WEBVTT - Introducing: My Divo

0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.640
<v Speaker 1>From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria

0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.800
<v Speaker 1>no Josa and today, my dear Latino USA listener, we

0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.880
<v Speaker 1>have got something so special for you. We are about

0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.400
<v Speaker 1>to drop the first episode of our newest podcast from

0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:22.000
<v Speaker 1>Futuro Studios. It's been under wraps until now. Now when

0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.439
<v Speaker 1>someone says, oh, that girl is my diva, you know

0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:26.320
<v Speaker 1>what that means.

0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.760
<v Speaker 2>Well, we're changing it up. Our podcast is called.

0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.959
<v Speaker 1>My Divo and it's because it's about none other than

0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.040
<v Speaker 1>Juan Gabriel. It's an Apple original podcast about the legacy

0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.800
<v Speaker 1>of one of the biggest stars in Mexico and Latin

0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.880
<v Speaker 1>America and in the entire Spanish speaking world, Juan Gabriel.

0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.000
<v Speaker 2>But this is also a podcast about roots.

0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.800
<v Speaker 1>In this eight episode series, available in both English and

0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:53.560
<v Speaker 1>in Spanish.

0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.680
<v Speaker 2>That's right in Espanol. Right from this moment.

0:00:56.840 --> 0:01:00.520
<v Speaker 1>Our host Marie Gartci explores her own roots and her

0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:05.319
<v Speaker 1>own queer identity through one GAVINID. Now you might remember

0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.760
<v Speaker 1>Maria Garcia from another Futuro Studios podcast, Remember this one

0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.319
<v Speaker 1>Anything for Selina. It was on multiple best of lists

0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.520
<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty one. Well, Maria Garcia is back with

0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.160
<v Speaker 1>My Devo. Here is episode one. It's called the light

0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:23.840
<v Speaker 1>on my skin.

0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:34.160
<v Speaker 3>Where I'm from, the sun shines a particular bright wash

0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:39.280
<v Speaker 3>of gold. You see, the brightness and angle of sunlight

0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.360
<v Speaker 3>depends on your place on Earth. My home lies about

0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.720
<v Speaker 3>thirty two degrees latitude, a position that allows for soft,

0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.960
<v Speaker 3>glowy mornings, blazing noons, and sunsets that look like they're

0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:58.200
<v Speaker 3>made out of caramel and lavender. When the warmth of

0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.360
<v Speaker 3>this light blankets my skin and my body knows I'm home.

0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.200
<v Speaker 3>That's because my mother and her mother and her mother

0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:12.280
<v Speaker 3>have all been cloaked by this same light, the one

0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.240
<v Speaker 3>of a kind hue of the Chihuahuan desert that glistens

0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:26.120
<v Speaker 3>over to Ahuadis and al Paso, Texas. On my mother's side,

0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:28.839
<v Speaker 3>I can count up to seven generations who have been

0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.280
<v Speaker 3>born in this desert. I wonder which one of the

0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.280
<v Speaker 3>generations first adopted the lessons that got passed down to me.

0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.880
<v Speaker 3>Lessons like the more feminine a woman is, the more

0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:46.200
<v Speaker 3>beautiful a woman should always be pursued and never ever pursue,

0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:52.280
<v Speaker 3>and naturally the ones doing the pursuing are men. Anything

0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:58.360
<v Speaker 3>outside of that is unnatural. These lessons were easy to

0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.519
<v Speaker 3>follow for me. At my young age, I loved all

0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:06.560
<v Speaker 3>things feminine, fashion, furls, pink, and boys. Yeah, it was

0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.880
<v Speaker 3>easy to like them too. I date a good number

0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.160
<v Speaker 3>of them from the time I was thirteen to my

0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:16.520
<v Speaker 3>mid twenties. Around that time, this other part of me

0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.520
<v Speaker 3>began waking up. I remember reading a book about seventeenth

0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:26.040
<v Speaker 3>century Mexican nun so Juan Nainez de la Cruse's imagined

0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.800
<v Speaker 3>queer affairs and feeling a novel desire in my body.

0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.760
<v Speaker 3>I felt myself expand, craving a connection that was outside

0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.400
<v Speaker 3>the gender bounds of my upbringing. But I kept it

0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:48.960
<v Speaker 3>to myself. And then a woman kissed me in the

0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.720
<v Speaker 3>bathroom at a club, and I knew I couldn't brush

0:03:52.720 --> 0:04:00.560
<v Speaker 3>this feeling off anymore. I didn't want to god about

0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.600
<v Speaker 3>all the rules my mom had taught me. I fell

0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:13.400
<v Speaker 3>in and out of love. I had a baby. Years later.

0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.159
<v Speaker 3>I met someone, someone who was beyond a woman or

0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:22.440
<v Speaker 3>a man, and things felt the most right they ever had.

0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.320
<v Speaker 3>Like some who I just want us to like melt

0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:27.080
<v Speaker 3>into each other.

0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:29.719
<v Speaker 2>That happens sometimes.

0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.039
<v Speaker 3>So my life looks very different now than what my

0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:38.480
<v Speaker 3>mom had imagined for me. My queerness now illuminates my life.

0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.720
<v Speaker 3>As I raised my son back in the desert after

0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.159
<v Speaker 3>years away, I want him to notice you, that's what

0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:53.240
<v Speaker 3>is the desert light. Are deep roots here, okay, if almost,

0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.640
<v Speaker 3>But I also want to prune those roots. I want

0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:05.440
<v Speaker 3>to shed the homophobia, the gender norms, these ingrained lessons

0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:09.480
<v Speaker 3>I grew up with. That may sound simple, but it's

0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.320
<v Speaker 3>actually radical because when I was growing up, the message

0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.640
<v Speaker 3>my Mexican culture gave me was that it was dangerous, wrong,

0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:24.680
<v Speaker 3>unnatural to love the way I do. But I know

0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:30.159
<v Speaker 3>there's a way forward, a way of being Mexican that's

0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:39.400
<v Speaker 3>in harmony with my queerness. I know it because I've

0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:54.360
<v Speaker 3>seen it in Huanga Rielle. When my American friends ask

0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.440
<v Speaker 3>me about Huanga, I tell them that when he was young,

0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:03.240
<v Speaker 3>Puanga had a hairy style, slash prince vibe, handsome, thematically

0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.480
<v Speaker 3>provocative telegraphing, a reverence.

0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.880
<v Speaker 2>Queerness, Agusta.

0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.679
<v Speaker 4>Agusta Kant.

0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.400
<v Speaker 3>And maybe in Huanga's later years he gave off a

0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.840
<v Speaker 3>little bit of an Elton John energy, but more relevant

0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:26.239
<v Speaker 3>and sexier. I can see him now koift thick black hair,

0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:33.919
<v Speaker 3>coffee hued skin, bejeweled outfits, a soft, tender voice, too.

0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:35.520
<v Speaker 5>Yes, I.

0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:46.560
<v Speaker 3>Completely devoted to an audience that is total. Huanga was

0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.320
<v Speaker 3>a prolific composer. By some estimates, he wrote more than

0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:57.120
<v Speaker 3>eighteen hundred songs, and his songs they're cannon like sacred text.

0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.440
<v Speaker 3>In Latin America, he sold more than one hundred million records.

0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.600
<v Speaker 5>He wrote hit songs for other artists.

0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:07.920
<v Speaker 3>Pungga did recorded countless seismic ubiquitous hits from the early

0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.520
<v Speaker 3>seventies to the twenty tens. He devoted his life to music.

0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:18.640
<v Speaker 4>I can consideras to mehor amiga ala musica.

0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.440
<v Speaker 3>Kuanga had a song for everything. His poetry was the

0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.920
<v Speaker 3>soundtrack to daily life. You want to tell your ex

0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.720
<v Speaker 3>in a gentle loving way that you have someone new,

0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:31.440
<v Speaker 3>Huanga has a song for that.

0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:36.840
<v Speaker 1>Benwieskinless times baus mina Mura.

0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.360
<v Speaker 3>You want to tell a booty call that they didn't

0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.000
<v Speaker 3>mean anything to you, Huanga has one for you too.

0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:48.120
<v Speaker 1>Yes, that's Ben Sando Keesulfi and best joys that song

0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.680
<v Speaker 1>Yando no snskin song.

0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.280
<v Speaker 3>You want to bask in hopefulness and the beauty of

0:07:54.360 --> 0:08:03.600
<v Speaker 3>the sun, Huanga has a song for that too. But

0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.080
<v Speaker 3>what made him Huanga was that he could make his

0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:12.160
<v Speaker 3>songs come alive on stage. To this day, there's a

0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.520
<v Speaker 3>whole genre of reaction videos of people discovering the power

0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.560
<v Speaker 3>of Huanga's performances, like this YouTuber who goes by go

0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:21.680
<v Speaker 3>O t Games Loop.

0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:27.120
<v Speaker 2>Did you hear his voice break?

0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.000
<v Speaker 4>That's emotion, that's raw passion.

0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:29.360
<v Speaker 5>Listen.

0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.520
<v Speaker 3>It was the way Huanga emoded, the way he performed

0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:54.520
<v Speaker 3>songs like there was an urgency in every lyric. His songs,

0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.360
<v Speaker 3>he'd say, are about real.

0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:05.239
<v Speaker 2>Life experience, yes, half waiter, about.

0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.000
<v Speaker 3>Things he had to release when he was burning with feeling,

0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:14.680
<v Speaker 3>and the songs there's this understated, elegant simplicity to his writing.

0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.959
<v Speaker 3>He'd make you cry, feel grief so viscerally, and then

0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:25.160
<v Speaker 3>he'd suddenly switched to flirty fun. There was a lightness

0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:30.360
<v Speaker 3>to him and a bigness to him, a big queer exuberance,

0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:35.280
<v Speaker 3>the exact opposite of the macho ladies man. I mean,

0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.719
<v Speaker 3>think about the other Mexican music icons who played with

0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:58.480
<v Speaker 3>Mariachis at that time, like Vicente Fernandez, a mustache oed

0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.600
<v Speaker 3>manly man with a deep singing about revenge and jealousy

0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.240
<v Speaker 3>and being a king. And here was sauce spoken Juangabriel

0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.800
<v Speaker 3>with his folded wrist, wearing a little makeup, singing about

0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:28.920
<v Speaker 3>the optimism of the sun rising every day. He revolutionized

0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:33.280
<v Speaker 3>who could embody Mexico's most traditional music. He showed that

0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.520
<v Speaker 3>the nation's music wasn't just for the masculine chatterls, the

0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:42.480
<v Speaker 3>Mexican cowboys and muted colors and tailored suits. No Hunga said,

0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:51.920
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna command this Mariacchi, but let's make it gay now.

0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.400
<v Speaker 3>There was a time in the beginning of his career

0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:58.400
<v Speaker 3>as a young pop star when the default assumption was

0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:03.000
<v Speaker 3>that he was a straight me heart throb. Interviewers would

0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:08.480
<v Speaker 3>ask him what his type of woman was. He always

0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.520
<v Speaker 3>seemed to evade the question, answering something vague and cryptic.

0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.400
<v Speaker 6>Like mohe.

0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:24.280
<v Speaker 3>Always a nobody truly marries anyone, You just choose someone.

0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.200
<v Speaker 3>By the time I was growing up, the world had

0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.520
<v Speaker 3>caught on that Huanga was different than other pop stars.

0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.959
<v Speaker 3>Even as a kid, I knew there was something subversive

0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.199
<v Speaker 3>about Huanga. He was the very first queer person I

0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.520
<v Speaker 3>knew of. I mean, I wasn't sure he was gay,

0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.400
<v Speaker 3>but all the adults around me seem to assume he was,

0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.200
<v Speaker 3>and interviewers alluded to it. For example, in this Mexican

0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.400
<v Speaker 3>TV show, the announcer prefaced an interview with Huanga by

0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.880
<v Speaker 3>saying some people had written to the program to say

0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:02.800
<v Speaker 3>they found Huanga's demeanor offensiveson as.

0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.320
<v Speaker 7>A sinten of India's put through manaty.

0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.199
<v Speaker 3>After years of media speculation about his sexuality, a reporter

0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:17.000
<v Speaker 3>famously asked Huanga outright on national television if he was gay.

0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.200
<v Speaker 8>Lison, dear gay Lavena is gay?

0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:28.959
<v Speaker 3>Liz Calkas Avena super go oh to this day, I

0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.440
<v Speaker 3>love this answer. What can be seen shouldn't be asked?

0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:41.439
<v Speaker 3>He said, like he wasn't hiding, but he refused to

0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.120
<v Speaker 3>be a spectacle. A spectacle because we're talking about mainstream

0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.400
<v Speaker 3>media in Mexico in the eighties through the odds, this

0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.439
<v Speaker 3>is the country with the second highest Catholic population in

0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.800
<v Speaker 3>the world. Being queer wasn't as accepted as it is

0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.400
<v Speaker 3>now in Mexico. For many of us, we heard our

0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:03.640
<v Speaker 3>first gay slures and yoakes ever directed at Huanga. But

0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.880
<v Speaker 3>even though he represented something many Mexicans seem to hate,

0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:12.559
<v Speaker 3>he was also revered and loved because his art was

0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:17.160
<v Speaker 3>that good and he was so magnetic and.

0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:21.440
<v Speaker 2>Real coram as dim.

0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.160
<v Speaker 3>He talked about his human duty to be kind, humble,

0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.640
<v Speaker 3>and divine. He'd always say how proud he was to

0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.920
<v Speaker 3>be from Mexico, but he was especially proud to have

0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.880
<v Speaker 3>grown up in what Is. That made an impression on

0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.920
<v Speaker 3>me because I grew up hearing misconceptions about my city

0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:43.920
<v Speaker 3>of birth that it was all violent.

0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.120
<v Speaker 2>In this video from Thursday, you can hear gunshots on

0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:50.200
<v Speaker 2>a busy street in Quody.

0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.000
<v Speaker 3>Mexico's defense ministry has said that it has centered on

0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.160
<v Speaker 3>two hundred military personnel to the northern border city of

0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:56.880
<v Speaker 3>war Now.

0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.480
<v Speaker 6>To extra depth and perspective on the violence is joining

0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.760
<v Speaker 6>us now is Louis with headlines that made it sound

0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.439
<v Speaker 6>like the only thing worth reporting about in this corner

0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.839
<v Speaker 6>of the world where Narco wars and murder.

0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:22.720
<v Speaker 3>But to Huanga, what Is was beautiful. He sang about

0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:32.800
<v Speaker 3>what is a lot called at the border where God

0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:38.240
<v Speaker 3>should live? Look Sometimes, Huanga exaggerated, a bit can be

0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.520
<v Speaker 3>a tough place to live, but his zeal for what

0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.760
<v Speaker 3>Is served as an antidote for how much the city

0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.360
<v Speaker 3>is snubbed and looked down upon. I love that this

0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:54.080
<v Speaker 3>quintessential symbol of Mexican identity. Is this queer man from

0:14:54.120 --> 0:15:03.040
<v Speaker 3>the fringes of the country, a gay fronterriso Mexico Mexican.

0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.040
<v Speaker 3>I asked my mom, who was born and raised in

0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.760
<v Speaker 3>what is why Huanga has become a symbol of Mexican

0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:16.720
<v Speaker 3>identity bourgueznostro del pueblo denstro because he's ours of the people,

0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.480
<v Speaker 3>she tells me. And over and over people have echoed

0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:25.320
<v Speaker 3>that sentiment that Juangabriel means something beyond himself, that there's

0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:27.400
<v Speaker 3>something greater in his legacy.

0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:30.720
<v Speaker 4>What does Guangabriel mean to me?

0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.640
<v Speaker 8>The first time I've experienced pride as a gay Mexican man,

0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:35.520
<v Speaker 8>That's what he means to me.

0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.800
<v Speaker 2>He was almost like the music of my childhood that

0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:39.520
<v Speaker 2>I grew up with.

0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.320
<v Speaker 1>The first thing that comes to my mind is my

0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.920
<v Speaker 1>mother dancing in the living room all by herself.

0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.600
<v Speaker 7>For me, it just meant that somebody like me, who

0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.680
<v Speaker 7>was also like him gay, could find himself in a

0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:57.280
<v Speaker 7>place where we could transcend the homophobia in Mexico and

0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:58.320
<v Speaker 7>be respected.

0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.400
<v Speaker 3>The way that I think of a lot of us

0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:02.760
<v Speaker 3>is queer folks wish to be in the world is

0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.320
<v Speaker 3>just to exist as who we are.

0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.960
<v Speaker 8>He was just always that as someone who's not born

0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.480
<v Speaker 8>and raised Mexican, he gives me a little bit of

0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.760
<v Speaker 8>that connection because he's just been a part of my

0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:14.880
<v Speaker 8>life in the background there for as long as I

0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:15.400
<v Speaker 8>can remember.

0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.920
<v Speaker 4>To me, he means the border of Alpasso and Fares,

0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.080
<v Speaker 4>but more broadly Mexico and the United States.

0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.800
<v Speaker 8>Huanga to me means being true to who you are

0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.200
<v Speaker 8>and not turning down your life, not turning off your

0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:31.320
<v Speaker 8>life for anyone else.

0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.360
<v Speaker 9>There are only very very few artists that come around

0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:36.800
<v Speaker 9>like Juan Gabrielle.

0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.520
<v Speaker 3>Once every fifteen years you see an artist like him.

0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.560
<v Speaker 1>Hey, we're back and I'm going to turn it over

0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.160
<v Speaker 1>once again to Marie Garcia for the first episode of

0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:58.880
<v Speaker 1>our new podcast series from Futuro Studios.

0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.120
<v Speaker 2>It's called My Devot.

0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.360
<v Speaker 3>Singing Dancing to Huanga with my mom and my cousins

0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:18.639
<v Speaker 3>is when I feel peak Mexican love for Huanga runs

0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.080
<v Speaker 3>deep in my home. My mom taught me to love him.

0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.800
<v Speaker 3>I've taught my son, your baby. Can I ask you something,

0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.520
<v Speaker 3>who's your favorite singer right now? Junda Guana is your

0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.800
<v Speaker 3>favorite singer right now? Look, my son is the first

0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.120
<v Speaker 3>one in his line born in the us. But when

0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.960
<v Speaker 3>I hear him karaoke huanga with my mom, I know

0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.280
<v Speaker 3>that he knows where he comes from.

0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.440
<v Speaker 2>Ami Usa Mucho sad and apple Beta.

0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:50.760
<v Speaker 5>Go good luck.

0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.320
<v Speaker 3>It's a Sunday morning and I'm visiting my mom. She's

0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:05.840
<v Speaker 3>making breakfast. I'm catching up with her. Asking my mom

0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:10.840
<v Speaker 3>about a concert she went to the night before. She

0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.520
<v Speaker 3>jokes that she felt like getting up on stage, which

0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.840
<v Speaker 3>is on brand for her, but was too scared to

0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:26.960
<v Speaker 3>fall after I put some sauce on my tacos kerrico. Yes,

0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.040
<v Speaker 3>I asked her. What I'm really here to find out?

0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:31.800
<v Speaker 4>You taking.

0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:49.040
<v Speaker 3>About the story of when she met Juan Gabriela. Yes,

0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.359
<v Speaker 3>that Juan Gabriel. My mom went to the Juatis airport

0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.240
<v Speaker 3>to pick someone up and she saw the commotion Juangabriel

0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.040
<v Speaker 3>had just arrived. She was star straight. He was her

0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.840
<v Speaker 3>favorite artist. She wanted to go ask him for an autograph,

0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.359
<v Speaker 3>but she was too shy. So like a movie scene,

0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.760
<v Speaker 3>he noticed my mom from across the room, and instead

0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.840
<v Speaker 3>of paying attention to the gaggle of girls around him,

0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:19.360
<v Speaker 3>he asked my mom, what about you? You don't want

0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:28.320
<v Speaker 3>an autograph? My mom finally approached him and he told

0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:42.560
<v Speaker 3>her mid your eyes are so beautiful. Yeah, my mom

0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.960
<v Speaker 3>says she didn't even want to wash her hand afterward

0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.000
<v Speaker 3>because Huanga had touched it. And the magical part of

0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.320
<v Speaker 3>this story, the part that's become family lore. She says

0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:54.800
<v Speaker 3>that soon after this encounter, he came out with his

0:19:55.000 --> 0:20:03.520
<v Speaker 3>song Soos, a banger about beautiful dark Mexican eyes like

0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:05.680
<v Speaker 3>my mom's who SUPs mag.

0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:09.960
<v Speaker 2>Gets on along for me.

0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:15.960
<v Speaker 3>And of course there's no proof that Huanga complimenting my

0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.600
<v Speaker 3>mom's eyes and him writing this song have anything to

0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.480
<v Speaker 3>do with each other, but we like to think so.

0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:28.920
<v Speaker 3>In the song, Huangavriel admire someone's big, dark eyes. He

0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:34.000
<v Speaker 3>calls them the inheritance of your beautiful parents. It feels

0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.680
<v Speaker 3>like that's what I'm seeking in Huanga, an inheritance, something

0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.399
<v Speaker 3>passed down to me that says, look, this is what

0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.080
<v Speaker 3>it can look like to be fully Mexican and fully

0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:56.359
<v Speaker 3>joyously queer. Reporting on Huanga has also forced me to

0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.920
<v Speaker 3>look within, to look at my own family, my own room.

0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.120
<v Speaker 3>You see, I saw similarities between my mom's difficult upbringing

0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:07.920
<v Speaker 3>and Huanga's own traumatic youth.

0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.679
<v Speaker 4>He told me his mother sent one of his older

0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.600
<v Speaker 4>brothers to hit him in order to get him out

0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:20.920
<v Speaker 4>of the problem of being gay.

0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.840
<v Speaker 3>Or when I looked into his complicated relationship with politics,

0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.680
<v Speaker 3>it forced me to confront a dark story in my

0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:32.720
<v Speaker 3>own family history. My body passed into a memory. I

0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:37.240
<v Speaker 3>finally know something dark went down here. Or as I

0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.120
<v Speaker 3>uncovered details about Huanga's journey as a queer person in Mexico,

0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:43.840
<v Speaker 3>I had to think about what it looks like for

0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:46.320
<v Speaker 3>me to be gay and Mexican.

0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.480
<v Speaker 5>I think Mexico is a gay country, but.

0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:53.160
<v Speaker 1>We are liars.

0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.240
<v Speaker 3>We've uncovered details about Huanga's life that have never come

0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.280
<v Speaker 3>to light, and you'll find things out about him that

0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:08.920
<v Speaker 3>will change what you think you know. Okay, Hags argionas

0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:14.080
<v Speaker 3>Jalisco Shock. You'll hear his story in a way that's

0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.720
<v Speaker 3>never been told. We'll be focusing on key moments in

0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.320
<v Speaker 3>his life and legacy, from the slums of what is

0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:22.800
<v Speaker 3>to worldwide stardom.

0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.000
<v Speaker 9>Are you I guess?

0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.119
<v Speaker 3>But this is not a straight biography podcast. You can

0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:40.520
<v Speaker 3>find Huangas story in plenty of places. Now. This is

0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:45.040
<v Speaker 3>a story about beauty, the beauty of being queer, the

0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:49.920
<v Speaker 3>beauty of being soft, the beauty of being us. Even

0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:52.280
<v Speaker 3>if the world would rather we not be.

0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.520
<v Speaker 9>I see a bunch of kres, I see a mountain,

0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:14.920
<v Speaker 9>I see cat. This is a tiny little one right

0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:17.119
<v Speaker 9>here at the edge of the mountain.

0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:20.399
<v Speaker 3>One of my favorite things to do with Kile my

0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:21.560
<v Speaker 3>son is.

0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:25.280
<v Speaker 9>To hike and a tiny little kreiso on the side

0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.200
<v Speaker 9>of the mountain. He also loves recording to capture the

0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.040
<v Speaker 9>great sound of nature, but also just to.

0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:45.600
<v Speaker 3>Make funny voices. Yeah, you're funny. The luminous desert sun

0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:49.760
<v Speaker 3>enrapts us as we stand in al Paso looking at Huatas,

0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:54.200
<v Speaker 3>a few miles away, where Huangaverie had once lived, where

0:23:54.440 --> 0:24:00.320
<v Speaker 3>our family also comes from. Did you know that mounting

0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:05.360
<v Speaker 3>you There have been five generations of our family who

0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:11.960
<v Speaker 3>have lived between these two mountains. Yeah, all of that

0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:16.359
<v Speaker 3>is you. That quartis where mom and I was born,

0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:18.560
<v Speaker 3>where her mom on Nanna came to when she was

0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:21.760
<v Speaker 3>really young, Where my great grandmother.

0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:23.440
<v Speaker 9>She's lived sixty one years.

0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:29.360
<v Speaker 3>She's pretty old. Sixty one is not old, buppy. As

0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:32.440
<v Speaker 3>I joke with my son about my mom's age. We're

0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:36.280
<v Speaker 3>watching the sunlight drape over a mountain range in Sua Quartas,

0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:42.080
<v Speaker 3>and this feels right because remember when my mom said

0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:45.880
<v Speaker 3>Juan Gavrielle felt like he was of the people. When

0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:48.200
<v Speaker 3>my mom told me that my son was listening to

0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:50.200
<v Speaker 3>us and he had a question.

0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:58.840
<v Speaker 9>And dibblo, what is that?

0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.159
<v Speaker 3>What does it mean to be of a people? I

0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:05.760
<v Speaker 3>guess that's what I'm thinking too, what does it mean

0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:09.960
<v Speaker 3>to be of a people? I want my son Hiel

0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:13.640
<v Speaker 3>to have the answer to that question, to know he's

0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:16.280
<v Speaker 3>connected to the what is? My mom and I come

0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:21.280
<v Speaker 3>from the what is? Juan Gabrielle came from the what

0:25:21.600 --> 0:25:27.359
<v Speaker 3>is drenched in the same golden sunlight that our skin recognizes.

0:25:31.480 --> 0:25:36.080
<v Speaker 3>I'm Maria Garcia and this is my Deevo, a podcast

0:25:36.880 --> 0:26:01.000
<v Speaker 3>about roots. Coming up on episode two, we take you

0:26:01.119 --> 0:26:06.000
<v Speaker 3>to the Club, a Huaris club, glitzy and gritty where

0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:07.240
<v Speaker 3>Huanga got his start.

0:26:07.760 --> 0:26:11.880
<v Speaker 5>Here in knock my Door, he say hey, I want

0:26:11.960 --> 0:26:17.280
<v Speaker 5>you You hear a new song and I say, I

0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:18.480
<v Speaker 5>gotta big hangover.

0:26:19.160 --> 0:26:23.320
<v Speaker 3>And two dark secrets, one from Huanga's life and one

0:26:23.400 --> 0:26:34.520
<v Speaker 3>from my own. That's all coming up in the next episode.

0:26:41.119 --> 0:26:45.320
<v Speaker 3>My Devo is an Apple original podcast produced by Futuro Studios.

0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:49.680
<v Speaker 3>This episode was written and reported by me Maria Garcia.

0:26:50.320 --> 0:26:54.159
<v Speaker 3>Our senior producer is Fernanda e Chavari. The show is

0:26:54.280 --> 0:26:59.320
<v Speaker 3>produced by Nicole Rothwell, Gini Montalvo, Lili Reese, Joaquin Coutler,

0:26:59.680 --> 0:27:05.480
<v Speaker 3>Tash Sandol and Alicia Fernandez. Our editor is Marlon Bishop.

0:27:05.960 --> 0:27:11.840
<v Speaker 3>Spanish adaptation by Ezequiel Rodriguez Andino and Fernando Ernandez Besserra.

0:27:12.480 --> 0:27:16.480
<v Speaker 3>Our senior production managers are Nicole Rothwell and Jessica Ellis,

0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:22.040
<v Speaker 3>with post production support from Nancy Trujillo. Mixing by Stephanie Lebau,

0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:28.120
<v Speaker 3>Julia Caruso and Gabriela Biaz. Fact checking by Nidia Bautista.

0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:32.760
<v Speaker 3>Our original music is by Paul Weitkiz, scoring and musical

0:27:32.880 --> 0:27:37.720
<v Speaker 3>curation by Stephanie Lebau. Our executive producers are Marlon Bishop

0:27:37.840 --> 0:27:42.720
<v Speaker 3>and Me. Legal review by Neil Rossini, Adrian Ojeda Cuevas,

0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:49.480
<v Speaker 3>Jimenajurigi and Sergio Gomez. Futuro Media was founded by Maria Inojosa.

0:27:50.440 --> 0:27:55.080
<v Speaker 3>Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts. I'm Maria Garcia. Thank

0:27:55.119 --> 0:27:56.760
<v Speaker 3>you for listening. See you next time.