September 17, 2024 • 18 mins
John Leguizamo and Daily Show writer Kat Radley share the process of writing his latest In My Opinion piece on Trump’s obsession with immigrants and the GOP’s efforts to suppress the Latino vote. John also discusses his upcoming PBS series, “American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos,” and the importance of remembering the often overlooked contributions Latinos have made to America’s history and prosperity.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hello and welcome to the Daily Show Ears edition. This
is Kat Radley. I am a writer for the Daily Show,
and we are back with the amazing John Leguizamo.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Thank you, Kat, Thank you for having me. I loved
being here last time. It's been a while, missed you.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I know. I was like, Oh, John's back, Sure, I'll
do the podcast again.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yeah, lucky me.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You're about to do your piece for the show. In
my opinion, so we're going to talk quickly about the
process behind that.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Is that what they're calling now?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, in my opinion, And what was.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It called before segment?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Really? Yeah, it was just like a random segment. Yeah,
but now you're back, and surprise, surprise, Trump's up to
some great fear mongering again. So this piece we wanted
to focus on the SAVE Act and all that Trump
and the republic plans are doing in fear mongering around
immigration and illegal voting that isn't actually happening.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or SAVE Act, would require
registered voters to provide proof of citizenship and force states
to remove non citizens from their lists of eligible voters.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
We want US citizens to vote, but we don't want
illegal votes.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Block illegal aliens from voting and our elections.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Just so everyone's up to speed.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
What this bill does is require everyone to register with
a documentation proving citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate.
And maybe you're thinking, well, you know, if there's a
big problem of non citizens voting illegally, why not try
to stop it? Well, because there isn't a big problem.
There isn't even a small problem. There isn't a problem
(01:51):
at all. Do you need to hear it in Spanish?
Nor i problem? Mote data shows that non citizen immigrants
almost never vote, and why would they? Who would risk
going to prison or getting deported just for an eye
voted sticker?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Do you want to talk a little bit just about
the peace and you know what means you want to
talk about this time?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, I mean it's crazy. It's like, why can't they
Republicans try to win, like just fairly. Why can't you
just try to win? Why do you have to like
rig the game and then talk about rigging the game
when you're the one rigging the game, but you're just projecting. Yeah,
it's so crazy. I mean this new act, which is
trying to make sure that naturalized citizens, young people and
(02:41):
people of color just feel more afraid to go because
who has their birth certificate? Who even has a Social
Security Card?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I mean who?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I mean passports? I mean these things are so crazy
because it's gonna fuck up Republicans voting too, because I
bet you more Tinos have their passports the old white Republicans.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
That is something we talked about, like the fact that
this act would require people to provide documentation to show citizenship,
and yes, that does disproportionately hurt, you know, people of
color and young people. But that's like where a lot
of the jokes came from, is who the fuck knows
where these documents are?
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Certificate that's given to you at your birth, to your
mom and dad, and then who passes it on.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You have to know where it is forever.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Like fifty years after the fact, yea, and who has
any of that documentation?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I just had my first I had twins last year and.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Oh Congrash, thank you, thank you, and Bishop forms always
you know me.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
But that was one thing they give you, like the
Social Security card certificate, and I remember thinking, like I
need to know where these are forever. The rest of
their lives. That's so much pressure. And yeah, it would,
it would hinder a lot of people from voting.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Absolutely, it's what it's meant to do that, but it's
going to disproportionately hit people of color. But it will
also hurt Republicans, which I'm glad because every time they
try to scare us about mailing ballads and stuff, and
then they hurt themselves in Florida because most older people
in Florida mail their ballots.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Like they're telling you don't don't vote because it's not worthwhile,
and all of a sudden they're making themselves not vote.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
But it just sounds like you were saying that they
would rather put all this effort into suppressing vote rather
than just earning the votes.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Right of it convinces that we should vote for you,
give us reasons to vote for you instead of fear mongering,
hate mongering, being divisive, you know, name calling. It endangering
people because when they start saying that immigrants, which they
mean Latinos, let's call it what it is. It's not
even an euphemism because is supposed to make things sound great.
But we're talking about Latinos, who are you know, supposedly
(04:51):
flooding through the southern border, uh and committing crimes which
are not I mean, they've proven that non citizens commit
way less crimes, so that's a bogus Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And to bring up that point, like last time you
were here, we were talking about how Trump and Biden
were appealing or trying to appeal to Latino voters. And
now who would have thought the next time you came
there'd be a whole new Democratic candidate. And so I'm
curious as to what your thoughts on art for Kamala
being the new Democratic candidate in terms of her appeal
(05:25):
to the Latino voters. Do you notice on the ground
or like anecdotally the Latino community seems to be more
behind her versus Biden, because it looks like polls are
showing that there has been a bit of a bit.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. But you know, it's interesting
because we talked about this last time also about how
Biden would have to be might have to be tough
on the border just to get the vote, just to
because it's they made it such a huge issue that
it has become an issue when it really should be
a non issue, but so that Biden and so Kamala
(05:58):
is coming in tough with immigration as well, you know, yeah,
so she's coming in for immigrants.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I mean, I think she killed it in the debate
and she got the Latinos. I think she's talking to
Latino consultants, which she should do in Latino experts, because
she said the things that we care about, and that's
jobs and homes and housing. So for her to say that,
you know, she's going to help first startup businesses, I
mean that's huge for us. Latinos are all about startup businesses.
(06:25):
So that's incredible because she knew she was targeting that's.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
All we really care about.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
You know, we were not monolithic, and you know we are.
Some of us are incredibly religious, so you're not going
to get them because abortion and LGTBQ plus is not
for them, you know, so forget.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Those the economy.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So the economy gets most of us the appeals.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That's interesting. The peels She was making two voters, all
voters about the middle class, the working class, how she's
going to help them. That is really what you think
is like the Latinos responding.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
To Yeah, I mean That's that's all we care about.
I mean, when I talk to everybody, that's what they
care about the most is jobs, uh, job security, uh,
start of businesses, small businesses, and housing.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So you think Kamala did great in the debate. Now Trump,
we know that he was really harping on immigration. Yeah.
One thing we say in the piece is how he
was talking about immigration even when he wasn't being asked
about immigration. Why do you think he was. I mean
that it came out his obsession with immigration, that it
was kind of something he came back to over and
over again.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Well, first of all, let's let's let's track it back.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
One of Trump's biggest peeves is he hates Puerto Ricans
because you know, he had that low income housing uh
so uh, you know he he hates like Latinos, So
that's one of his problems.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And and secondly because he thinks racism, Yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
No specific he's got he's gotta he's got a fetish.
And then and then secondly because he's made it an
issue and he thinks it's his driving issue, and it's
you know, the maga hate others and feel like others
are coming to take their jobs and they're not. I mean,
no immigrant is coming to take anybody's job that they have.
You know, the only people who are worried about immigrants
(08:13):
taking the job or are the immigrants, because nobody wants
to do Nobody wants to pick grapes, pick strawberries.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
That's the wildest thing. Even the whole crazy story about
immigrants eating cats and dogs in Ohio. The immigrants community
they're talking about even they were like specifically recruited to
be there to do the jobs that were vacant.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Right right, So it's like, but they do that. They
do that all the time.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
They sucker us to come to North Carolina, South Carolina, Raleigh,
and then they once we do the job, they kick
us out. Katrina, we were Latino, especially hont Durans, came
in droves to rebuild Katrina in Louisiana, New Orleans, to
rebuild it. They came here by the droves. Then after
(08:58):
they did all the work, they wouldn't pay them. They
called ice on them and that was the thanks they
got for it. And they you know, it's just a
it's a playbook that's been used on us forever. I
mean during the Brasero program in the early nineteen hundreds.
You know, the same thing. They came up with the
Repatriation Act and you know, deported tons of people after
(09:19):
they came here to work on the lands, clean homes service,
all the horrible service stuff all over the Southwest.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
That's something we talked about when we were writing the piece,
this voter suppression going on. We were saying how it
was reministion of like targeting back to the Jim Crow era,
and you said, it's not really interesting about how that
among the Latino community. You guys referred to it as Wan.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
It was called Juan Crow. In the South and the
Southwest and the West, we were you know, we were segregated.
The first case against segregation was US in fourteen in Colorado,
and then the second most important one was Sylvia Menez
that paved the way for Brown versus Bard to bed,
(10:03):
you know, with one Crow laws.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You know, Black people were.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Worse treated than us, but we're the second worst treated
people after I guess Indigenous people were fun competition, who
is has the most horrible life? Oh yeah, I mean, okay,
we're second to third, because I guess Indigenous had the worst,
and then black.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
People in US, but like eighth or ninth.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Well, you're in all.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Those groups, so it's yeah, you can't help but be
a big number there. But you know, six thousand of
us were lynched, burned, alive, and shot in America from
eighteen thirty to nineteen thirty. Black people of course much worse.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So it was all that we were all over that place,
you know.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And Yeah, I love talking to you because you are
just this like walking history book that most Americans are
never taught or even exposed to. And I'd love to
talk about the PBS series coming up.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
What a great segue.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, do you want to talk about the PBS series
coming up?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yes, I'm so excited by this. This is my passion project.
I think is the most important thing I've done in
my life. I think it's a cultural corrective for US
Latinos in America because John Hopkins University did a study
and found that eighty seven percent of our Latino contributions
to the making of the US are not in history textbooks.
So I'm putting those eighty seven percent in my show
(11:30):
starting September twenty seventh on PBS. It's a three part series.
First episode is Our Empires, because we were here before
the conquest and some of the biggest empires in the world,
and then from the second episodes from the Conquest fourteen
ninety two to the nineteen hundreds, and the last episode
is nineteen hundreds to sixties and civil rights.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I would I think I told you this briefly last year.
I used to be a high school teacher before I
was the writer of The Daily Show, and it was amazing,
like everything was like whitewashed, like our history and our literature,
like there would be like two Latino authors that we
would like have to choose from in the textbook, and
I would have loved to have access to something like
(12:17):
this to I mean, teachers should be showing this in
the classroom.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Because it's American history. You know, Latino history is American history.
Black history is American history. It's important to know. We
want to know about what everybody contributed to. It doesn't
change your DNA, it doesn't it doesn't make you other.
It helps you understand how this country was built, how
it was made. Because if you don't have the real
(12:41):
facts and you're reading a fiction, you're reading a fairy
tale that that's not truth, and then you're not you're
not going to be better for it if you don't
know the truth.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, just I mean the amount of just basic empathy.
I think it would give everybody absol respect.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I mean the thing that I want more than empathy's respect.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
And I think it would give Latinos the respect that
we do because we helped build this country alongside white
people and black people. You know, after our Asian brothers
and sisters were kicked out in the eighteen hundreds, we
finished all the railroads all the way to the west,
and we did all the infrastructure in the West and Southwest.
You know, cowboy culture, that's ours. We invented that. All
(13:19):
the language and words are Spanish words ranch from Rancho corral, bronco, chaps, lasso,
bucru comes from an English bastardization of baketo, which means cowboy.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
So it's like, you know, we just when you get
colonized and conquested, you don't get credit.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You don't get credit for nothing.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
John Wayne gets the credit.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
John Wayne, he's not.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
They're going to take away some of his credit now
he's either he might take away his name off the
airport in California.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And I'm so glad because it was a mad race.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah yeah, and he's the ones that's like propped up
in like the cowboy culture is like, oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
It took our culture. Like okay, book or root. I'm
going to tell you that I hate old people and
they should you know, only you know, he.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Was really terrible.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I realize how terrible he was most like old white
men from history. You realize later. Oh no, they were terrible,
terrible people.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, you try to give them some slack and go,
oh they didn't know better, but they knew better.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Come on, come on, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
I don't blame anybody today. I mean I don't have
a whole grudges to nobody today. It's just back then
I hold grudges.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, today you should be you have access to the information.
You should be like educating yourself to.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
You meet somebody. I meet so many allies, white, Black, Asian,
l g TBq plus that it and it warms my heart.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
It makes you feel so great that you feel you
feel like you said, empathy, you feel seen, you feel respected,
and and and and we understand that we're all in
this together, like Kamalas said, we're better together. And it's
we just a more beautiful country, a more prosperous country,
because you know, I mean countries that block their immigration fail.
(14:59):
Japan like this immigration for thirty years, They've had a
stagnant economy and now they realize it. Now they're welcoming.
Come all you immigrants come there.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah, it's a long plane ride.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It is. But I'll go, you know, go anywhere anywhere
people want me.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I want to do one quick fun thing.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Sure, this wasn't fun, you know, that's well.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Something that's you know, not going to be totally depressing,
but hopefully I like depressing shit. I really loved.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Nothing makes me have more fun than depressing shit.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Well.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
One fun thing about our writing process, so we, you know,
write this piece together, Yes, we do. One thing that
I love about this job being a comedian is the
really serious conversations you have about like wording and what
works for jokes. And today one of the big things
we had to discuss was using dick versus penis versus
(15:49):
cock for a joke. And I think we ended up
going with dick.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yeah, because we were going to be censored, right cock, well,
because we were using the Spanish version, and uh so
we we we outed ourselves and so they spotted it,
so we had to changed the dick and then we
got past them. No, there is something funny about these
Republican Cavarona is trying to write anti voting signs in Spanish,
(16:16):
because I doubt they have any.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Spanish speaking friends.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
They're just going to that clean ladies like, hey, Consuello,
como s a d sai you cannot vote, and you
know Gonzello will come.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Back like, uh oh, I got you, Poppy. It's thing
better better gotta.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
We liked better because it was funnier than Penny Penny's penis.
Sometimes penis is just not funny.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
John, It's always a pleasure to have you here. Thank
you so much for taking some time to talk with us.
American Historia, The Untold History of Latino's premieres on PBS
on September twenty seventh. Thanks for listening. We'll see you
next time.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Much love.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch
The Daily Show weeknights at eleven ten Central on Comedy Central,
and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount plus
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Paramount Podcasts
You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hello and welcome to the Daily Show Ears edition. This
is Kat Radley. I am a writer for the Daily Show,
and we are back with the amazing John Leguizamo.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Thank you, Kat, Thank you for having me. I loved
being here last time. It's been a while, missed you.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I know. I was like, Oh, John's back, Sure, I'll
do the podcast again.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yeah, lucky me.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You're about to do your piece for the show. In
my opinion, so we're going to talk quickly about the
process behind that.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Is that what they're calling now?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, in my opinion, And what was.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It called before segment?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Really? Yeah, it was just like a random segment. Yeah,
but now you're back, and surprise, surprise, Trump's up to
some great fear mongering again. So this piece we wanted
to focus on the SAVE Act and all that Trump
and the republic plans are doing in fear mongering around
immigration and illegal voting that isn't actually happening.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or SAVE Act, would require
registered voters to provide proof of citizenship and force states
to remove non citizens from their lists of eligible voters.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
We want US citizens to vote, but we don't want
illegal votes.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Block illegal aliens from voting and our elections.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Just so everyone's up to speed.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
What this bill does is require everyone to register with
a documentation proving citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate.
And maybe you're thinking, well, you know, if there's a
big problem of non citizens voting illegally, why not try
to stop it? Well, because there isn't a big problem.
There isn't even a small problem. There isn't a problem
(01:51):
at all. Do you need to hear it in Spanish?
Nor i problem? Mote data shows that non citizen immigrants
almost never vote, and why would they? Who would risk
going to prison or getting deported just for an eye
voted sticker?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Do you want to talk a little bit just about
the peace and you know what means you want to
talk about this time?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, I mean it's crazy. It's like, why can't they
Republicans try to win, like just fairly. Why can't you
just try to win? Why do you have to like
rig the game and then talk about rigging the game
when you're the one rigging the game, but you're just projecting. Yeah,
it's so crazy. I mean this new act, which is
trying to make sure that naturalized citizens, young people and
(02:41):
people of color just feel more afraid to go because
who has their birth certificate? Who even has a Social
Security Card?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I mean who?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I mean passports? I mean these things are so crazy
because it's gonna fuck up Republicans voting too, because I
bet you more Tinos have their passports the old white Republicans.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
That is something we talked about, like the fact that
this act would require people to provide documentation to show citizenship,
and yes, that does disproportionately hurt, you know, people of
color and young people. But that's like where a lot
of the jokes came from, is who the fuck knows
where these documents are?
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Certificate that's given to you at your birth, to your
mom and dad, and then who passes it on.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You have to know where it is forever.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Like fifty years after the fact, yea, and who has
any of that documentation?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I just had my first I had twins last year and.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Oh Congrash, thank you, thank you, and Bishop forms always
you know me.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
But that was one thing they give you, like the
Social Security card certificate, and I remember thinking, like I
need to know where these are forever. The rest of
their lives. That's so much pressure. And yeah, it would,
it would hinder a lot of people from voting.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Absolutely, it's what it's meant to do that, but it's
going to disproportionately hit people of color. But it will
also hurt Republicans, which I'm glad because every time they
try to scare us about mailing ballads and stuff, and
then they hurt themselves in Florida because most older people
in Florida mail their ballots.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah you know, yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Like they're telling you don't don't vote because it's not worthwhile,
and all of a sudden they're making themselves not vote.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
But it just sounds like you were saying that they
would rather put all this effort into suppressing vote rather
than just earning the votes.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Right of it convinces that we should vote for you,
give us reasons to vote for you instead of fear mongering,
hate mongering, being divisive, you know, name calling. It endangering
people because when they start saying that immigrants, which they
mean Latinos, let's call it what it is. It's not
even an euphemism because is supposed to make things sound great.
But we're talking about Latinos, who are you know, supposedly
(04:51):
flooding through the southern border, uh and committing crimes which
are not I mean, they've proven that non citizens commit
way less crimes, so that's a bogus Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And to bring up that point, like last time you
were here, we were talking about how Trump and Biden
were appealing or trying to appeal to Latino voters. And
now who would have thought the next time you came
there'd be a whole new Democratic candidate. And so I'm
curious as to what your thoughts on art for Kamala
being the new Democratic candidate in terms of her appeal
(05:25):
to the Latino voters. Do you notice on the ground
or like anecdotally the Latino community seems to be more
behind her versus Biden, because it looks like polls are
showing that there has been a bit of a bit.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. But you know, it's interesting
because we talked about this last time also about how
Biden would have to be might have to be tough
on the border just to get the vote, just to
because it's they made it such a huge issue that
it has become an issue when it really should be
a non issue, but so that Biden and so Kamala
(05:58):
is coming in tough with immigration as well, you know, yeah,
so she's coming in for immigrants.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I mean, I think she killed it in the debate
and she got the Latinos. I think she's talking to
Latino consultants, which she should do in Latino experts, because
she said the things that we care about, and that's
jobs and homes and housing. So for her to say that,
you know, she's going to help first startup businesses, I
mean that's huge for us. Latinos are all about startup businesses.
(06:25):
So that's incredible because she knew she was targeting that's.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
All we really care about.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
You know, we were not monolithic, and you know we are.
Some of us are incredibly religious, so you're not going
to get them because abortion and LGTBQ plus is not
for them, you know, so forget.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Those the economy.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
So the economy gets most of us the appeals.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That's interesting. The peels She was making two voters, all
voters about the middle class, the working class, how she's
going to help them. That is really what you think
is like the Latinos responding.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
To Yeah, I mean That's that's all we care about.
I mean, when I talk to everybody, that's what they
care about the most is jobs, uh, job security, uh,
start of businesses, small businesses, and housing.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So you think Kamala did great in the debate. Now Trump,
we know that he was really harping on immigration. Yeah.
One thing we say in the piece is how he
was talking about immigration even when he wasn't being asked
about immigration. Why do you think he was. I mean
that it came out his obsession with immigration, that it
was kind of something he came back to over and
over again.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Well, first of all, let's let's let's track it back.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
One of Trump's biggest peeves is he hates Puerto Ricans
because you know, he had that low income housing uh
so uh, you know he he hates like Latinos, So
that's one of his problems.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And and secondly because he thinks racism, Yeah, but.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
No specific he's got he's gotta he's got a fetish.
And then and then secondly because he's made it an
issue and he thinks it's his driving issue, and it's
you know, the maga hate others and feel like others
are coming to take their jobs and they're not. I mean,
no immigrant is coming to take anybody's job that they have.
You know, the only people who are worried about immigrants
(08:13):
taking the job or are the immigrants, because nobody wants
to do Nobody wants to pick grapes, pick strawberries.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
That's the wildest thing. Even the whole crazy story about
immigrants eating cats and dogs in Ohio. The immigrants community
they're talking about even they were like specifically recruited to
be there to do the jobs that were vacant.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Right right, So it's like, but they do that. They
do that all the time.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
They sucker us to come to North Carolina, South Carolina, Raleigh,
and then they once we do the job, they kick
us out. Katrina, we were Latino, especially hont Durans, came
in droves to rebuild Katrina in Louisiana, New Orleans, to
rebuild it. They came here by the droves. Then after
(08:58):
they did all the work, they wouldn't pay them. They
called ice on them and that was the thanks they
got for it. And they you know, it's just a
it's a playbook that's been used on us forever. I
mean during the Brasero program in the early nineteen hundreds.
You know, the same thing. They came up with the
Repatriation Act and you know, deported tons of people after
(09:19):
they came here to work on the lands, clean homes service,
all the horrible service stuff all over the Southwest.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
That's something we talked about when we were writing the piece,
this voter suppression going on. We were saying how it
was reministion of like targeting back to the Jim Crow era,
and you said, it's not really interesting about how that
among the Latino community. You guys referred to it as Wan.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
It was called Juan Crow. In the South and the
Southwest and the West, we were you know, we were segregated.
The first case against segregation was US in fourteen in Colorado,
and then the second most important one was Sylvia Menez
that paved the way for Brown versus Bard to bed,
(10:03):
you know, with one Crow laws.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
You know, Black people were.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Worse treated than us, but we're the second worst treated
people after I guess Indigenous people were fun competition, who
is has the most horrible life? Oh yeah, I mean, okay,
we're second to third, because I guess Indigenous had the worst,
and then black.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
People in US, but like eighth or ninth.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Well, you're in all.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Those groups, so it's yeah, you can't help but be
a big number there. But you know, six thousand of
us were lynched, burned, alive, and shot in America from
eighteen thirty to nineteen thirty. Black people of course much worse.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So it was all that we were all over that place,
you know.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
And Yeah, I love talking to you because you are
just this like walking history book that most Americans are
never taught or even exposed to. And I'd love to
talk about the PBS series coming up.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
What a great segue.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, do you want to talk about the PBS series
coming up?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yes, I'm so excited by this. This is my passion project.
I think is the most important thing I've done in
my life. I think it's a cultural corrective for US
Latinos in America because John Hopkins University did a study
and found that eighty seven percent of our Latino contributions
to the making of the US are not in history textbooks.
So I'm putting those eighty seven percent in my show
(11:30):
starting September twenty seventh on PBS. It's a three part series.
First episode is Our Empires, because we were here before
the conquest and some of the biggest empires in the world,
and then from the second episodes from the Conquest fourteen
ninety two to the nineteen hundreds, and the last episode
is nineteen hundreds to sixties and civil rights.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I would I think I told you this briefly last year.
I used to be a high school teacher before I
was the writer of The Daily Show, and it was amazing,
like everything was like whitewashed, like our history and our literature,
like there would be like two Latino authors that we
would like have to choose from in the textbook, and
I would have loved to have access to something like
(12:17):
this to I mean, teachers should be showing this in
the classroom.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Because it's American history. You know, Latino history is American history.
Black history is American history. It's important to know. We
want to know about what everybody contributed to. It doesn't
change your DNA, it doesn't it doesn't make you other.
It helps you understand how this country was built, how
it was made. Because if you don't have the real
(12:41):
facts and you're reading a fiction, you're reading a fairy
tale that that's not truth, and then you're not you're
not going to be better for it if you don't
know the truth.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, just I mean the amount of just basic empathy.
I think it would give everybody absol respect.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I mean the thing that I want more than empathy's respect.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
And I think it would give Latinos the respect that
we do because we helped build this country alongside white
people and black people. You know, after our Asian brothers
and sisters were kicked out in the eighteen hundreds, we
finished all the railroads all the way to the west,
and we did all the infrastructure in the West and Southwest.
You know, cowboy culture, that's ours. We invented that. All
(13:19):
the language and words are Spanish words ranch from Rancho corral, bronco, chaps, lasso,
bucru comes from an English bastardization of baketo, which means cowboy.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
So it's like, you know, we just when you get
colonized and conquested, you don't get credit.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You don't get credit for nothing.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
John Wayne gets the credit.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
John Wayne, he's not.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
They're going to take away some of his credit now
he's either he might take away his name off the
airport in California.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And I'm so glad because it was a mad race.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah yeah, and he's the ones that's like propped up
in like the cowboy culture is like, oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
It took our culture. Like okay, book or root. I'm
going to tell you that I hate old people and
they should you know, only you know, he.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Was really terrible.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I realize how terrible he was most like old white
men from history. You realize later. Oh no, they were terrible,
terrible people.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, you try to give them some slack and go,
oh they didn't know better, but they knew better.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Come on, come on, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
I don't blame anybody today. I mean I don't have
a whole grudges to nobody today. It's just back then
I hold grudges.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, today you should be you have access to the information.
You should be like educating yourself to.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
You meet somebody. I meet so many allies, white, Black, Asian,
l g TBq plus that it and it warms my heart.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Man.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
It makes you feel so great that you feel you
feel like you said, empathy, you feel seen, you feel respected,
and and and and we understand that we're all in
this together, like Kamalas said, we're better together. And it's
we just a more beautiful country, a more prosperous country,
because you know, I mean countries that block their immigration fail.
(14:59):
Japan like this immigration for thirty years, They've had a
stagnant economy and now they realize it. Now they're welcoming.
Come all you immigrants come there.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yeah, it's a long plane ride.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
It is. But I'll go, you know, go anywhere anywhere
people want me.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I want to do one quick fun thing.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Sure, this wasn't fun, you know, that's well.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Something that's you know, not going to be totally depressing,
but hopefully I like depressing shit. I really loved.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Nothing makes me have more fun than depressing shit.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Well.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
One fun thing about our writing process, so we, you know,
write this piece together, Yes, we do. One thing that
I love about this job being a comedian is the
really serious conversations you have about like wording and what
works for jokes. And today one of the big things
we had to discuss was using dick versus penis versus
(15:49):
cock for a joke. And I think we ended up
going with dick.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yeah, because we were going to be censored, right cock, well,
because we were using the Spanish version, and uh so
we we we outed ourselves and so they spotted it,
so we had to changed the dick and then we
got past them. No, there is something funny about these
Republican Cavarona is trying to write anti voting signs in Spanish,
(16:16):
because I doubt they have any.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Spanish speaking friends.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
They're just going to that clean ladies like, hey, Consuello,
como s a d sai you cannot vote, and you
know Gonzello will come.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Back like, uh oh, I got you, Poppy. It's thing
better better gotta.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
We liked better because it was funnier than Penny Penny's penis.
Sometimes penis is just not funny.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
John, It's always a pleasure to have you here. Thank
you so much for taking some time to talk with us.
American Historia, The Untold History of Latino's premieres on PBS
on September twenty seventh. Thanks for listening. We'll see you
next time.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Much love.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch
The Daily Show weeknights at eleven ten Central on Comedy Central,
and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount plus
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Paramount Podcasts
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