WEBVTT - “Wilmer’s Will” 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:11.920 Welcome back to this is Wilmer. Val Uh. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.440 This episode, for me particularly, I'm going to very much 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.240 enjoy because we are diving into Amigo's life, his early 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:23.480 life before he became. 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:30.360 No. 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:32.479 Thank you, Thank you for allowing me the space to 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.519 dig dig deeper into my life. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.559 I hope we can dig I know, uh uh. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.320 Wilmer has a wonderful book out which everyone should go 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.120 and download and buy and read and all that stuff, 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.360 And so I hope that we could. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.680 Dig in without giving too much a way where you 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:52.400 feel that. 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.080 You no, no, no, I can get all over our way. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.000 I mean, I think that the the thing about the 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:58.080 book that's so interesting. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.720 It's like that, even though it's a trajectory there, there's 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.360 a couple of deep dogs, like you know, just talking 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.920 about the previous episode when we got to know so 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.480 much about you, you know, I've never had really the 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.640 opportunity to really talk and adapt about you know, my 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:15.520 parents and what they had to do and all that, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.640 and the trajectory was clear, but a lot of it 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.400 is attributed to to their journey. 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.080 Where where was your mother and your father born? 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.880 So my mother is from Peda, Colombia, and my father 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:34.600 was raised in San Cristova, Tachia, between Cuguta and San. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:35.839 Cristova, back and forth. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.080 San Cristoa Tauchia is it shares the border with Kuguta, 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.600 you know. And in Colombia, Colombia Venezuela, like they're right there. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.800 And then as he was growing up, you know, then 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.120 he eventually went to. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:48.760 To Caracas, you know. 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:50.440 But is that where he met your mom? 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:51.360 No? 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.880 They met later years years years later in Miami. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.080 Oh okay, yeah, they they were living life in Miami, 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:03.000 you know, med and eventually returned to Venezuela. But I, 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.320 you know, kind of dig in a little bit deeper 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:10.160 into into where my parents were from. Not until I 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:15.280 was writing an American story Everyone's Invited, which is my memoir, 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.320 I got to ask these questions that I for some 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:27.440 reason I felt I knew to then realize I didn't 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.280 as you were writing the book, Yeah, and why did 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:30.760 you feel the. 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:31.359 Need to do that? 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.040 I felt like, in order to tell my story of 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.000 where I am now, I realized that my story would 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.920 only be possible if you you know, with you know, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.240 I would only be possible possible with the chapters of 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.320 my parents, right, Like I mean, the trajectory of them 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.919 as people, what they had to go through in order 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.760 for me to be possible. That stuff was really humbling, 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.360 you know. I mean, for example, sitting down with my 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.720 mom when I was doing the exercise right of the 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.239 dissecting of who I am in my world and where 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.400 I came from and all that, you know, asking questions 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.440 that I hadn't asked before, you know, Like I asked 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:08.920 my mom, Mom, did you ever have a job like 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.320 and she literally said to me, he goes, yeah, I 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.840 used to be a reception instead a doctor's office. And 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:18.400 I go, what, Like, I literally my only memories of 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.880 my mom is being my mother right right? And for 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.520 some reason, not that I hadn't forgotten, but I kind 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:26.440 of I felt like I. 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:28.359 Knew my mom's family. 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.799 I knew my mom's sisters, I knew my mom's mom 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.040 and my grandpa, So I felt like I knew her life, right, 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.840 But that specific question like who she was when she 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.200 was a teenager and in her early twenties, Like what was 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.040 that life like for her before I was a possibility? 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:47.360 And it's something as simple as that, right, Yes, that 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.200 was a receptionist that opens up your brain and world. 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:57.119 And then she says something like, yeah, I guess an 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:02.119 uncle of her was a doctor in Colombia and had 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.080 a doctor's office and she wanted a job, so the 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.400 doctor hooked her up at the job. But nobody at 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:14.400 the doctor's office knew she was a niece. So they thought, oh, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.120 this guy and this young, you know, beautiful woman, like oh, 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:18.719 he gave. 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:19.760 Her a job at the place. 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.440 Later they found out a year later, they's like, no, 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.880 that's my uncle, right, yeah, I think she was in 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.640 her I think she was eighteen or something like that 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.440 at that point in y. But the idea that like 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.040 at that time they already were living a Spanish still 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.200 a novela, you know what I mean, Like already there 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.119 was like you know, oh no she's not the side woman, 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.920 she's actually her knees, you know, his niece the side. 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:46.400 Yeah. 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.080 It's like it's a very interesting thing. But by those 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.680 little things, you know. And then I somehow I buried this, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:54.760 you know. 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.599 We talked about grandparents and and yeah, sometimes I docked 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.719 a little deeper and I asked, I asked my mom. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.479 I was like, hey, so what in my grandpa do 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:04.360 for living? 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:04.680 You know? 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.719 And and then she unlocked a memory for me that 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.120 came tumbling down in so many ways. 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.440 He just I was like, Mom, so he well, he 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.479 was a coffeeto. He was a coffee maker. 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:15.680 You know. 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.440 He was a coffee maker. You know. He cultivated the 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.840 bean and roasted it, he grew the bean. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.920 Yes, yeah, he had a coffee farm in Colombia, in Colombia. 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.280 And I was like, what, but that makes a lot 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.159 of sense, I said, drinking a little thing. But I 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.320 so I started asking my my mom was like, wait, 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:32.840 what do you mean. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.839 And as soon as you say covetereto, I had these 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.400 flashes of memories that took me to the farm, that 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.279 took me sitting in my grandpa's leg while he was 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:47.640 feeding me apples from the tree, smelling the beans and 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.719 smelling with a roasting, you know, like it all start 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.080 unlocking for me. And I was like, wow, we come 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.320 from a from a family of caffettoes in Colombia. 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.520 And he owned the land. He did. He didn't work. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:00.520 It was thinka. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.920 It was just finca and pereta and it was it 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.960 was it was beautiful to think about that, you know, 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.880 and you know, my my uh and then my my 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.080 mom's mother, you know, she was you know, she was 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.320 at home, stay at home mom, and for a very 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:15.960 good reason. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:17.480 She had fourteen children. 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:19.520 Wow, like my mom. 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:24.680 Yeah, she had fourteen children too young, didn't make it 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.359 then she had thirteen, right, I think it was like 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.760 three men and three. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.120 Men and ten women or something like that. 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.080 It was like absolutely, you know they had they had 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:35.760 so many, so many kids. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:37.560 You know, they worked the land, right, I mean when 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.360 you say this, that's why they had such big families. 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:41.400 Work, I think. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.799 I think that and probably lack of television and entertainment. 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:45.719 You know, I think that. 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:50.920 There's absolutely no hobbies except for making babies and changing diapers, right, 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.320 and making babies and changing diapers again, you know. But yeah, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.200 my mom is one out of you know, twelve, you know, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.000 thirty people you know, and and and you know, so 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.520 I have a gang of cousins all over the world. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:07.640 Still still there. 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.800 Yes, a lot of them in Colombia, a lot of 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.080 them in Venezuela. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:12.360 You know. 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.040 But my dad and my mom's stories are are just 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:19.560 polar opposite, completely different human beings. You know, my mom 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.320 grew up in Colombia right in a coffee farm, you know, 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.000 and you know, many many siblings my dad grew up 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.520 you know, and pretty much in the slums of San 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.520 Cristoa and Krakens, you know, and he never met his father, 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.760 you know, he he doesn't know who his grandparents were. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.000 You know, really he never had time to ask those questions. 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.280 Before his mother passed. He was just hustling and working 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.400 his ass off, you know, to making sure that he 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.560 maintained his brothers and sisters, you know, because he was 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.960 like the older he was. He was the second oldest, 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.360 I think, I believe. And you know, he had a 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.200 couple of other brothers and you have a couple of 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.440 other like maybe you know, one half brother or something 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:10.200 like that. But you know, his mom was a baker. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.240 She you know, she was a bread you know, bread bags. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.280 So she would go to the bakery like after it closed, 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.320 she would bake all night and the and the bread 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:24.160 will be freshly put out early in the morning for 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.320 the customers to come in. She go home, you know, 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.680 try to hang out with kids, do the thing, you know, 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.959 put them to school whatever you know that she could, 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.480 and then at nighttime she would go and work all 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.000 and then you know, the tragic you know, memory of 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.479 it is that you know, my dad had a stepdad 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.880 who was just not a kind man, who was not 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.600 a good man. And everything that my grandma would struggle 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.680 to make, he would take it and drink it and 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.000 play pool down the street, and you know, and just 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.680 and so so it was a pretty sad and abusive trajectory. 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.840 You know, my bread feed the family, that that you're 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:01.520 that you're that she made. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.000 Yeah, that was that was she was the bread winner, 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:08.120 quite quite literally, you know. And and uh so my dad, 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.240 you know, saw that hustle, but also saw that that tragic, 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.640 you know, life that his mother was living. And very young, 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.640 I think he was like twelve or thirteen, he decided, 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.920 you know, mom, we we got to stop this. And 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:23.920 in the middle of the night, while he was out 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.679 there drinking or whatever, he packed all his mom stuff. 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.560 I think he was like thirteen or so, thirteen years old, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.600 and he packed up his mom stuff, picked up all 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.680 his brothers and sister stuff, and he goes, we're leaving. 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:36.400 And they took a bus and they went to Caracas 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.199 and they just disappeared in the middle of the night 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:40.760 and took their family to Karakas to have it to 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:41.480 start a new life. 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.520 And and and would Caracas at that time be considered 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.120 a more kind of metropolitan or more like a city. 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:48.760 More of a city. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.320 And you know, back then you're talking about you know, 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.040 at that point you're talking about you know, probably sixties, 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.000 you know, or so, and uh, it was a more 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.960 stable Venezuela. You know, all the way into the eighth 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.240 he was a very profitable Venezuela. It was a very 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.920 rich country. Nobody lived Venezuela. Now, nobody left Venezuela to 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.640 the United States. They came to Miami to vacation and 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.360 go back to Venezuela. You know, Venezuela is the third 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.160 largest producer of oil in the world, and it says 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:18.160 the number one reserve. 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:19.800 So it was a very rich country. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.080 You know, in the early eighties, there was no need, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.040 there was no need to go anywhere, you know. So 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.400 my dad kind of grew up the slumps of Caracas, 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.719 you know, and you know, att thirteen fourteen years old, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.880 he was out there hustling to try to bring bread, 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.199 winning for the house and you know, mom also working 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.600 full time make sure the other kids have food. And 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.040 you know, my dad at thirteen fourteen years old, you know, 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.880 he go ask for three sandwiches you know, and two 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.720 sodas and he would snatch it, run a couple of 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.400 blocks where his brothers and sisters were waiting in the 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.360 corner and give them the sandwiches, then go to the 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.920 next corner over it and you know, or a few more. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.240 Sandwiches and like rand you know, and like that was 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:02.560 that was how he grew up. 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:05.200 And it was that was a hustle and that until 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.280 later when he started saying, okay, maybe I can work 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.320 out the agriculture industry and all that. So but yeah, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.200 that was the trajectory of them. And you know, my 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:19.000 dad is and it blows my mind how happy he is. 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:20.480 He's a happy man. 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:22.280 Happy now, Yes, he's. 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:23.040 A very happy man. 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:28.559 He looks back, doesn't reflect on you know, the sadness 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.599 or the tragedy. You know, remembers fondly, you know, the 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.200 the years that he worked for you know, for the family, 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.679 you know, making sure that the family was good. So 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.520 so you know, I think back at like all the 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.160 stitching of what I am right, like what I've become. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.160 And you know how how some of some of us 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.720 in our families have had to bear right the trauma 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.400 and bury it right right and say like there's still 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.800 things to celebrate. There's still things to celebrate, right and 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.280 and I think as you continue to grow up, you realize, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.400 like that that that that ag of dumb bills in 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.360 your backpack is an optional thing you bring along, that 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.520 you can start dropping that weight along the way. And 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.320 I think there was something that I learned from my dad. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.760 My dad never talked about his trauma, but he celebrated 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:16.960 that right now, at least we have food right now. 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:18.480 At least we have food right now, you know. And 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.319 so I grew very grateful of what we could experience. 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:24.560 And you know, and my mom, you know, my mom 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:24.920 was the. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:29.480 Police, you know, my dad and my mom was the police. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.760 My dad was the party, right like oh no more 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:40.040 than yes, like you know, like streak my back. 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.520 You know, I remember very clear moment when my mom 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.760 hit me and it didn't hurt. 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.440 And that's when I was like, well, well well. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.160 But the funny thing about it, though, is that at 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.199 that point then I had to fake cry to make 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.280 sure my mom stop, because I was like, oh no, mommy, no, no, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:02.600 just stop by the room. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.160 Why would she be like, oh I on't her? 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.800 Yeah, yeah, I keep going till I heard you know, 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.680 but so I pretended it hurt right away, you know, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.440 but I think, like looking back at those things and 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:16.360 seeing my mom working at the the doctor's office. You know, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.440 I had some older sisters that lived in Miami. She 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.880 there eventually went I'm going to spend some time in Miami. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.360 My dad, very younger age, started traveling, you know, looking 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.600 for himself, ended up in Miami. 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:29.000 He met my mom. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.800 What did your dad do? What was sort of his trade? Like? 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:33.720 What was he. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:35.240 Like? 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:35.920 What did he do? 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.959 Like it doesn't necessarily mean that he was employed somewhere, 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:40.320 but what what was his thing? 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:40.880 What did he do? 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:42.720 He was about? 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.280 You know, he was kind of a social butterfly, right 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.800 Like he just knew everyone, and everyone loved my dad. 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:58.160 And my dad we walk into a room and he'd 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.760 find opportunity. He walked into a room and he saw 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.680 a job, he saw he saw a partnership, and you know, 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.000 he saw an investment, you know, and like the little 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:08.720 money that he would make, he'd try to make two 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:09.520 dollars out of it. 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.360 You know, if he had a dollar, he goes, how 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.000 do we make five? Oh? We only made three? 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:14.960 Cool, we have two more dollars to keep investing like 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:18.880 he kept moving around. His downfall though, is that he 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:24.520 loves celebrating life so much that he would just spend, 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.840 spend the savings, you know, which really caught up to 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:29.800 him later in life with my mom because my mom 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.880 was like, this is not going to work, you know. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.360 But in those moments, my dad, you know, my dad 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.440 would work different industries, you know, he would import. He 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.720 eventually started importing machinery from the United States to work 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:43.120 the land. 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:45.520 Then eventually bought his finger. 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.080 Yes, we go to So he started his life in 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.000 like he's professional, was professional, he's a professional. At the 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.120 time in Miami, he met my mom. They fell in 0:14:55.160 --> 0:15:00.520 love right and then. And then the opportunity Inventuela was 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.320 so great. The agriculture industry was booming. So my dad 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.160 moved back to where the wark was and we moved 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.720 back to Venezuela. So now he had married my mom, 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:13.040 But you were born already. Yeah, So my sister Maryland 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.480 and I were born in Miami, and when I turned 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.280 three years old back in nineteen eighty three, they decided 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:20.400 to move back to Venezuela. 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.320 So I grew up in Venezuela for the following ten years. 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.400 After that, and you know, and like so I didn't 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.640 really quite remember where Miami was. 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.320 Again, I had just these flashes. It just kind of 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:33.560 came to my mind. 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:38.400 But living in Venezuela, you know, Spanish was my first language, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.680 right and you know, ten years later, never did I 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.680 ever think that I was gonna need to learn how 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.280 to speak English. You know. 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.880 But hay years, isn't that crazy? 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:50.280 And you think that because ten years. 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.720 Is like this, it goes by quick, But when you're 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.400 that young, at three years old, it feels like that's 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.840 your lifetime. Because I was thirteen by the time we 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.920 decided it was time to leave Venezuela. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:04.920 A lot of stuff happened the trajectory of Venezuela. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.840 You know, my dad bought this finca and you know, 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.640 this farm and started buying the machineries to level the land. 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.360 And then he would rent those machineries to nearby farms 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:15.680 that couldn't afford the machinery. 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.560 And you know that my dad had a hustler's farm. 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.320 He was doing corn, he was doing rice, he was 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.840 doing cattle, he was doing pigs, he was doing chickens. 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.400 And then because we were so close to the Amazon's, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.280 he was chopping up wood too, and selling wood. You know, 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.560 so that farm was producing so many different things, like 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.320 whatever season way was, he was selling something, you know. 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:43.200 But then, you know, the trajectory was that that eventually, 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.480 you know, the you know, the agriculture industry became very competitive, 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.160 and little farms like my dad just didn't have a 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.840 place anymore because these big corporations were buying their own 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.240 farms and they were swallowing up all these small little businesses. 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:57.760 The winters were long. 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.440 Right, and so so at some point, you know, we 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.680 started struggling, and then all of a sudden, we go 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.240 Chavis decided that he was going to pretty cool on 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.480 the on the government. They didn't succeed the first time, 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.920 and my dad saw that as a just a sign, 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:16.280 a sign of things to come. 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:29.040 You know, you were living in Venezuela, your mother's from Colombia. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.440 Were you still in contact with her family in Colombia 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.360 even though you were living in Venezuela. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.240 Yeah, we go back and forth to see them and 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:37.560 all that. 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:38.760 Yeah, we got back and forth. 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:40.919 We grew up with them in our lives and my 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:42.800 mom will go visit a lot in Colombia. And my 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:44.960 dad also had so many friends in Colombia. So we 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.240 go back and forth, you know, but at some point, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.280 you know, we we fell. It was time, you know, 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:55.119 and my dad all of a sudden one day said hey, MEO, me, I, 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:58.600 We're gonna have to go back. 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.040 To the United States. And I said, where are we going? 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.520 He goes next week and I said, what, I've been 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:08.840 failing all my English classes, by the way, yeah, literally 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:10.000 failing English classes. 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:11.640 I was like, I'm never gonna have to speak English. 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:14.440 And I came back to the United States not knowing 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:18.360 how to even counted three, you know, So thirteen years old, 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:21.280 thirteen fourteen years old, imagine, you know, not able to 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:23.159 even ask for where the bathroom is? 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.400 And did you word you? Land you when you came Miami. 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:27.879 We went to Miami and there was nothing for us 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.359 in Miami. My dad had a brother in Los Angeles. 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:34.240 Then we drove across country, came to Los Angeles, and 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:36.399 you know, we stayed with him for a couple of weeks. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.280 That went south A major chapter on my book on that. 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.159 We you know, we didn't stay there long, and that 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.480 put a damfort on the savings he had because without 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.199 a job, we had to kind of figure out our 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.720 housing because we were supposed to be in my dad's 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.360 brother's house for a little while while my dad got 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.280 a job and got it all together so he didn't 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.720 have to deplete his savings. That went south. We had 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.840 to go and deplete the savings without a job. So 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.880 he set us up at like zero. So we started, 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.679 you know, very much. Our story is not very different 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.240 than any other you know, immigrant that leads to a 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:13.359 different state or a different country, you know, and starts 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.560 from scratch, and you. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.199 Know, and that's kind of how we started. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:19.160 And what did he do for employment at that point 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:20.840 when the when the savings were depleted. 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.919 So my dad so my dad started looking for jobs, 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.520 couldn't find anything. And my dad speaks English, but he 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.520 pretends he speaks more English. He started realizing that he 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.160 had to do what it took. There was no ego here, 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.120