WEBVTT - CONGRESSMAN TONY CÁRDENAS - A Purposeful PB&J 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.040 Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:06.440 I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.959 very special guest. Our first time ever in the history 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.720 of Eating Wild Broke, we have an actual elected official 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.439 in House, Congressman Tony cardon Us is with us, and 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.840 I'm like nervous, I'm excited. First time ever have I 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.720 ever had the privilege of sitting down with an elected 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:29.960 in an intimate settling, let alone eating a broke dish classic? 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.479 So are you a little nervous about getting into the 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.080 scene or at all? 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.280 Just as long as the peanut butter doesn't get stuck 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:39.879 in my mouth so I can't talk anymore. But other 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:48.840 than that, we're good. 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.120 Just a little backstory for all our listeners. I did 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.520 have like Welch's jelly, like a cute little jar of 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.880 peanut butter. I had some really nice bread because I 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.440 didn't want to take them all the way back to 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:21.840 total brokeness. And I loved that your staff, Gabriella came 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.880 in and she was like, Tony was very adamant about 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.840 these particular ingredients. So go ahead, introduce the dish and 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:30.720 tell us a little bit of why it was so 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.920 important to you to actually have the real eating while 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:35.080 broke dish. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:39.080 Thank you Coleen. First of all, love this show, glad 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.119 to be here. The reason why I wanted my staff 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.800 to get a big tub of peanut butter, the biggest 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:46.759 one they could get, is because I'm the youngest of eleven. 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.720 My parents came from Mexico and we always ate Mexican 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.720 food every single day, and my mom was a homemaker. 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.840 But when mom was in in the kitchen cooking and 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:57.400 we were hungrier, wold have you? We had to go 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.680 to the fridge. He was left over what have you? 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.400 But this right here is what we turned to. Like 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.280 after school, we're hungry, can't wait till dinner? Is some 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.760 cheap bread, the most non nutritious bread on the planet, 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.880 white bread. There was a place called Weber's in San Fernando, 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.160 and being with eleven kids my parents, it was like 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.000 on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, they would sell the day old 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.400 bread for ten cents a loaf, and they had bunches 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.240 of it. So, for example, my mom would go with 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.240 a buck a dollar and buy like ten loaves of bread. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.919 But that only lasts about a week. Yes, you got it. 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.839 So we would buy Weber's Bread back then. I don't 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.400 even know if they're still, you know, in business, but 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:45.280 Wonder was the second choice, and then Skippy was. Luckily 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.480 for us we got to have a name brand peanut butter. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.840 I don't know why, because most everything in the house 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.280 was the cheapest we could find. That's what my cereal, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:57.639 all invitation cereals. When the government was given the powdered 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.200 milk and the government cheese, you never thought you would 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:03.960 get tired of real cheese, but yeah, we got tired 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:05.720 of it because they used to give it in big 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.959 old blocks. But anyway, so here we are. But this 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.280 is the one that is my favorite. This is something 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.799 that my daughter made and it's a marmalade, a lemon marmalade. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.680 And my daughter cooks, and my mother's no longer with us. 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.160 She was a homemaker. She cooked from scratch every day, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.400 and she actually would make a lot of things from scratch. 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:26.960 She would in frascat you say it in Spanish. She 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.320 would jar things, pickle this, and pickle that, and jar this. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.480 So she actually used to make some jelly once in 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.560 a while. If we had all the ingredients, she'd get inspired. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.120 I'm gonna make some jelly strawberry. What have you? So? 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.680 Were any of your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:41.720 peanut butter and bread? 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:43.480 Oh yeah, Oh yeah, yeah, I was. 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.360 I was nervous when Gabriella brought the big peanut butter 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.000 and the wonderbread. I was like, oh my gosh, we're 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.000 not gonna have jelly today. And then I was happy 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.600 to see the jar of marmalade. I've never had this soul, 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.720 not the peanut butter. I've never had the marmalade. So 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.000 let's go ahead and start doing peanut butter and jelly, 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:05.480 the og classic. 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:07.320 All right, let's start with some bread. 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.440 So I'm just curious, out of those eleven eleven of 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.640 you guys, how many of you guys were boys? 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.080 It was almost even, even as you can get. It 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.800 was six girls, five boys. I'm the youngest. All the 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:23.720 girls got all the brains and looks in the family, 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.320 and us boys we had to kind of like deal 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.320 with what we got. But no, I say that because 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.640 I love my sisters. I love my brothers. But my 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.520 sister used to help me with my math homework. I 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.120 became an engineer, but back in those days, my sisters 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.159 were born in the forties and fifties, so by the 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:44.960 time they were graduating from high school, it was the 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.919 sixties and society and even my parents went along with it, 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.120 were convincing them that they should just get married and 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.640 get a husband who'll take care of you. My sisters 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:56.240 could have all gone and got PhDs and things of 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.960 that nature. So it really pains me to know that 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.200 the person who helped me with my math helped me 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.919 when I was struggling and I became an engineer, she 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.960 didn't become an engineer and things like that. So so. 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.080 Your sisters essentially ended up well they. 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.320 No, look, they have a wonderful life. They have beautiful children, 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.000 you know them and their husbands would go to work 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.480 and they everybody's was able to own a home on 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.480 first generation. My generation is first generation college on both 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.600 sides of my family. My mother and father are from 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.920 Demastiane Halley School, Mexico, which is this little dirt town. 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.200 When they were little boys and girls, there were no 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.400 formal schools like we have here in the United States. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:43.039 So when they got married, my father being twenty my 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.800 mother being eighteen, they looked around and said, well, nothing's changed. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.280 If we want the next generation to have opportunities, we 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.320 got to get out of here. So they came to 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.400 California and then stayed here. You know, had us eleven 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.480 kids until they passed away. So this is what we 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.080 made for ourselves. My mom made a stack of homide 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.920 tortillas every single day, a big pot of beans every 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.039 single day, made some fresh rice and something else. That 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.920 was the traditional food in our household. It was a 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.599 third dish. And then rice and beans and tortillas. That 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:16.719 was a staple every day. 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:21.080 Wow. And then was it like meat was the luxury. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.680 Of yes, exactly, that was the third dish. It was 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:27.720 either some chicken or some oh need it some kind? Yeah. Well, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.560 the thing is, let me clarify. We never lacked for 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.640 what we needed in our home. Our mother and father, 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.800 my mom stayed at home. That was the deal. They 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.800 got married, high tailed it over here to California, and 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.960 my mother and father made a deal that my mom 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.760 wouldn't work outside the home. She would stay home and 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.040 be a homemaker, and my dad would work work, work, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.720 and my dad, his average week was a six day 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:57.039 work week. And so my mom was an amazing cook, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.160 thank god. But she made large quantities of everything every day. 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:04.360 But what we're eating here is what we used to 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:05.679 make for ourselves as kids. 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.360 Eleven kids, though, is like I don't even think even 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.800 if she sort of even like, even if we were 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:14.800 in today's times, if she wanted to go to work, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.360 eleven kids, is you need one parent to stay right? 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.560 Oh my god? Today a big family is you know, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.280 three four kids? Yeah, and that's more than a handful. 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.520 And you know, I constantly speak respectfully of my parents 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.200 because I remember growing up there were some people that 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.280 when we're in the supermarket, you know, there's three or 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.160 four trailing my mom and we're sitting at the checking stand, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.080 and I could understand English. My mom and dad understood 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.040 very very little English, and I could hear the words 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.000 of disrespect that they spoke of my mom, like, you know, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.560 talking in English to the other checker, like, oh, can 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:50.440 you believe how many kids it would have? You, you know, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.760 they probably can't even afford them, and stuff like that. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.640 But that's not true. We never lacked for food. My 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.520 parents bought a home in nineteen fifty five and raised 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.560 the so all in that home until they passed away. 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.160 So yeah, I'm very very protective of the image that 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.800 people have Immigrants come to this country and they have 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:11.840 a bunch of kids, and those kids are a bunch 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.280 of good for nothings or a bunch of troublemakers. Nah uh. 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.360 Not one of us eleven kids growing up in Pacoima, 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.200 not the you know, it's a low income community, a 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.800 lot of beautiful families. They're not one of us ever 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.040 ended up in a gang. Not one of us ever 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.800 ended up, you know, in the backseat of a police car. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.920 So you know, to my parents, you know, and. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.800 One of you guys ended up, Yeah, changing a lot 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:36.640 for the community. 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:41.200 Yeah, yeah, well apparently yes, I say this one once 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.080 in a while. I speak truthfully about if you asked 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.920 my brothers and sisters when they were you know, when 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.960 I was like eight, ten years old, and you asked 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:51.480 them right down on a piece of paper, where do 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.040 you think Tony's gonna end up? They probably would have 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.599 said some not mean things, but accurate things like I 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.280 don't know, he's a big trouble maker. You know he's 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.000 had I had the hottest temper of all my brothers 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:05.959 and sisters. I was the one you could light me 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.160 as like a match. I was the one that would 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.200 bawl my fist up before I would think about what 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.680 I'm gonna say. So God is good because they gave 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.800 me ten older brothers and sisters to help keep me 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:18.640 in line, and I needed every single one of them. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.679 They gave me two parents who were as strict as 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.280 can be. So had I not had the upbringing that 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.280 I was given and afforded by two amazing parents who 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.280 were strict, ten brothers and sisters were like, Oh, you 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.000 can't do that. I can't let you do that. 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.720 Who knows everybody was checking? Oh yeah, I just to 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.240 go back to the checkout line. I remember growing up 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.640 poor and like our parents had food stamps, and I 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.200 remember feeling shame like as a kid, like, oh my God, 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.280 just like, let me duck out the back door. I 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.640 don't even want to be affiliated with my poor parents, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.920 Like I don't want kids to know how poor we are. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.360 When people were talking about your parents and you understood it, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.560 I'm just genuinely curious, did you do you feel a 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.360 level of shame or did you are you mature enough 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.360 to understand like you don't know what you're talking about. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.160 I felt hurt that the market that we went to, 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.880 all the time that my parents paid for everything that 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:14.720 they But I felt as a little boy, I felt 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.080 confused and hurt. Why are they saying that about my mom? Right? 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.440 And and hurt because I'm like, my parents are good people, 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.800 right and and I thought the checkers were good people too. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.520 I didn't hate them, they just confused the hell out 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.160 of me. And but there's examples all over the place 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.480 about how I was treated, being that I'm from Pacoima, 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.040 by teachers, counselors, some police officers, et cetera. And I'm 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:41.800 not saying all teachers, all counselors, all police officers, but 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.360 there's bad apples in every bunch, and the idea the 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.240 people that are supposed to be there for the children 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.760 of a community would speak ill of them or tell them, Oh, 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.320 you're not going to amount to anything. Just wait, I'm 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.840 gonna catch you doing something wrong. I'm gonna put you 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.480 in jail. I'm like, I was never that kid anyway, 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:01.959 but the fact that I was in that neighborhood, they 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.040 just labeled us all the same. So and that's one 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.800 of the reasons why I decided to run for office. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.480 I never thought I would run for office ever. Growing up. 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.080 I'm an engineer. I to my engineering degree. 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:14.240 You liked math? 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:16.280 Well, I like math? 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:17.120 Who likes math? 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.400 I liked it enough to see like I could be 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.199 good at this, right, So I pursued an engineering injur Gee. 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:25.600 I got it. I was working for Hewlett Packard for 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:27.880 a bit and then I decided, I'm not feeling it. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.160 Now when you were at the time when you got 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.360 an engineering degree, were there a lot of people that 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:33.080 look like you? 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.720 Oh, no way, especially Latina women or women of color. 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.160 I went to UC Santa Barbara on the campus as 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.040 a whold. I think back then there was about fifteen 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.600 thousand students walking around the campus. On any given day, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.040 you could probably count only a few hundred black students 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.120 and a few hundred Latino students. This is California, Yeah right, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.400 there was a lot of black and brown people in California. 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.559 But nope, it was a very good school and they 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:58.680 didn't let that many of us in. But those of 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:00.079 us who got in we did fine. 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.960 Now, even in those environments, did you feel like you 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.760 didn't belong? Did you feel a little imposter syndrome. 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:11.600 Or imposter syndrome? Trust me, imposter syndrome unfortunately will never 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.640 leave any one of us. One. I still get it sometimes, 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.680 but now I snap out of it, like in a heartbeat. 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.080 I snap out of it, like, oh hell no, no, no, no, 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.040 I be long here. I earned being here. For example, 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.040 when I went to UC Santa Barbara. You know you're 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.439 a freshman, you're getting there. There's a brad ad and bushytail. 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.280 You go around meeting people say hey, how you doing. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.480 I'm Tony, I'm Gloria or whatever, and you say, what 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.640 are you studying? While I'm studying English? And then as 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:39.000 soon as I would say I'm studying engineering, they would 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:43.120 say two things. One they will man, that's hard. And 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.760 then they would say, oh, you got in under affirmative action. 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.160 Now hold on a second, affirmative action is necessary in 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.319 a society that denies good people equal opportunities. 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.680 Well, I've never heard someone say it's so eloquently like that. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.720 Well, the thing is what bothered me was that I 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:04.760 got in on regular admissions. And yeah, some of my 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.800 buddies who did graduate got in on an affirmative action, 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.319 who otherwise wouldn't have been able to get that degree, 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.520 that beautiful, amazing university. But I got in under regular admissions. 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:20.080 So how dare somebody assume that I am substandard, like 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.440 that I needed to get in because I was under 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.079 the bar. No, I earned my place and I got 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.120 my degree, and that that carries with me my entire life. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.960 But imposter syndrome, oh hell yeah, oh yeah. I talked 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.000 to students all the time, I talk to interns all 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:37.679 the time, and I tell them, like, you know what, 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.760 I was a very very insecure little boy. How many 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.640 of you are willing to admit that you have some insecurities. 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:45.480 Some raise their hand, and I'm proud of them for 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.000 doing that, because everybody has in securities. President of the 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:49.640 United States has insecurities, right. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.720 Wow, it's crazy because you never think that. But yeah, 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:54.120 I mean, I mean yeah, because we're human beings, right 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:55.600 exactly exactly. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.319 So I let them know and I and I raised 0:13:58.320 --> 0:13:59.840 my hand too, and they're looking at me, like, why 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:01.640 is raising it? I said, I'm raising my hand because 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.800 I have insecurities too, I said, I how about imposture syndrome? 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.080 And then some of them will raise their hand and 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.200 some won't, And I say, and I raise my hand too, 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.079 and I say, but I have this much imposter syndrome. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:18.000 But when I was young, like you, I had this much. 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.520 Yeah, that's me my whole life. Every day, I got 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:21.040 a lot of it. 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:26.240 I got extra Yeah. But but the thing is, what 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.640 what I'm trying to get at is one of the 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.200 reasons why people develop imposture syndrome is you have a 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.880 cop who sees you on the street and pulls you over, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.320 and you're you're getting max I didn't doing things. I 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.760 didn't do anything wrong. The ruin in your day. They're 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:40.720 putting your face down on the ground or up against 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.760 the wall in front of all your neighborhood. So their 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:45.720 parents could be like, Oh, that's so and So's kid 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.400 must have done something wrong. You know what I'm saying. 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:54.240 So that's that's that's bad. That that never leaves someone's heart, 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.120 It never leaves their mind being treated like that by 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.400 people that are You're supposed to have mutual respect for 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.720 teachers who told me, I, you know you're too dumb 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:08.480 using a word like dumb to a child. Yes, yes, again. 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.160 Let me say most of my teachers were amazing, and 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.840 some of them were like phenomenal. Thank God for them. 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.040 Without those two three teachers who really invested me, I 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.000 wouldn't be where I'm at. I wouldn't be successful at 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.800 almost anything that I tried to do. But because of them, 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.720 they helped me, they loved me. So the thing is, 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.800 when I see that happening, I go back to what's 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.920 my first nature as a person. I get pissed. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.400 Yeah, I was gonna say, where's that temper at? 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.760 Oh well the temper I turned it into something positive. See, 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.800 I'm a congressman now, I was, I was a council member, 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.320 I was a California state legislator. I've been doing this 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.600 for twenty eight years. So what gets to me is 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.520 when I see injustice. That's the thing that really pisses 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.680 me off. And the thing that I've been doing the 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.240 most since I've been elected for twenty eight years is 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.640 juvenile justice, criminal sentencing reform, things of that nature for 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.320 the last twenty years. And when I started doing it 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.280 in the nineteen nineties, oh man, I got criticized by 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.040 liberal Democrats. Wow, would be like, oh, that's a great idea, Tony, 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.800 but I can't help you with that. And I'm thinking 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:19.120 to myself, how can you not help You're a progressive, right, Yeah? No. 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:20.920 But the thing the reason why I did it is 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.000 because I saw in the next and the next generation 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.240 that if we didn't change things, they were going to 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:30.200 be treated just like me. Wow, and not of sheer stubbornness. 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:34.840 Did I move past that ridiculousness and still moved forward? 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.240 Yeah? Did anyone say, can you table it for the 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:37.880 next time? 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.040 God, Yes, there's always manyana, there's oh no, not right 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:43.160 now now, it's not the time. 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.840 And then how did you respond to that? Was there 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:47.480 ever a moment where you were like, fine, I guess 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:48.360 I'll push it back. 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.240 No, no, again, I'm more stubborn than smart. I'm more 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.320 stubborn than anything else. Anytime somebody would tell me something 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.960 like that, I would be like, no, but I'm here 0:16:58.040 --> 0:16:59.920 right now. I'm gonna do it with it without your help. 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.359 But I would bring people along because I would do 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.560 the work. Like I said, I'm an engineer. What engineers 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.679 are taught to do is that there's a problem, there 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.560 are solutions. Your job is to find a good one, 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.320 not the solution. Because there's solutions to everything, right in 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.520 a bunch of them, find a real good one and 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.880 make fix the problem. And so it's really weird. People 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:26.520 asked me, I was just talking to a couple of 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:31.239 interns just yesterday in my DC office to Latina as 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.320 one after Latina and another Latina. They had requested to 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:35.800 sit down with me. So I made some time and 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.080 I'm talking to them, and I'm trying to let them 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:44.840 know that whatever happened to them, whatever injustices came their way, 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:50.240 that doesn't define them. They can be whatever they want 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.560 to be. And the thing is, we have a very 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:57.320 flawed country, and the bottom line is this, but it's 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.320 an amazing place where somebody like me can go from 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.480 a mother and father who came and throughout their life 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.199 never learned much English, but made it here in the 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.520 United States, provided for their children and their youngest. They 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.360 raised eleven of us. You know, most of us went 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.200 off to college and got all kinds of degrees and stuff, 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.400 but they're youngest got to be a United States Congressman. 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.159 I literally it's a coincidence that we're doing this today. 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.000 I was literally at the White House yesterday in the 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:30.959 Oval Office. Wow, when President Biden was signing something that 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.400 a few Congressional members from the House of Representatis where 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.720 I'm a member. But the first Latino United States Center 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:42.159 to represent California is Alex Badilla. He's the one that 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.800 made it happen. He's an engineer like me. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.240 But that wasn't your and that wasn't your first visit 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:48.240 to the White House, obviously. 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:49.760 No, I've been to the White House many times. 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:54.080 Did your parents ever get to witness any any of it? 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:55.159 I'm just any of it. 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:59.320 Yeah. My mother was. My father passed away in nineteen 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.240 ninety three. I got elected in nineteen ninety six, and 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.879 my mother was still alive, and so she got to 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.560 see me sworn in. And literally the room in Sacramento 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.000 when I became a state assemblyman and you all stand 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:12.800 up and get sworn in, and there's a balcony. My 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:14.959 mother was on the balcony. I could see her up 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.920 there looking down at me and us, and she got 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.560 to see it, and I could see it in her eyes. Again, 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:23.880 she didn't speak much English. It would have you none 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.280 of us had ever gotten involved in politics. I was 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.800 the first one, first person of color in the entire 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.360 San Fernando Valley history to go to Sacramento and get 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:35.199 elected like that. And I could see it in her 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.639 eyes when she's looking down at us, looking down at me, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.600 she's wow, this is big, right. She didn't know exactly 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:48.040 what it was, but this is big, and so the 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:52.320 thing is it's again imposter syndrome was part of me 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.960 that day. Right here, I am going like, whoa, Well, 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:00.960 it's literally gold leaved room. Yeah, and they're getting sworn 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:08.320 in and and but it's gotten littler and littler and littler, 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:13.720 but it's still there. 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:25.040 So take me back. So you're eating peebee and jays 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:29.560 at home with your siblings, and your siblings and your 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.000 family obviously recognize you have Oh I'll make a own 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:38.880 mess of this. No one judged me place. Your siblings 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:40.520 have caught on that you have a little bit of 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.720 a temper, but they're taming it. What's going on, Like, 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.119 when do you start getting inching closer to becoming an 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:48.040 elected official? 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.800