(MONEY Magazine) – Eric Hernandez and Jose Luis Hernandez have a lot in common: the same last name (although they are not related), Mexican backgrounds and a love of architecture. Jose Luis owns his own architecture firm in San Antonio, Texas. Eric visited him there to learn about being an architect. Jose Luis told Eric that back when he was in high school, one of his guidance counselors didn't think a poor Latino boy had a chance to become an architect. ''He told me I should be more realistic and plan to be a construction worker,'' Jose Luis said. They laughed. Jose Luis told Eric that he had ignored that bad advice and had been able to go to the University of Texas to study architecture with the help of scholarships and grants. At Jose Luis' offices, Eric saw more than a dozen architects. Some were drawing at drafting tables, some were building models of buildings out of wood, and some were working at computers. Eric watched one architect use a computer mouse to move walls on the screen. Eric was interested in the model of a project that was under construction: underground bus stations for San Antonio's new sports arena, the Alamodome. Buses would go to these stations through tunnels under the arena's parking lot. The bus stations were being built three blocks from Jose Luis' offices, so Eric and Jose Luis walked over. At the site, which was mostly just holes in the ground, Eric and Jose Luis (pictured on the opposite page) talked about the project. Jose Luis showed Eric how the workers would follow the detailed architects' drawings called blueprints. Jose Luis told Eric that to prepare to be an architect, he should study algebra and other kinds of math. After college, he would have to spend three years as a junior architect with a large firm. That sounded just fine to Eric: ''I really enjoyed watching the drawings become real things. I'm more interested than ever in being an architect.''