Speaker 1: Grassiers Come Again, a podcast by Honey German. Welcome to
Speaker 1: another episode of Grasses Come Again today. I feel so nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. My heart is like because we're sitting
Speaker 1: down with the legendary, the iconic Luis Gusman. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Grasses Come Again.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1: You look good.
Speaker 2: Look all that hair, it's all my no extensions, no
Speaker 2: nothing I could tell. And you know what, all these
Speaker 2: little curls, they just do themselves.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Grasses Coming. This show is all about you know,
Speaker 1: Latinos living our life in Spanglish and you know, shining
Speaker 1: us spotlight on all of our you know, our actors,
Speaker 1: our singers, our directors, our photographers, and we're gonna premiere
Speaker 1: with you. I've already done tons of interviews and I
Speaker 1: even pushed back the premiere day because I was like
Speaker 1: what I said, I'm gonna say, we were supposed to
Speaker 1: premiere this week and I was like, absolutely not. I
Speaker 1: said I need two more weeks because you know what, right,
Speaker 1: and here we are. I manifested it. Idiocito delivered.
Speaker 2: Pantatico and.
Speaker 1: L E S l E S.
Speaker 2: Lower east Side. Well with my first the first time
Speaker 2: from Puerto Rico. We live in Controla Park in the Bronx,
Speaker 2: and then from there we moved to Chelsea, the West
Speaker 2: Village and then the Lower east Side.
Speaker 1: What neighborhood do you claim when they be like, where
Speaker 1: are you from.
Speaker 2: In New York?
Speaker 1: What do you say?
Speaker 2: The Lower east Side?
Speaker 1: L e s all day, right.
Speaker 2: All day, every day. I take a lot of pride
Speaker 2: coming from that neighborhood. It's taught me a lot. I
Speaker 2: wouldn't be sitting here today if it wasn't for that
Speaker 2: neighborhood and in some of the influences and mentors that
Speaker 2: I came across.
Speaker 1: We're talking acting mentors or just mentors in general.
Speaker 2: Mentors in general. You know, people like Chino Gotzia, people
Speaker 2: like Bimbo Ribas, Mit Bigneto, you know, Carmen Lopez just
Speaker 2: to name a few. Yeah, a lot of my people.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how a group of people can help, you know,
Speaker 1: mold you. It's not just Mommy and Poppy.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. Because you know, like Mamy and Poppy,
Speaker 2: They're always going to have their influence, you know, teaching
Speaker 2: me what it is to be responsible, things like that.
Speaker 2: But when you hit the streets. It's a whole different
Speaker 2: kind of upbringing. And those people just taught me a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, at the street theater, we're brother, Bimbo. I
Speaker 2: was with the New York Rican Poets Cafes, the original
Speaker 2: one when it opened up on Sixth Street, and that
Speaker 2: they you know, and then people like you know Alcia
Speaker 2: and doing community work, community development. We had our place
Speaker 2: a school on Ninth Street, I said, Yama, we named
Speaker 2: it at Bohill, you know, Bimboiqua. And so we used
Speaker 2: to run like a lot of community arts projects. And
Speaker 2: then I became a social worker.
Speaker 1: I saw that and then.
Speaker 2: I worked over at Henry Street Settlement.
Speaker 1: How long did you actually work as a social worker
Speaker 1: before you broke out into acting.
Speaker 2: Man, I would have to say at least twelve years.
Speaker 1: Oh, so you had a long run as a social way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that they you know, for me, when I
Speaker 2: became an actor, it was a total accident. I had
Speaker 2: done acting.
Speaker 1: Before because you were moonlighting as I mean, it was
Speaker 1: a hobby. Okay, it was favous to friends of mine
Speaker 1: and why would they like, can you do me a favor?
Speaker 1: Were you funny? Were you colorful? What was it about you?
Speaker 1: That they're like, can you do me a favorite acting
Speaker 1: as well?
Speaker 2: Oh? Because I, like I said, you know, my first
Speaker 2: my first acting thing was in high school the high
Speaker 2: school play.
Speaker 1: Oh so you had you had the acting bug.
Speaker 2: But again I'm being it wasn't something that I was pursuing.
Speaker 2: It was just it just became a thing that like, oh,
Speaker 2: somebody wrote this and that a part for you. You
Speaker 2: want to do it? Yeah? Yeah, you know. So it
Speaker 2: was again, it was a hobby. It was for fun.
Speaker 2: But my main passion was helping young people to help themselves.
Speaker 2: That's why I became a community activist, social worker, and
Speaker 2: I took a lot of pride in that. So I
Speaker 2: did that for a while. And so what happened was
Speaker 2: one day a bunch of kids didn't show up to
Speaker 2: my program. I went down to the street looking for them,
Speaker 2: something that I didn't do, but I knew the families,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, So I went out and I ran
Speaker 2: into me get Pinedo, who have written Short Eyes, and
Speaker 2: I hadn't seen my key in that three years, and
Speaker 2: they said, yo, I'm writing for TV shows that coming
Speaker 2: to New York. Take down this number, go audition, and
Speaker 2: I go, Pappy, I wasn't even thinking about this. I me,
Speaker 2: I go audition. Mi huh. Three weeks later, I get
Speaker 2: a call from a guy that's his agent saying, Hey,
Speaker 2: I represent Miguel. I want to represent you when I
Speaker 2: go for what you just book the cold starring part
Speaker 2: in the season premiere of Miami Vice.
Speaker 1: Doesn't get any bigger than that.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, so, yeah, you want to know something.
Speaker 2: All I wanted to get out of that was and
Speaker 2: you will know this. I just wanted to make enough
Speaker 2: money to buy me a uth car to drive.
Speaker 3: To Orchard Beach and now have to take the train
Speaker 3: and the bus.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so I got the car. My friend totaled
Speaker 2: it the next day.
Speaker 1: You kidding me? I need details.
Speaker 2: It was a Malleble station wagon. Yeah. Over a chick.
Speaker 1: It's always a chick, right, he was going to see
Speaker 1: a chick and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, he told me we're going to the
Speaker 2: hardware store.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, what borough?
Speaker 2: He went to Manhattan.
Speaker 1: He crossed bridges and he.
Speaker 2: Tried to go uptown on the Lower east Side. He
Speaker 2: got stuck and crossed in rush hour traffic. So he
Speaker 2: came out and he didn't see the car coming. He said,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I came. He paid me for the car though.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good because most people be like, no, no, I
Speaker 1: don't got it.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, he paid me for the car.
Speaker 1: You were like, yeah.
Speaker 2: Then we went back to Pennsylvania. The next week, I
Speaker 2: got another car.
Speaker 1: Good for you. You still have some left of the
Speaker 1: money for my Ami Vice or with the money he paid.
Speaker 2: You, with the money he paid me.
Speaker 1: Oh damn. He paid right away.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: You know people be like, can I get a payment plan?
Speaker 2: No? No, anything they own gij you know, so I'm not.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 3: Can't tell you what then and he paid up good,
Speaker 3: and Miami Vice set everything off for you pretty much.
Speaker 2: You know. I didn't understand the business, so I went
Speaker 2: back to being a social worker, because again that was
Speaker 2: my passion. I thought that the whole Miami Vice thing
Speaker 2: was a fluke.
Speaker 1: It was like one off.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. So but this guy, this agent, kept sending
Speaker 2: me out to stuff so I would get I would
Speaker 2: get parts. You know, I'd be like Killer ninety seven,
Speaker 2: you know, Jesse cab driver eighty two. I was like,
Speaker 2: I was my role with numbers. But the day that
Speaker 2: I got a part and it said Raoul, and I.
Speaker 3: Said, oh, no, they won't number so and.
Speaker 1: Now what are the odds? Full circle moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, I don't know how many raouls I played,
Speaker 2: but I think it's been a few.
Speaker 1: And then that took off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I took off. And you know, I ended up
Speaker 2: doing this movie called Crocodile Dundee and that got me
Speaker 2: the Crocodile Dundee too. I got me notoriety, right yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then I ended up doing Kalito The Way. And
Speaker 2: who doesn't like a good Latino Gangs classic?
Speaker 1: Okay? Yeah, Oh you're here is Pachanga everywhere you go.
Speaker 2: Everywhere I go, people think I'm Pachanga forever.
Speaker 1: I feel like, no matter how many you could be Gomez,
Speaker 1: you could be for us Latino, especially here in New Yorkanga.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, what did you do that to Klito? And
Speaker 2: I said, watch your bag? Okay? Without did I on without?
Speaker 1: We didn't expect it, though, And I'm pretty sure you've
Speaker 1: spoken about Klito's Way and a million times.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but you know what I mean, we love you.
Speaker 2: That was the rules in the hood, you know, so
Speaker 2: the people that you think got your back. When it
Speaker 2: comes down to it, you can't really trust anybody you know.
Speaker 1: So unexpected. They did a Kalito's Way too.
Speaker 2: I was in it. I was in it.
Speaker 1: Did you bring it to life?
Speaker 2: Yeah? But I feel.
Speaker 1: Like you're such an important part of the movie that
Speaker 1: they would have brought it to you, like we're gonna
Speaker 1: bring it back down to do it.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the producers wanted me in the movie.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I played this guy that kind of resembles
Speaker 2: a bat Chianga, but I think it was more like
Speaker 2: Bachanga's uncle that I was playing.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so you were just in it, but not
Speaker 1: as yourself. Yes, makes sense. Yeah, we didn't need a
Speaker 1: Khalito's Way too. Carlito's Way is so epic and so
Speaker 1: iconic that it's like one and done.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, it was listening. It was a great
Speaker 2: movie for me. It was a dream come true because
Speaker 2: you know, a huge fan of pacinos. You know, I
Speaker 2: saw Legend, Dog Day Afternoon Circroco. Those were two of
Speaker 2: my favorite movies. And and to be a sidekick man,
Speaker 2: you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1: How did you land that role? Like do you remember
Speaker 1: did your agent get that or it was just something different?
Speaker 2: No? Actually, so my agent sent me to an audition
Speaker 2: and what happened was the night before the audition, two
Speaker 2: of my boys came over to my apartment and they
Speaker 2: found this this like old school zippered leather jacket in
Speaker 2: the park and it was like perfect, you know. And
Speaker 2: I tried it on, and you know, jacket, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I have real character, and so I put it
Speaker 2: on and I went to the audition wearing this jacket.
Speaker 2: So I started doing my thing. Yeah, I hat ThM
Speaker 2: Brian the Palmer who directing in and Tom Mardy Bregman
Speaker 2: who produced it, and and Michael Bregman Bie So and
Speaker 2: and the casting director Buddie Timmerman. So I come in
Speaker 2: and do my thing. And then Brian the Palmer starts
Speaker 2: cracking up while I'm doing my lines, and I'm like
Speaker 2: saying to myself, get me a lot. I thinks I'm funny,
Speaker 2: So I do it. I walk. The casting director winks
Speaker 2: at me as I'm leaving. I get home. And these
Speaker 2: were the days that we had like a little answering machine.
Speaker 2: So with the light going on and off, you know,
Speaker 2: you got a message. So I check it out. Sure
Speaker 2: enough it's her, and she goes.
Speaker 1: You got the part from the moment you left to
Speaker 1: the moment you got Home.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, wow, I knew before my agent knew. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so you know, and ended up doing that and it
Speaker 2: was such a great experience, man, such a great experience.
Speaker 1: And we love you for it. It's like an iconic role.
Speaker 1: And it's like when people mention you, it's like immediately
Speaker 1: Gtarlito's Way it comes up. Yeah, it's like you want
Speaker 1: to watch the movie again. You're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: let's revisit the It's one of those movies. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like I feel like it's Scarface, Galito's Way, he Casino,
Speaker 1: those that's like, those are all the movies that we
Speaker 1: would just rewatch a million time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because you know they had a certain genre
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 1: Good Fellas too, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, like everybody like go to Gangster.
Speaker 1: And everybody was an icon you we're talking Joe Peshi, Rayleiota, Scarface,
Speaker 1: Like these people were like top of the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: So do you have a favorite movie?
Speaker 2: If I had a favorite movie, yeah, my favorite movie
Speaker 2: was On the Waterfront. You ever heard of that movie
Speaker 2: Marlon Brando Black and White?
Speaker 1: No, I gotta check it out.
Speaker 2: In nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: That's why you.
Speaker 2: Ever see that movie, one of the best movies ever
Speaker 2: on the Waterfront, On the WATERFRONTO. You know what I
Speaker 2: loved about that movie was his performance. Well he was
Speaker 2: and he was effortless, and so I always study that
Speaker 2: because I always wanted to be effortless. You know. I
Speaker 2: don't like acting, and you are. You know, I like
Speaker 2: being as real as possible and conveying that.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: we love you so much and we connect with you
Speaker 1: so much, because it just feels like you're just being
Speaker 1: yourself every role. That it doesn't feel like a different
Speaker 1: person every time. It feels like you in a different character,
Speaker 1: but still you, and that that connects.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I, like I said, I pride myself on that.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think I ever done the same
Speaker 2: road twice because I never make a reference to my roles.
Speaker 2: My reference to what I do is actually my life.
Speaker 2: And you know, I've been in so many different situations.
Speaker 2: I've studied people stuff like that. So when I show
Speaker 2: up to work, that's what I do.
Speaker 1: Life. You were married.
Speaker 2: I was married before. I have five children. I adopted
Speaker 2: four of them. Oh beautiful, uh semi, Yeah, Maya Yoruba,
Speaker 2: iy Maagarita, and Luna is my biological daughter.
Speaker 1: I have the names here and I wrote them down.
Speaker 1: I'm like, how did you pick the names?
Speaker 2: I take a lot of pride in who we are
Speaker 2: as Latinos, where we come from, the liture, our history,
Speaker 2: and those names mean something to me. You know, their
Speaker 2: very loving names. They're very spiritual names. They're powerful names.
Speaker 2: And I wanted not so much that I wanted my
Speaker 2: kids to be unique, but they really want them to
Speaker 2: have their own identity.
Speaker 1: And it's super connected, you know, to the religion, to
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican culture, you know, to our ancestors. And I
Speaker 1: love that you pick those names because I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: I've never met anybody named yama Yah. I know, I
Speaker 1: know who Yamaya is. I've never met anyone name. I
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, he's a risk taker with these names.
Speaker 1: How do your kids embrase them? I've met Semi super dope.
Speaker 1: I love what he's out here doing. They love these names,
Speaker 1: they do or they question them, like Bob.
Speaker 2: Asked me about that one time a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: matter of fact, and she go by wh why yeah,
Speaker 2: my ya, because you know your water sign And I
Speaker 2: love that name, and it's beautiful and it fits you
Speaker 2: matter of fact, when she because she's my second adopted
Speaker 2: and she was born in January February, we went down
Speaker 2: to Puerto Rico to get out of the snow because
Speaker 2: that was one of the years that New York was
Speaker 2: having a terrible, terrible winter. So went down there and
Speaker 2: you know, we put her in the water in the ocean.
Speaker 2: Beautiful and we blessed her. And yeah, did.
Speaker 1: You adopt or your children from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: Or from the from New York? From the New York Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's all is it public, like people know you
Speaker 1: adopted your children.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that. It's just it's such it's something I
Speaker 1: want to do myself. I feel like it gives you
Speaker 1: an opportunity to really change the course of someone's life.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely. Listen, I love my kids. They're incredible.
Speaker 2: You know, they're doing the thing out in the world.
Speaker 2: And that they they taught me a lot, me a
Speaker 2: lot about about fatherhood and they told me about being
Speaker 2: a better listener, you know. Yeah, and they still teach
Speaker 2: me to this day.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, do they still teach you,
Speaker 1: like yeah, social media?
Speaker 2: No, not not not that type of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 2: they just show me. I mean they teach me about
Speaker 2: you know, about about life. You know, I'm not you know,
Speaker 2: the social media stuff, and I have social media, but
Speaker 2: I gravitate more to the real human being in my
Speaker 2: life and real conversations. And you know, I'm a dream maker.
Speaker 1: You know what does that mean?
Speaker 2: That means that, Uh my kids went to college and
Speaker 2: I say, you know what, you're going to graduate with
Speaker 2: a zero? They go zero. I am your scholarship, betiful,
Speaker 2: I'm going to pay for you. I am. So when
Speaker 2: you graduate, you graduate with a zero. Just take care
Speaker 2: of what you gotta take care of. And they've done that,
Speaker 2: you know, makes me very proud of them. That's what
Speaker 2: I mean by I make dreams happen for my kids,
Speaker 2: I try to make dreams happen for other people too.
Speaker 2: I try to be the best role model. I don't
Speaker 2: forget about my community. Anytime I get a chance, and
Speaker 2: you know, make a presentation or just show up and support.
Speaker 2: I do that. I guess the most important thing that
Speaker 2: I tell young people is never forget where you come from,
Speaker 2: and you can influence the next generation just by showing up.
Speaker 2: And you know, always give back a.
Speaker 1: Little something you have to you know. It's that you know,
Speaker 1: that mentality of abundance. You know, the more you give,
Speaker 1: the more you get back. Yeah, can't hold on to
Speaker 1: everything you have in that you know, that includes your knowledge.
Speaker 1: You can't just hold back and not share.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I always said knowledge is power, you know,
Speaker 2: And like I had all these little sayings that I
Speaker 2: used to tell my kids, you know, the little bueno
Speaker 2: and I'm vocal. Okay, all right, don't spend what you
Speaker 2: don't have, be smart, be safe, no regrets.
Speaker 1: I'm taking all three of those. Man, those are solid.
Speaker 2: And cause you know, when when your kids become teenagers,
Speaker 2: you know, teenagers tend to not have all their wires
Speaker 2: right in their brain. So I used to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: you're gonna go out, be smart, be safe, no regrets,
Speaker 2: because if you're not if you're not smart, if you're
Speaker 2: not safe and something happens, you're gonna have regrets. So
Speaker 2: you don't want to show up back at the house
Speaker 2: say I'm really sorry I didn't listen. No, you didn't
Speaker 2: listen to yourself?
Speaker 1: Were you a tough dad?
Speaker 2: Man? I just try to be as loving as nurturing,
Speaker 2: you know, being a parent could be challenging at times
Speaker 2: because you know, it's like it's it's just a different
Speaker 2: energy and stuff. I have my own regrets of you know,
Speaker 2: people don't understand you're very successful. You're successful as an actor,
Speaker 2: you do great work, but you know, you end up
Speaker 2: missing out on things birthdays, basketball games, soccer games, plays,
Speaker 2: things like that, you know, and they tell you that,
Speaker 2: and that breaks my heart, you know, So as an adult,
Speaker 2: I come back to like, I got to make up
Speaker 2: for this. Now you make me cry, no, but but
Speaker 2: it's it's the truth because as a man, as a man,
Speaker 2: you know, like, as a man, you're the first male
Speaker 2: that your daughters are gonna love because you're their dad,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. And so they teach me
Speaker 2: now I love them. We joke around. I just took
Speaker 2: my daughters to Puerto Rico, Luna and yeah, we saw
Speaker 2: Benito's concert.
Speaker 1: I saw you spectacular. How proud do you feel? A
Speaker 1: bad bunny? And you know how vocal he is and
Speaker 1: how you know supportive he is.
Speaker 2: You know, I think he's making a major difference for
Speaker 2: our people, not just in Puerto Rico, but you know,
Speaker 2: all the Latinos and stuff, you know, I take a
Speaker 2: lot of pride in him. I got his back one
Speaker 2: hundred percent, and like I said, I'm just really proud
Speaker 2: that I'm really super proud that he is outspoken, you
Speaker 2: know because like nowadays, like a lot of people, they
Speaker 2: get scared of speaking up. And it's like, yo, speak us,
Speaker 2: speak your mind, be a voice.
Speaker 1: And I see that you do that. You know when
Speaker 1: it comes to Puerto Rico, you're not afraid. And you're right,
Speaker 1: A lot of celebrities, whether they be actors, singers, models,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, everybody is so afraid of being canceled
Speaker 1: that they're afraid to stand on anything at all, you know.
Speaker 2: What, because it's like, let me tell you something. You know,
Speaker 2: being canceled, man, you know when you're canceled, When being canceled,
Speaker 2: canceling yourself, you know what I mean. You gotta be
Speaker 2: outspoken because you can't have fear, because that's what they
Speaker 2: want you to be. They want you to be scared,
Speaker 2: you know. And I'm just a voice telling the truth.
Speaker 2: Will die, yeah man, And you know so yes, and
Speaker 2: so I always, I always will speak on those truths.
Speaker 1: And I love you for it. Because so many people
Speaker 1: that have microphones that are on TV that can represent
Speaker 1: us differently and can speak out on the injustices, what's
Speaker 1: happening in Puerto Rico, what's happening with immigration, what's happening
Speaker 1: with Latinos here in America? And they'd rather just be
Speaker 1: quiet about it because they're like, nah, my career depends
Speaker 1: on it. I can't sing anymore. You're being so vocal.
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you, Like I'm telling you, like
Speaker 1: I look at sometimes the things you post, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I love what he's doing. He's risking himself for the
Speaker 1: better of our people.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I just want you to realize one thing.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like I'm risking, Okay. I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm just being a human. I represent humanity. That's why
Speaker 2: I'm coming from. You know, if it was a risk,
Speaker 2: I would take it any day, because you know, people
Speaker 2: are suffering. Man, we are, we're suffering, but we also
Speaker 2: have it to make a change. You know. I had
Speaker 2: done an interview and they asked me, why was it
Speaker 2: that so many Latino men voted for what's his face?
Speaker 2: And it's because they're ignorant, you know, because they did
Speaker 2: not look at you know, maybe I could represent my
Speaker 2: daughter and vote for a woman, you know, and it's
Speaker 2: like that whole machismore thing still exists, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. So you know, look, I take pride in
Speaker 2: who I am. I love our community, and I love
Speaker 2: being out spoken when it comes to our community because
Speaker 2: we're good people. Man, We're hard workers. We raise good kids.
Speaker 1: You know, we're honest.
Speaker 2: We could do better, you know. They Unfortunately there's young
Speaker 2: people that are lost, you know, that start shooting back
Speaker 2: and forth with each other, People get hurt, people die.
Speaker 2: We need better role models in our community, and you know,
Speaker 2: we need we need not only the men but women
Speaker 2: to you know, stand up for who we are, take
Speaker 2: pride in who we are. You see, Let's defend each other.
Speaker 2: Let's have each other back.
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes, you know, we're afraid of you know,
Speaker 1: the repercussions or the consequences, and it's like we have
Speaker 1: the love, we have the knowledge, and we fail to
Speaker 1: act again out of the risk of how we're going
Speaker 1: to be perceived or how it's going to like kind
Speaker 1: of like come back on us.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but you know what, if telling the truth
Speaker 2: is a risk, then that's a risk I willing to take.
Speaker 2: Telling the truth love b DA. You know I can't
Speaker 2: make this up, you know what I mean. I remember
Speaker 2: when we first moved to the Lower East Side, my family,
Speaker 2: it looked like a bomb hit that neighborhood. There were
Speaker 2: so many abandoned buildings, the South Bronx Williamsburg. And look
Speaker 2: what happened to those neighborhoods gentrified. You know, there's like
Speaker 2: two three generations of family that live in an apartment
Speaker 2: because who can afford to pay for twenty five hundred
Speaker 2: dollars for a studio. There's four people that live in
Speaker 2: the studio apartment in New York City, you know, And
Speaker 2: so you know, economics have changed. You know, before you
Speaker 2: can get a full time job anywhere and get health
Speaker 2: and dental benefits. Now you get hired for twenty nine
Speaker 2: hours because if you work more than thirty hours, they
Speaker 2: got to provide that. And because they don't provide and
Speaker 2: then you got to pay out of pocket for your
Speaker 2: health care and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Listen, how can you exist?
Speaker 2: This is the only country industrial life country. You know,
Speaker 2: you go to Europe, you know, you go South America,
Speaker 2: free healthcare, free college education, and their economies don't hurt.
Speaker 2: The fact I was.
Speaker 1: I traveled to Dubai, beautiful. I have no homelessness, no this,
Speaker 1: no that. I'm like, what is going on with America?
Speaker 1: Like why can't we get to a level even half
Speaker 1: what they're doing there.
Speaker 2: Because they don't have the priorities in order here? They
Speaker 2: really don't.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I hate to say this, but again I speak the truth.
Speaker 2: You know, you send bombs is over to bomb children
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. You send all the funds to
Speaker 2: uh a place and that people get free college, education,
Speaker 2: free health. But hold up, you can't provide that for
Speaker 2: your people. Here the greatest country, the greatest nation in
Speaker 2: the world, and people have to take Listen, you graduate
Speaker 2: from college, you still gotta live with your parents because
Speaker 2: that loan that you gotta pay, like pay the mortgage.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of you know gen z that
Speaker 1: I know, they can't afford to live on their own.
Speaker 2: Listen, this is a great country. Unfortunately come unhinge a bit,
Speaker 2: if not a lot. But the thing is, we still
Speaker 2: have really good people that live here. Amazing we have
Speaker 2: amazing people. We have people that make differences every day,
Speaker 2: you know, and we just got to keep our head up.
Speaker 2: He continued to believe in ourselves. We're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: But we got to back each other up every day,
Speaker 2: and we got to teach our kids man to be
Speaker 2: better people, you know, and get away from that hudlum mentality.
Speaker 1: You know, here in New York we still have a
Speaker 1: big problem with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you know what, it broke my heart a
Speaker 2: few years ago when that young man that had the
Speaker 2: same last name as me was mine in the Bronx
Speaker 2: when he was attacked, when he was attacked and he
Speaker 2: was murdered by a bunch of Hudlams, And I asked,
Speaker 2: where are the parents to those Hudlums? What are you
Speaker 2: teaching your kids?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And I feel that we have lost touch with that.
Speaker 2: You know, we have got so much touch that I
Speaker 2: will say this when I see a two year old,
Speaker 2: a three year old manipulating a phone. When you see
Speaker 2: families sitting down at the table and call my door
Speaker 2: to eat, and people have to you know, we used
Speaker 2: to conversate when I was a kid, We used to
Speaker 2: conversate at the table. Now it's like everybody like in
Speaker 2: my house. I used to turn the phones off when
Speaker 2: we had dinner. I want to hear your voice. You know,
Speaker 2: how was your day? You know, how's it going? Is
Speaker 2: there anything I could do for you? You know, you
Speaker 2: got any good jokes? You know, things like that. We
Speaker 2: lost so much of that essence because everything is a text,
Speaker 2: you know, everything is a TikTok, you know, and we
Speaker 2: lost the essence of human communication of me and you
Speaker 2: right here, it's beautiful, you know, we're having a real conversation.
Speaker 1: And it has affected a lot of gen Z their
Speaker 1: interpersonal skills, not all, but many. They're like, I don't
Speaker 1: like to talk on the phone. My phone is always
Speaker 1: on silent because I don't want to speak to people.
Speaker 1: I'm like why, and they're like, no, just text me.
Speaker 1: Like you don't want to hear someone's voice. You don't
Speaker 1: want to connect. You don't want to hear you know,
Speaker 1: like the infliction and the voice.
Speaker 2: They're like, kids don't even know how to write in cursive.
Speaker 1: Oh that's another word.
Speaker 2: Okay. Kids don't even know how to write incursive. Kids
Speaker 2: don't even know their own history. You know, where the
Speaker 2: parents came from, you know, the core of their of
Speaker 2: their abolos and stuff. Yeah, man, you know so.
Speaker 1: But it's like we can't blame the kids. I guess
Speaker 1: it's parents, you know, the younger parents. Maybe they're not
Speaker 1: going all the way when it comes to you know,
Speaker 1: teaching them. You know, put the phone down, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: I feel like, let me tell you about the island,
Speaker 1: let me teach you how to make.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's up to us, you know what I'm saying, Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2: Up to us. And again it's something that is so
Speaker 2: super important because we're losing that essence.
Speaker 1: But you know what, if you're listening to this episode
Speaker 1: and you have children, get on it, talk to them,
Speaker 1: put the phone away. You know what I'm saying, Start
Speaker 1: teaching them some of your culture.
Speaker 2: And you know what, as an adult, I'm being as
Speaker 2: you adults out there, you guys got to take the lead.
Speaker 2: You guys got to be the example. You guys got
Speaker 2: to be the first ones to put that phone away.
Speaker 1: That's a fact. You know. When I go out to eat,
Speaker 1: I put my phone away. I'll be like and then
Speaker 1: I look at people and the table, I'm like, hey, everyone,
Speaker 1: I have my phone away. Can everyone please do the
Speaker 1: same thing. Let's talk noah ma Salil, but no, they
Speaker 1: can meet on know TikTok's absolutely not. Let's not do
Speaker 1: that now Wednesday, let's talk Gos. I love you in
Speaker 1: that character. Yeah, you're perfect as you know, as Gomes Adams.
Speaker 1: It's just it was so unexpected, but it was just
Speaker 1: so perfect when I saw who they cast up, Like, wow,
Speaker 1: I would have never expected Lewis Guzman. As were you
Speaker 1: surprised when you when you casted that role?
Speaker 2: I was, man, I was humbled beyond belief. I was like,
Speaker 2: I grew up watching The Adams Family when it was
Speaker 2: in black and white. I grew up watching the movie
Speaker 2: Withrol and Julia, you know.
Speaker 1: And icon legendary.
Speaker 2: And so when I got the call and I spoke
Speaker 2: with Tim Burton and Alan Miles, who write the show,
Speaker 2: and they they just offered it to me right there
Speaker 2: on the spot.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to audition or you auditioned.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't audition.
Speaker 1: Oh my, so this was for you.
Speaker 2: I haven't auditioned in like cover twenty five years.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. Yeah, that's a real g talk right there.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, but I just felt so honest
Speaker 2: to step into that.
Speaker 1: And now we're getting season two.
Speaker 2: Season two, and like, let me tell you, the first season,
Speaker 2: yeah was incredible. I was like, asking these guys how
Speaker 2: are you going to the top season season one? They
Speaker 2: blue season two out of the water.
Speaker 1: We're getting something bigger and better than season one, Bigger and.
Speaker 2: Better, deeper, more mysterious, more dark, more fun, more revealing.
Speaker 1: I'm happy it's back, and I'm happy you're back with it.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's just a dope show and it's
Speaker 1: for Latinos. It's just like this is ours.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow that Adams standily and now one hundred
Speaker 1: percent for us Latinos. And you know, if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this episode and you haven't watched season one, watch
Speaker 1: season one, and by this time season two is already out,
Speaker 1: I want you to binge the whole entire show, and
Speaker 1: I want you to follow Leuiz Guzman to social media.
Speaker 1: He's super vocal, and he's he's super pro Latino and
Speaker 1: just he's really what we should all be aiming to
Speaker 1: be out here, you know, using our voice, using our platforms,
Speaker 1: using our influence, and just you know, going for it.
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid, man, say what you want to say,
Speaker 1: like he said, if it's the truth, you can't be
Speaker 1: canceled for saying the truth.
Speaker 2: And you know, always take pride in who you are.
Speaker 2: Never forget where you come from. You know, respect your elders,
Speaker 2: our elders, help them out, you know, help each other out,
Speaker 2: and you know what you know, let's let's uh, let's
Speaker 2: understand that. You know, it's just important that we have
Speaker 2: a community to do better for each other and that
Speaker 2: we don't have to read about each other in the
Speaker 2: newspaper doing terrible, tragic things to each other, because we're
Speaker 2: better than that, you know. And please continue to love
Speaker 2: your children, nurture your kids, and make wing usapaw Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: What else can I say after that? Absolutely nothing but
Speaker 1: Grassiers Come Again, Luis.
Speaker 2: Chris, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Grassiers Come Again is a production of
Speaker 1: Honey German Productions in partnership with Iheart'smkuntura podcast network.