Five brothers build construction legacy at Graniterock

From left: Gus, Roger, Mike, Alex and Rey. 

 

For the five Zamora brothers, construction is a family tradition built on hard work and looking out for one another. 

Roger and Mike are field supervisors, Rey is an equipment operator, and Alex and Gus are laborers in the Construction Group. Together, they bring decades of experience, and plenty of brotherly banter, to Graniterock. 

The brothers are five of 10 children raised in a family with deep roots in Watsonville's agricultural community. Their parents immigrated from Mexico and worked in the local strawberry fields. For many years, the family lived at the Buena Vista farm labor camp and moved between Watsonville and Mexico with the seasons. As the older children grew up, they joined their parents in the fields. That upbringing gave them the work ethic that later led five of the brothers into construction. 

Finding their way to Graniterock 

Rey, the oldest, was the first to go into construction 36 years ago, and he encouraged the others to follow. 

"I'm the one who put all the guys to work in construction," Rey said. 

But it was Roger who brought the family to Graniterock. 

During a short stint with the company in 2007, Roger attended an all-hands safety meeting where then-CEO Bruce W. Woolpert shook hands with team members and asked Roger his name. At a later meeting, Bruce remembered him and correctly pronounced Rogelio, Roger's given name. 

"Since I was a kid, people had trouble pronouncing my name," Roger said. "For Bruce to remember it left such an impression on me. I thought, 'This guy cares. The owner cares.'" 

The recession sent Roger back to his previous employer, but he kept telling his brothers they needed to work at Graniterock. He returned in 2018 as an underground field supervisor. Mike followed within weeks, then Rey, Alex and finally Gus. 

Following in their brothers' footsteps 

Roger started in construction after high school to help his mother during a hard time for the family. He planned to work for a couple of years and then go to culinary school at Cabrillo College. Instead, he fell in love with construction. 

"I loved the physical part of it, doing something different every day and the workflow," he said. "Then you fall in love with the guys and being part of the crew. I realized this is where I belong." 

Alex was the first brother Roger worked alongside, and he introduced Roger to underground construction. Later, Mike, then a paving foreman, brought Roger onto his crew when Roger needed overtime. In about two and a half years, Roger moved up from laborer to screed operator to paving operator. He then went into underground work, where he found his long-term fit. 

Gus, the youngest, took a less typical path. 

"People don't believe this, but I used to be a preschool teacher," he said. "With construction, you're building something, and you actually see it for yourself. You're part of the process." 

Having four older brothers on the job doesn't get him special treatment. 

"My brothers don't give me any slack," Gus said. "They treat me like any other individual." 

If anything, it pushes him to live up to the reputation they've built. 

For Roger, working with his brothers gives him confidence on the job. 

"I know I can trust them," he said. "If I'm in a ditch, I know they're not going to let me do something dumb. They're like bodyguards. We look out for each other because we're blood." 

That trust showed on a Carmel project, when Roger, Mike and Alex saw a haul truck struggling on a steep temporary ramp. Instead of pushing forward, they stopped the operation, cleared the area and worked with the project team to bring in trucks better suited to the conditions. 

No work talk 

Work sometimes comes up at family gatherings, but Alex knows when to call it quits. 

"We'll talk about work for 15 or 20 minutes," Mike said. "Then Alex says, 'Let's not talk about work this time.'" 

Roger still loves to cook, a passion he picked up in the kitchen with his mother. His wife and children especially love his homemade clam chowder. 

Construction wasn't the career he pictured, but it gave him the chance to build a place where all five brothers could work, grow and look out for one another. 

"Now we're all here," Roger said. "And I'm grateful for that."