June 13, 2025 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Vincent “Rocco” Vargas shares his unique perspective on becoming a Border Patrol agent after his own grandmother came to America illegally. He is now an actor best known for his role as Gilberto “Gilly” Lopez on Mayans M.C., a spinoff of the FX original hit series Sons of Anarchy.
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Episode Transcript
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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.
To 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 ranger turned
(00:31):
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 Navy Seal
(00:52):
Jocko Willinks Publishing Company. Here's Vincent Vargas with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
A manager at he was managing.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
He was like making sure everything was good, and he
calls my dad, who was in the Marines at the time.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
My father was forced to go to the Marines. It
was either that to go to prison.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
He got into a gang fight moving to La the
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.
(02:21):
You know, they struggled for a little bit. My father
got out of 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
(02:42):
he applied, and I remember our life completely changing dramatically.
One 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.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
And it's just like I saw.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Our life change dramatically, and my dad getting a solid
job for the family. I played baseball since I was four,
travel ball, well, travel like year round ball since I
was seven.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It was a way to stay out of the gangs.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
The gangs was very prevalent, from my dad's air of
gangs to my brother's air of gangs. It turned into
drive bys and shootings quite often. We had friends who
would succumb to gang violence.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You heard a drive by.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Shooting, 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 I 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, just thought
I was dumb.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Got out of high school.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Faster that way.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So I went to La Valley Community College, and eventually
academics got the best of me.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Again, just immaturity, I decided to join the military.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
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 just so they were so proud of
their own son. And I sat there watching this thinking,
(04:42):
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 good at.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I have a daughter on the way.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Who I want to be a dad like I want
to be a dad, and I have no money.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
To support her.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
The next day I showed up to the Army and 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
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.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
If I do.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
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 serve in this country,
all things are fulfilled. 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
(05:48):
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 two credit cards maxed out because.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Fast forward.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You know, in the four years of my military career,
I lost a few friends, sarm Bras and sarm Brim
and who gets 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
(06:37):
weird perspective where you see life and say, well, they're
the best and they were killed, and where does that
put me? And maybe question if there was more out
in the world 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 Ussein Topple. These marines are
holding up a flag and the family is so proud
of their son, and he's wondering if 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. This is
Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day we
set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present,
from small towns to big cities, and from all walks
(07:39):
of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do
this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to our American Stories dot com and
make a donation to keep the stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot Com. And we continue with our American
(08:11):
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 genuine, I was Mexican by the
way I was raised. I was Mexican by the culture
(09:03):
my 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.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I'm like, what do you mean amigos? What's their name?
And they're like, I don't know, they call them amigos.
I'm like, what the so I say, what's your name is? Jose?
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.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
But it was I was so dis from this this
race thing that everyone jumps on, but then they didn't.
We raised, like 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,
(10:19):
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 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
(10:41):
I was like, ah, what.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
And I don't think I was.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Articulate enough and had enough education on.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
The topic to even speak on it. I was just confused.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
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. And yeah, I remember my
first apprehension, and in getting this job, I learned.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
More about my culture.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
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 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
(11:44):
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 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?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
What are you doing? Vodagas you know what I mean?
You're Hispanic too, And it made me.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Really, you know, I apprehended a woman, a man, and
a little girl, and I saw a reflection of my
own grandmother in there, and I thought like, wow, this
is a This is an interesting and very complex topic
because my.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Grandmother came over illegally. Huh.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
But here I am stopping those dreams. The duality of
being a Border Troy agent is being human enough to
see the 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
(12:51):
there's some people that say that why do we even
have borders right now?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Other people say lock all the borders And.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It really comes down to, like, if you want to
under stay in 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 we all choose that why
(13:19):
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 comes over for a party and stays
(13:40):
for twelve days.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
You're like, oh, it's time to go home, big guy.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
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 our borders, what's their intentions,
how long they choose to plan to stay, and if
(14:05):
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. And so I hope that when
(14:28):
people hear that perspective they kind of understand it a
little bit better.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
When you're in the Border Patrol Academy.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
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 a year.
Not the bordertrol per se, but illegal migrants attempting to cross.
One day, it was like, man, I was pretty new
in the border patrol, and I was with a senior
(14:59):
guy and we're driving and we see a group try
and cross and we hear the commotion.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Someone's drowning.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Someone someone lost their footing in their starting to drowned.
And I looked at my shower. I was like, well,
we do. He's like nothing. I'm like, what do 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
(15:24):
off my gun belt, I took off all my stuff,
actually ripped my top off.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
So fast that the sleeve cuff stayed on.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
And so I'm 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.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
The water was cold.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It took my breath away for a second, and I
knew that was coming, so I was prepared for the
mental I said, okay, let's go to star swim swims.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
We get closer to him.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
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
and we stand up and look at each other, and
it was a really odd moment of in the middle
of the Rio 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.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
I said, for what. I didn't do nothing, but okay,
I turn around and walk back. And it was a
really weird moment.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
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 lives are in
(16:36):
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 in Iraq, and his time
just seeing carnage, seeing friends killed, coming back, wanting to
do something for his family, wanting to be a good father,
(17:08):
wanting to 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
(17:31):
to connect to those people who are 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 and we continue with our American stories and Vincent
(18:11):
rock O Vargas's story. Let's pick up where we last
left off.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
There's people in America that take it for granted.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
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
(18:38):
and 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.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We know why.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
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,
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
(19:28):
a boorltituag. 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
that I can face my God in heaven and say,
was that enough? Then I earn my way back. And
(19:56):
I know that's not how my God would see it,
but that's how my heart felt. I felt I had
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
(20:19):
able to save a lot of lives for the special
Operations side of the Border Patrol, a side of the
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.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
And so the humanitarian side.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Of this job, this really beautiful, delicate, 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
the cartel is more like drug smuggling organizations, multiple different cartels,
(21:05):
but they're all drug smuggling organizations as well as human
smuggling organizations. And then there's 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
(21:26):
the border with us in the cartel. It's not any
kind of written law or anything, but it's essentially.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
The cat and mouse game of this.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
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.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
And not intentionally, it's just the way the nature of
the beast. But if at any point a smuggler.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Gets out of hand, if they decide to bring a
gun and they engage 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
(22:12):
the cartel even more. And so in this really weird
balance of it all, 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.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
They try and correct that wrong because they want Homeo
stations on the border, their version of Homeo stace is
on the border as much as possible so their business
can be could.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Run as usual.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
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 clean that up themselves as well.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
It's interesting with apprehensions on the border.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
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 term that
that name has kind of been determined by the cartel
(23:29):
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. You know, at one
point there was more Venezuelans, Haitians, Asians who are.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Coming across the border currently as time.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
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
us to catch people on the Terrorists watch List or
the FBI's most wanted list. You know, where else can
(24:15):
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.
John like Guizamo did a one man show once and
I was probably thirteen at the time I saw it.
(24:37):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
It was like, Wow, what a special thing.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And I knew I wanted to try and do the
same for others, and so I resigned from the border patrol,
and I said, it's time to focus 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
(25:12):
committed back to my God, and I have committed to
the pursuit of being an actor and writer in a way.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
That is valuable for society.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's been a challenge, you know what I mean, because
the entertainment industry is is a fight 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 guest star, then became a season
regular in season three, and then became a writer in
(25:46):
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 motive
like the people 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 Rocco 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
(26:23):
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 in the end. 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.
(26:45):
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 yet having
to do your job, which is protect the American house,
and how to do that with dignity, how to do
that with honor and with self respect in need. That's
why he became a medic, because in the end he
(27:05):
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, 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.
To 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 ranger turned
(00:31):
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 Navy Seal
(00:52):
Jocko Willinks Publishing Company. Here's Vincent Vargas with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
A manager at he was managing.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
He was like making sure everything was good, and he
calls my dad, who was in the Marines at the time.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
My father was forced to go to the Marines. It
was either that to go to prison.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
He got into a gang fight moving to La the
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.
(02:21):
You know, they struggled for a little bit. My father
got out of 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
(02:42):
he applied, and I remember our life completely changing dramatically.
One 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.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
And it's just like I saw.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Our life change dramatically, and my dad getting a solid
job for the family. I played baseball since I was four,
travel ball, well, travel like year round ball since I
was seven.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
It was a way to stay out of the gangs.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
The gangs was very prevalent, from my dad's air of
gangs to my brother's air of gangs. It turned into
drive bys and shootings quite often. We had friends who
would succumb to gang violence.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You heard a drive by.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Shooting, 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 I 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, just thought
I was dumb.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Got out of high school.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Faster that way.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So I went to La Valley Community College, and eventually
academics got the best of me.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Again, just immaturity, I decided to join the military.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
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 just so they were so proud of
their own son. And I sat there watching this thinking,
(04:42):
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 good at.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I have a daughter on the way.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Who I want to be a dad like I want
to be a dad, and I have no money.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
To support her.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
The next day I showed up to the Army and 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
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.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
If I do.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
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 serve in this country,
all things are fulfilled. 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
(05:48):
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 two credit cards maxed out because.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Fast forward.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You know, in the four years of my military career,
I lost a few friends, sarm Bras and sarm Brim
and who gets 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
(06:37):
weird perspective where you see life and say, well, they're
the best and they were killed, and where does that
put me? And maybe question if there was more out
in the world 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 Ussein Topple. These marines are
holding up a flag and the family is so proud
of their son, and he's wondering if 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. This is
Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day we
set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present,
from small towns to big cities, and from all walks
(07:39):
of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do
this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to our American Stories dot com and
make a donation to keep the stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot Com. And we continue with our American
(08:11):
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 genuine, I was Mexican by the
way I was raised. I was Mexican by the culture
(09:03):
my 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.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I'm like, what do you mean amigos? What's their name?
And they're like, I don't know, they call them amigos.
I'm like, what the so I say, what's your name is? Jose?
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.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
But it was I was so dis from this this
race thing that everyone jumps on, but then they didn't.
We raised, like 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,
(10:19):
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 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
(10:41):
I was like, ah, what.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
And I don't think I was.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Articulate enough and had enough education on.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
The topic to even speak on it. I was just confused.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
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. And yeah, I remember my
first apprehension, and in getting this job, I learned.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
More about my culture.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
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 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
(11:44):
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 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?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
What are you doing? Vodagas you know what I mean?
You're Hispanic too, And it made me.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Really, you know, I apprehended a woman, a man, and
a little girl, and I saw a reflection of my
own grandmother in there, and I thought like, wow, this
is a This is an interesting and very complex topic
because my.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Grandmother came over illegally. Huh.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
But here I am stopping those dreams. The duality of
being a Border Troy agent is being human enough to
see the 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
(12:51):
there's some people that say that why do we even
have borders right now?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Other people say lock all the borders And.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
It really comes down to, like, if you want to
under stay in 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 we all choose that why
(13:19):
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 comes over for a party and stays
(13:40):
for twelve days.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
You're like, oh, it's time to go home, big guy.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
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 our borders, what's their intentions,
how long they choose to plan to stay, and if
(14:05):
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. And so I hope that when
(14:28):
people hear that perspective they kind of understand it a
little bit better.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
When you're in the Border Patrol Academy.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
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 a year.
Not the bordertrol per se, but illegal migrants attempting to cross.
One day, it was like, man, I was pretty new
in the border patrol, and I was with a senior
(14:59):
guy and we're driving and we see a group try
and cross and we hear the commotion.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Someone's drowning.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Someone someone lost their footing in their starting to drowned.
And I looked at my shower. I was like, well,
we do. He's like nothing. I'm like, what do 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
(15:24):
off my gun belt, I took off all my stuff,
actually ripped my top off.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
So fast that the sleeve cuff stayed on.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
And so I'm 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.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
The water was cold.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It took my breath away for a second, and I
knew that was coming, so I was prepared for the
mental I said, okay, let's go to star swim swims.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
We get closer to him.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
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
and we stand up and look at each other, and
it was a really odd moment of in the middle
of the Rio 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.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
I said, for what. I didn't do nothing, but okay,
I turn around and walk back. And it was a
really weird moment.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
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 lives are in
(16:36):
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 in Iraq, and his time
just seeing carnage, seeing friends killed, coming back, wanting to
do something for his family, wanting to be a good father,
(17:08):
wanting to 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
(17:31):
to connect to those people who are 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 and we continue with our American stories and Vincent
(18:11):
rock O Vargas's story. Let's pick up where we last
left off.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
There's people in America that take it for granted.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
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
(18:38):
and 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.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We know why.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
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,
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
(19:28):
a boorltituag. 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
that I can face my God in heaven and say,
was that enough? Then I earn my way back. And
(19:56):
I know that's not how my God would see it,
but that's how my heart felt. I felt I had
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
(20:19):
able to save a lot of lives for the special
Operations side of the Border Patrol, a side of the
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.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
And so the humanitarian side.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Of this job, this really beautiful, delicate, 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
the cartel is more like drug smuggling organizations, multiple different cartels,
(21:05):
but they're all drug smuggling organizations as well as human
smuggling organizations. And then there's 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
(21:26):
the border with us in the cartel. It's not any
kind of written law or anything, but it's essentially.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
The cat and mouse game of this.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
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.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
And not intentionally, it's just the way the nature of
the beast. But if at any point a smuggler.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Gets out of hand, if they decide to bring a
gun and they engage 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
(22:12):
the cartel even more. And so in this really weird
balance of it all, 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.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
They try and correct that wrong because they want Homeo
stations on the border, their version of Homeo stace is
on the border as much as possible so their business
can be could.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Run as usual.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
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 clean that up themselves as well.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
It's interesting with apprehensions on the border.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
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 term that
that name has kind of been determined by the cartel
(23:29):
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. You know, at one
point there was more Venezuelans, Haitians, Asians who are.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Coming across the border currently as time.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
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
us to catch people on the Terrorists watch List or
the FBI's most wanted list. You know, where else can
(24:15):
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.
John like Guizamo did a one man show once and
I was probably thirteen at the time I saw it.
(24:37):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
It was like, Wow, what a special thing.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
And I knew I wanted to try and do the
same for others, and so I resigned from the border patrol,
and I said, it's time to focus 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
(25:12):
committed back to my God, and I have committed to
the pursuit of being an actor and writer in a way.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
That is valuable for society.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's been a challenge, you know what I mean, because
the entertainment industry is is a fight 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 guest star, then became a season
regular in season three, and then became a writer in
(25:46):
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 motive
like the people 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 Rocco 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
(26:23):
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 in the end. 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.
(26:45):
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 yet having
to do your job, which is protect the American house,
and how to do that with dignity, how to do
that with honor and with self respect in need. That's
why he became a medic, because in the end he
(27:05):
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, 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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