July 13, 2026 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Vincent "Rocco" Vargas never expected his family's immigration story to shape his own life so profoundly. After serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, he became a U.S. Border Patrol agent, where he often saw reflections of his own grandmother in the people he encountered along the Rio Grande.
Vargas, author of Borderline: Defending the Home Front, shares a deeply personal story about family, service, sacrifice, and the difficult balance between compassion and protecting the country he loves.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people who search for the Our American Stories podcast go
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Vincent rock O Vargas is a former Army
(00:30):
ranger turned US Customs and Border Protection agent. He's now
an actor who has played the role of Gilberto Gilly
Lopez on Mayan's MC, a spinoff of the FX original
Hits series Buns of Anarchy. Vargas is the author of
Borderline Defending the home Front, a book printed under retired
(00:51):
Navy Seal Jocko Willinks Publishing Company. Here's Vincent Vargas with
his story.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I was born in Los Angeles, California, in eighty one.
My grandmother wasn't a legal immigrant. She actually was born
in Mexico, just on the other side of the border.
Her sister was born on this side of the border,
on the American side, and was an American citizen by birth,
(01:19):
and she died at a very young age, and my
grandmother took her identity just so she can be a
legal citizen. And my mother she wanted more for herself
and so when she turned eighteen, she had a family
member out in Los Angeles. She had a change of
clothes in a paper bag, toothpaste, toothbrush, and I think
(01:41):
it was fifteen dollars and a bus ticket to La.
My parents met. When my mom she stated in an
apartment building that my uncle, by chance, was a manager
at he was managing. He was like making sure everything
was good, and he calls my dad, who was in
the Marines at the time. My father was forced to
go to the Marines. It was either to go to prison.
He got into a gang fight moving to La the
(02:03):
Puerto Rican kid joined a Mexican gang because that's what
you do. And he was part of that era where
the fights were more with belts and chains and pipes
and nothing else, kind of the greasers versus the socials
kind of thing. They settled right there in the La area.
You know, they struggled for a little bit. My father
(02:23):
got al the Marines and got into construction. He was
a framer. He just was a hard working person. During
a rainy season. As a framer, he had a file
for unemployment and when he went to the unemployment office,
he saw a big poster for La city firefighters, and
he applied, And I remember our life completely changing dramatically
(02:46):
when you're from selling a small house, a two bedroom house,
four kids sleeping in one room, two bunk beds, the
boys on one bunk beds, the girls in the other
bunk beds, and my dad's in my mom and dad's room,
to buying a house with three bedrooms and me and
my brother's sharing a room, and my sister's sharing a room.
And it's just like I saw our life change dramatically,
and my dad getting a solid job for the family.
(03:10):
I played baseball since I was four, travel ball, well,
travel like year round ball since I was seven. It
was a way to stay out of the gangs. The
gangs was very prevalent, from my dad's air of gangs
to my brother's ara of gangs. It turned into drive
bys and shootings quite often. We had friends who would
succumb to gang violence. You heard a drive by shooting,
(03:31):
you're like, oh, that was probably on Figure Row, or
that was probably on Oryan. We were scared, you know,
sometimes walking around at night, hanging out with friends, even
if it wasn't had anything to do with gangs. It
was just being in the area. At the time. If
a vehicle was driving slow, we always dropped to the
ground and stayed low until it drove by, and we'd
pop back up and continue a conversation like nothing ever happened.
I didn't know myself to be good at anything other
(03:53):
than baseball. I wasn't good at reading. I was dyslexic
as a kid. It was undiagnosed for a long time,
so I didn't know I had a problem. I just
thought I was dumb. Got out of high school. I
didn't pass an SAT, so I had to go to
junior college for baseball, which was the path I wanted
to go anyways, because I believed I can get drafted
faster that way. So I went to La Valley Community College,
(04:14):
and eventually academics got the best of me. Again, just immaturity,
I decided to join the military. I'm watching the news
and I'm seeing this marine put the American flag over
the statue of Saddam as they pull it down. It's
a very iconic visual. I think we've all seen it.
And I remember them interviewing his family and how proud
of him they were. They were crying and they were
(04:37):
just so they were so proud of their own son.
And I sat there watching this thinking, I don't know
if my family has ever felt that way about me.
I don't know if I've ever given them something to
be that proud of me, and that idea hurt. I
had lost the one thing that I thought I was
(04:58):
good at. I have a daughter on the way who
I want to be a dad like I want to
be a dad, and I have no money to support her.
The next day I showed up to the Army of Recruiting.
I showed the recruiting station try to figure out which
one I wanted. Eventually I settled on the Army the
Special Operations. I saw the movie Black Hawk Down and
(05:18):
inspired me to think, if I would ever have the
guts to take the fight to the enemy, I would
like to test myself and see if I do. To
watch these young men fight for something that they believe in.
It felt like a baseball team, but with a different mission,
you know. It felt like the camaraderie again, and I thought, well,
if I die serving this country, all things are fulfilled.
(05:39):
My daughter gets money. At the time, she would have
got four hundred thousand dollars. My parents would have had
a son who's a hero and I wouldn't have to
continue facing this world where I don't have baseball in it.
And so I joined during a time of war, knowing
that I was going to war as an infantryman with
a ranger contract. And after six months of waiting and
(06:00):
two credit cards maxed out because thinking I'm gonna die anyways,
I ain't never gonna have to pay this back, I
went to the military and thirty days after all my training,
I find myself in Afghanistan. Fast forward. You know, in
the four years of my military career, I lost a
few friends, sarm Bras and sarm Brim and alwas gets
(06:28):
me when I say their names, who are two of
probably the best in our career field to ever do
the job, which puts things into a weird perspective where
you see life and say, well they're the best and
they were killed and what does that put me? And
maybe question if there was more out in the world
(06:50):
that I could accomplish and that if I need to
get out before it's my time as well to be killed.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Vincent rock O Vargas share
story and his family's story, and there's that moment he
sees the statue of Sadom Hussein topple. These marines are
holding up a flag and the family is so proud
of their son, and he's wondering, have I done anything
in my life to earn such regard, to respect from
(07:17):
my own family. He joins the army and his life
begins to change when we come back more of Vincent
Rocco Vargas's story here on our American Stories, Lee Habib
here again. Our American Stories tries to tell the stories
of America's past and present to Americans, and we want
(07:38):
to hear your stories too. There's some of our favorites.
Send them to us. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the your stories tab. Again, please go to
Alamericanstories dot com and click the your Stories tab and
(08:09):
we continue with our American Stories and Vincent Rocko Vargas's story.
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
While in the military and seeing it all and seeing
what I could do, I realized I wanted to live,
and I wanted to accomplish more, and I wanted to
be in my kids' lives. At that time getting out,
I had three kids and I just wanted to be
better for them. And so after the four years of
special operations, three deployments, eventually I got the call to
be a border Tuasian in two thousand and nine. And
(08:41):
you know, up until this point, my race and culture
wasn't a topic of discussion. It was my race and
my culture. I grew up in La the Melting Pot.
Even though I was Puerto Rican, I didn't know what
that was. I was the only Puerto Rican there. I
knew what Puerto Rican was from my grandmother, my cousins
and uncles. But like I was Mexican by the way
I was raised, I was Mexican by the culture my
(09:03):
mother presented. But it wasn't something that we pushed on
to people or I felt I needed to I need
to be so proud of that, I just shared it.
I don't know. It wasn't a thing for us, and
not that I'm not. I'm super proud of being I'm
super proud of being Latino. I'm proud of being Mexican
and Puerto Rican. I'm proud of both of those cultures
and I'll never deny them. But it wasn't that I
(09:25):
ever had to. You know, I was in a world
where everyone was a different race in LA and in
the military, I don't care about color. We cared about surviving,
you know what I mean. So it wasn't as prevalent.
When I went to Kentucky, I saw a bit of it,
and I thought it was funny when someone said, hey,
those guys are called the amigos when they're washing dishes
in Texas roadhouse. I'm like, what do you mean, amigos?
What's their name? And they're like, I don't know, they
(09:45):
call them amigos. I'm like, what the So I say,
what's your name is, Josey? I was like, okay, what's
your name? Luise? Okay, cool, jose Luis. And I was like,
that's so weird they call them amigos. But it was
I was so distant from this this race thing that
everyone jumps on. But then they didn't. Weren't raised like
(10:07):
me in my clouds. There's Asians, there's blacks, there's whites,
there's everything, and no one really cared. We just kind
of existed. And sometimes we use our color of our
skin or our cultures as a joke of connection, you know.
And it was this really beautiful thing. And in the
military is no different. So and in baseball, it's no different.
So to see it outside of it, and I didn't
(10:29):
think anything of it. I'm just like, all right, well whatever,
Now I'm a border trajan and I'm starting to get
these comments of hey, dude, you're a Mexican. Where are
you stopping your own people? And I was like, ah, what.
And I don't think I was articulate enough and had
(10:49):
enough education on the topic to even speak on it.
I was just confused. And so I found it fascinating
that people didn't understand the difference of like being an
American citizen, but as well as wanting to protect America,
you know, after nine to eleven, this homeland security push,
and then on the other side of also being proud
of being Latino in Mexican, you know what I mean.
(11:10):
And yeah, I remember my first apprehension, and in getting
this job, I learned more about my culture. I asked
my mom about my grandmother, right, I asked about how
they were raised. I asked about her, you know, working
in a field if she needed to, right, I asked
about all And I was fascinated. I was actually the
way I saw it with my perception of it, was
(11:32):
what a beautiful thing to see my family come from
that to continue to grow. I saw it in a
perspective of growth, and I saw that as the American way,
the opportunity of what America presents, and so I was
very proud of being American. I was very proud of
my Mexican and Puerto Rican culture and what my parents
(11:53):
have been able to provide for us and what I
turned around want to provide for my kids. But then
I'm getting the backlash of saying, hey, vodigask kip Us,
all Fargus, what's up? What are you doing? Vodagas you
know what I mean. You're Hispanic too, And it made
me really, you know, I apprehended a woman, a man,
and a little girl, and I saw a reflection of
(12:14):
my own grandmother in there, and I thought like, wow,
this is a This is an interesting and very complex
topic because my grandmother came over illegally. Huh. But here
I am stopping those dreams. The duality of being a
Border Troy agent is being human enough to see the
(12:35):
empathetic side of this immigration situation, but also being protective
enough of your own people, your own family and friends
to understand the security aspect needs also be upheld. You know,
the interesting perspective of the border is that there's some
people that say that why do we even have borders
right now? Other people say lock all the borders, And
(12:57):
it really comes down to, like, if you want to
understand the border and why we need a border, it's like, well,
why do you need doors? You have a front door,
I have a front door, But why do we choose
to have a front door? Because we want to feel protected?
And I'll take it even deeper that everyone chooses how
much protection they choose to have on their own house, right.
Some people have alarms, some people have gated communities, and
(13:19):
we all choose that why because we all want to
feel secure in that, you know, in that micro version
of like us personally in the macro, it's the border
in that same version of you wanting to have a
front door in your house and that you want to
be able to address anyone that comes to your door
and whether you allow them into your house or when
you can tell them they can leave. Right, no one
(13:39):
comes over for a party in stays for twelve days,
You're like, oh it's time to go home, big guy,
you know what I mean. But with us in our
own house. We choose who we allow in our house
and who we don't, right because of sometimes the fear
of safety security. And in that same thought process, it's
no different than our borders. We should know who comes
across are borders, what's their intentions, how long they choose
(14:03):
to plan to stay, and if we don't, well, then
we open ourselves up for some serious risk. And I
fear these outliers who don't believe in the American way
of life. It's just the reality of it. And so
when there's an argument about the border, I'm always like, well,
you choose to protect your house, we should be allowed
to protect our own country, which inveriently is our house.
(14:27):
And so I hope that when people hear that perspective
they kind of understand it a little bit better. When
you're in the Border patrol academy, there's a portion of
it where they want to make sure you know how
to swim. There's some like basics to that because you
work potentially in the Rio Grande River where we have
a lot of drowning deaths of the year. Not the
(14:48):
bordertrol per se, but illegal migrants attempting to cross. One day,
it was like man hose pretty new in the border patrol,
and I was with a senior guy and and we
see a group try and cross and we hear the commotion.
Someone's drowning. Someone someone lost their footing in their starting
to drownd. And I looked at my shoper. I was like,
well we do. He's like nothing. I'm like, what do
(15:09):
you mean nothing? He goes, well, I'm not gonna go
in there. And I was like, well, do you mind
if I do. He's like, I don't recommend it. Fargus,
I don't recommend it. I said, well, look, I'm a
really good swimmer. I grew up in La I swim
since I was four. I did the whole beach thing,
so I know what I'm doing. He said, if you
want to. I took off my gun belt, I took
off all my stuff, actually ripped my top off so
fast that the sleeve cuff stayed on. And so I'm
(15:30):
in my underwear, a green shirt and a cuff still on,
and I jump in there to try and save this dude.
I jumped into the water was cold. It took my
breath away for a second, and I I knew that
was coming, so I was prepared for the mental I said, okay,
let's go to star swim swims. We get closer to him. Eventually,
as I get closer and I'm thinking like, all right,
I'm gonna grab him, and I'm the one to pull
me down. We get washed up upon a short spot
(15:51):
and we stand up and look at each other, and
it was a really odd moment of in the middle
of the real Grande River where he hadn't crossed any
thing where he's illegal, and I'm not crossing any further.
So we kind of looked at each other, he said,
and I said, for what. I didn't do nothing, but okay,
I turn around and walk back. And it was a
(16:11):
really weird moment. But you know, it raises the question,
why is he crossing a river if he can't swim,
Why did any of these people do it? And that's
what most I think people who don't understand this, they
don't get to see and so they I think they
lose the context of the human aspect of this. Their
(16:34):
lives are in a position where they're willing to risk
their life for a chance at America. There's people in
America that don't even appreciate our country that much.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
And we've been listening to Vincent Rocco Vargas. He's a
former Army ranger turned US Customs and Border Protection agent,
and he's been showing with us the story of his family,
his family, heritage, his time, and his time just seeing carnage,
seeing friends killed, coming back, wanting to do something for
his family, wanting to be a good father, wanting to
(17:09):
be a good provider, and also wanting to serve and
describing the border situation in a way that very few
people in America can is both a man of Mexican
and Puerto Rican heritage, but yet also explaining that we
have to protect not just our borders, but our house,
the American house, and yet having that empathy to connect
(17:31):
to those people who were coming across the border, coming
across the Rio Grande and risking their lives to come here,
and that appreciation for what the American dream represents, the
magnet that it is. When we come back more of
Vincent rock O Vargas's story here on our American stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and Vincent rock
O Vargas's story, Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
There's people in America that take it. For granted, they
crap all over our own country, but they don't realize
people are losing their lives just the attempt for an
opportunity to work, to make money for safety so they
don't get killed from cartel or the corruption. And that
same exact river where I was, my buddy working boat
crew and a lady sees his boat pull up and
(18:39):
they're trying to pull up a couple of people who
are stranded, and she throws a baby at him and
he luckily catches the baby, and he was so mad.
He's like, why would she do this baby? And he
starts telling her Spanish, like hey, what's wrong with you?
And she looked and says, you don't know my life.
In that moment, he said, you're right, I don't. We
(19:00):
can't sit here and try and make a determination of
like why are they coming to our country. We know why.
They're scared for their lives. They want opportunity, they want
a chance out of life, and they're willing to throw
their baby at you just so that baby can have
a better opportunity at this at what this is this
beautiful country that gives opportunity. It's no different than my mother,
(19:20):
my grandmother coming across and creating this world. That's put
me in the position I am today. It's no different,
and it put me in a really odd position as
a buldituag. And I said, you know what, I really
love this job and what it does and what it
can do, and what more can I do? I thought,
if I became a medic and saved as many lives
as possible, I'd be paying off a debt of guilt
(19:43):
that I can face my God in heaven and say
was that enough? Then I earn my way back. And
I know that's not how my God would see it,
but that's how my heart felt. I felt I had
(20:03):
had I had to pay back. I had to save
as many souls as I possibly could to feel worthy
of heaven. And I became a medic and I was
able to save a lot of lives for the Special
Operations side of the Border Patrol, a side of the
(20:24):
border Trow that most don't know, the humanitarian side of
us saving as many lives as possible daily on the border.
The Bordertrol Special Operations Group saves more lives than any
other organization on the border. The Bordertow as a whole
stops more drugs than any other organization in the nation.
And so the humanitarian side of this job, this really beautiful, delicate,
(20:48):
complex job, was what I did for the last portion
five years in my career. You know, the border patrol
has to deal with a lot of the cartel situation.
When I say that the cartel is more like drugs
smuggling organizations, multiple different cartels, but they're all drug smuggling
organizations as well as human smuggling organizations. And then there's
(21:11):
always a fear that the cartel is going to do
something on our side of the country, on our side,
to slow us down, to hurt us. You hear threats
about it. But you know, there's this weird, copesthetic kind
of balance that happens on the border with us in
the cartels. It's not any kind of written law or anything,
(21:33):
but it's essentially the cat and mouse game of this.
All they get enough of cross that they're happy, and
we stop enough that we're happy. That checks and balances
are good to go for both sides, and not intentionally,
it's just the way the nature of the beast. But
if at any point a smuggler gets out of hand,
if they decide to bring a gun and they engage
(21:55):
on one of our bordertal agents. Which has happened, everything
changes will we will bring in a massive amount of
security personnel bodies and we will shut down that border
better than ever. And that hurts the cartel even more.
And so in this really weird balance of it all,
(22:19):
the cartel doesn't allow that if someone does step out
of hand, you'll see them not directly message border patrol,
but public news. You'll see that they will either kill
whoever did it, or they'll bring him and drop them
off at the border and say, hey, these are the guys.
They try and correct that wrong because they want Homeo
stations on the border, their version of Homeo stace is
(22:41):
on the border as much as possible so their business
can be could run as usual. It's just very weird
dynamic that it's like, like I said, it's not a
written rule. It's just this weird version of a balance
at the border that is kind of managed by the
cartel on their side, and as well as if it
gets out of hand on our side, they tend to
(23:03):
clean that up themselves as well. It's interesting with apprehensions
on the border. I think you know most people talk about,
you know, Mexicans across the border, but you know, because
of proximity, there's a lot of Mexicans who do right.
But the biggest thing you see is OTMS. They call
it is other than Mexicans, and that's kind of a
(23:24):
term that that name has kind of been determined by
the cartel actually in their smuggling efforts and how they
label them. But as well as outside of OTMS or
other than Mexicans, you have exotics as well, and so
we have currently right now, I think there's more other
than Mexicans and exotics coming across the border daily. Uh.
(23:47):
You know, at one point there was more Venezuelans, Haitians,
Asians who are coming across the border currently as time.
So you know, it's it's really it's just any kind
of illegal immigration has to be kind of identified as
that because it's random who crossed that border, and random
so much so that you know, it wasn't uncommon for
(24:09):
us to catch people on the terrorist watch list or
the FBI's most wanted list. You know, where else can
you circumvent a system by crossing the southern border, by
trying to get away or not be detected through you
know ports of entry. This job is a lot more
intricate than the world really knows, and I think it's
important for people to kind of get more educated on it.
(24:32):
John like Guizamo did a one man show once and
I was probably thirteen at the time. I saw it.
In an hour, he made me laugh, cry, smile, question everything,
and that was that was heavy for a thirty year
old kid to feel all that. It was like, Wow,
what a special thing. And I knew I wanted to
(24:53):
try and do the same for others, and so I
resigned from the Border Patrol and I said it's time
to folk. I saw my family, my four kids. I
was a single father of four kids, and my career
that would give you more time with them. And so
I have committed back to my family. I've committed back
to my God, and I have committed to the pursuit
(25:16):
of being an actor and writer in a way that
is valuable for society. It's been a challenge, you know
what I mean, because the entertainment industry is is a fight.
It's a it's a dog fight, you know. And I
was fortunate enough to show up to LA at the
right place, at the right time for an audition and
landed a role in Mayans. I started off as a
(25:39):
guest star, then became a season regular in season three,
and then became a writer in season five and currently
working on a few other projects that I hope I
can continue to be a messenger of valuable content and
telling stories that inspire and of eight like the people
(26:01):
who did that before me.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
vincent roco Vargas, former Army ranger turned US Customs and
Border Protection agent turned medic turn actor. And of course
when you're an actor and then you start to write,
you're what we are. You're a storyteller. And we love
(26:24):
sharing stories of every dimension of American life, old and new.
And we never do issues here on this show. And
this was not an immigration issue.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
In the end.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
It was a human issue, and it was it was
a human story, not an immigration story. And being on
the border, as he said, is a beautiful, delicate and
complex job. The boy must it be, especially when you're
seeing those kids coming across the rio brand, some of
them whom you know, are being trafficked by cartels and
(26:54):
yet having to do your job, which is protect the
American House, and how to do that with dignity, and
how to do that with honor and with self respect
in need. That's why he became a medic, because in
the end he wanted to just focus on that humanitarian
side of being a border patrol agent. And then of
course leaving that, recommitting to his family, to his faith,
(27:14):
and becoming an actor and in the end becoming a storyteller.
The story of Vincent rock Ovargas here on our American
Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people who search for the Our American Stories podcast go
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Vincent rock O Vargas is a former Army
(00:30):
ranger turned US Customs and Border Protection agent. He's now
an actor who has played the role of Gilberto Gilly
Lopez on Mayan's MC, a spinoff of the FX original
Hits series Buns of Anarchy. Vargas is the author of
Borderline Defending the home Front, a book printed under retired
(00:51):
Navy Seal Jocko Willinks Publishing Company. Here's Vincent Vargas with
his story.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I was born in Los Angeles, California, in eighty one.
My grandmother wasn't a legal immigrant. She actually was born
in Mexico, just on the other side of the border.
Her sister was born on this side of the border,
on the American side, and was an American citizen by birth,
(01:19):
and she died at a very young age, and my
grandmother took her identity just so she can be a
legal citizen. And my mother she wanted more for herself
and so when she turned eighteen, she had a family
member out in Los Angeles. She had a change of
clothes in a paper bag, toothpaste, toothbrush, and I think
(01:41):
it was fifteen dollars and a bus ticket to La.
My parents met. When my mom she stated in an
apartment building that my uncle, by chance, was a manager
at he was managing. He was like making sure everything
was good, and he calls my dad, who was in
the Marines at the time. My father was forced to
go to the Marines. It was either to go to prison.
He got into a gang fight moving to La the
(02:03):
Puerto Rican kid joined a Mexican gang because that's what
you do. And he was part of that era where
the fights were more with belts and chains and pipes
and nothing else, kind of the greasers versus the socials
kind of thing. They settled right there in the La area.
You know, they struggled for a little bit. My father
(02:23):
got al the Marines and got into construction. He was
a framer. He just was a hard working person. During
a rainy season. As a framer, he had a file
for unemployment and when he went to the unemployment office,
he saw a big poster for La city firefighters, and
he applied, And I remember our life completely changing dramatically
(02:46):
when you're from selling a small house, a two bedroom house,
four kids sleeping in one room, two bunk beds, the
boys on one bunk beds, the girls in the other
bunk beds, and my dad's in my mom and dad's room,
to buying a house with three bedrooms and me and
my brother's sharing a room, and my sister's sharing a room.
And it's just like I saw our life change dramatically,
and my dad getting a solid job for the family.
(03:10):
I played baseball since I was four, travel ball, well,
travel like year round ball since I was seven. It
was a way to stay out of the gangs. The
gangs was very prevalent, from my dad's air of gangs
to my brother's ara of gangs. It turned into drive
bys and shootings quite often. We had friends who would
succumb to gang violence. You heard a drive by shooting,
(03:31):
you're like, oh, that was probably on Figure Row, or
that was probably on Oryan. We were scared, you know,
sometimes walking around at night, hanging out with friends, even
if it wasn't had anything to do with gangs. It
was just being in the area. At the time. If
a vehicle was driving slow, we always dropped to the
ground and stayed low until it drove by, and we'd
pop back up and continue a conversation like nothing ever happened.
I didn't know myself to be good at anything other
(03:53):
than baseball. I wasn't good at reading. I was dyslexic
as a kid. It was undiagnosed for a long time,
so I didn't know I had a problem. I just
thought I was dumb. Got out of high school. I
didn't pass an SAT, so I had to go to
junior college for baseball, which was the path I wanted
to go anyways, because I believed I can get drafted
faster that way. So I went to La Valley Community College,
(04:14):
and eventually academics got the best of me. Again, just immaturity,
I decided to join the military. I'm watching the news
and I'm seeing this marine put the American flag over
the statue of Saddam as they pull it down. It's
a very iconic visual. I think we've all seen it.
And I remember them interviewing his family and how proud
of him they were. They were crying and they were
(04:37):
just so they were so proud of their own son.
And I sat there watching this thinking, I don't know
if my family has ever felt that way about me.
I don't know if I've ever given them something to
be that proud of me, and that idea hurt. I
had lost the one thing that I thought I was
(04:58):
good at. I have a daughter on the way who
I want to be a dad like I want to
be a dad, and I have no money to support her.
The next day I showed up to the Army of Recruiting.
I showed the recruiting station try to figure out which
one I wanted. Eventually I settled on the Army the
Special Operations. I saw the movie Black Hawk Down and
(05:18):
inspired me to think, if I would ever have the
guts to take the fight to the enemy, I would
like to test myself and see if I do. To
watch these young men fight for something that they believe in.
It felt like a baseball team, but with a different mission,
you know. It felt like the camaraderie again, and I thought, well,
if I die serving this country, all things are fulfilled.
(05:39):
My daughter gets money. At the time, she would have
got four hundred thousand dollars. My parents would have had
a son who's a hero and I wouldn't have to
continue facing this world where I don't have baseball in it.
And so I joined during a time of war, knowing
that I was going to war as an infantryman with
a ranger contract. And after six months of waiting and
(06:00):
two credit cards maxed out because thinking I'm gonna die anyways,
I ain't never gonna have to pay this back, I
went to the military and thirty days after all my training,
I find myself in Afghanistan. Fast forward. You know, in
the four years of my military career, I lost a
few friends, sarm Bras and sarm Brim and alwas gets
(06:28):
me when I say their names, who are two of
probably the best in our career field to ever do
the job, which puts things into a weird perspective where
you see life and say, well they're the best and
they were killed and what does that put me? And
maybe question if there was more out in the world
(06:50):
that I could accomplish and that if I need to
get out before it's my time as well to be killed.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to Vincent rock O Vargas share
story and his family's story, and there's that moment he
sees the statue of Sadom Hussein topple. These marines are
holding up a flag and the family is so proud
of their son, and he's wondering, have I done anything
in my life to earn such regard, to respect from
(07:17):
my own family. He joins the army and his life
begins to change when we come back more of Vincent
Rocco Vargas's story here on our American Stories, Lee Habib
here again. Our American Stories tries to tell the stories
of America's past and present to Americans, and we want
(07:38):
to hear your stories too. There's some of our favorites.
Send them to us. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the your stories tab. Again, please go to
Alamericanstories dot com and click the your Stories tab and
(08:09):
we continue with our American Stories and Vincent Rocko Vargas's story.
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
While in the military and seeing it all and seeing
what I could do, I realized I wanted to live,
and I wanted to accomplish more, and I wanted to
be in my kids' lives. At that time getting out,
I had three kids and I just wanted to be
better for them. And so after the four years of
special operations, three deployments, eventually I got the call to
be a border Tuasian in two thousand and nine. And
(08:41):
you know, up until this point, my race and culture
wasn't a topic of discussion. It was my race and
my culture. I grew up in La the Melting Pot.
Even though I was Puerto Rican, I didn't know what
that was. I was the only Puerto Rican there. I
knew what Puerto Rican was from my grandmother, my cousins
and uncles. But like I was Mexican by the way
I was raised, I was Mexican by the culture my
(09:03):
mother presented. But it wasn't something that we pushed on
to people or I felt I needed to I need
to be so proud of that, I just shared it.
I don't know. It wasn't a thing for us, and
not that I'm not. I'm super proud of being I'm
super proud of being Latino. I'm proud of being Mexican
and Puerto Rican. I'm proud of both of those cultures
and I'll never deny them. But it wasn't that I
(09:25):
ever had to. You know, I was in a world
where everyone was a different race in LA and in
the military, I don't care about color. We cared about surviving,
you know what I mean. So it wasn't as prevalent.
When I went to Kentucky, I saw a bit of it,
and I thought it was funny when someone said, hey,
those guys are called the amigos when they're washing dishes
in Texas roadhouse. I'm like, what do you mean, amigos?
What's their name? And they're like, I don't know, they
(09:45):
call them amigos. I'm like, what the So I say,
what's your name is, Josey? I was like, okay, what's
your name? Luise? Okay, cool, jose Luis. And I was like,
that's so weird they call them amigos. But it was
I was so distant from this this race thing that
everyone jumps on. But then they didn't. Weren't raised like
(10:07):
me in my clouds. There's Asians, there's blacks, there's whites,
there's everything, and no one really cared. We just kind
of existed. And sometimes we use our color of our
skin or our cultures as a joke of connection, you know.
And it was this really beautiful thing. And in the
military is no different. So and in baseball, it's no different.
So to see it outside of it, and I didn't
(10:29):
think anything of it. I'm just like, all right, well whatever,
Now I'm a border trajan and I'm starting to get
these comments of hey, dude, you're a Mexican. Where are
you stopping your own people? And I was like, ah, what.
And I don't think I was articulate enough and had
(10:49):
enough education on the topic to even speak on it.
I was just confused. And so I found it fascinating
that people didn't understand the difference of like being an
American citizen, but as well as wanting to protect America,
you know, after nine to eleven, this homeland security push,
and then on the other side of also being proud
of being Latino in Mexican, you know what I mean.
(11:10):
And yeah, I remember my first apprehension, and in getting
this job, I learned more about my culture. I asked
my mom about my grandmother, right, I asked about how
they were raised. I asked about her, you know, working
in a field if she needed to, right, I asked
about all And I was fascinated. I was actually the
way I saw it with my perception of it, was
(11:32):
what a beautiful thing to see my family come from
that to continue to grow. I saw it in a
perspective of growth, and I saw that as the American way,
the opportunity of what America presents, and so I was
very proud of being American. I was very proud of
my Mexican and Puerto Rican culture and what my parents
(11:53):
have been able to provide for us and what I
turned around want to provide for my kids. But then
I'm getting the backlash of saying, hey, vodigask kip Us,
all Fargus, what's up? What are you doing? Vodagas you
know what I mean. You're Hispanic too, And it made
me really, you know, I apprehended a woman, a man,
and a little girl, and I saw a reflection of
(12:14):
my own grandmother in there, and I thought like, wow,
this is a This is an interesting and very complex
topic because my grandmother came over illegally. Huh. But here
I am stopping those dreams. The duality of being a
Border Troy agent is being human enough to see the
(12:35):
empathetic side of this immigration situation, but also being protective
enough of your own people, your own family and friends
to understand the security aspect needs also be upheld. You know,
the interesting perspective of the border is that there's some
people that say that why do we even have borders
right now? Other people say lock all the borders, And
(12:57):
it really comes down to, like, if you want to
understand the border and why we need a border, it's like, well,
why do you need doors? You have a front door,
I have a front door, But why do we choose
to have a front door? Because we want to feel protected?
And I'll take it even deeper that everyone chooses how
much protection they choose to have on their own house, right.
Some people have alarms, some people have gated communities, and
(13:19):
we all choose that why because we all want to
feel secure in that, you know, in that micro version
of like us personally in the macro, it's the border
in that same version of you wanting to have a
front door in your house and that you want to
be able to address anyone that comes to your door
and whether you allow them into your house or when
you can tell them they can leave. Right, no one
(13:39):
comes over for a party in stays for twelve days,
You're like, oh it's time to go home, big guy,
you know what I mean. But with us in our
own house. We choose who we allow in our house
and who we don't, right because of sometimes the fear
of safety security. And in that same thought process, it's
no different than our borders. We should know who comes
across are borders, what's their intentions, how long they choose
(14:03):
to plan to stay, and if we don't, well, then
we open ourselves up for some serious risk. And I
fear these outliers who don't believe in the American way
of life. It's just the reality of it. And so
when there's an argument about the border, I'm always like, well,
you choose to protect your house, we should be allowed
to protect our own country, which inveriently is our house.
(14:27):
And so I hope that when people hear that perspective
they kind of understand it a little bit better. When
you're in the Border patrol academy, there's a portion of
it where they want to make sure you know how
to swim. There's some like basics to that because you
work potentially in the Rio Grande River where we have
a lot of drowning deaths of the year. Not the
(14:48):
bordertrol per se, but illegal migrants attempting to cross. One day,
it was like man hose pretty new in the border patrol,
and I was with a senior guy and and we
see a group try and cross and we hear the commotion.
Someone's drowning. Someone someone lost their footing in their starting
to drownd. And I looked at my shoper. I was like,
well we do. He's like nothing. I'm like, what do
(15:09):
you mean nothing? He goes, well, I'm not gonna go
in there. And I was like, well, do you mind
if I do. He's like, I don't recommend it. Fargus,
I don't recommend it. I said, well, look, I'm a
really good swimmer. I grew up in La I swim
since I was four. I did the whole beach thing,
so I know what I'm doing. He said, if you
want to. I took off my gun belt, I took
off all my stuff, actually ripped my top off so
fast that the sleeve cuff stayed on. And so I'm
(15:30):
in my underwear, a green shirt and a cuff still on,
and I jump in there to try and save this dude.
I jumped into the water was cold. It took my
breath away for a second, and I I knew that
was coming, so I was prepared for the mental I said, okay,
let's go to star swim swims. We get closer to him. Eventually,
as I get closer and I'm thinking like, all right,
I'm gonna grab him, and I'm the one to pull
me down. We get washed up upon a short spot
(15:51):
and we stand up and look at each other, and
it was a really odd moment of in the middle
of the real Grande River where he hadn't crossed any
thing where he's illegal, and I'm not crossing any further.
So we kind of looked at each other, he said,
and I said, for what. I didn't do nothing, but okay,
I turn around and walk back. And it was a
(16:11):
really weird moment. But you know, it raises the question,
why is he crossing a river if he can't swim,
Why did any of these people do it? And that's
what most I think people who don't understand this, they
don't get to see and so they I think they
lose the context of the human aspect of this. Their
(16:34):
lives are in a position where they're willing to risk
their life for a chance at America. There's people in
America that don't even appreciate our country that much.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
And we've been listening to Vincent Rocco Vargas. He's a
former Army ranger turned US Customs and Border Protection agent,
and he's been showing with us the story of his family,
his family, heritage, his time, and his time just seeing carnage,
seeing friends killed, coming back, wanting to do something for
his family, wanting to be a good father, wanting to
(17:09):
be a good provider, and also wanting to serve and
describing the border situation in a way that very few
people in America can is both a man of Mexican
and Puerto Rican heritage, but yet also explaining that we
have to protect not just our borders, but our house,
the American house, and yet having that empathy to connect
(17:31):
to those people who were coming across the border, coming
across the Rio Grande and risking their lives to come here,
and that appreciation for what the American dream represents, the
magnet that it is. When we come back more of
Vincent rock O Vargas's story here on our American stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and Vincent rock
O Vargas's story, Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
There's people in America that take it. For granted, they
crap all over our own country, but they don't realize
people are losing their lives just the attempt for an
opportunity to work, to make money for safety so they
don't get killed from cartel or the corruption. And that
same exact river where I was, my buddy working boat
crew and a lady sees his boat pull up and
(18:39):
they're trying to pull up a couple of people who
are stranded, and she throws a baby at him and
he luckily catches the baby, and he was so mad.
He's like, why would she do this baby? And he
starts telling her Spanish, like hey, what's wrong with you?
And she looked and says, you don't know my life.
In that moment, he said, you're right, I don't. We
(19:00):
can't sit here and try and make a determination of
like why are they coming to our country. We know why.
They're scared for their lives. They want opportunity, they want
a chance out of life, and they're willing to throw
their baby at you just so that baby can have
a better opportunity at this at what this is this
beautiful country that gives opportunity. It's no different than my mother,
(19:20):
my grandmother coming across and creating this world. That's put
me in the position I am today. It's no different,
and it put me in a really odd position as
a buldituag. And I said, you know what, I really
love this job and what it does and what it
can do, and what more can I do? I thought,
if I became a medic and saved as many lives
as possible, I'd be paying off a debt of guilt
(19:43):
that I can face my God in heaven and say
was that enough? Then I earn my way back. And
I know that's not how my God would see it,
but that's how my heart felt. I felt I had
(20:03):
had I had to pay back. I had to save
as many souls as I possibly could to feel worthy
of heaven. And I became a medic and I was
able to save a lot of lives for the Special
Operations side of the Border Patrol, a side of the
(20:24):
border Trow that most don't know, the humanitarian side of
us saving as many lives as possible daily on the border.
The Bordertrol Special Operations Group saves more lives than any
other organization on the border. The Bordertow as a whole
stops more drugs than any other organization in the nation.
And so the humanitarian side of this job, this really beautiful, delicate,
(20:48):
complex job, was what I did for the last portion
five years in my career. You know, the border patrol
has to deal with a lot of the cartel situation.
When I say that the cartel is more like drugs
smuggling organizations, multiple different cartels, but they're all drug smuggling
organizations as well as human smuggling organizations. And then there's
(21:11):
always a fear that the cartel is going to do
something on our side of the country, on our side,
to slow us down, to hurt us. You hear threats
about it. But you know, there's this weird, copesthetic kind
of balance that happens on the border with us in
the cartels. It's not any kind of written law or anything,
(21:33):
but it's essentially the cat and mouse game of this.
All they get enough of cross that they're happy, and
we stop enough that we're happy. That checks and balances
are good to go for both sides, and not intentionally,
it's just the way the nature of the beast. But
if at any point a smuggler gets out of hand,
if they decide to bring a gun and they engage
(21:55):
on one of our bordertal agents. Which has happened, everything
changes will we will bring in a massive amount of
security personnel bodies and we will shut down that border
better than ever. And that hurts the cartel even more.
And so in this really weird balance of it all,
(22:19):
the cartel doesn't allow that if someone does step out
of hand, you'll see them not directly message border patrol,
but public news. You'll see that they will either kill
whoever did it, or they'll bring him and drop them
off at the border and say, hey, these are the guys.
They try and correct that wrong because they want Homeo
stations on the border, their version of Homeo stace is
(22:41):
on the border as much as possible so their business
can be could run as usual. It's just very weird
dynamic that it's like, like I said, it's not a
written rule. It's just this weird version of a balance
at the border that is kind of managed by the
cartel on their side, and as well as if it
gets out of hand on our side, they tend to
(23:03):
clean that up themselves as well. It's interesting with apprehensions
on the border. I think you know most people talk about,
you know, Mexicans across the border, but you know, because
of proximity, there's a lot of Mexicans who do right.
But the biggest thing you see is OTMS. They call
it is other than Mexicans, and that's kind of a
(23:24):
term that that name has kind of been determined by
the cartel actually in their smuggling efforts and how they
label them. But as well as outside of OTMS or
other than Mexicans, you have exotics as well, and so
we have currently right now, I think there's more other
than Mexicans and exotics coming across the border daily. Uh.
(23:47):
You know, at one point there was more Venezuelans, Haitians,
Asians who are coming across the border currently as time.
So you know, it's it's really it's just any kind
of illegal immigration has to be kind of identified as
that because it's random who crossed that border, and random
so much so that you know, it wasn't uncommon for
(24:09):
us to catch people on the terrorist watch list or
the FBI's most wanted list. You know, where else can
you circumvent a system by crossing the southern border, by
trying to get away or not be detected through you
know ports of entry. This job is a lot more
intricate than the world really knows, and I think it's
important for people to kind of get more educated on it.
(24:32):
John like Guizamo did a one man show once and
I was probably thirteen at the time. I saw it.
In an hour, he made me laugh, cry, smile, question everything,
and that was that was heavy for a thirty year
old kid to feel all that. It was like, Wow,
what a special thing. And I knew I wanted to
(24:53):
try and do the same for others, and so I
resigned from the Border Patrol and I said it's time
to folk. I saw my family, my four kids. I
was a single father of four kids, and my career
that would give you more time with them. And so
I have committed back to my family. I've committed back
to my God, and I have committed to the pursuit
(25:16):
of being an actor and writer in a way that
is valuable for society. It's been a challenge, you know
what I mean, because the entertainment industry is is a fight.
It's a it's a dog fight, you know. And I
was fortunate enough to show up to LA at the
right place, at the right time for an audition and
landed a role in Mayans. I started off as a
(25:39):
guest star, then became a season regular in season three,
and then became a writer in season five and currently
working on a few other projects that I hope I
can continue to be a messenger of valuable content and
telling stories that inspire and of eight like the people
(26:01):
who did that before me.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
vincent roco Vargas, former Army ranger turned US Customs and
Border Protection agent turned medic turn actor. And of course
when you're an actor and then you start to write,
you're what we are. You're a storyteller. And we love
(26:24):
sharing stories of every dimension of American life, old and new.
And we never do issues here on this show. And
this was not an immigration issue.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
In the end.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
It was a human issue, and it was it was
a human story, not an immigration story. And being on
the border, as he said, is a beautiful, delicate and
complex job. The boy must it be, especially when you're
seeing those kids coming across the rio brand, some of
them whom you know, are being trafficked by cartels and
(26:54):
yet having to do your job, which is protect the
American House, and how to do that with dignity, and
how to do that with honor and with self respect
in need. That's why he became a medic, because in
the end he wanted to just focus on that humanitarian
side of being a border patrol agent. And then of
course leaving that, recommitting to his family, to his faith,
(27:14):
and becoming an actor and in the end becoming a storyteller.
The story of Vincent rock Ovargas here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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