October 15, 2025 • 21 mins
Before Ricky Ricardo became a household name, Desi Arnaz was just a Cuban immigrant with a dream—and the odds stacked against him. In this premiere episode, Wilmer Valderrama dives into the untold story of how Desi went from cleaning bird cages to revolutionizing American television. From I Love Lucy to Star Trek, Desi built the blueprint for modern Hollywood—and opened the door for generations of Latinos to follow.Through rare archival recreations, personal stories, and a powerful connection between Wilmer and Desi’s shared immigrant journeys, this episode redefines what it means to “make it” in America.
Featuring: Wilmer Valderrama (That ’70s Show, NCIS, Encanto)
Topics: Desi Arnaz, TV History, Hollywood, I Love Lucy, Ed Sullivan Show, immigrant success stories, movie history, representation in media. Starring: Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama is produced by WV Sound in partnership with iHeart’s My Cultura Podcast Network.
Starring: Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama is produced by WV Sound in partnership with iHeart’s My Cultura Podcast Network.
Starring: Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama is written by Erick Galindo and narrated by Wilmer Valderrama. It is produced by Sophie Spencer-Zavos and Leo Klemm, with special help from Angel Lopez Galindo.
Executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama and Erick Galindo.
This episode was edited and engineered by Sean Tracy and features original music by Halo Boy and Madison Davenport. Cover art illustration by Lindsey Mound.
For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay. Picture. This is October third of nineteen fifty four
at CBS Television studios in New York, and a guy
named Ed Salavan is talking in a distinct New York
accident to a packed audience of very nicely dressed people.
This episode of the iconic Get Salivan Show is being
(00:41):
broadcast live to a television audience of anywhere between forty
to fifty million people. It's a special episode at Salivan
and his nasily flat voice usually hosted a variety show
with comics, musical acts. I'm talking about the biggest names
in show business. Only tonight Ed Sullivan has ditched the format.
It's more like a dinner party than a variety show.
(01:03):
It's actually a roast. That's where a bunch of people
get dressed up and go to a dinner where a
celebrity gets made fun of by other celebrities. Like when
everyone was roasting Tom Brady on his Netflix special. That
was a wild roast. Now like this classic one from
the fifties with the Times.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The fifteens, she was leading the high school bands. He
was captain of the basketball team and had already been
voted to student most likely to go nuts.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
In the fifties. That was an edgy comedy. I mean
just imagining the audience. Everyone's sitting in the crowd and
on stage is wearing proper evening attire and the local
like middle class couples on the town doing date night
or something. Except for this one guy who is on stage.
He's also wearing the tucks and looks like he's on
a date with his wife. But he's the only brown
(01:58):
person on that stage, in fact, one of the only
brown people on television. He's got an accent and a
funny laugh. Not like it's New York accent. It's a
foreign accent like mine. Crazy. But on this night in
nineteen fifty four, Ed Sullivan dedicated the entire episode of
(02:18):
his show to the two people leading a television revolution.
The first one is yes text art, No, not him.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Her Here she is Lucille Ball.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, that's Lucille Ball from the legendary game changing TV
sitcom I love Lucy, And if you know her, then
you've probably heard off or seen the other TV icon
being honored by Ed Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Now, then there's another character in our show. His name
escapes me at the moment. But this guy, it seems
to be in all places at once, making like an actor,
a banker, a politician, and short of producer. Gets my
vote is the greatest producer of all time. And I
have two little Arnaz's at home to prove it. Jesse,
(03:24):
I love you, so I'm Lucy.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Thank you, sweetheart, thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Ed.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's your nance aka Ricky Ricardo, AKA probably the first
ever TV showrunner before anyone even knew what that meant.
AKA the man who changed everything, not just in music,
not just in the TV world, but in my world,
in the world for countless others like him, like me,
(03:58):
like you, grandparents, our parents, and our children. And yet
if he's remembered at all, it's always just as this guy, Lucy.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I'm a home.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
But when I think about DESSI, I usually go back
to this speech he gave on this very special episode
of the Ed Sullivan Show, surrounded by a bunch of
well dressed American couples, his famous wife and bright lights.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I was always the guy that didn't fit. When she
did My Favorite Husband on radio, they said that I
wasn't the type to play the part. Then finally she
wanted to do the television show, and she says, what
I want to do it with Desi. So everybody again,
so well he doesn't, He's not right to play your husband. Finally,
one executive a CBS says, well, maybe the audience would
(04:50):
buy him, because after all, they had been married for
thirteen years. And you know something though that I really
want to tell you what ext Roark said about my
first job in this country was playing Birkeyes. It's very true.
Weekends we didn't know.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
He didn't just play the role of Ricky Ricardo on
one of the most watched TV sitcoms of all time.
Desi Arnas also largely responsible for so much of the
Hollywood we know today, the sitcom Syndication star Trek, the Untouchables,
even the fact that Los Angeles, not New York, is
the entertainment capital of the world. But you probably didn't
(05:32):
know that not a lot of people do.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
When he was eighteen, he got his first band together.
He called it the Sibilan Sex Test. That particular sex
test only had four members, but he liked the way
the name sounded. As I took much of the English.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Despite the man's popularity of I Love Lucy, the public
never fully grasped Desi Erness's pivotal contributions to the show
and television itself. They didn't understand He's remarked journey to
Hollywood or the challenges he faced. Even today, his groundbreaking
achievements in life story remain largely unrecognized. But that all changes.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Now, you know. I think if it would have been
for Lucy, I would have stopped trying a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I'm Wilmer Valdorama, and I'm pretty sure if it weren't
for Desi, I would have stopped trying a long time ago.
In a world that didn't quite get him or the
richness of his culture, desier Nest carved out a space
(06:40):
not just for himself, but for all of us who
felt like outsiders. He didn't just fit in, he redefined
what it meant to belong. That's why I decided to
do this podcast about the man who inspired me to
chase my American dream and paved the way for my
Hollywood and your Hollywood. The man who turned his misfit
(07:01):
status into a groundbreaking legacy. You're listening to starring Desi
RNAs and Wilmer Valderrama, The story of dezier Nas, the
man who taught us that not fitting in is exactly
how you change the world. Hey, I'm woman with drama
(07:22):
and I'm pretty sure you're a DESIERNS fan. But I'm
really Desier and as number one fan. Some of you
may know me as Fez on the hit sitcom BA
seventies show.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Ro Ro roa.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Scrub Scrubbs is Night and Clean. Or Nick Thorius from
the number one TV franchise in the world NCIS. I
should have had him. Don't get yourself up.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
It's not your fault.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I know it's not. You think it's my fault. I said,
it's not your fault. Yeah, but you said it like
everyone thinks it's my fault. Or the data on the
Oscar winning Disney animated feature Incanto. Sometimes my life feels
like a dream. I mean it's it is a dream.
But it wasn't always that way. The first time I
(08:07):
had a big audition, I think I was about fifteen
years old. I learned to act on stage in my
home country, Venezuela, before my parents fled the country to
escape the infamous dictator Hugo Chavis. When I came to America,
I had to learn how to speak English before I
even could think that being an actor was a possibility.
Even when I did learn English, I was told that
actors with Latino accents didn't really get the good parts.
(08:30):
They didn't get the good roles, if any roles at all.
So I got all that bouncing around in my head
as I'm trying to figure out how to land my
first real audition. But to be honest, I wasn't daunted.
I knew by now that the only good auditions for
good roles were the ones that had a sign on
the door that said agent submissions only. But I was
(08:52):
a teenager, a brown kid from a foreign country living
in the San Fernando Valley. I didn't have an agent,
but I didn't let that stop me. I was pounding
so hard as I was making up some agency name
that sounded kind of very leged and very American, Smith
and Associates. I decided to go with a business line.
Oh wait, I gotta put a phone number. Well, I
decided to put on my beeper number. And for those
(09:14):
of you who are too young to understand what a
deeper number, just ask your parents. They're going to laugh.
But yeah, I didn't let anything now my own fear,
not my accent, not being an outsider, not having an agent,
nothing to term me. For months, I tried and failed
with this strategy until one day it worked. I landed
(09:35):
my first commercial. What's the smart way to find something out?
Just look in the Pacific Bell Smart yellow pages and
you'll find all the Pacific Bell'smartellow pages. That commercial was
the start of a long battle to make my dreams
come true. But I'm not sure if I could have
won that fight to tell stories as an actor and
(09:57):
a producer in Hollywood as a dark skinned immigrant with
an act if you weren't for my love and maybe
even obsession with Desi Arnaz. If you're a student of
Hollywood history, you get it.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
It wanted to be here tonight.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's Robert Stack reading a letter as he wrote to
Lucy when she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the
Kennedy Center Honors on December seventh, nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
I love Lucy adds one mission to make people laugh.
Lucy gave it a rare quality. She can perform the wildest,
even the messiest, physical comedy without losing her feminine appeal.
The New York Times asked me to divide the credit
for its success between the writers, The directors and the cast.
I told them, give Lucy ninety percent of the credit.
(10:44):
Divide the other ten percent among the rest of us.
Asie concluded, Lucy was the show. Viv and Fred and
I were just props, Amn good props.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
The props.
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Nevertheless, ps I Love Lucy was never just a title.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
Dessi died five days before this speech on December two,
nineteen eighty six, having never gotten his own Kennedy Center's honor,
even though he truly deserved one.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
In fact, that's one of the biggest things I was
shocked to learn about Desi how much he actually did
in his career, but that after the break as the
(11:44):
very first immigrant Latino leading man in TV history, he
paved the path through uncharted territory, a path many of
us are continuing to blaze today thanks to him. And
if you think that's not a big deal, you haven't
really been watching the story of America as told by Hollywood.
I know I wasn't. I was just trying to live,
(12:05):
trying to make it. But things in my life made
me reflect recently my Dukeie career.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
More.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I was cool, my sweetheart, Yeah, yeah. A few years
ago I became a girl dad, and not too long
ago I became a boy. Dad just a last summer,
you know, growing up. It's a funny way of reminding
you of everything that had to be sacrificed for you
to be possible. My dad gave me the education he
(12:39):
never had, I mean, gave me an opportunity to have
a shot that our countries were never given us. And
a part of that was realizing that I was taking
the mantle of my own father as the head of
our family. There's a moment in your life when you
start to pay back the people who raise you for
all their sacrifices. Now it's an honor to take care
(13:00):
of your mom, take care of your dad. So that's
on the personal side. Had the question on November one,
are we on time? What do we look like? When
it comes to design and all that? What do they
was on the business side, I launched my own clothing line.
I got to direct for the first time. I took
my producers side to the next level with my production
company WVEE creating shows for CVS, Arheart, Netflix, Disney, and
(13:25):
my team created and produced the docuseries that was the
number one show on Netflix with almost one billion minutes watched.
I mean, it's crazy. On top of all that, I
got to write this book about my life. And I
say this all with great humility and appreciation because I
want you to know that all that success really only
(13:45):
hides the struggle to make any of it happen and
put me in a place where I really had to
reflect on my story breaking into this crazy business. It's
the kind of story you can only really tell in America.
And I'm not alone. Here are some of my friends
talking about what it's been like for them.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
When my brother was really young, like first grade or kindergarten,
the teacher called my parents and asked them what they
were speaking at home, and they said Spanish and they said, hmmm,
it's really messing him up because my brother was speaking
Spanglish basically.
Speaker 8 (14:21):
And at that point I really hadn't met.
Speaker 9 (14:24):
Too many other Latino Latina actors in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Man, I really fell alone, and I.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Just remember looking at you and going like, Wow, there's
somebody else like me.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
I became a comedian, even though acting was always my
dream and what I wanted to do. Stand up was
the thing that was taking off for me. So in
the beginning of my career, I fought stand up like
I would go on the road and do my shows,
but I kept looking over my shoulder back at Hollywood, like,
are you guys ready for me?
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Let me know when you're ready.
Speaker 9 (14:51):
You have everybody now in this position to where it's natural,
and that's just a great place, especially in this moment
where our culture is trying to another attempt, another way
that they're never going to snuff us out.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Those are just a tiny fraction of the people in
Hollywood who got to climb in through the back doors
and windows. The DESI are nets kicked open. I know
I did, look I get it. No matter what happens
on this podcast, deer Names will probably always be remembered
as the charming Rigui Ricardo from I Love Lucy, or
(15:28):
as Lucy's has been in real life, but his impact
runs deeper than his character on screen or being his
legendary Web's partner.
Speaker 7 (15:38):
Truck A lot of.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
But the trucks.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Growing up in Venezuela, I didn't know that DESI had
an accent. The episodes of I Love Lucy were in Spanish, right,
so it was called Yoama Lucy. When I came to
the US and watched it, for the first time I
was below in away.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I don't think that's very nice making fun of my Spanish.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Why'd you been making fun of my English for fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Lots of different Spanish is a foreign language.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Well, English is a foreign language to me.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Well, the way you speaking it is to me too.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Seeing a leading man with a Latin American accent made
me believe it was possible to become one myself. I mean,
how delusional is that? Right? But my connection with Desi
isn't just about following his footsteps. Is about the share experiences,
the battles fought, and the doors open not just for
actors but for all Latinos carving out their American dreams.
(16:44):
But desier Nance was more than just an actor or
a musician or producing savant. At a time when Latino
characters on American TV were rare, Desi portrayed a Cuban
American who was both a loving husband and a savvy showman,
challenging the stereotypes of the day. I came to death
his work. Honestly, someone gave me his autobiography as a gift.
(17:06):
I think because I was starting on that seventies show
playing a brown guy with an accent. Okay, I think
that we've been reviewing long enough. Let's see what you've learned.
I'll start you off with an easy one. Where do
you live America? It's pronounced America. So they gave me
(17:26):
does his story and I started getting into it, and
I started to discover something amazing that it wasn't the
perfect immigrant. Yes, he was a pioneer, but he also struggled,
as he's been very open about how he drank too much,
was a womanizer, and had a temper. He wasn't a
perfect immigrant who does what he's told and never made
mistakes because he was real. Here's the end of his
(17:49):
speech at the Ed Sullivan Show.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And you know though, that I really want to tell
you what text or roarc said about my first job
in this country was planning bird cages. It's very true.
We came to this country and we didn't have a
scent in our pockets. From planning canary cages to this
night here in New York, it's a long ways, and
(18:15):
I don't think there's any other country in the world
that would give you that opportunity. I want to say,
thank you, thank you, America, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's hard for me to overstate how much I love
this speech. I still get goosebumps thinking about it, and
I know and a big party is because, yeah, DESSI
was a brown guy with an accident starting and said
come blah blah blah. Corney. Maybe or too on the nose,
but it is what I needed to see in the
world for me to have a chance as an immigrant
with big dreams. That's what brought me to Desi's story.
(18:55):
But what I discover blew my mind because it turns
out Desire Nest contributed massively to the Hollywood we know today,
and on this podcast, we're going to tell you how
he did it and why he was the perfect person
to create America's dream factory. It's a story not just
(19:18):
about greatness, but about imperfection, about resilience. It's about battling
for your beliefs, even against debats, even if it means,
like in my case, Ko, getting on closed doors or
bluffing your way into an addition, or in Desi's case,
dealing with anarchists and angry mobs. It's a story that
stars all the way back in Cuba on the eve
(19:40):
of a revolution, starring Desi r Ness and Wilma About
Durrama is produced by WV Sound in partnership with Iheartmichael
Duda podcast Network, starring Desire Nest and Wilma Aboutdurrama is
written by Eric Glindo and narrated by me Wilmer Valderrama.
(20:03):
It is produced by Sophie Spencer Savos and Leo Klem,
with special help from Anhel Lopez Galindo. Our executive producers
are myself and Eric Galindo. This episode was edited and
engineered by Sean Tracy and features original music by Halo
Boy and Madison Devenport. Our cover art illustration is by
(20:23):
Lindsey Mount. Audio claims from The Ed Sullivan Show courtesy
of Sofa Entertainment. Kennedy Center Honors courtesy of The Kennedy Center. Washington,
d c ncis courtesy of CBS Studios. I Love Lucy
courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc. The westing House Desilu Playhouse
courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc. For more podcasts from iHeart,
(20:47):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite podcasts.
Okay. Picture. This is October third of nineteen fifty four
at CBS Television studios in New York, and a guy
named Ed Salavan is talking in a distinct New York
accident to a packed audience of very nicely dressed people.
This episode of the iconic Get Salivan Show is being
(00:41):
broadcast live to a television audience of anywhere between forty
to fifty million people. It's a special episode at Salivan
and his nasily flat voice usually hosted a variety show
with comics, musical acts. I'm talking about the biggest names
in show business. Only tonight Ed Sullivan has ditched the format.
It's more like a dinner party than a variety show.
(01:03):
It's actually a roast. That's where a bunch of people
get dressed up and go to a dinner where a
celebrity gets made fun of by other celebrities. Like when
everyone was roasting Tom Brady on his Netflix special. That
was a wild roast. Now like this classic one from
the fifties with the Times.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The fifteens, she was leading the high school bands. He
was captain of the basketball team and had already been
voted to student most likely to go nuts.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
In the fifties. That was an edgy comedy. I mean
just imagining the audience. Everyone's sitting in the crowd and
on stage is wearing proper evening attire and the local
like middle class couples on the town doing date night
or something. Except for this one guy who is on stage.
He's also wearing the tucks and looks like he's on
a date with his wife. But he's the only brown
(01:58):
person on that stage, in fact, one of the only
brown people on television. He's got an accent and a
funny laugh. Not like it's New York accent. It's a
foreign accent like mine. Crazy. But on this night in
nineteen fifty four, Ed Sullivan dedicated the entire episode of
(02:18):
his show to the two people leading a television revolution.
The first one is yes text art, No, not him.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Her Here she is Lucille Ball.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, that's Lucille Ball from the legendary game changing TV
sitcom I love Lucy, And if you know her, then
you've probably heard off or seen the other TV icon
being honored by Ed Sullivan.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Now, then there's another character in our show. His name
escapes me at the moment. But this guy, it seems
to be in all places at once, making like an actor,
a banker, a politician, and short of producer. Gets my
vote is the greatest producer of all time. And I
have two little Arnaz's at home to prove it. Jesse,
(03:24):
I love you, so I'm Lucy.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Thank you, sweetheart, thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Ed.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's your nance aka Ricky Ricardo, AKA probably the first
ever TV showrunner before anyone even knew what that meant.
AKA the man who changed everything, not just in music,
not just in the TV world, but in my world,
in the world for countless others like him, like me,
(03:58):
like you, grandparents, our parents, and our children. And yet
if he's remembered at all, it's always just as this guy, Lucy.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I'm a home.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
But when I think about DESSI, I usually go back
to this speech he gave on this very special episode
of the Ed Sullivan Show, surrounded by a bunch of
well dressed American couples, his famous wife and bright lights.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I was always the guy that didn't fit. When she
did My Favorite Husband on radio, they said that I
wasn't the type to play the part. Then finally she
wanted to do the television show, and she says, what
I want to do it with Desi. So everybody again,
so well he doesn't, He's not right to play your husband. Finally,
one executive a CBS says, well, maybe the audience would
(04:50):
buy him, because after all, they had been married for
thirteen years. And you know something though that I really
want to tell you what ext Roark said about my
first job in this country was playing Birkeyes. It's very true.
Weekends we didn't know.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
He didn't just play the role of Ricky Ricardo on
one of the most watched TV sitcoms of all time.
Desi Arnas also largely responsible for so much of the
Hollywood we know today, the sitcom Syndication star Trek, the Untouchables,
even the fact that Los Angeles, not New York, is
the entertainment capital of the world. But you probably didn't
(05:32):
know that not a lot of people do.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
When he was eighteen, he got his first band together.
He called it the Sibilan Sex Test. That particular sex
test only had four members, but he liked the way
the name sounded. As I took much of the English.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Despite the man's popularity of I Love Lucy, the public
never fully grasped Desi Erness's pivotal contributions to the show
and television itself. They didn't understand He's remarked journey to
Hollywood or the challenges he faced. Even today, his groundbreaking
achievements in life story remain largely unrecognized. But that all changes.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Now, you know. I think if it would have been
for Lucy, I would have stopped trying a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I'm Wilmer Valdorama, and I'm pretty sure if it weren't
for Desi, I would have stopped trying a long time ago.
In a world that didn't quite get him or the
richness of his culture, desier Nest carved out a space
(06:40):
not just for himself, but for all of us who
felt like outsiders. He didn't just fit in, he redefined
what it meant to belong. That's why I decided to
do this podcast about the man who inspired me to
chase my American dream and paved the way for my
Hollywood and your Hollywood. The man who turned his misfit
(07:01):
status into a groundbreaking legacy. You're listening to starring Desi
RNAs and Wilmer Valderrama, The story of dezier Nas, the
man who taught us that not fitting in is exactly
how you change the world. Hey, I'm woman with drama
(07:22):
and I'm pretty sure you're a DESIERNS fan. But I'm
really Desier and as number one fan. Some of you
may know me as Fez on the hit sitcom BA
seventies show.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Ro Ro roa.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Scrub Scrubbs is Night and Clean. Or Nick Thorius from
the number one TV franchise in the world NCIS. I
should have had him. Don't get yourself up.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
It's not your fault.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I know it's not. You think it's my fault. I said,
it's not your fault. Yeah, but you said it like
everyone thinks it's my fault. Or the data on the
Oscar winning Disney animated feature Incanto. Sometimes my life feels
like a dream. I mean it's it is a dream.
But it wasn't always that way. The first time I
(08:07):
had a big audition, I think I was about fifteen
years old. I learned to act on stage in my
home country, Venezuela, before my parents fled the country to
escape the infamous dictator Hugo Chavis. When I came to America,
I had to learn how to speak English before I
even could think that being an actor was a possibility.
Even when I did learn English, I was told that
actors with Latino accents didn't really get the good parts.
(08:30):
They didn't get the good roles, if any roles at all.
So I got all that bouncing around in my head
as I'm trying to figure out how to land my
first real audition. But to be honest, I wasn't daunted.
I knew by now that the only good auditions for
good roles were the ones that had a sign on
the door that said agent submissions only. But I was
(08:52):
a teenager, a brown kid from a foreign country living
in the San Fernando Valley. I didn't have an agent,
but I didn't let that stop me. I was pounding
so hard as I was making up some agency name
that sounded kind of very leged and very American, Smith
and Associates. I decided to go with a business line.
Oh wait, I gotta put a phone number. Well, I
decided to put on my beeper number. And for those
(09:14):
of you who are too young to understand what a
deeper number, just ask your parents. They're going to laugh.
But yeah, I didn't let anything now my own fear,
not my accent, not being an outsider, not having an agent,
nothing to term me. For months, I tried and failed
with this strategy until one day it worked. I landed
(09:35):
my first commercial. What's the smart way to find something out?
Just look in the Pacific Bell Smart yellow pages and
you'll find all the Pacific Bell'smartellow pages. That commercial was
the start of a long battle to make my dreams
come true. But I'm not sure if I could have
won that fight to tell stories as an actor and
(09:57):
a producer in Hollywood as a dark skinned immigrant with
an act if you weren't for my love and maybe
even obsession with Desi Arnaz. If you're a student of
Hollywood history, you get it.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
It wanted to be here tonight.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's Robert Stack reading a letter as he wrote to
Lucy when she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the
Kennedy Center Honors on December seventh, nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
I love Lucy adds one mission to make people laugh.
Lucy gave it a rare quality. She can perform the wildest,
even the messiest, physical comedy without losing her feminine appeal.
The New York Times asked me to divide the credit
for its success between the writers, The directors and the cast.
I told them, give Lucy ninety percent of the credit.
(10:44):
Divide the other ten percent among the rest of us.
Asie concluded, Lucy was the show. Viv and Fred and
I were just props, Amn good props.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
The props.
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Nevertheless, ps I Love Lucy was never just a title.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
Dessi died five days before this speech on December two,
nineteen eighty six, having never gotten his own Kennedy Center's honor,
even though he truly deserved one.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
In fact, that's one of the biggest things I was
shocked to learn about Desi how much he actually did
in his career, but that after the break as the
(11:44):
very first immigrant Latino leading man in TV history, he
paved the path through uncharted territory, a path many of
us are continuing to blaze today thanks to him. And
if you think that's not a big deal, you haven't
really been watching the story of America as told by Hollywood.
I know I wasn't. I was just trying to live,
(12:05):
trying to make it. But things in my life made
me reflect recently my Dukeie career.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
More.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I was cool, my sweetheart, Yeah, yeah. A few years
ago I became a girl dad, and not too long
ago I became a boy. Dad just a last summer,
you know, growing up. It's a funny way of reminding
you of everything that had to be sacrificed for you
to be possible. My dad gave me the education he
(12:39):
never had, I mean, gave me an opportunity to have
a shot that our countries were never given us. And
a part of that was realizing that I was taking
the mantle of my own father as the head of
our family. There's a moment in your life when you
start to pay back the people who raise you for
all their sacrifices. Now it's an honor to take care
(13:00):
of your mom, take care of your dad. So that's
on the personal side. Had the question on November one,
are we on time? What do we look like? When
it comes to design and all that? What do they
was on the business side, I launched my own clothing line.
I got to direct for the first time. I took
my producers side to the next level with my production
company WVEE creating shows for CVS, Arheart, Netflix, Disney, and
(13:25):
my team created and produced the docuseries that was the
number one show on Netflix with almost one billion minutes watched.
I mean, it's crazy. On top of all that, I
got to write this book about my life. And I
say this all with great humility and appreciation because I
want you to know that all that success really only
(13:45):
hides the struggle to make any of it happen and
put me in a place where I really had to
reflect on my story breaking into this crazy business. It's
the kind of story you can only really tell in America.
And I'm not alone. Here are some of my friends
talking about what it's been like for them.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
When my brother was really young, like first grade or kindergarten,
the teacher called my parents and asked them what they
were speaking at home, and they said Spanish and they said, hmmm,
it's really messing him up because my brother was speaking
Spanglish basically.
Speaker 8 (14:21):
And at that point I really hadn't met.
Speaker 9 (14:24):
Too many other Latino Latina actors in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Man, I really fell alone, and I.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Just remember looking at you and going like, Wow, there's
somebody else like me.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
I became a comedian, even though acting was always my
dream and what I wanted to do. Stand up was
the thing that was taking off for me. So in
the beginning of my career, I fought stand up like
I would go on the road and do my shows,
but I kept looking over my shoulder back at Hollywood, like,
are you guys ready for me?
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Let me know when you're ready.
Speaker 9 (14:51):
You have everybody now in this position to where it's natural,
and that's just a great place, especially in this moment
where our culture is trying to another attempt, another way
that they're never going to snuff us out.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Those are just a tiny fraction of the people in
Hollywood who got to climb in through the back doors
and windows. The DESI are nets kicked open. I know
I did, look I get it. No matter what happens
on this podcast, deer Names will probably always be remembered
as the charming Rigui Ricardo from I Love Lucy, or
(15:28):
as Lucy's has been in real life, but his impact
runs deeper than his character on screen or being his
legendary Web's partner.
Speaker 7 (15:38):
Truck A lot of.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
But the trucks.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Growing up in Venezuela, I didn't know that DESI had
an accent. The episodes of I Love Lucy were in Spanish, right,
so it was called Yoama Lucy. When I came to
the US and watched it, for the first time I
was below in away.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I don't think that's very nice making fun of my Spanish.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Why'd you been making fun of my English for fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Lots of different Spanish is a foreign language.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Well, English is a foreign language to me.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Well, the way you speaking it is to me too.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Seeing a leading man with a Latin American accent made
me believe it was possible to become one myself. I mean,
how delusional is that? Right? But my connection with Desi
isn't just about following his footsteps. Is about the share experiences,
the battles fought, and the doors open not just for
actors but for all Latinos carving out their American dreams.
(16:44):
But desier Nance was more than just an actor or
a musician or producing savant. At a time when Latino
characters on American TV were rare, Desi portrayed a Cuban
American who was both a loving husband and a savvy showman,
challenging the stereotypes of the day. I came to death
his work. Honestly, someone gave me his autobiography as a gift.
(17:06):
I think because I was starting on that seventies show
playing a brown guy with an accent. Okay, I think
that we've been reviewing long enough. Let's see what you've learned.
I'll start you off with an easy one. Where do
you live America? It's pronounced America. So they gave me
(17:26):
does his story and I started getting into it, and
I started to discover something amazing that it wasn't the
perfect immigrant. Yes, he was a pioneer, but he also struggled,
as he's been very open about how he drank too much,
was a womanizer, and had a temper. He wasn't a
perfect immigrant who does what he's told and never made
mistakes because he was real. Here's the end of his
(17:49):
speech at the Ed Sullivan Show.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And you know though, that I really want to tell
you what text or roarc said about my first job
in this country was planning bird cages. It's very true.
We came to this country and we didn't have a
scent in our pockets. From planning canary cages to this
night here in New York, it's a long ways, and
(18:15):
I don't think there's any other country in the world
that would give you that opportunity. I want to say,
thank you, thank you, America, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's hard for me to overstate how much I love
this speech. I still get goosebumps thinking about it, and
I know and a big party is because, yeah, DESSI
was a brown guy with an accident starting and said
come blah blah blah. Corney. Maybe or too on the nose,
but it is what I needed to see in the
world for me to have a chance as an immigrant
with big dreams. That's what brought me to Desi's story.
(18:55):
But what I discover blew my mind because it turns
out Desire Nest contributed massively to the Hollywood we know today,
and on this podcast, we're going to tell you how
he did it and why he was the perfect person
to create America's dream factory. It's a story not just
(19:18):
about greatness, but about imperfection, about resilience. It's about battling
for your beliefs, even against debats, even if it means,
like in my case, Ko, getting on closed doors or
bluffing your way into an addition, or in Desi's case,
dealing with anarchists and angry mobs. It's a story that
stars all the way back in Cuba on the eve
(19:40):
of a revolution, starring Desi r Ness and Wilma About
Durrama is produced by WV Sound in partnership with Iheartmichael
Duda podcast Network, starring Desire Nest and Wilma Aboutdurrama is
written by Eric Glindo and narrated by me Wilmer Valderrama.
(20:03):
It is produced by Sophie Spencer Savos and Leo Klem,
with special help from Anhel Lopez Galindo. Our executive producers
are myself and Eric Galindo. This episode was edited and
engineered by Sean Tracy and features original music by Halo
Boy and Madison Devenport. Our cover art illustration is by
(20:23):
Lindsey Mount. Audio claims from The Ed Sullivan Show courtesy
of Sofa Entertainment. Kennedy Center Honors courtesy of The Kennedy Center. Washington,
d c ncis courtesy of CBS Studios. I Love Lucy
courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc. The westing House Desilu Playhouse
courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc. For more podcasts from iHeart,
(20:47):
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite podcasts.
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