Speaker 1: Class action is a production of I heart radio and
Speaker 1: sound argument. I'm at Genesis Salinas. I am a tool
Speaker 1: at St Mary's School of Law. My brother and I
Speaker 1: are driving back to the Rio Grand Valley from San Antonio,
Speaker 1: Texas right now being surrounded by my family, my friends,
Speaker 1: all my relatives, especially for the holidays. It's just really
Speaker 1: great and I also just finished my semester of law school.
Speaker 1: We finished our finals last weekend, so I'm really excited
Speaker 1: that my family is going to be all together again
Speaker 1: in the valley. The valley is just such a great place.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people don't know about it.
Speaker 1: People think that it's desert or it's Mexico or I
Speaker 1: used to have a friend that had found in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: and his family would ask him like do you guys
Speaker 1: see illegals running around, and I was like what? Like,
Speaker 1: like that's so like people don't know. People will be like, Oh,
Speaker 1: do you carry your gun everywhere you go, like is
Speaker 1: it dangerous? Are you scared? And and it's gonna have
Speaker 1: been salty. But when you see get questions like that
Speaker 1: about how dangerous it was, but it's not. I feel
Speaker 1: safer here in the valley than I do in San Antonio,
Speaker 1: my home and my family's home. I have dogs. That
Speaker 1: will be worse. Yeah, my family has a pile. I
Speaker 1: don't know why. Why bark a lot more than the
Speaker 1: people does? I'm very close to my parents. We talk
Speaker 1: a lot. We all communicate a lot. I think you
Speaker 1: know my favorite memories were all of us sitting in
Speaker 1: the living room together cracking jokes, talking about our day
Speaker 1: and things that bothered us, things we liked. My mom
Speaker 1: loves Christmas, loves lights and decorating and she plugs everything
Speaker 1: in for the night and then my dad goes and
Speaker 1: unplugs everything because I don't know if he's just thinking,
Speaker 1: like all the light bill you know, let me unplug him.
Speaker 1: I saw this meme on instagram that showed like the
Speaker 1: horoscope signs in like order of most festive, and my
Speaker 1: mom's sign was like most festive, has lights on the
Speaker 1: years round, year round, and my dad's was like the grinch,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, that makes sense. He's always
Speaker 1: unplugging everything. If my mom didn't decorate for Christmas, he
Speaker 1: wouldn't decorate. Like he doesn't really care. He's not about that.
Speaker 1: So that's this is what we have. Um for Christmas.
Speaker 1: We have and we also have Christmas cookies. Oh, there's
Speaker 1: also an also lint. That happens. We love that. We
Speaker 1: love it. The chest. Hi, my name is Maria. It
Speaker 1: is true Selenas in Um Genesis. SELENA's farm also leches,
Speaker 1: like a Mexican dessert with white rice, condensed milk cinnamon.
Speaker 1: It's really good. I know some people will make it
Speaker 1: and then put it in the fridge or the freezer
Speaker 1: so that it's kind of like a Jello pastry or
Speaker 1: like a flan pastry, but with my family we eat
Speaker 1: it hot. We make it and then just put it
Speaker 1: in a cup so it's nice and warm. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of like the CHAMPO. Not Ronch is more of a
Speaker 1: holiday dessert. So when Christmas rolls around, I always ask
Speaker 1: my mom. She can't make it, and it's some sugar
Speaker 1: and now I'm gonna add milk, so it starts getting there.
Speaker 1: This is the way we like it. We don't like
Speaker 1: it to dry more like a Yah. I'm letchen Look Genesis.
Speaker 1: This is the way you make it. So if you
Speaker 1: want to learn, you need to be pay attention. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna stand your weight. So it don't
Speaker 1: be boiling and it's already can you smell it already?
Speaker 1: It sounds trying again. And now we have a cross.
Speaker 1: Is it your testimony today that you recognize one of
Speaker 1: the defendants as one of the robbers, the man that
Speaker 1: robbed me? Is that man sitting right over there, wearing
Speaker 1: that blue jacket and those brands banking? You glasses, your honor?
Speaker 1: May I approach the witness? Female. I am handing the witness.
Speaker 1: Being an attorney was always my dream job, and it's
Speaker 1: because all of my family came from Mexico and it
Speaker 1: was an immigration attorney that helped them complete their American dream.
Speaker 1: I don't even know her name, I don't know who
Speaker 1: she was, um, but she really inspired me, and so
Speaker 1: I'd like to be able to make that difference. I
Speaker 1: want to practice personal injury, but do you immigration on
Speaker 1: the side Pro Bono? You know when she got accepted
Speaker 1: to law school and we cried so much because, you know,
Speaker 1: I remember telling Genesis when she graduated with her bachelors,
Speaker 1: I said, Genesis, you could be a lawyer, genesis, you
Speaker 1: could be anything you want to. You have the potential. Um,
Speaker 1: I believe in you. We believe in you and we're
Speaker 1: going to support you all the way. Genesis, where August
Speaker 1: going to be here for you? You You know, I'm a teacher.
Speaker 1: You know my husband, he works at a hospital, but
Speaker 1: we don't have a lot of money. But we told
Speaker 1: her family were here and where you're your you know
Speaker 1: your support. So it is it is very emotional for
Speaker 1: us for genesis to be in her second year and
Speaker 1: just later become a lawyer. Hi, Ni Um. I became
Speaker 1: a Christian when I was little, Um, but I think
Speaker 1: not until I started gaining my own independence that I
Speaker 1: wanted to get very involved and I was trying to
Speaker 1: be a leader at my church. Um and my parents.
Speaker 1: Everyone is a believer, but not a practicing Christian, and
Speaker 1: so they didn't understand why I wanted to be there.
Speaker 1: But I feel like church just offers a very loving community. Okay, listen,
Speaker 1: it's awesome to have a community Um of people that
Speaker 1: have the same beliefs as you and have the same
Speaker 1: foundations and Um that kind of just focuses on loving God,
Speaker 1: don't in loving each other, Um, and I do think
Speaker 1: that when I become an attorney, I will, you know,
Speaker 1: factor that in and take that into consideration from all
Speaker 1: of you all every I really love this pastor that
Speaker 1: he's gonna give the sermon today. Um, I think he
Speaker 1: was in the running for lead pastor a few years
Speaker 1: ago and he didn't get it because the other pastor
Speaker 1: had been here for ten, fifteen years. But he is amazing.
Speaker 1: Jesus is destined for a painful purpose. That why is important.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, play on this day we're talking
Speaker 1: about the painful purpose of Jesus, because you're like, man,
Speaker 1: this is supposed to be Christmas the world. Well, it's
Speaker 1: definitely different for like the Christmas season. Uh. It kind
Speaker 1: of made me think a lot more when he said
Speaker 1: like Jesus purpose was painful, you know, because you start realizing,
Speaker 1: you know that I mean for when everything happens for
Speaker 1: a reason, you know, and all the pain and suffering
Speaker 1: that you go through is for a reason. Um. And
Speaker 1: I feel like slowly, as life starts going, you start
Speaker 1: learning why things had to happen, um. And so, hearing that,
Speaker 1: I want to say I thought about law school. Law
Speaker 1: Schools painful. It's been. There's a lot of great things
Speaker 1: a while law school, but it's been a really hard journey,
Speaker 1: you know, being alone, being quarantined, studying for so many hours.
Speaker 1: It's it's been really rough going through it and then
Speaker 1: moving to San Antonio by myself. That was really hard.
Speaker 1: Do you miss about? I do. It feels weird when
Speaker 1: I come back, like I never left. When I come home,
Speaker 1: I kind of forget about my life in San Antonio.
Speaker 1: It feels like another dimension, like like a false reality.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, yeah, it's funny because in San
Speaker 1: Antonio I like it because, you know, I can go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store and pajamas and I don't know
Speaker 1: anyone over there and nobody knows me. So it's okay.
Speaker 1: I don't really care how I look where I go,
Speaker 1: like anywhere I go, but here, even if I'm going
Speaker 1: to Walgreens or even if I'm going to H G B,
Speaker 1: like I need to look decent because I will see somebody.
Speaker 1: I know it. I will see I will know the employees. Um.
Speaker 1: I started sending my medication to different walgreens because the
Speaker 1: Walgreen's from my house I knew everyone. I knew all
Speaker 1: like the pharmacy tax, I knew all the walgreens employees. Um.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, any medication, it's like I'd go
Speaker 1: to the pharmacy and everyone I knew was there and
Speaker 1: they knew a medication I was taking a why and
Speaker 1: how my appointment went? I don't know. It was just
Speaker 1: it's weird. So I started setting it to another walk Greens.
Speaker 1: I don't know people that Um but I love it.
Speaker 1: I miss it. I Love San Antonia. If I get
Speaker 1: a job offered it's Antonio when I'm out. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: mind working there for a while, but my goal is
Speaker 1: to come back'll be like said her. Then, well, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have dinner first. Ye here at home. We were
Speaker 1: like do the ginger bread like we're doing today. Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: so get ready. Oh my God, we haven't done here.
Speaker 1: So you don't know what a flight fried flower Tortilla
Speaker 1: instead of putting the flower in them. Yeah, I'm through
Speaker 1: SALNA Jr. I'm the Father Jenesis Selena's. When jenesis first
Speaker 1: started going to school, remb prekinder didn't know English, English
Speaker 1: well school, and you know, I'll go pick grow up
Speaker 1: and you know, you know, she's not in this classroom.
Speaker 1: Why on? Because do you know how to speak English?
Speaker 1: So we'll put in another glass and I was like why?
Speaker 1: What do you mean to don't know his beginness and
Speaker 1: I had noticed because, you know, we didn't. Yes, but
Speaker 1: she didn't because her grandma was taking too. So after that,
Speaker 1: you know, at night I would be reading to her,
Speaker 1: you know, stories, so she could learn English, because she
Speaker 1: didn't know. I was four years old, she was born.
Speaker 1: She didn't know because my mom took care of her
Speaker 1: and raised her since she was born and she only
Speaker 1: knows Spanish. What about Christis? When you workid did you
Speaker 1: sell her? Did you ever get to celebrate Christmas in Mexico?
Speaker 1: In Mexico, you know, what was it like as a
Speaker 1: as a Hispanic household in the sixties, seventies? What was
Speaker 1: slight for you? You know, I didn't really experience it
Speaker 1: that much. What was that? I don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: I grew up in a in a ranch. It was
Speaker 1: only about, you know, fifty houses. The nearest town was
Speaker 1: like twenty miles. We had no electricity. We had no
Speaker 1: electricity until like when I was seven or eight years old,
Speaker 1: and we didn't have no no resources. You know, it
Speaker 1: was very, really poor. We had no running water. What
Speaker 1: was the Food Christmas? What? What? What would you know,
Speaker 1: your mom? You know, I came to United States when
Speaker 1: I was ten years old. So, but in Mexico, where were,
Speaker 1: your mom cooked for you and we used to form
Speaker 1: a lot. We form corn, beans, squash, candaloupe, watermelon, whatever
Speaker 1: we form, you know, that's what we ate. And you know,
Speaker 1: my dad grew up in a shepherd you know, my
Speaker 1: grandpa had like two hundred goats. So all the mediday
Speaker 1: was goat. They would kill a baby coat like every
Speaker 1: every week or every two weeks, and that's all they ate.
Speaker 1: And the beans, well, they grew the beans. The only
Speaker 1: thing they had to buy was, I think, rice and potatoes,
Speaker 1: because the corn, you know, you're in the corn. You know,
Speaker 1: we used to, you know, make the tortillas with Thesaman,
Speaker 1: my grandma, you don't have to, and then from there
Speaker 1: to made the tortillas. So everything, you know, we have.
Speaker 1: We almost had everything there, but you know, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't in a city like a ster. Grew up
Speaker 1: in the city and they had more traditions, more resources.
Speaker 1: But why where I grew up? But there was no,
Speaker 1: no resources. There was more ranch sports, Monta. We had
Speaker 1: no electricity. That I remember. The winters, they were called
Speaker 1: my dad. Every morning he would um wake up early,
Speaker 1: before school and make breakfast. Um, but he would make
Speaker 1: like a Mexican breakfast, like a Chodi saw and ch egg,
Speaker 1: or he would make megas cut up with the egg,
Speaker 1: and so he used to get up and make on
Speaker 1: this fancy breakfast and sometimes we wouldn't eat it and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't think about it when I was younger. But like,
Speaker 1: making breakfast for somebody like takes time, you know, it
Speaker 1: takes time and effort, and so the fact that he
Speaker 1: would make breakfast every morning and we would never eat it,
Speaker 1: like it just makes me sad thinking about now, like
Speaker 1: it's sad now. If he makes breakfast, I'm like, Oh, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're more aware. You're like, Oh, you're spending groceries on me,
Speaker 1: you're spending time to wake up early and make food
Speaker 1: for me. Um. So now I make sure to eat,
Speaker 1: even if I'm eating already, if I come from somewhere. No, no,
Speaker 1: it's falling apart. Na Genesis has just lost the competition.
Speaker 1: Her train, her gingerbread train, has quite literally become gingerbread
Speaker 1: train wreck. You know, that's the Spanish also tradition, I believe. Literally,
Speaker 1: I was looking at it and I was like, Oh
Speaker 1: my God, it looks so, so beautiful. My name is
Speaker 1: Jay Um, genesis younger brother. I'm twenty years old. I'm
Speaker 1: a senior AT U T R G V and I
Speaker 1: hope to be a lawyer and go to law school
Speaker 1: just like Genesis. One day. When we were younger, how
Speaker 1: we did Christmas was, I would say, you know, speaking
Speaker 1: about it like from Hispanic perspective, was like we didn't
Speaker 1: really open our gifts on the morning of Christmas Day,
Speaker 1: like I would see kind of like displayed in American culture.
Speaker 1: We would open them Christmas Eve at my uncle's house
Speaker 1: and we would all be got us in our you know,
Speaker 1: maybe thirty person party. But yeah, we would. We would
Speaker 1: open our presents together on Christmas Eve. Christmas, as we
Speaker 1: knew it, was more so like a night thing. We
Speaker 1: rarely woke up and opened our gifts on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: We made it a habit of opening them with our cousins,
Speaker 1: with our other family members. Christmas. Opened some gifts here,
Speaker 1: because I would not take when we when we were younger,
Speaker 1: mom and dad, it used to say like that the
Speaker 1: presence that we'd open over there my uncles were from
Speaker 1: them and then on the when we woke up there
Speaker 1: was new presents and those were from Santa Um. So
Speaker 1: for a while we did do both. Yeah, and one
Speaker 1: of our favorite holiday songs is called I actually don't
Speaker 1: know what that means in English. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: What does that mean? What is means? We're to Mexican. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny. It's like a Spanish songs. It's not a
Speaker 1: Spanish song, it's a Christmas Carol. Okay, it's called in Spanish.
Speaker 1: They're called the JANICUS and basically a burritosh do. Yes,
Speaker 1: so basically represents it's Sane Innando. That's when Virgin Mary Right,
Speaker 1: and she was pregnant and they were they came in
Speaker 1: a dock. Yes, they were looking for yes, and it
Speaker 1: says Boa, Camino a velline, okay, to Bethlehem, yes, okay.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, it's all happy. Okay. So
Speaker 1: it's saying Um, like talking to the donkey, like get ready,
Speaker 1: we're going to Bethlehem, um. And it's a happy, joyful
Speaker 1: song because because, uh, the baby Jesus was going to
Speaker 1: be born, and that's why, m H. I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is the song. It's a it's a Christmas
Speaker 1: carol in Spanish. Yeah, it's sunny. We were seeing it.
Speaker 1: I never need it met. Uh. This is like for
Speaker 1: us too. It brings us together. You know, now that
Speaker 1: they have grown up, it's it has gotten super, super busy. Uh,
Speaker 1: that you know, this is a way of just bringing
Speaker 1: all of us together, like we're here, we're helping them,
Speaker 1: and you know, I really, I really enjoyed this. We
Speaker 1: cried a lot. We were sad because we're always together.
Speaker 1: But Um, but we understand, right. Yeah, I guess, because
Speaker 1: we think you're just temporary. That's that's one of my
Speaker 1: dreams for both of them to work together. Um, from
Speaker 1: law school, graduate attorneys. Yes, law firm named Salinas and Salinas.
Speaker 1: I really love coming home and catching up with everyone, Um,
Speaker 1: and I feel more free, I feel more relieved being
Speaker 1: in the valley. I feel like myself again. I don't
Speaker 1: feel like a full time law student under the same pressure,
Speaker 1: and I'm really, Um excited to have this next month
Speaker 1: off so we can all be together again as a family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: last action is a production of I heart radio and
Speaker 1: sound argument, created, produced and edited by Kevin Huffman and
Speaker 1: Lisa Gray. This episode had additional field production and was
Speaker 1: written by Kristen Cabrera. Executive producers are Taylor Chacogne and
Speaker 1: Katrina norvell. For more podcasts from I heart radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart radio APP, apple podcast or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your favorite shows.