Speaker 1: Media.
Speaker 2: Well, so Foo, where you votos from me? A sock chack.
Speaker 1: Homie today this episode, I don't know if I'll relate
Speaker 1: to anything more closer than the narrative of this story, Bogle,
Speaker 1: like a A l Vato vaio. This is full el
Speaker 1: president el helfe bougere bg that food down to the
Speaker 1: ground day he out here sock checking food. Sock check Homie.
Speaker 1: You don't know what a sock check is. You don't
Speaker 1: know enough aboutos. This is the El Salvador episode about
Speaker 1: President Bugle, because there's this is the convergence, the literal
Speaker 1: convergence of gang life and politics. The parallel was in
Speaker 1: my life one the things that I personally experienced because
Speaker 1: the origin story of this was here La specifically the
Speaker 1: part of l A that I was around, y'all know,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about all the time I grew up with Vatos.
Speaker 2: This.
Speaker 1: I've never felt more equipped to talk about a topic
Speaker 1: than this was. And even what he what we're actually
Speaker 1: gonna talk about later on in the show is like
Speaker 1: it was he it was the nineties like this was.
Speaker 1: I've never felt more equip talk about it anyway, b
Speaker 1: Ga said, soft check homie hood politics, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you know what los politicos thevidio and Okay, when diamel
Speaker 1: if I saw a kik cricket. Listen in this episode
Speaker 1: on some r Lebau call in our a, I want
Speaker 1: to send and dedicate this song through Mayavado creeper.
Speaker 2: Keep your head up. I am your puppet and your
Speaker 2: baby side ice. She will always stay down for you.
Speaker 1: And then you play the song. I wish y'all knew
Speaker 1: about the r Lebaul call in hour. It was he
Speaker 1: just passed away. And this white man became such an
Speaker 1: important part to La street culture, uh specifically Latino culture
Speaker 1: because he would play like oldies, these like old soul
Speaker 1: songs and foods, would call in and dedicate songs to
Speaker 1: like their loved ones, and most of the time it
Speaker 1: be loved ones they had locked up. It's a very
Speaker 1: La thing. Rest in peace, Arlebau. This episode of her Politics,
Speaker 1: we have to talk about that. We have to talk
Speaker 1: about else by Lord and President Buglee and it's there
Speaker 1: is a layer of complication that I want to lay out.
Speaker 1: But you gotta understand the history and the context and
Speaker 1: why I feel so connected to this early nineties, there
Speaker 1: was a civil.
Speaker 2: War that news flashed.
Speaker 1: America played a big role in having to do with
Speaker 1: El Salvador had a gentry, wealthy landowners who essentially.
Speaker 2: Ran the country and.
Speaker 1: Was the government was just like basically their toys. America
Speaker 1: played a role in this, which again needs its whole
Speaker 1: other topic. But all that to say that started bringing
Speaker 1: El Salvadorans fleeing El Salvador, some getting exiled, some getting deported,
Speaker 1: some fleeing to America. And where they came was MacArthur Park.
Speaker 1: MacArthur Park is now let me talk Gentrified CALLI to
Speaker 1: try to tie this up for you. First of all,
Speaker 1: MacArthur Park was where the radiotron existed, like if you
Speaker 1: remember the movies Breaking and Breaking to Electric Boogaloo. It
Speaker 1: was the first like early eighties hip hop spot was
Speaker 1: at the radio tron, and the radio tron was a
Speaker 1: MacArthur Park. Later on, MacArthur Park, because of like I said,
Speaker 1: what was going on in our society, became the hub
Speaker 1: of the El Salvadorian community.
Speaker 2: They landed right in the.
Speaker 1: Area next to Pico Union, which is right next to
Speaker 1: Echo Park, and then and then to the east of
Speaker 1: them is like downtown La Downtown La has my child.
Speaker 1: It was basically a no man's land like it's. It
Speaker 1: was like Blade Runner over there until La Live and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and then it got all hit. But
Speaker 1: before that, nobody went to downtown La. But east of it,
Speaker 1: I mean, but west of it. You know, you would have,
Speaker 1: like I said, you have MacArthur Park, Wiltshire District, Korea Town.
Speaker 2: All of that was going west.
Speaker 1: So that's like kind of north of Like I said,
Speaker 1: I am from originally south Central. This is on north
Speaker 1: of the ten free separates north and south, and then
Speaker 1: the one ten Freeway separates east and west. So this
Speaker 1: is northwest of downtown.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Next to that is Peaco Union, which is liam Vato Land.
Speaker 1: North of them is Echo Park. You remember the movie.
Speaker 1: You probably don't remember the movie, but me via Loka.
Speaker 1: Echo Park now is where you could do goat yoga
Speaker 1: because it's completely gentrified, right next to historic Filipino Town,
Speaker 1: which was like also these were these were gang territories
Speaker 1: that were already organized, borders were set, everybody knew what
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: Cement was settled. The Salvadorians came here, and the sense
Speaker 2: is what's.
Speaker 1: So different about My wife brought this up what's so
Speaker 1: different about the Asian It's I hate saying it like this,
Speaker 1: but the Asian experience and the Latino experience is and
Speaker 1: my wife has made this mistake before.
Speaker 2: You. The more you hang around.
Speaker 1: Asian people, you could tell they you could tell they
Speaker 1: don't look alike like and but they all have their
Speaker 1: same language, they all have their they all have different
Speaker 1: languages Korean, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin. So because Asia wasn't colonized
Speaker 1: in the way that Central in South America was, they
Speaker 1: all speak Spanish, right, so there's a shared give or
Speaker 1: takes some Portuguese. There's a shared like language among the
Speaker 1: Latino diaspora. You know, give or take a few indigenous folks,
Speaker 1: but they all speak Spanish. And you could take the
Speaker 1: most hardened, the most Azilain Mexicano and they can't tell
Speaker 1: you the difference. They can't look at the no Salvadorian
Speaker 1: coast Rican and look at them and say they You
Speaker 1: can't tell by their look.
Speaker 2: You're gonna tell a boy their accent and when.
Speaker 1: They tell you, unless there are certain telltale signs. There
Speaker 1: are certain characteristics, certain ways you carry yourself, a certain way.
Speaker 1: You understand that are culturally because these are in fact
Speaker 1: different countries and different cultures.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, but when they got here, y'all all spoke spanon. Now,
Speaker 1: by the time they got here, you have to remember
Speaker 1: the Mexican American. First of all, there was such thing
Speaker 1: as a Mexican a Chicano. We didn't already have Chikano movie.
Speaker 1: We didn't have the Zutsu Riots, we didn't have the
Speaker 1: Brown Berets like they have established themselves as a part
Speaker 1: of America for decades, because remember California was Mexico, so
Speaker 1: they've been here.
Speaker 2: Now as far as.
Speaker 1: The street life, these rules are already established.
Speaker 2: There was already a gang in MacArthur Park.
Speaker 1: It's eighteenth Street b Seolcho like one of the most
Speaker 1: notorious street gangs in their world.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The difference though, between crips and bloods and Black gang
Speaker 1: banging and the Mexican gang banging is there's a set
Speaker 1: hierarchy everyone you liam runs it, which is the Mexican mafia,
Speaker 1: the prison thing. They they run the shit. Now it
Speaker 1: might be different now, you know what I'm saying, because
Speaker 1: not in that life, but the general understanding is, no
Speaker 1: matter what you guys are doing on the streets. Everybody
Speaker 1: pays like twenty because that's how the product gets here.
Speaker 1: The coyotes comany bringing away from Mexico, you tap in
Speaker 1: with the mafia. The Mexican mafia. They run it righthend
Speaker 1: comes through the jail, they call the shots. There's a hierarchy.
Speaker 1: You don't kill nobody unless you get the word. It's
Speaker 1: much more like a mafia. The street warshit is like,
Speaker 1: of course it happens, of course because you get hot heads.
Speaker 2: But like they not like cribs and blood we are.
Speaker 1: They have a corporate structure, if you will. And black folks,
Speaker 1: we bought our drugs from the Mexican You bought our
Speaker 1: drugs from the essays from you know, if you was
Speaker 1: back east, you say from the Spanish dudes, that's who
Speaker 1: you bought it from.
Speaker 2: Paco. Paco. Paco got you to wait when the El
Speaker 2: Salvadorians got here. There is you have to.
Speaker 1: Remember among the Latino community, there is a little bit
Speaker 1: of anti this and that sentiment among each other. Mexicans
Speaker 1: traditionally don't really get along with El Salvadorians. The matter
Speaker 1: of fact, there's like some prejudice there that like don't
Speaker 1: really they don't really mess with them. They have like
Speaker 1: derogatory names for Salvadorians, you know, in the same way
Speaker 1: that now listen, I'm not saying this in on the
Speaker 1: eye horse, and same way black people have about Africa,
Speaker 1: the same way Caribbeans. Caribbean people have about Africans, the
Speaker 1: way Africans have about American black people, like we have
Speaker 1: our own self hate in the community. They don't necessarily
Speaker 1: get along. So you got people who were fighting in
Speaker 1: a civil war in El Salvador against each other. Once
Speaker 1: they get here, oh we arm in arm we all
Speaker 1: we got. See that's how the immigrant population work. When
Speaker 1: you get to a place and you realize like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: were the only ones that don't we all we.
Speaker 2: Got is up us?
Speaker 1: And you jump into a place that is so racially
Speaker 1: charged as is America as a whole, let alone California.
Speaker 1: And when they got here in the nineties, this is
Speaker 1: this is the height when they got here. So you
Speaker 1: landed in a place that was already violent, with an
Speaker 1: already established rules where even your own RASA doesn't they
Speaker 1: not even messing with you. So they was like, well shit,
Speaker 1: they formed their own hood and mess thirteen Maltruca. So
Speaker 1: they formed their own gang and the difference between them,
Speaker 1: at least from our perspective, or as in black people
Speaker 1: saffence between them and like the Vathos we were used to.
Speaker 1: The vatos we were used to again, they had a
Speaker 1: code and we was in business together. You stayed at
Speaker 1: a turf, We stayed at a turf. They stay at ours.
Speaker 1: Like I kid you not the city I live in now.
Speaker 1: I never came here. We black people, we were not allowed.
Speaker 1: I just and it was understood. This was they hood. You.
Speaker 1: You better lead them vothos alone. They take that shit
Speaker 1: like I was seen as a threat. They took it
Speaker 1: very silly. I came over here for a few parties
Speaker 1: and learned quickly I'm not welcome over here. The only
Speaker 1: person black people over here in this city was Will
Speaker 1: I Am because he was born in this part of town.
Speaker 1: But fam we didn't come. And as far as like
Speaker 1: the street stuff, it was just understood this was their world.
Speaker 1: We were in business together. How was we supposed to
Speaker 1: know the difference between a Mexican and an El Salvadorian,
Speaker 1: which created an issue.
Speaker 2: We was in business, but I can't tell the difference.
Speaker 1: You beefed in jail like the war and shit happened
Speaker 1: in jail, the turf wars, the street shit that happened.
Speaker 1: But like Cris was more worried about other black people,
Speaker 1: was more worried about other cribsets, other bloods.
Speaker 2: We was more worried about that. Bothos.
Speaker 1: You just left them alone, like you on, won't fuck
Speaker 1: with them. They had their own shit, and whenever we clashes,
Speaker 1: it was bad.
Speaker 2: I mean bad.
Speaker 1: Long Beach probably got it the worst. Essentially, we antouldn't
Speaker 1: do with that. That's y'all shit. We as in black
Speaker 1: people until it came to business because off Salvador figured out, well,
Speaker 1: for Columbia to get to Mexico, you got to go
Speaker 1: throughout Salvador, and they figured out black people can't tell
Speaker 1: the difference between us. You insert yourself in the supply chain.
Speaker 1: All you know is Wan Carlo pulled up with the weight,
Speaker 1: and then Miguel Rodriguez pulled up and he like, I
Speaker 1: got your weight.
Speaker 2: You like what nigga got?
Speaker 1: You already bought it, bought it from who, I don't know,
Speaker 1: your homeboy one cars nigga, I don't know. So then
Speaker 1: now Mexican's mad at us because they feel like we
Speaker 1: cheating and through y'all just walked off with a couple
Speaker 1: hundred bands. And now they beefing, they like, and now
Speaker 1: they mad at Now they mad at the Mexicans, and
Speaker 1: now that's they thing.
Speaker 2: We like. I mean, nigga, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Like y'all get y'all, y'all aught the same to us,
Speaker 1: nigga racism, But it became a thing like MS thirteen
Speaker 1: put they and they were so terrifying, and niggas walked.
Speaker 2: Around with machetes.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding machetes, but that's because yeah, in Central America,
Speaker 1: that's pretty normal, you know what I'm saying, Like you
Speaker 1: cutting down trees number one.
Speaker 2: And then number two.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the difference between I didn't get to
Speaker 1: this point, but the difference between the two was.
Speaker 2: Like like I said, the Vathos were.
Speaker 1: They was very organized, they had they had a corporate
Speaker 1: way of running things. Salvadorians were brawlers, they were machette
Speaker 1: just the level of I cannot stress the MS thirteen vio.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of like political propaganda, fun
Speaker 1: intended all this extras that they be putting on it
Speaker 1: because they doing it because they're racist. I'm doing it
Speaker 1: because I was here. Fam Man Truca MS thirteen stayed
Speaker 1: a hell out they way and thirteen different is Sawdeniel
Speaker 1: like different than Northaniel, which.
Speaker 2: Is like which was Thoris.
Speaker 1: It's or they got there, they got their rules, like
Speaker 1: the Latinos got their rules.
Speaker 2: It's a little different.
Speaker 1: But Thrucha MS thirteen they had something to prove because
Speaker 1: it was so few of them, and you stepping into
Speaker 1: a system that like there's no work, there's no help.
Speaker 1: They just realized that, like, oh shit, America's racist. You
Speaker 1: just think I'm They've probably been called they were called
Speaker 1: Mexican probably everywhere they went, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So for them, they was like, I mean, what are
Speaker 1: we supposed to do? And these as kids who was
Speaker 1: fighting in civil wars you know when you come from
Speaker 1: a war torn third world country. That's why, like didn't
Speaker 1: nobody mess with the Cambodians, didn't buy mess with them Micronesian,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And like when the Asian
Speaker 1: gang started coming over here, it was like Nigga, they
Speaker 1: fight armies, so like their level of violence is so
Speaker 1: different than ours, Like it's violent, but it's like.
Speaker 2: Oh, fam they used to fight in military.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Marua like it was like Soword Machetty broad daylight
Speaker 1: like they just were the I cannot under I can't
Speaker 1: overstate how violent.
Speaker 2: They were as a gang. Bad Okay.
Speaker 1: Now what happened next was the Great Deportation. When the
Speaker 1: war on drugs and the gang injunction started happening in California,
Speaker 1: food started to get deported. Now we were being black
Speaker 1: people was facing mass incarceration. A lot of the Mexicans
Speaker 1: were facing mass incarceration because we live here, we were,
Speaker 1: we're you know, multi generational, we've been here for ever.
Speaker 1: If you get deported, nigga, you get deported. And they
Speaker 1: was dropping them out, Salvadorians off by the bus.
Speaker 2: Back.
Speaker 1: You think deportation is crazy. Now they was rounding them
Speaker 1: niggas up and sending them home. Then Vothos was getting
Speaker 1: sent home full and where and what they did when
Speaker 1: they got home was exactly what what happened with black
Speaker 1: people when they got sent off to live with their
Speaker 1: aunties in the South.
Speaker 2: Explain that after this breath, all right, we're back. I have.
Speaker 1: Very distinct memories of because I'm a because I'm an
Speaker 1: old being on three way on the phone with you
Speaker 1: know a little girls. I was trying to hog ad
Speaker 1: in some of the homies. Whatever we would be asking
Speaker 1: about one of the friends that we just ain't seen
Speaker 1: in a while. I think I may have told this
Speaker 1: story before on the show, but like this was a
Speaker 1: normal interaction where we would be like, am I.
Speaker 2: Seeing Andre Andre?
Speaker 1: And Andre went to go spend the summer in Arkansas
Speaker 1: or Memphis or Atlanta with his auntie or he had
Speaker 1: to go live with his grandma and then he'd have
Speaker 1: to stay why because he was getting in trouble. Once
Speaker 1: you hit age of recruitment out here, your best bet,
Speaker 1: a lot of families decided they would just send they
Speaker 1: boys away, go live with your auntie. It's too violent
Speaker 1: out here, right, You starting to make bad decisions, man,
Speaker 1: They gonna like you're gonna go out there worked in
Speaker 1: fields and really realize what's going on. You get sent
Speaker 1: to Oklahoma, You get sent to all these hot bets, Okay,
Speaker 1: see Tasa, all these cities where before the Great Migration
Speaker 1: where we came from, we got sent back to stay
Speaker 1: with the aunties. Now we would have it also like
Speaker 1: the Latino Homies. It would be more like they'd have
Speaker 1: to go work. It would be the middle of the
Speaker 1: year and they'd have to go to Mexico to work
Speaker 1: with their grandpa. Then they would be back. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But you just had to go work
Speaker 1: a field, and you just had to go back. They
Speaker 1: needed money. You're a THEA needs money, so you have
Speaker 1: to go down there at work. That's just what it
Speaker 1: was with us, though I can say distinctly purposefully, we
Speaker 1: were sent off to try to avoid the gang life.
Speaker 1: And for us out here in Cali, that person would
Speaker 1: cease to exist, like they would just fall oft the
Speaker 1: phase of the earth. I don't really a it's just
Speaker 1: it's done, like you just never think about them again,
Speaker 1: like they were gone. And I never connected the dots
Speaker 1: because in Kansas City there's a neighborhood crypt there's a
Speaker 1: Rolling Sixties gang. There's neighborhood in ok See, in Tulsa
Speaker 1: there's Bloods, There's all these neighborhoods. There's all these hoods
Speaker 1: to playboy gangsters, all these sixties twenty these photies, all
Speaker 1: these things that are named after actual streets. In California,
Speaker 1: it's called Rolling Sixties because that's they were in the
Speaker 1: sixtieth blocks, you know, said, and then you'd find them
Speaker 1: in and I, for the life of me, could not understand,
Speaker 1: like why y'all got gangs named after California streets. Nigga,
Speaker 1: it's the kids that got sent off when we was
Speaker 1: in middle school. They just went there and got it
Speaker 1: cracking and started creating sets in their neighbor and they
Speaker 1: could run.
Speaker 2: You'd run. You were kings.
Speaker 1: You came from this place where you learned all the game,
Speaker 1: everything you needed to do because you had to survive
Speaker 1: where you were.
Speaker 2: You just went out there and you just ruled the world.
Speaker 1: They had it appen on a microcosm in America, in
Speaker 1: California suburbs. Yo, yo, yo, Mama, get a house, you
Speaker 1: get a tax return, you move out to the burbs,
Speaker 1: or you like, oh, I'm gonna run this, do you.
Speaker 2: Know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: Until somebody else's family from Long Beach or something get
Speaker 1: get a tax return, they go out there and then
Speaker 1: and that nigga, just as thorough as you are, Like, uh, now,
Speaker 1: we got issues, but it was such a normal occurrences.
Speaker 1: I remember that there was a documentary in the Knights
Speaker 1: called Banging in Little Rock. Could not wrap my main
Speaker 1: or my mind around Little Rock, Arkansas having gangs until
Speaker 1: at a full grown adult, I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we exported it. We would get sent off. And then
Speaker 1: they didn't fall off the face of the earth. They
Speaker 1: lived there and started hoods.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I ever thought about that.
Speaker 1: That's what happened else Aalvador. They went out there and
Speaker 1: they got active. And when they got active, you have
Speaker 1: to remember they got active without any constraints of any cribs, bloods,
Speaker 1: or any other or any other cholos. May eighteen Street.
Speaker 1: Nobody was over there. Florence thirteen, Nobody was there. It
Speaker 1: was they world and they world.
Speaker 2: It was good. God. They went out there sot checking
Speaker 2: foods left and right. And here's the thing. I'm not
Speaker 2: even going saying what a sock check is?
Speaker 1: Sock check on me because if you know, you know
Speaker 1: thusave I know how counterintuitive this sounds, but in some ways,
Speaker 1: when there's no system of checks and balances, even among
Speaker 1: gang life, you think the violence happens, of course because
Speaker 1: of like rivalries and stuff like that. But if there's
Speaker 1: no system and you can just run the thing, then
Speaker 1: the lick becomes just the people like you're just the
Speaker 1: citizens because there's no time the gang wars evolved because
Speaker 1: somebody is gonna be like, well, I don't have to
Speaker 1: just listen to you, nigga, I live over here. It
Speaker 1: can make this my neighborhood, right, somebody else get deported
Speaker 1: from five years later and they start their own set.
Speaker 1: But before that, it's like the people that live there
Speaker 1: become your playing field and they're not inoculated.
Speaker 2: They don't have the germs.
Speaker 1: They don't have the germs, they don't have the white
Speaker 1: blood cells to be able to inoculate themselves to defend
Speaker 1: themselves in any way, because that's this isn't what they're
Speaker 1: This isn't the types of diseases they're used to.
Speaker 2: This gang shit.
Speaker 1: The gang shit in El Salvador was born in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Like it's not, it's not local grown. It was born
Speaker 2: in La.
Speaker 1: So it's not they're not used to they don't have
Speaker 1: you don't have the immune system for that. So the
Speaker 1: influols was running them streets, I mean running them like
Speaker 1: I mean you put La Chicago, Atlanta just wrap it
Speaker 1: all in one.
Speaker 2: Was run in them streets. It was bro because milk
Speaker 2: we myly.
Speaker 1: Just like bad. Now, it's funny me doing this because
Speaker 1: I'm using all like mexicanslag it was just like I mean,
Speaker 1: you called me on it, of course, but like bro,
Speaker 1: it was through child's like I thought you wouln't believe
Speaker 1: what they saw anyway, it was bad. I can relate
Speaker 1: to the feelings of feeling like you're this is an
Speaker 1: open air prison, like you're you're held hostage in your
Speaker 1: own neighborhood. I can personally relate to that, like rules
Speaker 1: were very clear. There's parts of neighborhoo that you just
Speaker 1: don't go to. It's grocery stores, directions walking home like
Speaker 1: you have to walk home a whole other route. There's
Speaker 1: family members you can't go visit because it's like you
Speaker 1: ain't allowed in that hood. Man, y'all think I'm exaggerating,
Speaker 1: Like man, I need to bring somebody else on this show,
Speaker 1: like who lived through this that can avouch for what
Speaker 1: I'm telling you.
Speaker 2: When I tell you you could not go to certain areas,
Speaker 2: it's like you you could not go. It's what do
Speaker 2: you mean you can't go? It's a free country. I'm
Speaker 2: allowed to go. Okay, try it. Go ahead, drive over there.
Speaker 2: See what happens.
Speaker 1: I personally had family that lived in Compton that I
Speaker 1: didn't visit until they left Compton, and it we weren't
Speaker 1: allowed over there. And now Salvador is living through this
Speaker 1: until this young gen z Cuspo millennial comes and starts
Speaker 1: socks checking foods. All right, all right, now we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to the meat of this after this break.
Speaker 2: All right, we're back.
Speaker 1: Sock jack, homie, the higher the sides, the down there,
Speaker 1: the food A brad lame, big Jack LEVI never snitch
Speaker 1: on your homies and respect your head.
Speaker 2: I keep it through chin all right anyway, all right, dog, So.
Speaker 1: This gen z cusp for millennial naimbu Gele, upper middle
Speaker 1: class dude, Palestinian immigrant moves over to a Salvador with
Speaker 1: his family, gets his start around thirty years old.
Speaker 2: And he was a publicist.
Speaker 1: Right, so you're talking about a dude gets on the camera,
Speaker 1: hat to the back, young understands social media, knows how
Speaker 1: to talk that talk, understands TikTok.
Speaker 2: Like just next generation.
Speaker 1: The guy for now decides to get into politics, becomes
Speaker 1: the mayor of a small town you know on the outskirts.
Speaker 1: Eventually becomes the mayor of the capital city, San Salvador,
Speaker 1: and then runs for president in twenty eighteen. And when
Speaker 1: he runs for president, you gotta remember again he a
Speaker 1: young buck. You got this like the literal.
Speaker 2: Opposite problem of what we got in America.
Speaker 1: What John Stewart say Man needs to have set the
Speaker 1: record for being the oldest two people that ever run
Speaker 1: for president, only breaking the record by four years set
Speaker 1: by them four years ago. Just didn't gay the opposite.
Speaker 1: Young buck, right, new blood understands the world. You know.
Speaker 1: He was educated in a bilingual school, so he come
Speaker 1: from like I said, like not poverty, not well, just
Speaker 1: middle class, upper middle class educated, you know. And he
Speaker 1: real slick and he runs being like nigga, I'm different,
Speaker 1: I'm stop checking foods. I'm tired of this shit, okay.
Speaker 1: And this is when the story becomes super familiar. Y'all
Speaker 1: don't know about the New York street sweepers, and for Cali,
Speaker 1: the gang injunctions, and the gang injunctions kind of work
Speaker 1: like this, like you get if if it was if
Speaker 1: you was black and brown, you were standing on a
Speaker 1: corner and it was molding more than one of y'all,
Speaker 1: it's a gang. If y'all had matching shoes, matching whatever
Speaker 1: it is. You're in a gang according to the law.
Speaker 1: So they would run up on you, and you know,
Speaker 1: it would move from like loitering again to gang activity
Speaker 1: because what was happening was so intense in la like
Speaker 1: the police, as corrupt as they might have been, or
Speaker 1: as desperate as the community might have been. If you
Speaker 1: got swept if you got swept up, you got swept up,
Speaker 1: they didn't ask questions, they didn't look. If it was
Speaker 1: two of y'all, it's a gang. You could be like, dude,
Speaker 1: we're nerdy as hell. Y'all a gang if if they
Speaker 1: if they if they recognized a jersey, a street, a
Speaker 1: jersey you were wearing, Like if you just happen to
Speaker 1: be wearing a Dolphins jersey. All, that's Third Street, you all,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like, or that's twelfth Street, like you down there,
Speaker 1: you down there in Pomona, like you, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like you was with them, you feel me
Speaker 1: like you They no matter what a tattoo, a street name,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, if it was something that they could
Speaker 1: recognize as a gang thing, no questions asked. You getting
Speaker 1: swept up, you going into the paddy wagon. Right, it
Speaker 1: was a gang injunctions, right, you would get a gang uptick.
Speaker 1: Like for example, if let's just say you know you
Speaker 1: you you know you did breaking an entering, just some
Speaker 1: sort of like or some sort of petty crime like
Speaker 1: your grand theft aught or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2: Right, you was just joy writing.
Speaker 1: If they could tie you to a known gang, that
Speaker 1: crime would get what's called a gang uptick, meaning it's
Speaker 1: an extra five or it or the act becomes a felony.
Speaker 1: A misdemeanor can become a felony because of the gang uptick. Right.
Speaker 2: A lot of times what would happen.
Speaker 1: Is kids would just be regular ask kids, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Maybe maybe admitting you know, petty crimes
Speaker 1: here and there, just trying to be cool with the homies.
Speaker 1: You go to jail, you go to juvie, and you
Speaker 1: joined a gang in juvie. Right, So it created a
Speaker 1: bigger problem, you understand what I'm saying. In New York,
Speaker 1: they would have a street sweepers. Again, like if you
Speaker 1: was just if you were standing outside and it was
Speaker 1: more than y'all everybody getting swept up. I'm not asking
Speaker 1: no questions. Where we are cleaning up our streets. Now,
Speaker 1: that was us as black and brown boys being the
Speaker 1: being the victims of this. On the other hand, we
Speaker 1: were also victims of the violence. I said it, I
Speaker 1: said it so many times, and I'm gonna say it
Speaker 1: again in this In this episode, I cannot stress enough
Speaker 1: how wild the streets were, the like we were held hostage.
Speaker 1: Like in a lot of ways, I could say we
Speaker 1: were both. I said it on the song Gentrify, on
Speaker 1: my own record, we were both guilty and victims, like
Speaker 1: because the the roving hordes of violent youth that was
Speaker 1: holding us hostage were us. They were our friends, those
Speaker 1: were our cousins, and and part of it was because
Speaker 1: you needed protection from the other roving violent hordes of dude,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like it was us.
Speaker 2: It's complicated.
Speaker 1: So the old ladies who can't go to their neighborhood
Speaker 1: liquor store, you understand what I'm saying. The people that
Speaker 1: was causing that problem was they sons, was they grandchildren
Speaker 1: or they friends' grandchildren.
Speaker 2: So if you came home, you was just like Meho,
Speaker 2: I can't even go to the store. No more fools
Speaker 2: will be like you. Somebody tell you.
Speaker 1: Somebody tell yo, y'all, Well, like yo, grandma telling you
Speaker 1: she getting sweated at the store. Oh, nigga is up,
Speaker 1: You're not funa sweat my Oh. So it's like we
Speaker 1: were you we were held hostage. You don't go to
Speaker 1: the police because they just another gang. Like I said,
Speaker 1: they sweeping us up and throwing us into jail.
Speaker 2: Ain't not asking questions.
Speaker 1: Well, Gailey ran on this idea that like El Salvador,
Speaker 1: you're you're under and in a lot of ways, it's true,
Speaker 1: you're under an occupation. The occupation is just these fiftas
Speaker 1: of gangs. Y'all, y'all under occupation. He like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: clean this shit up. I'm not asking questions.
Speaker 2: You can't. You can't.
Speaker 1: You can't play games with these people. You have to
Speaker 1: demoralize them. And as the people of El Salvador, they like,
Speaker 1: I'm tired of this shit. You right, like, we're tired
Speaker 1: of this. This man know how to talk. He young,
Speaker 1: did sexy and he talked that talk. He like, look,
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of y'all gangsters. I'm gangster too, Nigga like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm with the shits. You need to hire somebody
Speaker 1: you need to elect, somebody that's with the shits, and
Speaker 1: with the shits he was, and within two years this
Speaker 1: man absolutely decimated. I'm talking about the fact that, like
Speaker 1: you know, how like we talkalk about like the Mob
Speaker 1: and the Sopranos and shit like that, how it's like
Speaker 1: this is nothing like it used to be. Of course
Speaker 1: it exists in of course the mob exists, but not
Speaker 1: like it did. The mob got decimated. Like while I'm
Speaker 1: talking that, he absolutely destroyed the El Salvador and a
Speaker 1: lot of times look on once. This is why this
Speaker 1: is a hood politics episode, because on one side of this,
Speaker 1: on one side of the corner, you're like, good, nigga,
Speaker 1: we're free. Man.
Speaker 2: Fuck y'all.
Speaker 1: Out here extorting our grandma's like killing your own people,
Speaker 1: dividing this city up. Man, we held a hostage, like nah, man,
Speaker 1: I got no love for y'all. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like you could, like you can you pointing out people
Speaker 1: like I done, lost friends, family, cousins, sisters, brothers. You
Speaker 1: understand I'm saying, like I'm trying to open a stupid
Speaker 1: little pin, Nadia, right, you understand what I'm saying. You
Speaker 1: taking sixty percent of my like, nah, I got no,
Speaker 1: it's no love lost. He would he would have had
Speaker 1: in boys like look like dehumanizing them and the attitude
Speaker 1: is what they dehumanized us.
Speaker 2: You have them, have them lined up in the in
Speaker 2: the jail and they draws tied up one by one,
Speaker 2: being like, look now now, who the g now? Who
Speaker 2: the dawn? You laying out here in your draws? You're
Speaker 2: trying to like, Nah, fam, we not playing this shit
Speaker 2: no more.
Speaker 1: Y'all are done. Fuck you and what you're going through.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Fuck your dad homies, Like
Speaker 1: I don't give a shit about none of y'all.
Speaker 2: You didn't y'all, y'all been terrorizing us too long. I'm done.
Speaker 1: And on one hand, it's like Nigga finally right in
Speaker 1: some senses, like look, I'm a slap of Nazi. I'm
Speaker 1: a slap of Nazi in the face type dude, Like,
Speaker 1: I get it. Sometimes you gotta shut this shit down,
Speaker 1: you feel me. And the only way to talk to
Speaker 1: somebody that's violent is with violence.
Speaker 2: I get it. I'm not a pacifist. And how do
Speaker 2: you respond to people that got no code? You?
Speaker 1: Like, are you worried? About the moral high ground, Like
Speaker 1: is that really what we're worried about. It's like niggas
Speaker 1: is dying in the streets this like this is I'm
Speaker 1: tired of this shit. Y'all killing each other and we're
Speaker 1: all and we're dying too. Like it'd be one thing
Speaker 1: if it was just y'all shooting at each other.
Speaker 2: But even if it's y'all, y'all is us.
Speaker 1: You are, these are our sons, these are our daughters,
Speaker 1: yourself saying so like there's no separation between.
Speaker 2: Them and us. They are us.
Speaker 1: But this shit needs to stop, bro, And he was like,
Speaker 1: give me two years, and he did it. Now, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, the question is about how. And again
Speaker 1: this is why I relate to it. He was dudes
Speaker 1: would get wrapped up with no due and like with
Speaker 1: the you couldn't whether you was involved affiliated or not.
Speaker 1: They're like, we'll sort them out later. So it's stories
Speaker 1: all over El Salvador of people being like I haven't
Speaker 1: seen my nephew ever since the cops picked them up.
Speaker 1: They just make up charges and they hold them without
Speaker 1: due process. They're not telling them what's going on. And
Speaker 1: and if you just get caught up, you get caught up.
Speaker 1: Whether you have an affiliation or not, it don't matter.
Speaker 1: They're like, we'll figure it out later when you're cleaning
Speaker 1: the streets with the power with the super soaker, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like they're just getting the biggest
Speaker 1: net possible and and just swooping everybody out of the
Speaker 1: streets and being like, look, it's clean, and if you
Speaker 1: get caught up, you get caught up. He has not
Speaker 1: shown any concern in whether somebody gets accidentally swooped up
Speaker 1: into this or not. You shouldn't have been over there,
Speaker 1: that's the attitude. You shouldn't have been outside. And even
Speaker 1: if you not involved, I know you know somebody that's involved,
Speaker 1: your brother involved, your cousin involved. It's impossible. It's like,
Speaker 1: and that is another thing that I get. If you
Speaker 1: swept me up. I don't gang bang at all. I'm
Speaker 1: not affiliated all. Matter of fact, I'm running from these niggas.
Speaker 1: But if you swept me up and ask me if
Speaker 1: I know activity, I'm like, well, absolutely, of course I do. Listen,
Speaker 1: this is these were the rules. If you get swept up,
Speaker 1: let's just say you get involved. You know, they got
Speaker 1: your little tattoos on file. Because that's what they do
Speaker 1: to take pictures of your tattoos. They see you got
Speaker 1: a tattoo that matches some other stuff. Now you involved
Speaker 1: in that hood. Right, Let's just say you get out
Speaker 1: on probation or you out on parole. Part of the
Speaker 1: rules for your probation or your parole is you cannot
Speaker 1: associate with any known gang activity, any known gang of afiliates.
Speaker 2: The problem is you're sending me back to my house
Speaker 2: and you're like, well, it's my father.
Speaker 1: Is known gang, my my physical brother, like my first cousin,
Speaker 1: my auntie, Like I live at the kickback. So even
Speaker 1: if I'm trying to like this just where I live,
Speaker 1: I like, even if I all want to be a
Speaker 1: part of this, like this is just where I live.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to say.
Speaker 1: If the pop Post see you, they let's say they
Speaker 1: run a raid or they pull somebody over whatever in
Speaker 1: your neighborhood.
Speaker 2: They see you over there, you done broke your probation rules.
Speaker 2: Now you're going back.
Speaker 1: It's people in El Salvador that feel like, we don't
Speaker 1: know if this solution is worth to squeeze the juice
Speaker 1: is worth to squeeze. It's like, you have a rodent
Speaker 1: problem and the solution that the exterminator brings is a bomb.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, clear, clear, I killed all the rodents.
Speaker 1: And it's like, but you you blew up the house.
Speaker 1: Well all my plants are dead too, and so is
Speaker 1: our pet. Like you.
Speaker 2: Like, but the rodents are gone. What do you say
Speaker 2: to that? Well?
Speaker 1: You know what else out of doors said is it's
Speaker 1: the cost of play because they re elected him. And
Speaker 1: when you do people a favor like that, especially if
Speaker 1: you're not afraid of taking the blowbacks. It's like I said,
Speaker 1: it's family members that still ain't seen They family members.
Speaker 1: It's been three years. They just swooped them up and
Speaker 1: they're like you he in jail now, no no court case,
Speaker 1: no charge. It's just you a part of the gangs,
Speaker 1: like nigga. No I'm not, Yes, you are.
Speaker 2: That. There's cases like that all over O Salvador.
Speaker 1: So then the people, the people believe in you, and
Speaker 1: and what do you do this for you? I did
Speaker 1: this for the said, I did it for the hood.
Speaker 1: I did it for Al Salvador. You can declare a
Speaker 1: sort of martial law in a way that says you
Speaker 1: want me to clean these streets up. You gotta let
Speaker 1: me not worry about y'all's human and individual rights right now.
Speaker 1: And some of the pushback with this bro is like,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a creep towards fascism because you're getting
Speaker 1: the job done for for the fatherland.
Speaker 2: At all costs. And what you're gonna what y'all gonna say,
Speaker 2: I cleaned your streets up? You wanna go back?
Speaker 1: You ain't like my ways, that my ways worked, And
Speaker 1: I mean, why would you say anything to him if
Speaker 1: you know that you can get caught up in his dragnet?
Speaker 2: And that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was the lapd for us. Look, you
Speaker 1: get caught up, you got If you get caught up,
Speaker 1: you get caught up.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: And of course we fought back against police brutality and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But granted, this isn't Los Angeles, is
Speaker 1: not the nation of El Salvador. It's not necessarily one
Speaker 1: to one. But what I'm saying is I understand the complications.
Speaker 2: I have no love for for the beasts, of course,
Speaker 2: but I will tell you this. I currently live in
Speaker 2: a part of town I wasn't allowed to even visit
Speaker 2: that's kind of nice, so we'll see either way, Gayle said.
Speaker 1: Jeflevi Los Politicos all Man, All right, now, don't you
Speaker 1: hit stop on this pod. You better listen to these credits.
Speaker 1: I need you to finish this thing so I can
Speaker 1: get the download numbers. Okay, so don't stop it yet,
Speaker 1: but listen. This was recorded in East Lost boil Heights
Speaker 1: by your boy Propaganda.
Speaker 2: Tap in with me at prop hip hop dot com.
Speaker 1: If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew.
Speaker 1: You can go there dot com and use promo code
Speaker 1: hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This
Speaker 1: was mixed, edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski
Speaker 1: killing the Beast Softly. Check out his website Mattowsowski dot com.
Speaker 1: I'm'a spell it for you because I know M A
Speaker 1: T T O S O W s ki dot com
Speaker 1: Matthowsowski dot com. He got more music and stuff like
Speaker 1: that on there, so gonna check out. The heat Politics
Speaker 1: is a member of cool Zone Media, executive produced by
Speaker 1: Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme
Speaker 1: music and scoring is also by the One and Noble
Speaker 1: Mattawsowski still killing the beat softly, so listen. Don't let
Speaker 1: nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living, you
Speaker 1: understand politics. These people is not smarter than you. We'll
Speaker 1: see y'all next week.