Speaker 1: Hi listeners, just a quick heads up out of the
Speaker 1: shadows tell stories of people fleeing and living in sometimes
Speaker 1: violent environments. There's this photo of two men who were
Speaker 1: superstars in the eighties. One of them is in a sharp,
Speaker 1: pinstriped suit, standing there stoically, not exactly awkward, but he's
Speaker 1: standing very still and stiff, standing tall. It's a big
Speaker 1: difference from the way I'm used to seeing him. Even
Speaker 1: in photos he's usually a big, winding ball of electricity.
Speaker 1: But maybe it's because on this day in Fernando Vallenzuela
Speaker 1: is standing in the White House next to maybe one
Speaker 1: of the only people in America that is more famous,
Speaker 1: President Ronald Reagan. In the early eighties, the Dodgers picture
Speaker 1: was so talented and well known that the phenomen of
Speaker 1: his fame was cobbed Fernando Mania. It was infectious to
Speaker 1: root for this five eleven Gordo from Sonoda, a rookie
Speaker 1: who was so good in his first season with Los
Speaker 1: Dwyers that he made history by capturing the cy Young
Speaker 1: Award and the Rookie of the Year Award, and the
Speaker 1: attention of millions of fans all over the world. Fernando
Speaker 1: was so famous that he made baseball more popular internationally.
Speaker 1: He created a whole generation of Mexican American fans of
Speaker 1: the sport. He also helped the Dodgers win the World
Speaker 1: Series and thus made his way to the Oval Office
Speaker 1: to meet an equally famous fan, the President of the
Speaker 1: United States. And I have this theory that maybe Fernando
Speaker 1: just did a little bit more than win games for
Speaker 1: my favorite baseball team. He went over the country at
Speaker 1: a time when Mexican immigrants like him were being rounded
Speaker 1: up in immigration raids and blamed for all of America's woes.
Speaker 1: He humanized people like my parents, And even now when
Speaker 1: I look back at his legacy, I feel seen, which
Speaker 1: brings me back to that photo of the two eighties
Speaker 1: superstars standing next to the President is Hope in a
Speaker 1: pinstripe suit, Because maybe that day in the White House
Speaker 1: was the day Reagan saw us too. It's a moment
Speaker 1: where a Mexican wasn't seen as a threat, but something
Speaker 1: to be celebrated, to be recognized, Fernando standing tonics to
Speaker 1: one of the most powerful people on the planet, who
Speaker 1: in just a few years will get a bill on
Speaker 1: his desk that will do more than make us feel seen.
Speaker 1: It will give us a chance to be Americans. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if this moment Fernando and Reagan meeting
Speaker 1: has much of an impact on Reagan, a staunch conservative
Speaker 1: whose policies like the war on drugs and trickle down
Speaker 1: economics largely decimated my community, that it influenced his decision
Speaker 1: to sign a bill that would give three million families
Speaker 1: a shot at coming out of the shadows. Because honestly,
Speaker 1: it's hard to tell what's going through Reagan's head that
Speaker 1: day in but it's for sure fun to imagine, Mr
Speaker 1: because maybe, just maybe and went a little something like this. Okay,
Speaker 1: you ready, it's November six, Mr President. There's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of press outside waiting to see what you're going
Speaker 1: to do about SP twenty two two. So tell me
Speaker 1: what it is again. Simpson's bill. Oh, he won't shut
Speaker 1: up about it. You remember, Oh Simpson, the football player. No, no,
Speaker 1: Mr President, the cowboy from Cody, the tall fellow ron.
Speaker 1: Where are you on this one? Well? What's up? Oh?
Speaker 1: That's right, the bill legalizing all the Mexicans. How could
Speaker 1: I forget? This was a tough one, A lot to
Speaker 1: put on one man's shoulders. But thankfully that man was me,
Speaker 1: the gipper, ron ron Ronnie the money. That's right. I'm
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan, I'm Patty Rodriguez, and I'm Mary Glendo. And
Speaker 1: this is out of the shadows. Children of eighty six.
Speaker 1: Immigrants and their children have long lived in the shadows
Speaker 1: of America. Their destinies aren't just shaped by where they
Speaker 1: come from, but by their particular place in history. In
Speaker 1: the lives of millions of immigrants and their children were
Speaker 1: changed by one lucky stroke of a pen by an
Speaker 1: likely allah, President Ronald Reagan. This podcast will examine the
Speaker 1: ripple effects the bill had on first generation kids of immigrants,
Speaker 1: who are navigating intergenerational mobility and transforming the cultural landscape.
Speaker 1: This is an untold story of luck, timing, triumph, opportunity, survival,
Speaker 1: and of course hope. I have to admit Eric, before
Speaker 1: we started this podcast, I didn't know a lot about
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan, and I realized for a lot of Latinos
Speaker 1: Mexican Americans, especially, Reagan's legacy is kind of like an iceberg.
Speaker 1: You know, when you first see an iceberg poking its
Speaker 1: head out of the water. At first, it looks small,
Speaker 1: pretty even, like you see it one way, but then
Speaker 1: you realize how big it actually is beyond what's on
Speaker 1: the surface. It's so big and deep and devastating. I
Speaker 1: totally get that Reagan's true legacy also depends on who
Speaker 1: you ask, and we asked a lot of people. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Ronald Reagan was the devil. I definitely feel, like,
Speaker 1: definitely complicted feelings. And it's so complex and contradictory because
Speaker 1: he's also one of the reasons you're here in the
Speaker 1: first place, and you left your land. When I think
Speaker 1: about Ronald Reagan, I think about you know, I know
Speaker 1: that he was an actor, Like if that never happened,
Speaker 1: like I would not be doing what I do. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of things that I felt had more
Speaker 1: of a negative impact, like the increase in homelessness and
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. A lot of damage was done,
Speaker 1: reaching back to even Ronald Reagan when he was governor
Speaker 1: here when we were outed up a lot of people
Speaker 1: and set him across the border, and some of the
Speaker 1: probably weren't Mextic considered that they were probably things. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone's a critic. Ever since I could remember, I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a gangster or I mean Franklin Delanor Roosevelt,
Speaker 1: the greatest scratch that second greatest president of all time
Speaker 1: f D R H. Golly. I witnessed firsthand what that
Speaker 1: man could do. See. I was there in the depression
Speaker 1: when good, honest Americans, white people felt hopeless, people were starving,
Speaker 1: and things felt dim. But hearing f DR was like
Speaker 1: a warm blanket. You people must not lose faith. Let
Speaker 1: us unite in banishing fear. And also the Japanese. We
Speaker 1: just announced us special camp. I mean a housing opportunity
Speaker 1: for the Japanese in America. Wow, good old Franklin Frankie,
Speaker 1: my boy, he was really my um what what what
Speaker 1: do your kids call it? How do I help you understand? Oh? Wait, yes,
Speaker 1: I got it. F DR was like my tupac. I
Speaker 1: remember the first time frank made me feel warm inside.
Speaker 1: It was the winter of ninety three. I was heartbroken.
Speaker 1: Not only had my father lost his job in the depression,
Speaker 1: but my dear Sally told me we can't go steady anymore.
Speaker 1: So when Frankie talked about not being afraid, it was
Speaker 1: like he was talking directly to me. I pulled myself
Speaker 1: up by my bootstraps and started dating Sally's sister. Boy,
Speaker 1: could she cut a rug? So I vowed to be
Speaker 1: like my hero. He helped he, so did I. He
Speaker 1: did radio, so did I. He became president, well so
Speaker 1: did I. Mr President, damonies, and get off your high horse.
Speaker 1: You're no john Ford yourself. I mean what what was
Speaker 1: what was I high? Yes, the Mexicans? Yes, where are
Speaker 1: we on that? M hmm? What after you are? Do? Oh?
Speaker 1: Dang it all to hell? Like I said, this was
Speaker 1: a tough one. On one hand, unemployment was really high.
Speaker 1: It was double digits when Reagan came in, and people
Speaker 1: were really concerned about that. But you also had the
Speaker 1: growers also said, everybody's going to be eating tomatoes growing
Speaker 1: in Mexico because we're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: grow tomatoes, the rapples or whatever in the US because
Speaker 1: we don't have the labor. I don't understand. If unemployment
Speaker 1: is so high, why is there a problem finding workers
Speaker 1: to pick our tomatoes? Well? Mr President, those aren't well
Speaker 1: they're not really American jobs. Farming Oh it's not really farming. Um,
Speaker 1: it's u picking, harvesting it best. But real American blue
Speaker 1: collar workers, well, well they're salt of the earth. And
Speaker 1: they could. Now I'm not telling you what to do
Speaker 1: because I know you ate that, but this bill could
Speaker 1: cost some people their jobs, not us, mind you. He
Speaker 1: just won our last election. But the last thing Americans
Speaker 1: want is to compete with Well, Fernando Mania is alive
Speaker 1: and well, this kid from Mexico is a phenomenon, or,
Speaker 1: as they would say down South, Fernando pitch of bitch.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a job that once belonged to an American. Ah. Yes,
Speaker 1: Fernando Allen's way a lot. It's June of the Middle East. Well, well,
Speaker 1: the Middle East is the Middle East, and I've decided
Speaker 1: to start selling weapons to China. Raiders of the Lost
Speaker 1: Arc is hitting theaters. God, I would have been great
Speaker 1: in that one. And then there was Fernando. Hell of
Speaker 1: a picture, and I know something about that. I won
Speaker 1: the series against the Yankees. In the winning game, pitched
Speaker 1: lights out on the Warner Brothers law as Grover Cleveland Alexander.
Speaker 1: So when I tell you Fernando was the real deal,
Speaker 1: I know from which I speak. Another strike out by
Speaker 1: Fernando Valenzuela, and that's a no hit up, folks. He's
Speaker 1: a pollous but off the mound very shy man. He
Speaker 1: came to the White House for lunch and hardly spoke
Speaker 1: a word. By God, there was this other guy with him,
Speaker 1: an interpreter of some sort. What was his name? That's right, JJ.
Speaker 1: The most powerful people in the country were in line
Speaker 1: waiting for this kid who was only anything years old,
Speaker 1: who couldn't speak about the English. So they consigned them
Speaker 1: a baseball or an autograph. Now, wait a minute, he
Speaker 1: doesn't mean me. F d R would not stand in
Speaker 1: line to ask for an autograph, and neither would I.
Speaker 1: I stand in line for no one. It was listening
Speaker 1: to Ragan, then the Vice President, George Bush, Father, the
Speaker 1: Senator of the State, Alexander Haig, the Secretary of the things.
Speaker 1: Gospel was better from Los Angeles. Okay, so I was there.
Speaker 1: Maybe I got an autograph, Maybe I had a soft
Speaker 1: spot for the kid. Even FDR like baseball, and you
Speaker 1: should have seen this Fernando kid. Not only was he great,
Speaker 1: but he reminded me of my best pal back in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Peppe Rubies. Out of the shadows, will be
Speaker 1: right back now, back to the show. Oh, my first
Speaker 1: time walking into Jason's was like walking into the green
Speaker 1: room at the Tonight Show. Jason's was a restaurant in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills that was known for three things. The clientele
Speaker 1: I'm talking Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, all the chili. Heck,
Speaker 1: Liz had it flown into Rome when she was filming Cleopatra. Man,
Speaker 1: I would have been great in that film. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine me as Julius Caesar Germanicus guard to escort Queen
Speaker 1: Cleopatra to her apartments? Anyway, where was i? Ah? Yes?
Speaker 1: The third thing was pepe Ruise, the legend dairy bartender
Speaker 1: and Amy go too to the stars, even future stars
Speaker 1: like me. How's it going, young man? You look lost? What? What? Oh?
Speaker 1: He their friend? Uh? Sorry, you just have a big audition,
Speaker 1: Sam would pepper ree, No, I'm not the director. Sam
Speaker 1: would a knight at the opera? Oh yes, I love
Speaker 1: that picture. Mr Marcus over there. Time flies like an arrow,
Speaker 1: for it flies like a banana. Wow, this is quite
Speaker 1: a place. You know what? You need a drink? Well?
Speaker 1: What do you recommend? Whom do you like? Dean Martin? What?
Speaker 1: What is he here? Not today? But I'll make you
Speaker 1: Mr Martin's favorite vodka, A bit of sherry orange Rent
Speaker 1: and my secret oil orange shows which Stuart, that's more
Speaker 1: jeepers a name did a flame of love. It was
Speaker 1: inspired by his song And I'll give you Dean Martin's
Speaker 1: confidence until midnight. Oh is that right? That's right? Amigo?
Speaker 1: Realuise Huh? Is that Italian? No Spanish? Mexican? Well yeom meymo.
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan, Nice to meet you. How you peppe? The usual? Please?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, ground show? Why how did you call me?
Speaker 1: Man's as only as old as the woman he feels?
Speaker 1: My god, what an angel? That's no angel, that's uh,
Speaker 1: that's Nancy d They call her queen of no Peppe.
Speaker 1: That's some mory. Nancy Davis, my god, the love of
Speaker 1: my life. Well you sure are tall, aren't you. Well?
Speaker 1: The weather is fine up here. It's a little warn
Speaker 1: do fruit. She was had brand new, recently arrived as
Speaker 1: a young contract player at MGM. Yes, that's Karen to Multi,
Speaker 1: my wife's biographer. A truth teller if I ever met one.
Speaker 1: He was an actor who had, you know, didn't have
Speaker 1: exactly an illustrious career, and he was hitting middle age
Speaker 1: and he was finding it sort of harder and harder
Speaker 1: to come by parts his first wife had essentially walked
Speaker 1: out of the marriage, so he was kind of at
Speaker 1: a low point in his life when when he met Nancy.
Speaker 1: Nancy would never really kind of make it as an
Speaker 1: actress on her own either, So both of these people
Speaker 1: were at a point in their lives where you would
Speaker 1: not have expected like great things out of their future,
Speaker 1: but it really turned out that they you know, it
Speaker 1: was quite a match. Now, wait a minute, Karen, you
Speaker 1: don't know what you're It's more complicated than that, Oh Nancy, Yes,
Speaker 1: Mr President, Mr President, that's itty. Wrap your lips around running.
Speaker 1: Stop out of it? What what what are you even
Speaker 1: talking about? I'm not out of it. I'm in here,
Speaker 1: damn it. I'm in it. Now give me that damn bill,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sign that thing for Peppe for love. Oh
Speaker 1: stop that, yesha, stop give me that thing. And you know,
Speaker 1: damn it, I'll fire you in a minute. I made you,
Speaker 1: I'll make you. Wait, wait, don't what would at all do?
Speaker 1: My mom loved Donald Reagan. She prays for him all
Speaker 1: the time. I've known that since I was little. I
Speaker 1: always just kind of like had my parents thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: Reagan was a great president. People say he was an optimist.
Speaker 1: Well he was, but he was also an idealist. The
Speaker 1: more you learn about Reagan, the harder it is to
Speaker 1: square some of his decisions that impacted my community the
Speaker 1: real Reagan. You know, they always said about Reagan. That's
Speaker 1: one of his biographers, veteran journalist leukennont what you see
Speaker 1: is what you get, And I I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the silliest phrases I've ever heard, because sometimes he
Speaker 1: got a lot more than you saw, and sometimes you didn't.
Speaker 1: You didn't get anything. If you talk to enough people
Speaker 1: who personally benefited from Reagan's policies, you start to get
Speaker 1: this picture of greatness. Nancy Reagan's biographer Karen to Multi
Speaker 1: especially tied Reagan's thinking on the issue of immigration to
Speaker 1: an inherent optimistic patriotism. I do think that Reagan and
Speaker 1: a lot of conservatives had this very idealistic view of
Speaker 1: America that it was a country of strivers. I mean
Speaker 1: that it was it was a place that people came
Speaker 1: because they were seeking freedom and opportunity, and that that
Speaker 1: freedom and that opportunity should essentially be available. When I
Speaker 1: hear that and imagine the gipper hanging out with guys
Speaker 1: like Paperuis and Fernando. It's really easy for me to
Speaker 1: tap into my own optimism, especially when I try to
Speaker 1: imagine Reagan having to decide whether he was going to
Speaker 1: sign or veto Urka. But that optimism, like Patty said
Speaker 1: at the top of the show, is just the tip
Speaker 1: of the iceberg, because if you look at Reagan's policies
Speaker 1: as a whole, they paint a different picture. Here's Homeboy
Speaker 1: Industry's founder, father Boyle. A lot of damage was done
Speaker 1: reaching back to even Ronald Reagan when he was governor
Speaker 1: here where he shut down all the mental hospitals with
Speaker 1: the promise that there would be smaller, more community based
Speaker 1: and that's exactly why the largest mental institution on the
Speaker 1: planet Earth is Los Angeles County Jail. And we owe
Speaker 1: it to him for that. And here's Communities in Schools,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles executive director Elmer Roldan. Ronald Reagan's policies told
Speaker 1: people that anything that was happening in the streets of
Speaker 1: America that was even it was impacting Black communities or
Speaker 1: Latino communities, was a product of our violent nature. The
Speaker 1: crack epidemic that aids epidemic wouldn't have been what they
Speaker 1: became if it wasn't for his positions to who, what
Speaker 1: and why When it comes to Reagan can be a
Speaker 1: bit of a minefield, especially for people like me and
Speaker 1: for most of the people who make this podcast Patty, Karen, Betsy,
Speaker 1: and Caesar, who all had parents or relatives that benefited
Speaker 1: from IRKA directly or indirectly. For us, Reagan's legacy is
Speaker 1: hard to reconcile. That was fascinated by the fact that
Speaker 1: he was a Republican, and I wanted to understand why.
Speaker 1: I was now shocked by that me finding out what
Speaker 1: happened in Central America, which I didn't know, and then
Speaker 1: I started feeling guilty for having these feelings. My dad
Speaker 1: has always said that his favorite president is Ronald Reagan,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting because we didn't even get amnesty from it.
Speaker 1: So it was just because of him helping out so
Speaker 1: many other people that in my household it was like,
Speaker 1: this is a good guy, so my entire life. To me,
Speaker 1: of course, I'm gonna think he's a good guy. Who's
Speaker 1: my dad thinks he's a good guy. So I think,
Speaker 1: for the first time, working on this podcast, now I
Speaker 1: think I'm able to make my own educated opinion, not
Speaker 1: based on what my parents taught me, but based on
Speaker 1: my own research. What's fascinating to me about Ronald Reagan
Speaker 1: is the juxtaposition of someone who spoke very passionately about immigrants,
Speaker 1: but then on the back sekend he was also doing
Speaker 1: these really atrocious things. It's like a complicated web of
Speaker 1: like ship going on, like even him, you know, stepping
Speaker 1: away from like what FDR did and like going against that.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's like an interesting story. Yes, f
Speaker 1: d R, Franklin, Delano Roosevelt, not a saint, not even close.
Speaker 1: Another guy who did good and bad and it really
Speaker 1: all depended on what you look like and who you were.
Speaker 1: And thinking about that, the full legacy of Ronald Reagan's
Speaker 1: life as a politician, I think that there was more
Speaker 1: going through his head when it came to Erica, more
Speaker 1: than just Fernando and Peperois. Or maybe it really was
Speaker 1: as simple as what what f DR do out of
Speaker 1: the shadows? Will be right back now, back to the show,
Speaker 1: damn it all the hell? That is the question that
Speaker 1: guided my soul. How do I become FDR? Think like him,
Speaker 1: lead like him, be like him. I realized a long
Speaker 1: time ago, you needed to be like to be that powerful,
Speaker 1: and I figured the easiest way to get people to
Speaker 1: like me was to be seen. And what better way
Speaker 1: to be seen than on the big screen? Randy, Randy,
Speaker 1: where's the rest of me? Cat? Cat Cat? Let's try
Speaker 1: this again, but but this time do it well? Or
Speaker 1: or this time try to act. He had been a
Speaker 1: kind of not very successful movie actor, had been more
Speaker 1: successful as the host of a couple of television program
Speaker 1: but he did have this way of speaking and of
Speaker 1: connecting with people. All right, Karen, Maybe I wasn't the
Speaker 1: best actor, but but it didn't matter. I needed people
Speaker 1: to know my name. I needed the power. And what
Speaker 1: better way to be at the seat of power than
Speaker 1: as the face of the General Electric Company. No, I'm
Speaker 1: not recording, I promise, well, did you see me on
Speaker 1: TV last night? To see those those monkeys? Oh? Gosh, sorry,
Speaker 1: wrong clip. Here's the g e thing. Here is Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 1: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's my pleasure to appear
Speaker 1: with Cloris Leachman and she he presents. Stick your hands
Speaker 1: up and hand us the loote. General Electric money is
Speaker 1: our most important product. Part of the gig was traveling
Speaker 1: the country and meeting with General Electric employees all over
Speaker 1: the country. I mean he would talk to tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of people, and even in the fifties he was
Speaker 1: adv cating very much the sorts of things that he
Speaker 1: would later become his hamart. Working as the host of
Speaker 1: ge Theater kind of required me to be a conservative
Speaker 1: and a good actor has to believe he is the character. Sorry, FDR.
Speaker 1: I had to ditch that Democrats ship because it wasn't
Speaker 1: taking me anywhere, which I didn't mind because the bag
Speaker 1: was good. Man, Do I love money? I basically became
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and thirty Rock, except more conservative, and boy
Speaker 1: did I have power. Finally, so I became president of
Speaker 1: the Screen Actors Guild. Will you name names? Senator McCarthy, Oh, boy,
Speaker 1: who I have a list as long as you're bar
Speaker 1: dab oh my. So he was the president of the
Speaker 1: Union and he did testify in Congress, and he really
Speaker 1: walked of very very narrow wine between Again, you have
Speaker 1: to understand what the country was going through at the time,
Speaker 1: and the Union had been in the middle of all
Speaker 1: these gigantic battles. Uh and they're, you know, over communism.
Speaker 1: Well you didn't hear this from me, but I hear
Speaker 1: that redhead, you know, the one she's married to, that
Speaker 1: Spanish fellow. Well I heard the hair Dante, the only
Speaker 1: red she carries in her purse. She's got some explaining
Speaker 1: to do. It would later be revealed that both Reagan
Speaker 1: and his first wife, Jane Wyman, were FBI informants during
Speaker 1: all of this. Uh, to be fair, like, like I've
Speaker 1: done most of my life, I just read whatever script
Speaker 1: the directors put in front of me. Well, in this case,
Speaker 1: it just happened to be j Edgar Hoover, and hey,
Speaker 1: I was able to get actors residual checks. You're welcome,
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks. I at that. So not all bad? Right? So? Yes,
Speaker 1: the battles with communists and the specifically communists in the
Speaker 1: Hollywood unions that sort of implanted the anti communist side
Speaker 1: of his of this ideology. Yeah, kill those COMMI bastards.
Speaker 1: I'll give you all my guns if you will. The president,
Speaker 1: you'll need to snap out of it. You're having a
Speaker 1: Central American flash back. After sag and ge that angry
Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater hit me up with another gig. He basically
Speaker 1: wanted me to tell people to vote for him. Good
Speaker 1: luck with that, Barry. The way I saw it, Barry
Speaker 1: was going to lose even if I was able to
Speaker 1: channel the Almighty's voice and command people to vote for him.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a
Speaker 1: little bit of Ronnie magic. I spit a couple of
Speaker 1: bars to the crowd, and they ate that it up.
Speaker 1: I've spent most of my life as a Democrat. I
Speaker 1: recently have seen fit to follow another course the money.
Speaker 1: There has come a time for choosing between being broken,
Speaker 1: righteous or making a buck off the backs of others.
Speaker 1: It was one of my fine air moments, and it
Speaker 1: led to the next bag. Some dudes came up to me, like,
Speaker 1: you ever think of running for office ship? Not really,
Speaker 1: but they gave me a mill for my campaign, and
Speaker 1: I had to take it because I was still out
Speaker 1: here hustling, trying to be like my boy Frankie Roosevelt.
Speaker 1: But you know, by destroying everything he built, Mrs Welfare
Speaker 1: Queen tear down that mall, My campaign was ironclad. I
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about welfare queens cutting social programs,
Speaker 1: making America great again, and general inspirational shit, change the
Speaker 1: game type it. And then there was the war. I
Speaker 1: led comfortably from home against the Red Army by funding
Speaker 1: civil wars in Central America. It was primarily through the
Speaker 1: prism of the proxy wars that were going on at
Speaker 1: the time with the Soviet Union and anti communism. And
Speaker 1: you know, he would compare the Contras in Nicaragua, the
Speaker 1: you know, Founding Fathers. So I made Central America a
Speaker 1: killing field, big deal. I wasn't going to relive Vietnam.
Speaker 1: We had the damn commies just a boat right away.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have knute the
Speaker 1: bastards if I had done that. I bet these damn
Speaker 1: Mexican Commies wouldn't be all up in my face. I
Speaker 1: bet we don't lose half the Western hemisphere to that
Speaker 1: Red menace. In fact, the more I think about it,
Speaker 1: that man was a gangster, and so am I Does
Speaker 1: that mean you've come to your senses? Damn right, I'm
Speaker 1: not signing this on American dribble. Get me my veto stand. Ronnie,
Speaker 1: you better look at this. Oh what is it? So?
Speaker 1: In November of nine at you know, at a moment
Speaker 1: when the Senate has just in the mid term elections,
Speaker 1: gone from being Republican held to Democratic held. Word gets
Speaker 1: out that Ronald Reagan has secretly been trading arms to Iran,
Speaker 1: one of America's enemies, a country that has been branded
Speaker 1: a terrorist country. Reagan has secretly been trading arms to
Speaker 1: Iran in an effort to get out American hostages that
Speaker 1: were held in the Middle East. And that is bad enough,
Speaker 1: and that is you know, it is a violation of
Speaker 1: every US policy there was. But then a few weeks later,
Speaker 1: it is discovered that the money from those arms sales
Speaker 1: is actually going in contravention of a law that Congress
Speaker 1: had passed to fund the Nicaraguan rebels. The contrast, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was a flat out violation of the law. So
Speaker 1: you had both in Iran, a violation of US policy,
Speaker 1: but also lawbreak going on within the White House. And
Speaker 1: it becomes clear very quickly that if Ronald Reagan knew
Speaker 1: about the diversion of this money, he is in danger
Speaker 1: of getting impeached. And it really does become the biggest
Speaker 1: crisis of his presidency. Man alive, there's a whole bunce
Speaker 1: of press outside the room waiting you know what you
Speaker 1: have to do. A real one does what he has
Speaker 1: to do to survive. I'm very pleased that you could
Speaker 1: all be here today. This bill, the Immigration Reform and
Speaker 1: Control Act of that I will sign in a few
Speaker 1: minutes is the most comprehensive reform of our immigration laws
Speaker 1: since nineteen fifty two. It's the product of one of
Speaker 1: the longest and most difficult legislative undertakings in the last
Speaker 1: three Congresses. Further, it's an excellent example of a truly
Speaker 1: successful bipartisan effort the administration of the allies of immigration
Speaker 1: reform on both sides of the Capital and both sides
Speaker 1: of the Aisle work together to accomplish these critically important
Speaker 1: reforms to control illegal immigration. Al Right, So, maybe it's
Speaker 1: a little cynical of me to imagine Ronald signing the
Speaker 1: bill that gave my parents amnesty Urica to divert attention
Speaker 1: from the Iran Contra scandal that almost got him locked up.
Speaker 1: Maybe he did have more idealistic motives. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: because he lived and worked in a very Latino city
Speaker 1: and state before he got to the White House. Maybe
Speaker 1: it was fandom of Fernando and the Dodgers, or his
Speaker 1: lifelong friendship with the Mexican bartender named Peperois. I don't
Speaker 1: know though, f Dr Johnson Nixon, Bush, Trump, Clinton, Reagan
Speaker 1: honestly as a Mexican American kid who grew up in
Speaker 1: Southeast Dely in the nineties, it's hard for me not
Speaker 1: to see most moves by presidents in this country as
Speaker 1: gangsters doing gangster ship. But the truth is, after more
Speaker 1: than a year reading about it and dozens of interviews
Speaker 1: with experts, I'm still lost on Reagan and Urica. After
Speaker 1: all that, I still didn't really know about this guy.
Speaker 1: Why did the same guy who I have to honestly
Speaker 1: thank for giving my parents amnesty is the same dude
Speaker 1: that is championed by conservatives, the guy who used parts
Speaker 1: of Latin America as a proxy war game to fight
Speaker 1: a European superpower, The guy who led the war on
Speaker 1: drugs that gave rise to cartel violence, and whose domestic
Speaker 1: policies felt like they were directly aimed at keeping black
Speaker 1: and brown people from ever having a shot. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I'm gonna pull the curtain way back and
Speaker 1: say that when I was writing this episode, I had
Speaker 1: no idea that my partner and co host Patti Rodriguez
Speaker 1: had tracked down the author of a letter that may
Speaker 1: prove Reagan's motives were actually pure and she was just
Speaker 1: a ten year old kid writing to the most powerful
Speaker 1: man in the world asking for him to do the
Speaker 1: right thing. Please help us with this one thing, All
Speaker 1: we Go residents. That's on the next episode of Out
Speaker 1: of the Shadows, Children of eighty six. If you love
Speaker 1: this podcast, please help us get the word out by following, rating, reviewing,
Speaker 1: and sharing it with your friends. I'm Christopher Matthew Spencer,
Speaker 1: and I played a fictional version of Ronald Reagan, FDR
Speaker 1: and many of the other voices you heard today, who
Speaker 1: were all invented and dramatized for the purposes of entertainment.
Speaker 1: This episode also featured some very real legendary voices. They're
Speaker 1: great journalist Mario Lena Salinas, author and Gif figaroa legendary
Speaker 1: Dodgers broadcaster, Heim Haden, Nancy Reagan's biographer, Karen Tumulti, Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan's biographer, Luke Cannon, Father Boyle Al Murodan Lila Villas,
Speaker 1: Marlino Rosco, Borney Santos, Rena, Solise Lose Thompson, Adriano Venegas
Speaker 1: and Alejandro via Bando. Thank you everyone. Out of the
Speaker 1: Shadows is written by Caesar Hernandez. It's also written, edited, hosted,
Speaker 1: and executive produced by Patti Rodriguez and Eric Galindo. It's
Speaker 1: produced by Betticrdanaz, Karen Lopez and Gabby Watts. It's sound design,
Speaker 1: mixed and mastered by Jesse nice Longer. Our studio engineer
Speaker 1: is Clay Hillenburg. Karen Garcia That's Me is our announcer.
Speaker 1: Out of the Shadows is the production of In the
Speaker 1: Other Productions and School of Humans in partnership with I
Speaker 1: Hearts Michael Tura Podcast Network. The podcast is also executive
Speaker 1: produced by Giselle Bancees, Virginian Prescott, Brandon Barr and Chad Crowley.
Speaker 1: Our marketing and our team is led by Jasmine Maheia.
Speaker 1: Original music by a Arenas and if you loved his
Speaker 1: cover of Los Caminos la vida this podcast theme song,
Speaker 1: you can listen to it on all music platforms. Historical
Speaker 1: audio for Out of the Shadows comes from the Reagan
Speaker 1: Presidential Library and the National Archives. Special thanks to Ian Vargas,
Speaker 1: Alex and Ali Caitlin. Becker, gob Chabran, Daisy Church, Angel
Speaker 1: Lopez Galindo, Julianna Gamis, Ryan Gordon, Brian Matheson, Claudia Marti ConA,
Speaker 1: Oscar Ramirez, John Rodriguez, Juan Rodriguez, Joshua Sandovald, Eric Sclar,
Speaker 1: Tony Sorrentino, and Megan Tangy