the campus at Armijo, they also shared the campus at Sheldon Academy of Innovative Learning. After high school, the twins plan on going to Solano Community College together, but that may be the end of sharing a campus.

“I really want to travel before I start to study for my ‘dream job’,” said Angela. In addition to travel, she also enjoys baking. “I actually started to bake a bit on my free time. It first started as a hobby then I started to do it as a job. Selling my homemade bread and cookies to family and then soon it started to be my small business,” she said. Baking helps her deal with stress.

While Angela is the only girl in her immediate family, she thinks of her cousin as a sister because they have basically lived together their entire lives. Her brothers did not respond to the requests for an interview.