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Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and

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Speaker 1: Courturre Latino US Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We

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Speaker 1: bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you,

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Speaker 1: overlooked by the wrestler media, and while the country is

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Speaker 1: struggling to deal with these, we listen to the stories

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Speaker 1: of Black and Latino Studio United Latino Front, a cultural

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Speaker 1: renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. I'm Maria Inojosa,

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Speaker 1: nose Bayan or La Latino Usa. Listener, Here's an episode

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Speaker 1: the Los Archivos.

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Speaker 2: I started getting cast as inmate number one, but they

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Speaker 2: still gave me three twenty a day.

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Speaker 3: I didn't get paid as extra.

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Speaker 2: So even though I only have like one line like Mattalos,

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Speaker 2: that was one of my favorite line, Mattalos.

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Speaker 1: From Futuro Media. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria in no

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Speaker 1: JSA today. A portrait of Danny dere Ho. If you

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Speaker 1: don't recognize his name immediately, you'll definitely recognize his face.

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Speaker 1: So listen to this voice and try and imagine the

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Speaker 1: face that goes with I have.

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Speaker 3: One question for you, mil where is your brother?

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Speaker 1: Did you get it? Danny Trejo's signature look is long haired,

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Speaker 1: a scarred face, and he's usually carrying some very powerful weapon.

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Speaker 1: My favorite movie that he's in is Spy Kids, where

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Speaker 1: he plays Uncle Machette.

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Speaker 3: Close your eyes and hold out your wrist.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to give you the one gadget you should

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Speaker 2: always carry.

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Speaker 1: A rubber band.

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Speaker 3: No, it's a machette elastic wonder.

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Speaker 1: It's a rubber band.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's also the world's greatest gadget today.

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Speaker 1: Hoo has started over three hundred films since he began

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Speaker 1: acting in nineteen eighty five. Just to name a few,

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Speaker 1: he was in Despera Heat, from Dust Till Dawn, con Air,

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Speaker 1: once upon a Time in Mexico, Grindhouse, Machete and that's

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Speaker 1: just naming a few.

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Speaker 3: A born a Center, I'll probably Diocese.

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Speaker 1: He often plays the role of a villain or a

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Speaker 1: tough guy. He says the persona came naturally after eleven

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Speaker 1: years in prison and a pretty tough upbringing, which included

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Speaker 1: being introduced to drugs as a kid. In real life,

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Speaker 1: Danny is anything but a bad guy. Since leaving prison

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties, Trejo has worked as a counselor

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Speaker 1: at a drug rehab program and now in addition to acting,

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Speaker 1: he's the entrepreneur behind THEREJS Tacos and there Host Donuts

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Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. I sat down with him to discuss

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Speaker 1: how he went from being in and out of juvenile

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Speaker 1: hall and then prison to becoming one of the most

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Speaker 1: recognizable stars in Hollywood. Welcome Danny Trejo to Latino.

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Speaker 3: You thank you.

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Speaker 1: I want to know about memories of Dany Trejo before

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Speaker 1: you were smoking pot at eight or heroin when you

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Speaker 1: were twelve.

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Speaker 2: When I was like seven, I lived with my grandmother,

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Speaker 2: five aunts and six girl cousins, so I had a

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Speaker 2: lot of female orientation.

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Speaker 3: At the age of like seven and a half eight, I.

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Speaker 2: Moved in with my my Welito, my dad, my dad's

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Speaker 2: five brothers. So life really changed. Life really changed right there.

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Speaker 2: I found myself always kind of getting in trouble. I

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Speaker 2: think it was just kids stuff, but I think the

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Speaker 2: guys in my family demanded a lot more, you know,

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Speaker 2: like be a man. Because my my family, Trejo was

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Speaker 2: known as as a as being very tough, very macho.

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Speaker 2: My Walita was was a Swedish thing in the world,

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Speaker 2: and like all my aunts, I have to say that

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Speaker 2: I was loved, you know, they were they adored me.

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Speaker 1: But obviously, as a kid, maybe teenager, doing drugs made

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Speaker 1: you feel what that Because I'm kind of putting it,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, but it sounds like you were having

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Speaker 1: like it was really interesting. A lot of family, sure,

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Speaker 1: a lot of demands, But what was the thing that

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Speaker 1: the drugs were giving you as a young person.

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Speaker 3: I don't even think that understood it.

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Speaker 2: I just know that anytime you do drugs with people

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Speaker 2: you're in that group, you've all of a sudden become

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Speaker 2: a member of that group. You got to understand up

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Speaker 2: unto the age of U was seven. I was a sissy,

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Speaker 2: little kid.

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Speaker 1: What does that happen?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just like, what do you I did beep

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Speaker 3: sitting down. I was like a little girl because I

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Speaker 3: was with all girls.

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Speaker 2: And when I moved with my uncles, you know, you

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Speaker 2: find out real quick that little boys don't do peepe

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Speaker 2: sitting down, and you find out real quick that little

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Speaker 2: boys don't like kiddies. They were like dogs, you know.

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Speaker 2: I can remember sitting in my grandma's living room with

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Speaker 2: all my uncles at night, and then one of my

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Speaker 2: uncles coming in bloody and saying hey, Ca, and then

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Speaker 2: all my uncles running out and knowing that the night

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Speaker 2: was going to end up in the emergency somewhere, you know.

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Speaker 2: And and it was like, even though I knew that

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Speaker 2: I had to do that, I was I was afraid.

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Speaker 1: You do end up in prison. You spend a lot

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Speaker 1: of time in prison, I mean you and you were

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Speaker 1: in some pretty tough places like Folsome and Solidad and

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Speaker 1: San Quentin.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, was in all of them.

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Speaker 1: How old were you when you end up getting sentenced? Like, like,

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Speaker 1: when does that start?

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Speaker 2: Well, see, I grew up in that system. I started

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Speaker 2: going to juvenile very early. It's college simple if you

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Speaker 2: were straight a's in high school. Prison is simple. If

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Speaker 2: you grew up in that, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 2: And when juvenile Hall camp Youth Authority, state prison, you've

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Speaker 2: grown up there, so you know everybody, so you know

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Speaker 2: the ins and outs and how to behave and basically

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Speaker 2: there was a feeling of acceptance.

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Speaker 3: And then when you came out of juvenile Hall and went.

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Speaker 2: Back to school, there was a feeling of pride and

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Speaker 2: people would look up to.

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Speaker 3: You that Hey, I thought there wasn't a jointing.

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Speaker 2: You know. For a long time I was a really angry,

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Speaker 2: angry person. You know, I kind of felt for a

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Speaker 2: long time that, you know, God had short changed me

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Speaker 2: until it's like, I gave my life first of all

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Speaker 2: to God and then I just dedicated my life to

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Speaker 2: helping people. And I think because of that dedication, I

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Speaker 2: think that my life has gotten better.

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Speaker 1: When you say, the first thing that you did was

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Speaker 1: you gave yourself over to God. So where did that

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Speaker 1: happen and how did that happen?

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Speaker 2: That actually happened in Salidad State Prison, Sinko Emayo in

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Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight in Solia me rape Pacheck on Henri

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Speaker 2: Ki Halla.

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Speaker 3: We were drunk, we were loaded.

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Speaker 2: We uh what they call insided a riot and some

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Speaker 2: people got seriously hurt. So you know, we basically went

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Speaker 2: to the hole with gas chamber offenses.

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Speaker 1: And wait, what do you mean by with gas chamber offenses?

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Speaker 2: Well, Ray Pacheco sacked a free person, henriki Halla. They say,

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Speaker 2: kick the coach. That's an attack on an officer. It

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Speaker 2: was alleged that I threw a rock and hit Lieutenant

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Speaker 2: Gibbons in the head. So we were in the hole

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Speaker 2: and I remember asking God to just let me die

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Speaker 2: with dignity, you know, just let me die with dignity,

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Speaker 2: and I'll say your name every day and I will

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Speaker 2: do whatever I can for my fellow man. That's the promised.

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Speaker 2: I mean, but I thought it was just gonna be

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Speaker 2: a couple of years and they were gonna kill me,

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Speaker 2: and they'll see the fool me and gave me the

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Speaker 2: rest of my life. So I've been saying his name

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Speaker 2: every day and doing whatever I can for my fellow

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Speaker 2: man every day. So when I came out, I'm standing

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Speaker 2: in front of my mom's house trying to figure out, Okay,

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Speaker 2: how am I gonna do a Johnny be good guy?

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Speaker 3: And I couldn't figure what do I do? How do

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Speaker 3: you be a good person?

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Speaker 2: And I see I seen one of the ladies in

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Speaker 2: my mom's neighborhood. I seen her trying to drag her

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Speaker 2: TNA out and I said, that's what I do, and

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Speaker 2: I went over to help her.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like a bathtub, like an empty bathtub kind

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Speaker 1: of thing.

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Speaker 2: There's a big than a big tub. Put all your garbage,

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Speaker 2: all your papers, everything in there. And I seen her

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Speaker 2: dragging out and I went over there to help her.

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Speaker 2: I'll never forget what she said. She said I.

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Speaker 3: Didn't need no mina Robas shut up. Yeah, I got her.

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Speaker 2: I got her teena and I pulled it out and

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Speaker 2: then I went to the back her yard to get

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Speaker 2: the other one. And she never took her eyes off

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Speaker 2: me because she knew I was gonna steal her lawn

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Speaker 2: mower or or take some tools or something. But I

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Speaker 2: got her tena I put out, and that was that

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Speaker 2: was what I first did that I didn't have a job,

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Speaker 2: and I started taking out the old people's trash in

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Speaker 2: my mom's bad.

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that people know about you,

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Speaker 1: like immediately besides your voice, is your face. Right, I

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Speaker 1: mean people hopefully if they're just like, oh, I don't

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Speaker 1: know who it is, and then they're gonna look up

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Speaker 1: Danny threeho and they're be like, oh, of course I

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Speaker 1: know who Danny tre who is. He's the guy who's

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Speaker 1: got that face that looks like it's been wes. I

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Speaker 1: don't know to like Warren back old leather. So where

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Speaker 1: does that come from? Your face? Actually? And because I

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Speaker 1: was looking, I was like, well, are there scars on

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Speaker 1: his face? Did he get slashed?

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Speaker 2: Eddie Bunker once said that your face is going to

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Speaker 2: make it for you. He says, you always look like

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Speaker 2: you want to fight. You always look like you're angry.

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Speaker 2: So your job is to disarm people immediately, because you

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Speaker 2: got to understand it's in prison. You have to be

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Speaker 2: able to back people off with a look. You know,

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Speaker 2: you have to be able to tell people you don't.

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Speaker 2: I'll kill you just by looking at him. So you

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Speaker 2: become a life of intimidation, you know, or manipulation. That's

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Speaker 2: your whole mindset. Intimidate or manipulate, and unless you do,

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Speaker 2: you'll be pray. And I learned my walk. I learned

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Speaker 2: how to intimidate my talk. I learned how to intimidate.

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Speaker 2: God gave me this voice. He wasn't going to make

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Speaker 2: a soprano singer out of me.

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Speaker 1: But coming up on Latino USA, my conversation with Danny

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Speaker 1: Trejo continues.

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Speaker 2: I've heard look, mommy, the guy from Spy Kids in

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Speaker 2: about fifty different languages.

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Speaker 1: Stay with us. Yes, hey, we're back, And let's continue

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Speaker 1: now with my conversation with actor and entrepreneur Danny Trejo.

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Speaker 1: So you're making your way. It's like, you know, the seventies,

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Speaker 1: you're working as a drug counselor. You had gone through

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Speaker 1: AA and NA. You're working with young people and you

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Speaker 1: start working as an extra in films, and then you

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Speaker 1: get hired actually to start training other actors in boxing.

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Speaker 2: Just one I got what happened was that I was

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Speaker 2: on this movie called a Runaway Train. You're gonna get

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Speaker 2: a job, that's what you're gonna do.

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Speaker 3: You're gonna get a little job, some job a convic

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Speaker 3: can get, like straying off praise at a cafeteria, or

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Speaker 3: clean up.

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Speaker 2: Toilets with John Voyd and Eric Roberts. And I ran

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Speaker 2: into a friend of that. I was in prison with

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Speaker 2: a guy named Eddie Bunker. Eddie says, are you still boxing?

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Speaker 2: That's I'm training. And he said, we need somebody to

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Speaker 2: train one of the actors how to box. And I said,

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Speaker 2: what's it pay? Because they're given fifty dollars a day

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Speaker 2: for beating an extra and he said three twenty a day.

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Speaker 2: And I said, how bad do you want this guy

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Speaker 2: beat up? I thought he wanted me to beat somebody up.

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Speaker 2: That's like hit money, you know what I mean? And

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Speaker 2: he goes, no, no, no, you got to be careful.

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Speaker 2: This actor's real high strung, Danny. He might suck you.

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Speaker 2: I says Eddie for three hundred and twenty bucks give

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Speaker 2: him a stick?

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Speaker 3: Are you crazy? I didn't beat up for free on me.

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Speaker 1: So I'm intrigued by the fact that you were starting

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Speaker 1: to work in Hollywood. You were getting cast. Yeah. Oftentimes

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Speaker 1: it was as inmate number one or gang member number one,

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Speaker 1: or At.

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Speaker 2: First I was just the extra, and then I started

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Speaker 2: becoming like inmate number one, bad guy number one, tattooed

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Speaker 2: guide number one. For the first five years of my

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Speaker 2: career really, but as an extra, I just got I

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Speaker 2: was just there walking around. And then then when I

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Speaker 2: became a SAG, I started getting cast as inmate number one,

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Speaker 2: but they still gave me three twenty a day. I

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Speaker 2: didn't get paid as extra. I only have like one line,

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Speaker 2: like Mattalos. That was one of my favorite lines, Mattalos

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Speaker 2: and that's it. I got paid one of the imprison movies,

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Speaker 2: all right, We'll kill all them bottles, and the director

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Speaker 2: would immediately tell me take off my shirt because of

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Speaker 2: the tattoo I have on my chest. We're not char

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Speaker 2: and the tattoo it doesn't say that I love America.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't say I was in the Marines. It says

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Speaker 2: Vizvato was in prison. You know, it's just the prison tattoos.

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Speaker 2: They would always make me take off my shirt.

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Speaker 1: I have to say one of my favorite movies that

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Speaker 1: you're in. I fell in love with the film and

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Speaker 1: with you and with everybody involved with the movie. Spy Kids.

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Speaker 3: What are you working on world's smallest camera? I don't

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Speaker 3: see it, but it's just's you, ah that made me

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Speaker 3: a household name all over the world.

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Speaker 2: I've heard look mommy the guy from Spike Kids in

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Speaker 2: about fifty different languages.

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Speaker 1: I love that film because it made us fall in

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Speaker 1: love with Danny Trejo and not be afraid of Danny Trejo.

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Speaker 3: And Robert Rodriguez.

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Speaker 2: Let me tell you, Robert Lriguez has done more for

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Speaker 2: the Latina community in filmmaking than anybody else.

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Speaker 3: He's amazing. It was unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: Like I said, it was like all of a sudden,

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Speaker 2: I went from being an actor in R rated movies

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Speaker 2: to being child friendly. You know what I mean is

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Speaker 2: that all these kids are coming following me around. I

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Speaker 2: go to the airport and thed follow me around.

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Speaker 1: So you've got this really full life right, and it's

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Speaker 1: like life is good. And then you decide to open

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Speaker 1: a restaurant.

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Speaker 2: Well, I was doing a movie called Badass and one

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Speaker 2: of the producers was a guy named Ash, and he

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Speaker 2: noticed that I liked to eat, well, I like good food.

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Speaker 2: I don't like junk food. I don't like you know,

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Speaker 2: I don't eat McDonald's. And he said, Danny, why don't

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Speaker 2: you open a restaurant? So jokingly, I said, Trey hostacos.

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Speaker 2: Because my mom was an unbelievable cook. She, oh god,

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Speaker 2: she was unbelievable. And you know Latino families. At the

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Speaker 2: first of the month, you make big meals, you know,

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Speaker 2: and she lot of us and all kinds. But coming

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Speaker 2: towards the end of the month, you're making stuff. We

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Speaker 2: would call out the cupboard or we mix it and

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Speaker 2: I would say, Mom, what says you never mind? Just

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Speaker 2: don't want that, and you know, she would just make

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Speaker 2: up stuff because we were running low, and uh, I

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Speaker 2: would always joke, Mom, why don't you open a restaurant?

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Speaker 3: So in her honor, Ash came with a business plan.

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Speaker 2: And he gave it to me, and me, being the

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Speaker 2: brilliant businessman that I am, I handed it to my agent,

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Speaker 2: Glrian Ajasa, and I say, read this, look it up

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Speaker 2: because I read three lines, I'm gone. My add won't

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Speaker 2: allow me to read more than three lines, and that

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Speaker 2: it's a script. And so she said, you know, Dan's

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Speaker 2: not a bad deal, and we discussed it and we

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Speaker 2: opened the first restaurant on Librea here in La and

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Speaker 2: it just took off.

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Speaker 1: So it's called Trail Stacos Trejos Tacos. You didn't stop

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Speaker 1: there because now you've got Drejos Donuts.

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Speaker 2: Trail Donuts, Trios Cantino. We just opened up a restaurant

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Speaker 2: in lax On Terminal one Tacos, so we've got seven

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Speaker 2: restaurants right now. We're opening up another one at the

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Speaker 2: original Farmer's Market on Third in Fairfax, and uh, you

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Speaker 2: know we'll keep So what's.

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Speaker 1: Bringing you joy these days? I know that you said

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Speaker 1: that you talk about joy and you find it every day.

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Speaker 1: What's making you really happy?

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Speaker 3: Now? Though?

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Speaker 2: You know you make money and that's good, you know,

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Speaker 2: but I have never seen a U haul truck following

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Speaker 2: a hurst, so you know you can't take it with you.

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Speaker 2: Might well just enjoy, just enjoy all these people that

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Speaker 2: are billionaires and not worried about it.

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Speaker 3: Just make more.

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Speaker 2: Money, don't worry about global warming and who cares that's poisoning?

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Speaker 3: It's like, wow, who cares? Man?

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Speaker 2: It's like, you know what, Just bring joy. That's what

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Speaker 2: it's about. You know, Like I woke up this morning.

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Speaker 2: I was clean and sober, my kids were healthy, my

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Speaker 2: friends are all so by the grace of God. It's like,

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Speaker 2: you know what, I'm already living a miracle. So I

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Speaker 2: got to enjoy it, you know, I got to enjoy

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Speaker 2: it well.

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Speaker 1: Danny, thank you for bringing so much joy and fear

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Speaker 1: to all of our to all of our lives. It's

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Speaker 1: been great speaking with you. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: joining me.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Danny Trejo is an actor and the entrepreneur behind Dere

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Speaker 1: host Tacos, There, host Gandina, and Terre host Donuts in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles, California. This episode originally aired in April of

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. It was produced by Seer Gevido. It was

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Speaker 1: edited by Marlon Bishop and mixed by Stephanie LeBeau. The

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Speaker 1: Latino USA team also includes viktorri Estrada, Renaldo Leos Junior,

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Speaker 1: Andrea Lopez Crusado, Dori mar Marquez, Marta Martinez, Mike Sarge

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Speaker 1: Norsaudi and Nancy Trujillo. Benileei Ramirez is our co executive producer.

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Speaker 1: Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Additional engineering support by

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Speaker 1: Gabriel Abiez and jj Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna.

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Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Zane Robinos. I'm your

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Speaker 1: host and executive producer Marie jo Josa. Join us again

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Speaker 1: on our next episode. In the meantime, look for us

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Speaker 1: on all of your social media. I'll see you on

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Speaker 1: Instagram and remember Monteva. Yes Bye.

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Speaker 3: Funding for Latino USA is coverage of a culture of

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Speaker 3: health is made possible in part by a grant from

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Speaker 3: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Speaker 2: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,

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Speaker 2: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide,

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Speaker 2: and the Heising Simons Foundation unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities.

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Speaker 3: More at hsfoundation dot org