Speaker 1: Hey guys, It's Sammy J. And welcome back to this
Speaker 1: week's episode of the lesbi Rod Podcast. This week, my
Speaker 1: guest is Louise Miranda. You guys, I love this conversation
Speaker 1: so much. We talked about his new documentary Sanbre Louise,
Speaker 1: which is on HBO. If you haven't checked it out,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend. We talked about the importance of family,
Speaker 1: the education system, and the behind the scenes of running
Speaker 1: a political campaign that you won't hear anywhere else. All Right,
Speaker 1: you guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode and I'll
Speaker 1: see you soon. First of all, I am so excited
Speaker 1: that you are on my podcast. It truly I we
Speaker 1: have so much to talk about. I watched your documentary.
Speaker 1: It is incredible. So first, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I had a fantastic time. And the best thing it's
Speaker 1: that many times in lie if I always have to
Speaker 1: prepare when I'm going into an interview politics, an issue,
Speaker 1: an agency and institution, I always need to know more. Uh.
Speaker 1: The great thing about doing interviews about the documentaries that
Speaker 1: we're talking about my life, I actually know you know
Speaker 1: pretty well. You know it pretty well? Yes, yes, so
Speaker 1: no preparation needed. Well, that's awesome. I think you've been
Speaker 1: in the public eye, but you've been working a lot
Speaker 1: of the times behind the scenes. What has that been
Speaker 1: like having a camera crew follow you for so long?
Speaker 1: I I started thinking about j J. The director, and
Speaker 1: God Los the camera person and the sound person, and
Speaker 1: I started thinking that they were furniture. Really, yes, how
Speaker 1: do you make that mental distinction, though, where the cameras
Speaker 1: become furniture to pretend that they're out there so you
Speaker 1: can be your fully authentic self by ignoring them. Really,
Speaker 1: I could be good at ignoring as my wife or
Speaker 1: or my kids when they're telling me something that I
Speaker 1: don't I don't want to hear. Also, having the world
Speaker 1: see your life like it's you've never exposed yourself before.
Speaker 1: What was that like? The opening scene for those who
Speaker 1: will see the documentary, it's the heart attack and sort
Speaker 1: of in the doctor's office, my cardiologists and uh. I
Speaker 1: have gotten so many texts and emails and calls from
Speaker 1: people who I haven't seen in a decade. In two decades,
Speaker 1: different from you, I'm old. I have been making friends
Speaker 1: for the last fifty five years yours. Well, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I think I have been really interested, especially since about
Speaker 1: activism and taking action in your communities. UM, and you
Speaker 1: have done so much with you know, taking power back,
Speaker 1: and for people my age, it can be really intimidating
Speaker 1: to start when you see so many people, whether it's
Speaker 1: in government, politics or just people telling you you can't
Speaker 1: do something. What advice do you have to just get started?
Speaker 1: That you got to stop being the kid that follows order,
Speaker 1: because you know, we we are trained to follow the
Speaker 1: advice of our parents, to follow the advice of the teacher,
Speaker 1: to become social beings. All weird toward is the rules
Speaker 1: of the game. And you are a better kid it
Speaker 1: if you follow the rules of the game. So it's
Speaker 1: how do you begin to transform and begin to check
Speaker 1: that the rules of the game may not be fair,
Speaker 1: that they need to change. And when you begin to
Speaker 1: realize that they need to change, then you begin to
Speaker 1: develop your own leadership. Some people are respectful leaders and
Speaker 1: use the political process to do that. Others are in
Speaker 1: the streets, UH, sort of challenging the status quo, and
Speaker 1: each of us it's gonna pick whatever leadership style comes
Speaker 1: with our own temperament. And then it is that time
Speaker 1: when you begin to challenge UH. The norms and the
Speaker 1: rules that you really begin to experiment, what feels comfortable
Speaker 1: in making change, what kind of leader I am. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really liked what you said about we're in such
Speaker 1: a critical time in our country, UM, And I personally
Speaker 1: think that a lot of things are being re evaluated,
Speaker 1: whether that's politics or UM sports or Broadway or the
Speaker 1: education system. And I feel like this time, though it's
Speaker 1: really scary, it's a time for change and innovation because
Speaker 1: it's making us re evaluate different things. UM. And something
Speaker 1: that I really wanted to talk to you about is education.
Speaker 1: I am very fascinated and passionate about this. I know
Speaker 1: your son Miguel has a d h D and I've
Speaker 1: I have learning differences. I've struggled it with my entire life.
Speaker 1: I have auditory, expressive and receptive processing. And I've learned
Speaker 1: so much and this passion has really grown, and I've
Speaker 1: the research. I've learned. So many people don't have the
Speaker 1: ability to know they have learning differences and also be
Speaker 1: at a school where they can learn how they learn
Speaker 1: and know they're not stupid. And I think it's really
Speaker 1: important as the progression of our society for people to
Speaker 1: know they're not stupid and that they can make an impact.
Speaker 1: So my question is what can we do in society
Speaker 1: and politics to make it to make education for everyone
Speaker 1: normalize so kids know that they can impact, make an impact,
Speaker 1: you know they're not stupid. First, we need to make
Speaker 1: the realization that you explained in your question. Uh, we
Speaker 1: all learn differently, and the difficulty with education is that
Speaker 1: it tries to normalize all of those into a particular pattern,
Speaker 1: which is the way to learn. At the moment, we
Speaker 1: challenge that because we realize that kids learn in different ways,
Speaker 1: then we begin to build an educational system that has
Speaker 1: possibilities for everyone. But it really starts with parents realizing
Speaker 1: that their child learns differently and not feel a shame
Speaker 1: of that. And it's normal. Everyone's brains are wired differently. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: But some parents they went to the Ivy League school,
Speaker 1: They learned in the classroom with a teacher and kids
Speaker 1: and excel. So the fact that their kids may have
Speaker 1: a d h D. Executive functions issues, auditory perception issues,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, difference, it's never what our society does
Speaker 1: best in accepting. Yeah, you have to start by the
Speaker 1: parents accepting, because then you normalize it for your child
Speaker 1: for sure, you should. You should do it as early
Speaker 1: as you can. Many parents denied reality. You know, in
Speaker 1: Spanish we call the paco lamano tried to cover the
Speaker 1: sky with your hand. You're really just looking at your
Speaker 1: hand the sky. It's filled out there, And many many
Speaker 1: parents wait until something catastrophic happened in the learning possibilities
Speaker 1: of that child. The earlier you say, my child learned differently,
Speaker 1: let me look for the kind of school I remember
Speaker 1: when I started looking for schools for Miguel he was four. Really,
Speaker 1: you're someone that they don't stop to make something happen,
Speaker 1: and I want to be like that. So in your advice,
Speaker 1: what can I do and other people my age to
Speaker 1: make sure that we can fix this issue? How do
Speaker 1: how does someone like I get started? When I might
Speaker 1: not be taken seriously by adults? When you begin to
Speaker 1: make change, you begin to be taken seriously. My sense
Speaker 1: it's that even when you don't think that you are changing,
Speaker 1: just by talking to somebody else, you are changing somebody
Speaker 1: else's perception. I hope so. And like like you said,
Speaker 1: we're living in the weirdest time. Um As you've been
Speaker 1: in politics, you've been in political consultant for so many years,
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts? Because I was a first time voter.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited that I voted, so exciting, and so
Speaker 1: the thing is Miguel, Miguel was also it's so exciting.
Speaker 1: So it was so liberating because you know, I became
Speaker 1: very interested in politics ever since the election. Um, and
Speaker 1: the fact that as a political consultant, what are your thoughts,
Speaker 1: because I haven't lived through this before, having a president
Speaker 1: who hasn't even conceded, I actually want to know what
Speaker 1: you think. Also because this is the first time in
Speaker 1: my lifetime, so it's not just me, it's not just you, uh,
Speaker 1: that we had such an asshole in the White House.
Speaker 1: So so my reaction at my age may be different
Speaker 1: from yours. For me, it's more of, oh my god,
Speaker 1: every president in my lifetime has transfer power because that's
Speaker 1: what strengthened the democracy in which we live. You know.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of of the song that the king
Speaker 1: sings in Hamilton's when he learned to true. It's too true, George,
Speaker 1: George Washington, it's stepping aside. His response is the lyric
Speaker 1: is I didn't know that something a person can do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I imagine that at the end, Uh, he will
Speaker 1: probably not concede but moved out. So for everyone listening, UM,
Speaker 1: a lot of I know, I've been getting a lot
Speaker 1: of d m s and a lot of people they're like,
Speaker 1: I couldn't vote. What can I do? And it's really intimidating,
Speaker 1: not knowing where to start. How can people make the
Speaker 1: smallest impact in their communities? What are the little things
Speaker 1: that actually make an impact. I get that from adults
Speaker 1: all the time because they're not citizens, so they cannot
Speaker 1: register to vote. They can participate in the political process,
Speaker 1: but they cannot do that ultimate step, which is to vote.
Speaker 1: So in the Latino community, immigrant communities, those of those
Speaker 1: who have that right have to overperform to make sure
Speaker 1: we're not leaving anybody behind. It's like we're voting ones,
Speaker 1: but we're voting for many people. And I think it's
Speaker 1: just getting involved. Uh, it's writing those letters. During this election,
Speaker 1: were many organizations and you can't believe how important they
Speaker 1: are because cumulative they have an impact. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people need to realize that their voice does matter,
Speaker 1: no matter what age they are, that you actually can
Speaker 1: make an impact. I think it's really interesting the place
Speaker 1: that we're in because it's this has never happened before. Um,
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm currently in constitutional law is my history
Speaker 1: class right now. I'm a senior in high school and
Speaker 1: I'm learning a lot and something that I don't understand
Speaker 1: that if you can explain this to me, Puerto Rico
Speaker 1: is a US territory. Why why can't you guys vote? Like?
Speaker 1: Why you guys are a US territory? And I feel
Speaker 1: like I just don't understand it because constitutionally, we are
Speaker 1: a territory and as a result, we only have the
Speaker 1: privileges of the American citizenship that are granted by the territories.
Speaker 1: And Puerto Rico doesn't get the federal assistance of most
Speaker 1: federal programs because those are curtailed by law. Something that
Speaker 1: I find so fascinating is that you holds together miraculously,
Speaker 1: Hamilton and Puerto Rico. The stresses of that were very intense.
Speaker 1: And I know that you were told to try and
Speaker 1: have less stress since your heart attack. So doing that experience,
Speaker 1: how did you try and have a healthy balance between
Speaker 1: low stress in such a high stress situation. Well, nobody
Speaker 1: told me to have less stress. Okay, so people told me.
Speaker 1: I need to eat right, I need to do exercise,
Speaker 1: and I need to take my pills every day. And
Speaker 1: I do those three things religiously. The stress part, that's
Speaker 1: my wife. You probably talk to my wife before you
Speaker 1: get on the air. Here is that's my wife talking.
Speaker 1: That's my kids talking. It's not a medically directed thing.
Speaker 1: It's it's all about how you cope with it. Um.
Speaker 1: I find that so interesting because I'm still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to not let the stress take go
Speaker 1: over to where I'm paralyzed and can't do anything but
Speaker 1: use it as motivation to actually get stuff done. We
Speaker 1: have to take a quick break, but when we come back,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about the process of
Speaker 1: running a political campaign, what it's like working with your family,
Speaker 1: and I actually have a few more questions about your documentary.
Speaker 1: We'll be back right after this and we're back. You
Speaker 1: have done so much and you have been a really
Speaker 1: incredible political consultant, and I am so fascinated by this.
Speaker 1: What is the process of running a campaign and what's
Speaker 1: something that people might not know about the process that
Speaker 1: it's a mixed of art and science. You need to
Speaker 1: know who are you running and everything around that candidate.
Speaker 1: You want to know the person's strength, the person as weaknesses,
Speaker 1: the person's past, what they are not proud of, and
Speaker 1: what they are proud of, because you are presenting the
Speaker 1: candidate with the best assets possible, but you need to
Speaker 1: know what are the skeletons, what are the things that
Speaker 1: that person is not proud of? If they come up
Speaker 1: in the campaign, you need to have known to handle
Speaker 1: them in the best possible light. So that's one set
Speaker 1: of variables, and that set of variables is pretty scientific.
Speaker 1: You want to know as much as possible about who
Speaker 1: it's the person that is going to get elected collecting
Speaker 1: data and in my head also I only want to
Speaker 1: work with people that are good people. I don't want
Speaker 1: to work with bad people. There are plenty of those already,
Speaker 1: and they're consultants that do this only for the money.
Speaker 1: I I don't want to do that at this stage
Speaker 1: in my life. The second said of scientific data, it's
Speaker 1: the district where you're running. You want to know who
Speaker 1: lives there, Who are the voters, how many males, how
Speaker 1: many females, Who is a likely voter, who is not
Speaker 1: a likely voter? Do you need to register more people?
Speaker 1: What's the age composition, what's the ideology? You want to
Speaker 1: know as much as possible, and then the rest is
Speaker 1: your guts. I was one of the first Latino community
Speaker 1: leaders to go and support President elected Biden, and my
Speaker 1: friends will tell me to a fast local, your crazy,
Speaker 1: but my guts, we're telling me that he was the
Speaker 1: kind of leader that could defeat Trump. When I used
Speaker 1: to go to therapy, my therapist used to tell me
Speaker 1: I love your mind, I love the way you think,
Speaker 1: but I am totally delighted about your guts because they
Speaker 1: never betray you exactly. And I feel like it's such
Speaker 1: a powerful thing that people don't realize how strong it is.
Speaker 1: And intuition is. Um. There's a part of documentary when
Speaker 1: you you tell in Manuel to continue writing work on
Speaker 1: his ar and I know that was really hard for you.
Speaker 1: Um when you finally saw Hamilton's and in the Heights,
Speaker 1: was it at that moment you knew it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be okay. I always know he will be
Speaker 1: okay because I knew he was smart enough to do
Speaker 1: the next best thing for him. Uh, and he knew
Speaker 1: he loved I knew he loved teaching. So in my
Speaker 1: head is not going to be the lawyer that I
Speaker 1: want him to be, but doesn't matter. At the end
Speaker 1: of the day, if this were not to work out,
Speaker 1: he will be an amazing teacher and he will spend
Speaker 1: his life educating kids to the fullest of their potential.
Speaker 1: When Jeffrey Seller and the producers agreed to take in
Speaker 1: the Heights, that I knew that game is over. That's
Speaker 1: when I knew, because if there were amazing, religible producers
Speaker 1: like Jeffrey Seller ready to say yes two in the Heights,
Speaker 1: that my kid was good, good enough to be on stage.
Speaker 1: I find the whole creative process so fascinating with everything.
Speaker 1: Would you ever I know you love show tunes and
Speaker 1: you're very You're very smart. Would you ever consider writing
Speaker 1: a musical or a play about something? No, because I'm
Speaker 1: not good enough. I don't know about that. No, I
Speaker 1: am not good enough. I assure you that I am
Speaker 1: not good enough. I could sing a song I actually have,
Speaker 1: I don't believe a decent voice. I could write a song,
Speaker 1: but it's not good enough, and I am too competitive
Speaker 1: to settle for something that I know it's not the best.
Speaker 1: I think it's really cool that you know what you're
Speaker 1: passionate about and that you you're perfectionists. I'm the same way.
Speaker 1: You want to do things right and you don't want
Speaker 1: to you don't want to. Have asked something. What is
Speaker 1: it like working with your family, because I know you
Speaker 1: guys all work together and that can be complicated, but
Speaker 1: it's also great. It is. It is complicated, but it is.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely it's great. I a lot of people my
Speaker 1: generation see their kids for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, for birthdays,
Speaker 1: for anniversaries, for special occasions. I talk to my kids
Speaker 1: every day of my life, and I am forever thankful,
Speaker 1: uh that I can talk to my kids every day
Speaker 1: of my life and about very different things. And we
Speaker 1: have learned to separate work. I give you an example
Speaker 1: of yesterday. I textedly Manuel last night around eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: at night, because I knew he was coming to his
Speaker 1: apartment from the set, and I said, I need to
Speaker 1: talk to you tomorrow and we have breakfast and he responded,
Speaker 1: only if it is for fun, and I responded, it
Speaker 1: is not. So let me guess you did not have
Speaker 1: breakfast this morning. No, we actually did. What I said
Speaker 1: was I'll make abenna, I make an awesome oatmeal, and
Speaker 1: I know he loves my oatmeal, so I said, I
Speaker 1: make abenna. I'll bring you abenna, and then we'll spend
Speaker 1: just a little time together because we just have to
Speaker 1: take care of some business that we have to take
Speaker 1: care of today, so it was not a social location.
Speaker 1: We called his kids, We ate abenna while we handle business,
Speaker 1: and then I left that oatmeal sounds delicious. Okay, we
Speaker 1: have to take one more quick break, but when we
Speaker 1: come back, I want to talk to you about how
Speaker 1: you have been compared to Hamilton's and the charity you
Speaker 1: want to highlight. We'll be back right after this and
Speaker 1: we're back. Something that I think is really interesting that
Speaker 1: on the documentary is that limnlill talked about how he
Speaker 1: was actually playing you in Hamilton the entire time, which
Speaker 1: I find so fascinating. Um, But I think there's a
Speaker 1: difference between because Hamilton's his relentlessness distracted him from his family,
Speaker 1: but that's not the case for your family is your priority.
Speaker 1: And I'm always trying to find a balance between work
Speaker 1: and school and how to still be a human. How
Speaker 1: how have you found the healthy balance while still prioritizing
Speaker 1: your family By prioritizing and I tell you a little story.
Speaker 1: When my daughter was in second grade, uh, she stopped
Speaker 1: party six. The teacher told us that she was not
Speaker 1: learning multiplication and that she was going to have a
Speaker 1: real hard time learning math. For the next several months,
Speaker 1: every night I was home, I didn't go to that meeting,
Speaker 1: I did and go to that other meeting. I was
Speaker 1: teaching my daughter multiplication tables, just the all fashioned way.
Speaker 1: Two times two is four, two times three is six,
Speaker 1: and so on. And then when she learned them, when
Speaker 1: she began to get aced all of her quizzes in
Speaker 1: second grade, then I went back to all my meetings.
Speaker 1: It's a matter of making what it's the priority, our priority,
Speaker 1: and it's the only way to do it, to prioritize
Speaker 1: what it's needed immediately. I think that I think it's
Speaker 1: so important to just like, like you're saying, prioritize, but also,
Speaker 1: you know, you can always make time for something if
Speaker 1: you really want to, when you're really passionate about it something.
Speaker 1: I've been feeling very helpless this year, like so many people.
Speaker 1: So what I wanted to do with the second season
Speaker 1: of my podcast is to highlight a charity um that
Speaker 1: isn't talked about enough and that we should raise money
Speaker 1: for and raise awareness. So it's wondering what is the
Speaker 1: charity that you're passionate about. I am passionate about the
Speaker 1: Hispanic Federation. Myself and a group of Latinos in New
Speaker 1: York started it back in eight nine, uh. And we
Speaker 1: started it because we knew, just like Catholic Charities and
Speaker 1: United Jewish Appeel and Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, that
Speaker 1: people have to give, but people give when you ask
Speaker 1: them to give. Uh. And in the Latino community, I
Speaker 1: know we will grow as a community. I know that
Speaker 1: we will become the largest minority group and the next
Speaker 1: generation of Latinos it's gonna be paid for somebody's social security.
Speaker 1: So we need to make sure that they are productive
Speaker 1: citizens and they become an integral part of our nation.
Speaker 1: And that's what the Hispanic Federation does by helping organizations
Speaker 1: that are creating healthier Latino communities. So I've always been
Speaker 1: passionate about it since we started it back in eighty
Speaker 1: nine ninety UH. They were instrumental in the work that
Speaker 1: we did in Puerto Rico after Hurricane and Maria. They
Speaker 1: are instrumental in registering people and getting them out to vote,
Speaker 1: and they're instrumental in in healthier communities. Well, I'm going
Speaker 1: to link it in my bio, so go check out
Speaker 1: my instagram if you haven't, so you can check out
Speaker 1: this awesome organization something that I find so interesting. I
Speaker 1: have been a big Hamilton's fan for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it's only fitting too um end
Speaker 1: this with you know, the constant theme within the show
Speaker 1: was what he was obsessed with his legacy. What do
Speaker 1: you hope your legacy is most important? That I was
Speaker 1: a good dad? Uh, that by their actions my kids
Speaker 1: do good things in life and become good parents and
Speaker 1: raise good kids and teach good values. You know. I
Speaker 1: enjoy so the institutions that I have helped create. Ah,
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, a the only
Speaker 1: role that it's unique and that I have had from
Speaker 1: the moment my kids appear in my life to the
Speaker 1: moment I die. Instead of being a parent, people get
Speaker 1: married and get divorce, they end up with three wives
Speaker 1: like a president in a lifetime, and so you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a husband several times in life, but you are
Speaker 1: a parent all of the time. For me, that is
Speaker 1: the most important job. If in the process I helped
Speaker 1: create other things that last me, that's fantastic. But ulike Hamilton's,
Speaker 1: I am not concerned about the financial system of the
Speaker 1: United States. I have concerned that I've raised good citizens. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you did that. And I just want to
Speaker 1: thank you much for coming on my podcast because it
Speaker 1: truly means a lot. Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to
Speaker 1: this week's episode. Don't forget to check out the Hispanic Federation.
Speaker 1: They are truly doing some incredible work. Also, if you
Speaker 1: haven't watched Sampre Louise yet, please do. When I tell
Speaker 1: you this documentary is one of my favorites that I've
Speaker 1: seen in such a long time. I am not joking. Also,
Speaker 1: go follow Louise Miranda on Instagram and on Twitter, and
Speaker 1: if you haven't already, please subscribe leave a comment. I
Speaker 1: always love to hear feedback. And don't forget to follow
Speaker 1: me on Instagram at It's Sammy J. That's I T
Speaker 1: S S A M M Y J A y E.
Speaker 1: I will see you guys next week for a new episode.
Speaker 1: By