Fom Marine Combat To Celebrated Actor Con Victor Almanzar

Let's dive into the life of Victor Almanzar, a Marine-turned-actor whose journey will make a thug shed a tear or two. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Brooklyn, Victor opens up about the profound challenges of reintegrating into society after serving in the military.

We dive into his experiences in Kosovo and Iraq, the struggles veterans face when transitioning to civilian life, and how he found purpose and healing through acting. From his breakout role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Between Riverside and Crazy to appearances in Homeland, Power, Empire, Blood Bloods and more, Victor shares the highs and lows of his career as an actor and music artist and the resilience it took to get there.

This one is about identity, perseverance, and the power of art to transform lives.

🎧 Tune in now to hear Victor’s incredible story!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Grassiers Come Again a podcast by Honey German.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Grasss Come Again. Today. We're sitting down with
Victor Almanstan.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yes, yes, hello, Hello, how's everybody doing.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
First things, First, I want to thank you for your service.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
That's what I'm most impressed. I'm impressed with your career,
but the fact that you know, you've served the country.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
The two tours I did Operation I RACK Your Freedom
and Enduring Freedom, and I did NATO missions in Coastovo, Macedonia, Africa,
Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, and you're here with us today. Yes, yes, that's
a blessing. A lot of our soldiers don't make it back.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah. Yeah. I recently had one of my friends that
went with me to Iraq that passed away, you know,
so you know, yeah, it is a blessing to go
through that and come back and be able to be
successful someway or.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Another exactly because of the trauma that comes with returning
from war and witnessing the things that you witness during
your service. Instead of being able to come back and
you know, be a successful artist, be a successful actor,
a father, a husband, all those things, you know, we
tend to forget you know the trauma that our servicemen
go through when they go away, and you know they

(01:13):
fight for our freedom in our country.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's right. Uh, it took me a minute to find
myself again when I came back from the military, you know,
because exactly what you say in the transition and program
coming out of the military, at least at the time
where I came out wasn't as good. I'm not gonna imagine. Yeah,
it was a while for me. Like I came back
to the same neighborhood that I left and uh, hanging
out with the same people, and it took me a

(01:38):
minute for me to realize. Okay, let me see. I
want to I want to find out if I'm good
for this and and in fact, if I could still
do music, if I could still act and do different things.
But it took me a minute.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
I'm gonna take you back to the beginning, Okay, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
You're not seeing la Vega in the very center of
the of the country. Uh by in a town called Patriolve,
by the cathedral, And he said, yeah, you know, humble beginnings,
you know, like playing around. You know, there was not
a lot of electronics TV. You know, we maybe nothing listen,

(02:17):
we were playing in the street. That's right, that's right.
And I still got memories of us like playing like
with tires and a stick yep. Yeah, you know. I
mean it was one of the few things that you
could do.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
You had what were they called the cannas but juga.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, we played withchanicas. We played chata, which is like
two rocks, like flat rocks and try to hit the
other rock. We played. We made up games. We played. Uh.
We used to hunt a little lizards with like Bobby Payne.
We used to do, yeah, things that in this country
they say, hey, if you do those things like there

(02:58):
are signs of being a were just bored out there.
Believe me.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Listen, I spent a lot of summers in Inminicana, and
I and all my cousins that's what they did. They
would even open up the lizards.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah. Yeah. We used to put them together in the
same box and you know their territories so they'll fight.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
You had the beta fishes.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
We had the beta fishes. Yeah. I know you know
about this.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
About my mother wanted none to do with me in
the summertime.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
She said, yeah, yeah, we used to kill the chicken
for food. We used to go in the background, in
the back and like, you know, do the whole costal thing.
You know, Oh no, you're a different type of freak
because I used to go to the store about the chicken.
Don't I mean how water take off the fate?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
You scared me now, but I saw that be done,
but not in the house. They would be like.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Whatever, I'm gonna tell you a story, like at first
I didn know how to do it, Like we used
to go buy them first. And then my grandmother was
already living in America and she came to visit us
over there and she opened the camp. Yesnicana, she grew
up in the campus, and she goes like she thought
I knew. She bought a bunch of chickens, and she
goes like, go to the back and give me your chicken.
The first time, it's like okay, And I grabbed the
bat pulled chicken, and I went I was swinging at

(04:10):
the chicken, and then I came back and gave it
to her. The chicken was dead, and she did the
whole water thing, took out the furthest and show all
the bruises, like what did you do to this chicken?
And then she showed me like this, how you do it?
And she grabbed the question one like that and then
but the first time it was traumatizing as a kid
to go and you know, I went, you know, I
was batting. I was, you know, I'm first bat first

(04:31):
at bat with the chicken. He said, listen, this chicken
gonna get the hands empty. Yeah, like what, you want
to kill the chicken?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
I she said too, that's right.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Do you remember what you made with it?

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Made? Yes, made the black and blue. She threw that
with the black and blues.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
It was she was bad as hell.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
It was bad that. It was a lot of bruises
and you know how yeah, yeah, I mean I felt
bad for the chicken. But hey, my well, I told
me to go do it. You know, I got to
put in the work.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I feel you, my grandfa. And in the back of
the house, we would have all the pigs and he
would grow them and we would there were our pets,
and then one morning our pet was just being killed.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Oh man.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I used to be like, well no, and he used
like Dominicans were different. Yeah, and you know, we gotta
do what we gotta do.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I would love that pig. But then it be like, okay,
today we're going to sell your pig. Girlfriend, if you
want to see it one last time. Oh man, my
pig hanging upside down.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
You had to eat some of it.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. He brought home
me and for lunch my pet was gone.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Is this little? They were? They were huge?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
They were really But it's crazy that you say that,
because it reminded me when my grandfather used to do that.
It's you know, island memories, you know, and things that
kids of today will never experience.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Never experience, and that for nothing. It was a great childhood.
It was great running around with friends and everything, like, yeah,
we did crazy things, but that's compared to over here.
But he was if you were bored, we were bored.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Like I remember my cousin me and her her name
is Angie, and we're best friends. And every time she's like,
you remember us riding bikes through the dirt, and I
think back, and I'm like, okay, it's them, And no
at the streets weren't paved. Yeah yeah, yeah, and it
was just swallowed dirt and dust all day long. But
I loved it. And it's the best memories ever.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
But you get to have a childhood when I got
to this country, Like a lot of a lot of
my cousins were already grown at twelve and you came
at thirteen, right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and they're like
the mentality was different, Like they was thinking about I
don't know now at thirteen, I wasn't thinking like as
sexual as they were thinking already, and like they didn't
have a childhood, a backyard and all these things. These

(07:02):
kids were like we experienced or red which you're a virgin, yeah,
like things like that, And I'm like, I'm trying to
go to school right now. I was, you know, I
was a good student out there. Yeah boom New York
hear me? Gangs?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Where did you come to New York City?

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Queens Coronas? Yeah, And in the nineties it was bad.
It was near It that as familiar as King Zulu
dp BDP, Like everything mixed together, so you either throw
down or you get ran over, you know, like within
six months eight months, I was a totally different kid.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Did you know English when you came to America?

Speaker 1 (07:36):
One? Two, three, Red, Blue, Yellow? That's it? How did
you learn that? Did you learn it?

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Watching TV in Dominican Republic.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
I learned English. You know, first of all, all my
all of my cousins knew English already, and I try
to like hang out with people that only knew English
or different. But I was watching a lot of Fresh
Prints and Martin Lawrence. Oh shutout, yeah, big shoutout. Yeah,
my English teachers, you know what I'm saying that for real,
for real, like my my, the rest of my family

(08:02):
that was still watching telling over. It was a big
thing in Latin countries, and I was just like I
started watching Fresh Sprints and Martin Lawrence and I was
stuck on it. And within again six months something like that,
like my cousins are talking and laughing and I'm like,
ha ha. I was like, man, what you laughing? Now?
You don't know English? Yeah? I know English little more
more than like I would speaker still like rough rough,

(08:25):
but I was. I was speaking like, what's up now?
I understand? Yeah, try to play me. Yeah yeah, yeah,
that's what's up. I love that I learned the quick.
I ain't gonna front. I learned the quick. That means
you're very smart man, thank you.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Because people try to learn languages and they spend thousands
and thousands and thousands.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, yeah, and you know what's the thing is also,
I gotta, I gotta. I got involved in the culture,
like like I loved when, I love when I was.
When I landed in New York, it was scary everything
that was going on, but I immersed myself in it.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Do you remember that plane ride from.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I still remember I left one of my shirts in
the plane. My dad was mad at me because it
was one of the few shirts I had.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
How heartbroken were you to leave Dominican Republic? Did you
feel like I don't want to leave? Or were you
excited to come to America?

Speaker 1 (09:15):
You hear me later on, like, at first I was
excited because I had cousins that came and visit. Oh,
they came from New York. Oh, and they always bringing
you stuff. And the smell you smell it on my leg.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yo, bro, the smell of America when it comes in
a suitcase. You have to be living in another country
to understand the smell that I can smell it right now.
Everything was so new, and so you had that smell
like it's a plasticy smell, but it just smells so good, right.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, it smells I don't know. Yeah, right away, you said, oh,
you smell like New York. You smell like New York
like and I remember them visiting and all the time,
and like man and I had come one time when
I was seven years old, and I fell in love
with it, the snow and everything. And then when my
parents told me that we were moving, my father got
into a situation. He was like the diplomat congressman. He

(10:04):
was in government, and plus he our professor also, so he.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Was appointed to come here to the New York.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Know what happened is like somebody there was like a
change of of of leadership, and somebody wanted the positions
that he had. So, yeah, my father is a good dude,
like one of them.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
He's still with us.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
He's still with us. Yeah, he's in his eighties, you know.
And uh.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
And so when the government for those listening, you know,
sometimes in a lot of our countries, when the government
shifts the position ships, it's like you have your job
for four years, but if there's a new president, he
wants to bring in his own people.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yes, and then and even your own friends, which was
what happened with him. Yep, yep. So he was like
we got to get out of here because he was
getting bad. Around that time, he had like a watching
man with the shotguns in front of a house and everything.
Because it was getting bad, people will getting crazy. You
say the word watching watchman exactly. Watch plain that to

(11:00):
people in the past. You're like, what is it watching man?
I'm like, it's a watchman watching the house, you know,
just like pollow check a polo shirt, but we call
it polo ch So yeah, so it was, it was.
It was rough. So my so, my father and I
came first and my mom was gonna follow behind with
my with the rest of my siblings like a month later.

(11:23):
So that's why we came here.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Like you know, and you landed in Corona.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Corona queens have family here.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
They're still there. Is your family still in Corona?

Speaker 1 (11:30):
My family moved from Corona to wood Haven and now
they're in Long Island. We're moving it up. Where are
you at? I'm in West Orange, New Jersey. I bought
in twenty twenty the pick of the pandemic.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
So your interest rate is like two percent, right, I
hate you right now?

Speaker 1 (11:47):
The taxes are like seventeen thousand.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Well, yeah, taxes, that's another thing. I'm talking about your mortgage.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
The mortgage, the interest rate, because I bought at the
pick of the pandemic, it's two point eight. I didn't.
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I just said, you're like two percent. I know it.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Noby. It was buying around that town,
and I was like, you know, I got into an
accident where I caught on fire from here to here
in the peak of the pandemic, and I have first, second,
and third degree burns. So it has kin graft surgery
in my stomach, on my thighs and on my arm.
And I was in the hospital thinking like for seventeen
for seventeen twenty something days in the hospital to do surgery.

(12:21):
And I was thinking, man, I was saving up to
buy a house, and I'm always putting it off, and
I'm thinking, like, man, I could have died because I
went into shock in the car accident or something.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
No.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
I was doing a project in the bathroom and yeah,
and the alcohol bottle blew up and there was fire
in the project that I was making, and all the
alcohol came on me like and I was on fire,
and I went almost into shock when the ambulance fired.
And while I was in the hospital. I got a
one man show about you know, turning points in my life.

(12:54):
We'll probably talk about that later, but like that's that's
when I was in the hospital. I was like, man,
I could I almost died. And I'm always thinking about
my kids and my family, you know, buying them something.
And I'm in the hospital. I call real estate agents
and she was like, listen, nobody's buying or selling it.
I was like, send me something because I'm buying my
family something. And there it is, there it is. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Well, yeah, again to that story a little bit more. Now,
you arrive in Corona and by the time you're nineteen,
you're already in the military.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Well by the time I'm nineteen, so I got here
like around thirteen. So you did high school, middle school,
high school? And what prompted you to want to serve America?
I got in trouble first, you know what I'm saying.
Like one of my friends was already in the Marines,
and he was like, yo, and we will always talk
about it though if you join. I joined, and we're
only going to join the Marines because it's the toughest,

(13:46):
it's the roughest. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And you know I
told you. Like when I got here, there was all
these gangs and there was a group of Dominicans away
for immigrants that came with us and we joined. We
made a gangs you pledged. Yeah again it was called
d DS Dominican Dark Side, you know what I'm saying.
And uh, a lot of them became Kings because one

(14:07):
of the founders was Kings and uh some of them
was the went to DP and d DP. So we
was in that gang for a while. But I was
also transferred to a different school because my father had
connections on the first international high school that came to
this country, which okay, yeah, yeah, it was like Water
Community College in the base. Yeah. So so that school

(14:31):
had like an acting program after school program, and that's
my first taste that acting. But I was still hanging
on Corona Queens my friends, and uh we got into
a situation that which is also in my one man
show where like we try to like play some people,
like it was kind of sell them some fake drugs
really really going ready go ready ready ready go ready

(14:55):
go really going really and uh thinking we were smart,
but these dudes were very old. You had a scheme,
yeah that kidnapped my boy and I haven't heard from
him since then. No you lying, yep, and that I
heard it were looking for me, and I was like, uh,

(15:16):
And I talked to my boy from the military. I
was like, let me talk to your recruiter. I met
my recruiter on a Friday. By next Friday, I was gone.
I did Christmas here, I missed New Years. I was
telling my family I'm leaving. I'm yeah, right, nothing.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
You don't get the bussel? Did you tell anybody in
your family?

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Would not at that time? Not at that time. You know,
they know now because of My Woman show and everything,
A lot of people know. And to this day, I
don't know what happened to that friend of mine, But
that was what prompted me leaving in such a hurry,
you know what I'm saying. And I like the military anyways,
because you know all the benefits that I could get
from it. But I wasn't that serious about joining at

(15:55):
the time. And then I joined within a year and
a half ninety eleven happened. Yeah, they were like surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise.
I try to get leave all these problems behind and
then I'm facing world problems, you know.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
At Major Wow let me digest all this that you
just had. You told me you almost died in a fire,
then you told me your friend disappeared forever, and now
you're telling me you're deployed. And nine to eleven happens. Yeah,
life came at you fast, kid.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
Didn't it? Did it?

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Did?

Speaker 1 (16:26):
It was big turning points like change of culture, a
culture shock from d R to one New York was
at the time, then involving gangs from a straight a
students to gangs, a little taste of acting to like
getting involved in street stuff to joining the Marines. Now
now I'm going to war soon. Wow.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
You know where did you land when they sent you
to fight the war?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
So I first did NATO missions. So I did NATO
missions in course of war, and there was a lot
of uh election stuff happening, and around that time people
get killed the border between Coast Bo and co in Albania.
So we did a lot of missions there stopping like
trafficking and all these things. And then from there with

(17:10):
their missions in Africa, saw them in Saudi Arabia and
then we were heading back home when Bush gave the
ten days to Saddam Hussein and then that's when the
new commander came and told us, listen, we volunteer to
be the first ones. We were the very first wave
that went into Iraq. We volunteered to be the first
ones to go into Iraq, and we got the green light.

(17:31):
And this is when I heard the first time, don't
wait for us to tell you to start shooting, wait
for us to tell you to stop shooting. Look around.
Now all of you will make it back. So stop
because you're giving me the chills. Yeah, And at that time,
I wasn't even thinking about it. It was like we was
young and and yeah, let's go and think about it.

(17:54):
And we were Our unit was very well trained, like
we were a combat unit and we was training all
the time heavy artillery plus infantry, so we were very
well trained. So we were ready when that happened. And
now for a nothing, Iraq was It was such an
easy war for lack of a better term, because they

(18:15):
weren't prepared. It was like the future came to the
past that they don't have the capabilities that we have.
The war only lasts like a week, a week and
a half, maybe two. And then it became Operation Iraq
Your Freedom. It became Operation and during Freedom within two
weeks because we took over the whole country. Wow.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, Now when you did Homeland and how did you
connect the two, Like as far as getting into character.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
It was at first I was like, oh, this is
perfect because I don't understand what this is. And at
first I was also a little nervous, like, oh, am,
I gonna get it back. Plus you know, and then
I was doing some training because there was some actors
that never done done military. Slowly, Yeah, it came back,
was like muscle memory.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
You were helping people train. I know, I see I see.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
No, no, because I stepped just they have someone that's
assigned that and uh. And I didn't want to get
in the way, like they have people that get paid
for that. So I was just doing my work.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
He just was like, I know I'm gonna kill this.
I don't know about people, but I know I.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Got my In the addition, I said it, I've been
in the military and I went to Iraq and all
these things. So they gave me the role of Lieutenant Wentzel,
which is the head of the unit that was in Afghana,
which is great and uh. And there was a situation
where like in one of the shots that was feeling
that the M six scene actually got jammed and I

(19:38):
hear them, oh, like and like I think they were
gonna stop the shoot. But as soon as he got jammed,
I hit the weapon and I racked the back real hard,
and I kept shooting. It was like keep rolling, keep
rolling for me. Yeah, And it was like muscle memory.
I wasn't even thinking about that until like we finished
shooting and then everything came back like, oh, they were

(19:58):
trying to stop and everything, but you know, I cleared it.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
You were right into mission mode, right, you were like, nah,
if this was real life, this is what I would do.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Now when you return from the service, how did you
get into acting? What was your first step into acting? Well,
I know you were doing it in Laguardi in the
after school program, but as far as like returning home.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
So I never thought that this was possible for me.
You were talking about like an immigrant kid that came
here at thirteen, Like it's like you don't think that
this is your lane. You don't think that this is
something that's possible or real in a way, like I'm
just back in the same neighborhood. I'm dealing with PTSD,
chronic PTSD. How did you deal with that I was doing.
I was smoking a lot of weed around the time.

(20:40):
At least you just said weed.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, but because you almost men messed me up when
you said I was smoking a lot of.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Us No, not that, not that, But but I got
involved like in that. I doving into that world, you
know what I'm saying. Because I didn't. I wasn't understanding
what was happening. You were numbing yourself. Yeah, and I
went through a very traumatic, Yeah, traumatic experience.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
That when you experience and what you saw, Yeah, that's right.
It requires a lot of unpacking, a lot of therapy,
a lot of and you didn't get it.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
That's right, and we just get thrown back here, go
do your life. All that trauma if he affects grown
human being, like grown adults, like something like that, imagine
like I was nineteen when I joined King Jack at
twenty three, twenty four, the kid, Yeah, yeah, So I'm
trying to I'm snapping at people, I'm trying to fight
almost every day, I'm smoking with it, and I'm getting

(21:31):
involved into this whole world. And I'm like and then
at one point I looked at me in the mirror
I'm masking in. My eyes are sunken, and I'm like, man,
is this the end of your chapter? That's it. I
was one of the few that graduated from high school
because my father transfer me to a better school. Yeah,
shout out to my pops. Yeah, like he tried, Yeah,

(21:51):
you know, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. I became a
sergeant on the three and a half years in the Marines,
which is unheard of. Also for a lot of minorities
in the middle the one to ride you up and
get you in trouble.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Because they don't want you to rise up through the ranks.
That's right, at the end of the day with minority
that's right.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah. I experienced a lot of racism in the military,
which I also speak on my one man show. I
got to see this woman say I'm trying to put
it up in New York. I was just I met
the dude that hooked me up with this interview right now,
Like I was telling them that I was. I met
the plug. I met the plug. I was. I was
going to Atlanta to present my one man show, and

(22:28):
I consolidated a lot of the shows together so I'm
able to do this interview.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
I'm I'm presenting it in different places, different states, and
I want to do like a world premiere in New York.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Where do you want to do it? Let's make this
happen for you. I want to do it like pick
a place, and I feel like things like that, you
have to pick a place like this place, and then
you make you move all the pieces to make it happen.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
What are you thinking? So I did it at the
fifty nine fifty nine theaters in New York, but it
was the development or production, you know, through the Labyrinth
Theater Company. But I want to I wanna. I want
to do it at the Public Theater or the Signature Theater,
or the or the Second Stage Theater or the Atlantic Theater.
Those some of four places that I want to do it.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
All right, then you just got to get in there,
you know, get in front of these people and make
it happen.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah. I'm in conversations right now with with the artistic
director of the Second Stage Theater. We've been talking about it. Okay,
see what happens in knock on Wood. You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
It's gonna happen. If that's what you want, it's definitely
gonna happen. You've already manifested it. Yeah, you've already created it.
Now you just need your stage. Are you gonna stand
and do it?

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:34):
And then we're all going to rally behind you and
support it and promote it and make sure that you
know it's amplified and it's promoted.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Thank you. As soon as the final place where I'm
presenting it in New York, I'm gonna let you guys know.
So you guys come through and you see you you
see like it's a good show and it tells It
tells a story of of of resiliency and finding yourself
again through all the through all the stuff that you've
been through in life.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
You feel ready One man show is I'm ready. It's
not easy. I watched Jean Gamo do Latin History Form Mourns,
and I was like, how is this man doing this
right now? The whole time, just him just talking.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Just Yeah. It's a sports on its own. Yeah, it's
a beast on its own. And so I'm like, you read, Yeah,
I played twenty three characters. You know that I that
I met? How many personalities? Do you have I got?
I want three characters, twenty three different characters. Yeah, are
any of them women? Yeah? My mom?

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Okay, good because I'm just gonna say, don't play with.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Me my mom. And she's a very important character, like
three big turning places in my one man show. She
saves my life in a way through prey. You know
Latino women and men like that, like Mom. Like they
are very very religious, you know what I'm saying. My
parents are Christiano, they are they are Catholic. Yeah, yeah,

(24:52):
I was raised like that. Right now. I don't go
to church, I don't do none of that stuff. But
I'm spiritual, meditating and do stuff like that. And I
feel connected to something, your higher self, whatever it is.
But I feel a connection bigger than me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
So Mom is definitely in the one man show.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
She is, and there's several women in the woman's show. Yeah.
So yeah, I deviated a little bit watching You don't
make this a twenty three man show. Nah. Nah, it
is a good show, I believe, not because it's mine,
but it's a good show. So when I came back
from the military, I was dealing with all this SPETSC thing,
and when I looked at myself in the mirror. I

(25:28):
was like, I don't want to be this to be
the end of my chapter.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
You can't come this far to only come this far right,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
And I remember like, okay, someone had told me you
gotta do think you got to focus on something positive
to get out of all of that. And I was thinking, like,
what do I like to do? What do I And
I remember enjoying acting. So I went to school just
to get like a just like just to get like
a bachelor's so I could get a stage job or
a federal job when you came back. When I came back,

(25:54):
when I started, decided to go back to school. But
I went for acting theater in speech a city car
because it was something I knew. It was easy, and
you know, I really fun.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, if I'm gonna gets a stage job, already got
military experience, I'm gonna get a bachelor's doing something I love.
And then in those four years, someone hit me up, Hey,
you still acting. I want to develop a film semi
based on your life. I was like, all right, dope,
let's let's develop it. And then I did an intensive
program with a labyrinth theater company through the same guy,

(26:26):
Ben Snyder, he's the co writer of eleven fifty five,
my movie. Yeah, so he he put me on. He
put me onto a Labyrinth Theater company and I did
a summer intensive and around the same time, one of
my professors in City College said, you got something. Won't
you go get your masters? Like, nah, I just did
it to get a stage job. A master's the mean, Yeah, yep,
I do. I do have a masses. I love it.

(26:47):
And then I was like, nah, I just did it
to get a stage job. It's like, listen, if you
could get this salary starting with a with a bachelor's,
imagine with a master's. That makes sense. So I went
to get my masters, and in my second year of
my third year program, I get off for my first
off Broadway play call between Riverside and Crazy, with this

(27:08):
writer called Stephen Ali Gergiz, which is like I call
him the jay Z of script writing of play writing
because he's he's he's like the modern de Shakespeare. Yeah, yeah,
he talks about things that we relate to. He's the
first person that I've read that talked directly to my soul.
So I get off of that job. I did my

(27:29):
first off Broadway play and then from there we went
to shoot my movie eleven fifty five, and then the
rest is history. I kept working and working and working
all the way to the pandemic and then the union strike.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
The union when I strike. Now, you say working and
working and working, give me some of this work.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
That you did so I've done. What's your favorite project
that you've ever done. My movie eleven fifty five is
like close to home. Of course, my woman Showcus is
also close to home. But the shows that I really
enjoyed doing was a power.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Talk to me about power. I love the Power universe.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yeah. Power auditioned like everything else. Audition, Yeah, And the
audition was very simple. It was your New York in
New York. Yeah. It was just two lines, three lines. Yeah,
it was just two three lines. I said those two
three lines and they were like okay, and then they
called me up right and I was disclosed of like
I need to find a different path because I hadn't

(28:25):
gotten work within a year, which is nothing. A year
is nothing as a part. Yeah, but I was I'm ready.
I always I always like to make.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Money of my you know, so when you're off acting,
what are you doing to get money to get money, yeah,
like are you working odd jobs?

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Set myself up because of what I well, you have
your military yea stuff. So when I went through the military, like,
I made sure that I that I did my job
in the VA and let them know, Look, this is
what I'm dealing with. This is the stuff that's happening
with me. It's just if I'm not doing something actively
working on something, I could go down the rabbit or

(29:05):
fire in trouble. Yeah. And so I set myself up
through through the through the VA.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
So I'm set up there, okay, so you can take
your little breaks in between that you can still be fine.
So you read for Power, right, I'm sorry, you read
for power and then they call you back or how
does that?

Speaker 1 (29:23):
So they called me back eventually they were like, hey,
we want to give them the role of the new
bass of the seven to one A crew, you know,
the totals locals. So I was like, nope, great, and
I thought it was just gonna be like one episode
or something. How many episodes did you end up doing?
I ended up doing like three different episodes. No, no,
I'm lying, like four different episodes. Good empower, thank you,

(29:44):
thank you really appreciate that. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, I'm big on like, you know, when it's a
Latino character, I gotta believe it. I gotta be like.
And I love when you speak the language and when
it's just it's just credible and it just feels real
and your character that I love. Power. Now, how did
you end up on Empire?

Speaker 1 (30:13):
On Empire?

Speaker 2 (30:14):
I was that before or after Power?

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Before way before Power.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
You know they had beef, something like beef on these
shows that what's going on?

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, they had beef at some point. I
wasn't aware of the beef. I remember, I was very
new to the acting world. I had just booked that
play that I told you. Then I went to do
my movie. Then that play got picked up again by
Second Stage Theater. So I did that, And while I
was doing that, I booked a play in Chicago Ground Concress. Yeah,
I got basically right away, like for you, I wasn't expecting.

(30:45):
I was just riding the wave and uh, Ground Concress.
As I was doing it, the casting director for for
for Empire and Chicago p D and Chicago Fire came
to see the show and she was like, I like
this kid, and send the assistant and she totally the same. Yeah,
I like them. So they sent me auditions for those
three shows, Chicago p D, Fire, and Empire, and you

(31:06):
booked all three. I booked PD.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
I saw and and that's what Donnie Welberger.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Uh no, that's Blue Bloods. Chicago p D is with
Amon Walker, you know. No, No, that's Chicago Fire. But
she too much. I can't keep it the only reason
why I didn't booked Chicago Fire is because p D,
Chicago p D and Fire. There the universe interlaced. So
if I'm in one show, and yeah, it so. But

(31:34):
I booked two of them, and that's good. Auditioned like
everything else. And I wasn't. I didn't think I was
gonna get it, but I got it, and uh and
I was so new. That was my first TV show.
I had just booked an agent. I just booked my
manager because of the shows that I was doing. And
I called them, hey, after I first booked the auditions.
Nobody ever does does this? You get auditions from your

(31:56):
management or your agency. I booked myself and I called
my agency, Hey, I booked Empire and Chicago p D.
Can you negotiate the contract? Wait? Wait, wait what exactly,
Wait what you did? What? Yeah, I'm put you in contact. Okay, okay,
thanks for doing our work. So you're practice.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
You're like the only actor that's been on Power and Empire.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Maybe yeah, maybe I'm not sure, but that you are,
that could be true.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
You know, I've talked to people from Empire Empower, but
I feel like you're the only one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah it was.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
It was a great experience both shows, like to my
first TV show to be Empire. Come on, that was
the biggest show.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
I remember that. That show had us in a choke hold. Yeah,
it was just like everybody was watching. That's all we
talked about.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, yeah, great actors, Like I worked a lot with Taraji.
She's such a powerful actor. She is.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
She's amazing, man. And for you to hold your own
the way you do in scenes with Taraji, like sitting across.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
From her, man like it was it was like I
was in character the whole time. She does these things
where like she's so focused and so like open also
emotionally yea raw and she's good. She's a good actor, man,
Like I remember seeing her and I'm like watching her
work as I'm acting with her.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I'm like, you're learning from her? Who are you working?
You're like, I'm working, but I'm learning.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's crazy that we do that
as actors, like we're talking to someone but at the
same time we like standing over here analyzing the work too.
You're absorbing.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, just leave with someone you know that you respect
and admire.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Why not? Yeah, And both characters were similar, like, but
the one on Empire, My character on Empire was a
bad dude like that you was great. Yeah. I played
the one yeah, because he was that guy like hitting
care like And I played the one on Power differently
because he was new to the organization, like he adopted

(33:46):
like the boss position, but he wasn't ready. He was younger,
he was green, be behind the ears. So I played
him like that. I played him like what I got
on paper. You know what I'm saying, Like, this guy's
taking a murder that wasn't his. You know what I'm saying,
Like in the that you know that you claiming that
that this is you? You know, like like if you're
claiming something that's not you, you know you are heading towards

(34:09):
towards a bad place already. You know what I'm saying,
so I knew, like what they were doing with this character.
So and sure enough, like three episodes later, my character
is nitching. I'm like, oh, they're gonna kill me. And
sure enough later on I'm getting burned, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
But I'm glad you did it, and you were super
credible on both actuals.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Now, how hard is it to learn lines? I don't
think I can memorize any I can't even memorize the poem.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Do they feed you lines?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
I need to behind the scenes?

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah. So so, so this is the thing with me.
I've been writing music for a long time. I've been
doing like my own songs in Spanish. But I've been
writing and memorizing my own things coming to school and
like rapping and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
So you've got like the muscle memories, so I think.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
So so when I get these lines, like I reader
several times. I don't have photographic memory, but I like
to work on my lines. I like to put myself
in this environment. And what I do a lot. I
read my script a nighttime before I go to sleep,
and I s I'm sleeping, like I wake up in
the middle of the night and I could tell my
brain is thinking about that, and then in the morning

(35:14):
when I wake up the.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
First you know, people don't believe me that I can
actually work while I'm sleeping.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Good Oh my god, people, I'm crazy. No, it's true.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Can you elaborate a little bit more on that.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
So yeah, So before I go to sleep, I'll read
the script and I go to sleep, and for some reason,
in the morning, when I start reading the script, like,
I know a lot more than what I knew the
night before.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Remember it was working, Like it just doesn't go fully
asleep and you're functioning while you're sleeping.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
That's right. And then you read it in the morning,
first thing in the morning, and your brain is fresh
and relaxed. So those two times right before you go
to sleep, so you could send your brain with that
to your dreams and then the first thing in the morning.
So that's what I always do with all my scripts
at nighttime and in the morning. And if I have
time doing the day, like, I take a look at it,
and I memory's line is pretty quick.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
I like to say, well, lucky you, I can't as
a damn thing.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
But that's what you tell me. Have a poem, I
might disagree with you. I don't know you like that.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
But I made a speech for my sister's wedding, and
as soon as I got to said, I just spoke
from the herd. I'm just gonna say whatever I want
to say, whatever's on my mind. I couldn't remember.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Anything, which is good too. Improv. It's a great base
for acting. That's improv. You know what I'm saying. That
is all right, so great improv. So so that means
you're a great actor, saying look at that?

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Can I get my emmy?

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah? I mean if you book a TV show? You
know what I'm saying, Like, if you have a good
improv bas uh, there's a good chance, like like your
your instincts and your choices like are good you know,
are good? Good choices? You know? So I always say, like,
if you have a good improv base, you're you're a

(36:52):
good actor. You know.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Now, who are your favorite actors?

Speaker 1 (36:57):
My favorite actors?

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Man, go way back. I don't care how far back
you go. Give whose movies do you watch over and over?
How about that you don't have to pick a favorite?
Tell me what movie you've watched ten times?

Speaker 1 (37:08):
I mean, I know what you want to know what,
I would tell you the classics that you know, the Denzels.
I love Will Smith work man like you know, like yeah,
just because just because the I learned English watching his shows.
But it was so natural with it, like he was
himself in most of their characters. You know what I'm saying.

(37:29):
I'm I like Mark Ruffalo. I think he's a great actor.
I like you know, the opportunos.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Robert do that those do that is a goal. He's
a legend. But I feel like a lot of guys
love him and you know, de Niro Pesci, but they
feel like it's stereotypical to say, but it's not. I
love them. Those are my guys. Yeah, Casino, I've watched
that movie like twenty times. Yeah, same as Scarface.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
I don't care. Yeah, but then I also love like
I work with this guy. Like this guy, I'm he's
a leegend. Let me Jevin McKenley Henderson and he said,
this guy, yeah, like like he's like such a he's
like a bible when it comes to acting, you know,
and like man like and everybody that somebody knows him,
they referenced him. Denzel has referenced him. There get bigger

(38:17):
than that man is referencing him. Man, he's such a
he's such an actor. I remember also the same thing
that with Taji. I'm on stage. The first time I
ever worked professionally was with him, and I started to
play with him talking on a stage and like I
remember at some point it was him off he uh man,

(38:38):
he rest in peace. Aron Cephas Jones also is one
of my favorite actors. You know what I'm saying. Lisa
Lysa Colone is one of my favorite actors. Elizabeth Rodriguez
is such a great actor. Uh. There's a lot of
people that are really good actors that I have the
opportunity to be around with and learn from and work with.

(38:58):
So I remember ron Sephas Jones and Stephen McKellen Henderson
going back and forth in one of the scenes, and
I'm watching the both of them and I'm like taking
notes the same way, like mental notes, and I'm like, man,
like these dudes are like amazing. I'm in the middle
of the scene and then I hear my cue line coming,
I'm like, ah, and I'm jumping in into the things.

(39:21):
But like I got so involved in like in the
reality of the situation. You were just absorbing it all.
I've always asked you forgot you where they were working?
I forgot I was working. Yeah, I was in the scene,
like for real, for real, you know. Steph McKillen Henderson.
I always ask him questions about the industry, like he's
so generous with his time. He's like one of my favorites.
And that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
You know, when you have somebody who's a legend and
icon in the industry and they're still willing to share,
and you know we can absorb from them and learn
from them, because.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
That's the way you learn. John Gazamo also.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Like stop, that's my guy. That is my guy, and talking.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
About Improft like he was in my movie eleven fifty
five and that he amproft a lot of the way
like he did his Ca character. And he was telling me, hey, chill, relax,
loosen up. It's your movie. Whatever I want. And I'm like, nah,
but my character gotta be serious. That relax, chill do
your thing, and like he stole that scene, like the

(40:14):
scene that he's in it in my movie. He's told
that he's such a good good actor.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
He's amazing, he is, but he's just so raw and
so real and so genuine and that translates through the
screen when it comes to acting.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yep, yeah, yeah. And I don't think that there's nobody
and I could debate anybody that has done stand up
like one man shows to the level that he has done. Nobody,
nobody like the body of work that freak, like all
of them. Everything that he does.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
The man is golden yep, yep. And he puts on
for the culture and he's so vocal, and he's so passionate,
and he's so just out there in the forefront. It's
not like he does this thing and then he hides. Yep,
he's speaking out you know, politics, latinos, you know wage,
you know, strikes. I respect everything, a bunch of I'm
from top to bottom.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah yeah, yeah. The goat man see.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Me, and you're here me and you're here with the
people we like. Now speaking about people we like. You've
been married for how long.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
I've been married for I want to say five years,
but I've been together with her for like fourteen years.
Fourteen years, okay, okay, to the.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Wife, Yeah yeah, yeah, shout out, shout out to the
wiz II. That's your wisdom, does your rib does everything?

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, she gives me. She gives me focused.
You know. She's Puerto Rican too. No, no, no, she's white.
She's white. Good there you go.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Listen, right, yeah, we'll take it. Where did you meet her?
I met her on set somewhere. I feel like actors
always meet their spouses, like somewhere on side.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
I was in the peak of my of my struggles
coming back from the military. I met her before I
started acting professionally. I was in City College, so you.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Was a regular guy and you met this beautiful white girl.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
She had just come to New York to get my
master's in social work at Columbia University, and she was
out of place, celebrating her friend's birthday. And I just
happened to go to this place by myself after like
there was a show in my school, City College, and
I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna walk
into this place by myself. And I'm in the bar

(42:23):
lounge and I'm in the middle of the dance floor
by myself, dancing like yo, I don't care.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
I just out by yourself, right, And You're like whatever,
nobody was there, it was just you, right.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, And I'm in the middle and the peak of
my stuff in my head and like.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Your head is all over the place.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, And I'm like, I need I need some some
you know, some time for myself. I don't care who's there.
And then all of a sudden, I'm looking to my
left and this woman like looking at me, playing with
her bangs, slipping on a drink. And then I'm like,
she goes like this, she points at me and she
calls me over. I'm like, yeah, I should the guy
and then and then I walked up to him like
I was like, what's up? What's your name? And she goes,

(42:59):
you know, I must say her name forget mouth. I
don't know if we could Cursey. Of course, she goes
like Rebecca and she starts talking to me in Spanish.
I'm like, oh, where you from? Argentina was like, She's like, no,
I'm from Pennsylvania. I'm like, it's that she studied abroad
in Costa Rica and or why? And so Rebecca said,
I'm gonna flex fast.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
I'm gonna let this one know. I'm a spicy Spanish.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Spanish like fluently, fluently beautiful. Yeah. We connected around that time,
and not for nothing, Like around that time, like I
needed someone like that was grounded and level headed, and
we started dating and dating and dating, and before we
knew it, like we created something, and slowly I was
leaving the world that I was in behind and getting
more involved into the acting, more involved into a serious relationship.

(43:45):
And then my daughter came into the picture, and then
the rest is history. How much do you credit having
a good woman by your side as far as you
being able to get out of that dark space? Yeah, yeah,
one hundred percent. Like I remember around that time, like
I said, I'm not I'm not in any specific religion,
but I'm very spiritual. And I remember around that time,

(44:07):
I'm like I'm talking to whatever it is, and I'm like,
I'm not a bad person. I got a girl heart,
Like why am I going through these things like a
lot of us, Like I need some money on my side,
like like that that show me something. Yeah, And I
remember around the same time I met her.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
There it is. Yeah, God said to you your.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Woman, Yeah yeah, I believe so. I believe so.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Because I'm a strong believer that men can be ruined
by bad women, yeah, or they can be saved by
amazing women yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah. And also the lack of responsibility and I have
a responsibility for nobody in your life. Just do Like
around that time, I didn't have no serious relationships, but
I didn't have nobody with me, So I was making
all these crazy choices and.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Having no one was holding you account of no you
do craziness, nobody telling you nothing.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
And I didn't care deeply for anyone like that. Like
it was just me, I don't care. I'm gonna do
I'm gonna do me, I'm gonna do whatever. For meeting her,
it was like, man, like this is nope, Like this

(45:16):
is relaxing, this is good cool.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
I love that for it.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Then my daughter was born, and I'm like, how long?

Speaker 2 (45:21):
How long? How long before your daughter came? Tell me,
like a year and a half.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
My daughter was in the pic.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
He was like me, she locked that down. She was
like get over here, you know, she said thet Yeah, yeah, yeah.
How scared were you when she said I'm having a baby.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
I was scared. I was nervous because like at that
time young yeah, and at that time, like I said, like,
I wasn't in the good space, you know, And I
was like I told the straight up, look, I can't
take care of myself right now. How can I take
care of you and a kid? And uh, but it
was happening regardless, and I'm like, okay. And I remember
one day coming into the into the bedroom when my

(46:04):
daughter was born, like I'm messed up. And I came
into the bedroom and I looked at my daughter wide
away got two in the morning, three in the morning,
looking straight in my eyes. She was looking in my soul.
I felt like, you know, and that's when it hit me.
I'm like she like it was like she was telling me,
like what are you doing? And I felt that inside
of me. I said, I depend on you. You got

(46:24):
to do the right thing for me. Like I felt
like like never, like like nothing before. And I was like, man,
it's not just me. I'm responsible for this girl. It's
a little human is mine. Yeah, And he changed like
that's that's how things started changing. Slowly, but he started changing.
And I'm like working now every day and I'm focusing
on my mental focusing like okay, I'm I focus on

(46:47):
my career for real. And things started happening. I get
the job, offer it I get. I threw my daughter
in the air, like like things started happening when I
changed my perspective and I was like, I'm I goal
for this, for real, for them, things started happening.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
That's beautiful. Look that God sent you, Rebecca. Rebecca gave
me your daughter and your life pivoted and here we are.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
You know, that's right. You've had an amazing career. That's right.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
You're clean, you're here, you're sober, your mental is good,
and God is good.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
God is good.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Now music, let's talk about music. Yeah,
you have a passion for music. I do, so, you
have a passion for all the creative I think. I
think like that's something that has always got me. I'm
out of my headspace and like it's an outleft for me.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Music. Yeah, music and acting like I started them around
the same time. I remember, within a year of being
in this country, I'm listening to Biggie. I'm like, oh,
that's also how your hip hop had too. I'm my
hip hop head, like I do the music. Most of
the music that I do is hip hop. It just
so happened to be in Spanish because I didn't know
how to do it at the time. You remember, because

(47:53):
I remember Vcalcy. I remember Vacocy like and like he
was one of those people that was, you know.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Because that was the first time I heard hip in Spanish.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was speaking game. He was like
trying to get people, which that's what hip hop was.
At first. It was like this whole movement of awakening
people into like what's happening in the neighborhoods and everything.
And then you know, now hip hop is more pop,
like more like but like hip hop was like the
voice of the street and conscious.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
You know, yeah, it was community. It was just you know,
of the police.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
It was just you know, yeah, And I was listening
to too, Biggie Tupac, Nas jay Z. These are the goats,
these are the legends.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
You were right in the cusp of, like, you know,
the birth of hip hop and when not the birth
of hip hop, but when it became so mainstream and
you know, the nineties and then what did you say,
I want to do this too.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
I want to do it, but I don't know how
to do it. And the only way I could do
is in Spanish. And I remember, is.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
It because you felt like your English wasn't where it was.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
It wasn't yet I was just a year in this country.
I was understanding it was. So you started like as
a young kid. Yeah, yeah, but I was I didn't
feel comfortable in English, that's why. So you were like
you up on your Yeah, because even though I understood
it and I could speak a little bit, how many
words did I actually know at the time.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
And to be a lyricist and to be a rapper,
you need an encyclopedia work yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
So I started writing these songs and then going to
school and people are making beats.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Munch table beats, yep.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
And then I started rapping in Spanish, like oh oh,
and then I started doing talent shows and and uh,
you know, they put me in a bunch of shows
in school, and uh, but I was doing it for fun,
just that to speak about the things that I was
going going through. And then uh and then even through
the military, I kept rapping. Came back out the military
actually to do music that I didn't wasn't even thinking

(49:40):
about acting.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
So when you love the military, you were like, I'm
gonna go hard with this music.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Yeah. And I did an album by I want to
say two thousand and eight, No, yeah, two thousand and
a was it that I dropped it? Yeah, two thousand
and a. I dropped an album called and Mundo, right,
and now we released it, but I got a rested
around the same time.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Here we go with them.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah yeah, that's That's how I started going back into
into my into my neighborhood stuff. And uh, I was
set to go on tour with the producers that I
was working with, and everything I put on hold. So
I stopped doing that because I got involved more in
the street stuff. And like I said, all that stuff

(50:23):
like about PTSD just wasn't where it needed to be.
And I kept doing writing music. But then that was
your outlook. Yeah yeah, but then acting happened, and then
the acting blew up, and then as I started blowing
up and acting again, I hit on my producers again
and continue doing music. So now I'm releasing songs as
I go. You know what I'm saying. Like I got

(50:44):
my own record label. You know what I'm saying, record label.
I just have my own label. There we go. Yeah,
so I do it all myself. But I've been I've
been doing this music thing for a long time, and
like not for nothing, but I feel like I got
a good mastery of of of the of the hip
hop elements in my music.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
How important is it to you presently to still put
out music.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
I do it more for me than then for like like,
oh I want to be I want to blow up
you know what I'm saying. If it happens, it happens,
of course, but it's not like your main goal. I
do it because I love it, right, and I'm releasing music.
And if i'm if there's places where I could perform,
I perform my music, and uh, of course, like I

(51:31):
want to I want to chase that and I want
to you know, I want to cement myself and like
in the look, this dude is not just an actor.
That's good. This dude is also a great lyricist, multi talent. Yeah,
and uh, and I am chasing it, but I'm doing it.
I'm doing it now because oh, you should do this
type of music, this type of song. I'm doing what

(51:52):
was coming from my heart. I'm still messing with the
same producers like this, still sending me some songs and
some new producers they will you do a track with this? Be?
So yeah, if I like it, I do it. And
I released my songs on my own pace. You know,
I'm right now, I'm working. I'm trying to release this song.
I don't know how I feel about it? Yeah, about
releasing it?

Speaker 2 (52:12):
What's missing? What's missing? Why do you feel like?

Speaker 1 (52:14):
You know? Well, so this is what it is. This
is this conversation happening about latinos and hip hop r
and like if we were part of the beginning.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
We was there from the beginning one.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Hundred and and and I'm hearing all these other people
that are big in the culture speaking about all latinos
is just guests in hip hoping. We shaped it, That's right.
So then I did this whole research about the you know,
the hip hop heads from the beginning and everything, you know,
the col Crush brothers like Charlie Chase, all these people,

(52:44):
and and I got this song right now about that
about like hip hop hip hop, like like who we
are in hip hop? And I started just like that,
like who gives a fuck? Who invented hip hop? And
miss Andre Latina what up coming down to the Polar
Bronx New York can by going total to uh Diddy
backroom with the Cold Crush brothers, Charlie Chase said, you

(53:05):
know the Altman hold a bunch of Catti Baniels throwing
down the dylnps so Bahangai Chinos e Puerto Ricanos. Like, so,
I'm speaking about the whole history of hip hop. I've
mentioned everybody as much as I can, all the way
to Terot Squad, all the way to what's happening now.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
I go linearly and it's like five and a half minutes.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Let's donation.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Why I'm saying, you.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Want to hear it, let's get it. I want to
hear it, and I want you to drop it. It's important, Yeah,
because I feel like there have been and there still
are attempts to erase Latinos from hip hop. Yeah, there
is and downplay are importance and how pivotal and how
important we were to the actual creation of We were there, Yeah,
we were there, We were part of it.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yeah, but it has become a whole thing that hip hop,
like it has become just like, nah, this is this
is only our stuff. Like I'm speaking about, it's only
Black America, you know what I'm saying, that's what hip
hop is, And that's not true. There was a lot
of Caribbeans involved in it, and there was a lot
of black people from the Caribbean, and I'm talking about
Puerto Ricans Dominicans, Cubans, I'm talking about Jamaicans, Barbados, black

(54:06):
people that just so happened to be immigrants, you know
what I'm saying. But they're also part of the whole
culture of hip hop. You know what I'm saying, and
what I understand.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
You know, like our black brothers and sisters, they want
to own this because this is so beautiful, it's so precious.
It is it's just you know, it's something that it's
a gift, you know what I'm saying. But it don't
shut us out, allow us to exist where we want,
where we were part of.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Yeah, And this is the thing. What was beautiful about
hip hop in the birth of hip hop is that
united all these races together. And he gave birth to
hip hop. Everybody to their unifications of different cultures, you
know what I'm saying. And that's what hip hop was.
And all of a sudden, like little by little started,
we started separating each other. And now he has become

(54:53):
like similar to what the prison culture is like you
either got blacks or Latinos or whites. You know what
I'm saying. Everybody, they got to be separated. That wasn't
hip hop. Hip hop was about all of us together
fighting what we're going through. The buildings are burning.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
Struggles in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Halem.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
With the young lords together, like fighting for for for
you know, for for the rights, for the civil rights
and all these things. And that's what hip hop is.
That's where he came from. And now we're allowing ourselves
to separate each other, like we are together that black
and brown, like we are all together in the same thing,
and we gotta stay together, you know. And it's the
same struggle.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
I say it all the time, black and brown, we
stick together, you know what I'm saying. And you know,
currently in hip hop eighties, nineties, two thousands, now the
twenty twenties. Yeah, yeah, we exist in hip hop and
we're super instrumental in hip hop.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
So so that's why I'm a little bit because this
conversation is happening. I'm like, man, I'm gonna have a
lot of people saying, like, yo, you just you just
first of all, you wasn't even born in this country.
You're an immigrant, Like what you what you're saying? Like
hip hop is yours well, like hip hop is world culture.
By now we can own it. We can all own
hip hop. Hip hop is beautiful. You know.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
I just in a hip hop world, you know, as
a Dominican woman, and I'm hip hop head.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
That's why I was born. I was saying your page,
It's like, Yo, it's my mad hippob I'm hip hop head.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
I was born and raised in New York and that's
what I remember, you know, rapping songs when I was
like seventy eight years old. It's in my soul. Is
the core of who I am. And just because I'm
not an African American, that doesn't mean I am not
a hip hop head. Like I'm a hip hop encyclopedia
me and you could sit down and talk and you
give me a year, you give me albums, you give
me artists, and we'll break it down together.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Cool herk right, Jamaican Africa, Bombarda, Barbados. You know what
I'm saying. Like these are people that are known, like
you know, I don't know if the originators. Yeah, yeah,
DMC from Run DMC. A lot of people say he
was Dominican. I think he said he's not.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
He's adopted, but he's originally he's Dominican.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yeah, his parents are you know what I'm saying, so
there's a lot of people that die. You know, we
are part of this whole wave. It's a lot of people,
a lot of people. Yeah, DJ Flash, Massive Flash, I'm
Barbados also, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
But first of all, we are Cardi B with ice
Spice Cardi B. Yeah, it don't get it, don't get
no bigger than Cardial. First of all, Fat Joe a
z mm hm oh, Christopher Reels, Hello, I forget about
big fun man. We put our stamp on hip hop

(57:34):
and there's no way they're gonna say we're not hip hop.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
I'm gonna send you the song now for nothing. It's
like a real like you. It's kind of feel like
a nineties hip hop song. Get straight up and that's
the best from English. It is it is.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
I believe you, and don't worry about the fact that
you wasn't born here. You here now. You fought for
this country. You're hip hop artists and part of the culture.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Yeah, and hip hop A lot of immigrants was part
of hip hop. So there we go.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
And with that being said, this song I want to
hear that. Now talk to me about twenty twenty five.
What is Victor working on for twenty twe What's important
to you and your career twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
So I'm gonna continue writing and developing projects. I'm writing
a couple of plays. One of them is about there's
like ninety six thousand people that have fought for this
country that have goten deported. Right, I could have been
one of those. I went into the military, good American
ship YEP, came back from the military without my citizenship,

(58:32):
and I got involved in the stuff that I got involved.
If I would have gotten arrested for something major, I
would have been deported after fighting for this country. There's
ninety six thousand people that have fought for this country
that have got in deport So that play is about
this guy coming back into the country and trying to
find his kids because his kids were born here and
now the kids are in the system, so he's trying

(58:53):
to get them out and leave with them again because
he's not allowed to be here. So that's one place.
Do you pick a country for him yet? Dominic Republic,
because I understand it. It makes sense. You want to
be genuine, yeah, yeah, And I know a lot of
people that have immigrated to this country. Like like the
Hard Way. You know what I'm saying. I'm not just

(59:14):
coming in playing as a visitor and then state, but
people that came through the borders and stuff. I got
another play about a homeless person in the subway system.
It's like I wrote musical, you know what I'm saying.
So he's be boxing and beating on drums and uh.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
And you got more than enough subways to shoot it
if you want something.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
Yeah. So I'm developing a few projects myself, but I'm
also in line to do there's a play called Those House.
I'm playing a character named Doctor Rank. So that's gonna
be at the end of December, beginning of January. Then
I'm gonna be through the Labyrinth Theater Company in several projects.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
You plugged up over in the Labyrinth, Yeah, from the
one the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
I'm a member of the company right now. I've produced
several several things for them as well. So I'm gonna
be in in a couple of new plays. World for
me is like in a part of this the series
called the Strip series. Are you booked in business all
the way to March? I believe? I love that listen,
And I'm doing my warm Man show were like I'm
gonna be presented in different places. We promote that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
We got to amplify that. We gotta get the people out,
and we got to support each other. Like I tell
people all the time, our actors, our singers, our producers,
are rappers, whoever it is. If you're a Latino, we
have to just you know, stick together. It's a community,
you know, that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Like I'm I keep hearing a lot about like man
like like that same thing. Like you know, there's pockets
of Latinos doing things, but for some reason, like there's
not like a whole home base of like list.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
I can conglomerate, right, like a home base, right, we don't.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Have Yeah, how come like you know, like Latin America. Uh,
Latinos in America by now don't have like a studio,
a big studio to do situation. Okay, why now, why
that's not happening in America? You know what I'm saying.
We're such a big important thing of what the American

(01:01:15):
fabric is, and that's not happening. Like we are the
biggest minority becoming like and uh, and we have like
three percent of the acting jobs out there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Don't get me don't don't get me started on that topic, please,
because that topic right there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Yeah, it's like you you talked about erasure, like it's
happening in all medias, in all forms of entertainment, and uh,
you know, hopefully we change that. We make waves and
we start like like what you're saying, getting together and
having a deeper conversation about like, nah, we've been part
of everything that's major that has happened in this country.

(01:01:50):
We have been part of it with all major wars
in this country. We have been there every war in
this country. Let me let me clear that every war
in this country within Ye, we've been president. Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
We're part of the fabric, you know, America, New York, everything,
it's just a quill, ye, and we're there. Every other
square is a Latino, is the Caribbeans.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
We're there. There's no way to your eass yes right
with you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
To stay Yeah, yeah, yeah, we ain't going away. There
you go. Man, Thank you so much for sitting down
with me today. Thank you for having me. This was fun,
like it was so fluent, so easy, so dope, you know,
thank you. Yeah, I'm trained, Ye, now I can see
that and not only that, but like you know, like
it's it's it's not forced, it's like it's easy. And

(01:02:38):
uh there's one, uh, one of those interviews that I
that I enjoy, I enjoy myself.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Doing because I really wanted to get to know you
who you were.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Yeah, Yeah, I hope, I hope you got to know
a little bit of who I am.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
I know a lot about you, no judgment, but I
know a lot about you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah much success to you
and to every Latin you know out there listening, every
black person, every every minority out there struggling, you know,
much love, respect, gratitude, do your thing, you know, don't stop.
Don't let nobody tell you that you can't do what
you want to do. You see it in your mind's
eye is dead. Just grab it, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Grassiers and Come Again, that was a good one. Thank you,
Not for sure, you're dope.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
I thank you you as well. Grassiers Come Again is
a production of Honey German Productions in partnership with Iheartmichael
through the podcast Network