January 22, 2024 • 46 mins
John Gonzalez is a Staff Instructor and Judge with The Universal Cheerleaders Association and The Spirit Consultants, a Judge/Master Teacher for Dancer’s Inc. Dance Conventions & Competitions. A Judge/Master Teacher for Step Up 2 Dance Dance Conventions & Competitions. A certified Dance Instructor through Dance Educators of America, Cheerleading Coach through USA Cheer, and member of The National Dance Educators Organization, all while teaching dance full time at Ascend Charter School. John continues to perform as a Timeless Torch with the WNBA New York Liberty at the Barclays Center.
Cheer New York: https://www.instagram.com/cheernewyork
Pride Cheerleading Association: https://www.instagram.com/pridecheerleadingassociation
Port Chest Cheer: https://www.instagram.com/port_chester_cheer
Hofstra Cheer: https://www.instagram.com/hofstracheer
Summary:
Stepping into the spotlight, my fraternity brother John Gonzalez offers a raw and compelling glimpse into the life of a Latino artist navigating the complexities of identity and industry expectations. As we peel back the layers of his experiences, we unearth vital conversations about overcoming typecasting, financial hurdles in accessing dance education, and the broader socioeconomic challenges that often shadow minority success in the arts. John's journey is a vibrant tapestry of grit and grace, a narrative that celebrates the strength found in mentorship and the relentless pursuit of dreams.
Imagine a sanctuary where cheerleading becomes more than soaring stunts and synchronized chants; it's a place for self-expression, community, and, for many like John, a journey of authenticity. Our episode spins through his cheerleading chronicles—from high school squads to coaching champions—while embracing the personal narratives that intersect with this evolving sport. It's an intimate look at the LGBTQ+ experience, underscored by personal anecdotes that traverse the non-linear paths of queer fraternity members and artists juggling both academia and their passion for performance.
Echoing through the final chords of this episode is a celebration of resilience, exemplified by the incredible comeback story of Movimiento, a dancer who danced with darkness but found his way back to the stage. The theme of transformation continues as we unpack the realities of transitioning from performer to mentor, the joy of coaching, and the vital role of education in sustaining a career in the demanding world of dance. Our discussion extends a grateful nod to the insightful questions that tie together the threads of passion, identity, and excellence in the performing arts.
See more at www.successinspanglish.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Raul Lopez (00:00):
Hey guys, before we start I wanted to give a little
bit of a warning.
In this episode we do have adiscussion regarding depression
in an attempt at suicide.
If you are struggling withthoughts of suicide, please dial
988 or visit 988 lifelineorg.
There are lots of resources outthere that are available 24-7
(00:25):
to help.
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempts to turn you withlittle to no guidance.
(00:56):
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether we can learn how to say
success in Spanish.
We have a great episode with agood friend of mine, one of my
fraternity brothers JohnGonzalez.
Hello, hello.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I appreciate you taking thetime.
I know you're probably verybusy, but just to kind of give
(01:18):
an intro, john Gonzalez is astaff instructor and judge with
the Universal CheerleadersAssociation and the Spirit
Consultants.
A judge master teacher forDancers Inc Dance Conventions
and Competitions.
A judge master teacher for StepUp to Dance Dance Conventions
and Competitions.
Certified dance instructorthrough Dance Educators of
America.
A certified cheerleading coachto USA Cheer and a member of the
(01:41):
National Dance EducatorsOrganization, all while teaching
dance full-time at AscentCharter School and still
performing as a timeless torchwith a WNBA New York Liberty at
the Barclay Center, and wow,that's a lot of stuff to do, man
.
So I guess, to start off, tellme a little bit about you.
Who is John Gonzalez?
John Gonzalez (02:02):
John Gonzalez is a lot so, since I've done so
much in my life and throughvarious avenues of entertainment
.
But it did all start growing upas a Latino in the Upper East
Side, which already is differentbecause the area was
(02:24):
predominantly white.
So I was the only Latino in thebuilding that I lived at, and
it was a building with a doorman, and I was very fortunate for
my parents to be well off.
So that's the first thing, likemy parents were luckily well
off and I was in private schoolall my life.
(02:46):
I went to a private universityand navigating through that as a
Latino when the predominantlywhite spaces was, it was a
journey.
It was a journey.
But I did grow up on the UpperEast Side.
I went to college in LongIsland and I danced and cheer
(03:12):
almost my entire life.
I mean, dance started late inmy life, as opposed to those
that choose career paths earlyon and they start training from
when they were like five yearsold, straight out the womb.
But for me it started later.
So I had a lot of catching upto do and luckily I had a lot of
(03:33):
mentors and people thatbelieved in me and guided me
down the right path to makeeverything that you just said
happen.
Raul Lopez (03:43):
Nice, nice yeah, and I mean it's an interesting
point you bring out and I thinkI know you did mention that in
your in our pre interview thatwe had with you, where you did
feel kind of like you weren'tquite Latino Puerto Rican enough
for your Puerto Rican communityand you didn't really feel
mainstream enough for mainstream.
And I think identity is alwaysan issue with us, regardless of
(04:05):
how we live and where we're at.
You know, some of us don'trecognize that until we get
later into, like college orwhatever.
And some of us and someone likeyou in your situation actually
had to deal with it at anearlier, at an earlier age.
How does how did that affectyou and what are some of the
challenges you had to deal withthat?
John Gonzalez (04:25):
So and it's funny because I also dealt with it
when I was a dancer at DisneyWorld, being typecasted for
different roles, like what?
When I did the Lion King atDisney World, you would notice
that predominantly the cast waspredominantly people of color,
because it's the Lion King,right.
(04:46):
So.
But then when it came to othershows at Disney, the, the
technique part of it came in.
So because I had a greattechnique in dance, I was casted
more at Magic Kingdom whereit's more of technical dancers
as opposed to it's calledHollywood Studios.
(05:09):
Now Dancers had more like a hiphop, jazz dance kind of vibe,
but then I was only.
I was always the one Latino inthe cast, or there was always
one black guy and one black girlor and one Latino and then
everybody else was white.
Because technique, technicaldance is not really taught or
(05:35):
people of color don't have themoney to afford taking those
classes, so predominantly whitespaces or white people are the
ones they succeed in thatbecause they have the money to
pay X amount of dollars to takeclasses.
So it was.
It was, I don't want to saydifficult, but it was different.
(05:56):
It was different because I wasthe Latino and everybody else
was white and I knew that Ibelonged in the space, but then
I didn't belong as well, so itwas difficult.
It was difficult, but I stilldid it and I pushed through
because I knew that my talentwill make it.
Raul Lopez (06:18):
Yeah, no, and it's.
It's an interesting point youput out when you talk about the
training that people can'tafford.
So it kind of keeps a lot of usout of it, out of that area,
out of that spectrum.
My daughter, she's soccer wewere talking about that a little
bit earlier and she's doing atravel team expensive, you know,
it's like three thousand forthe year for her to play soccer
(06:41):
and when I go to her practicespredominantly white you know,
there's not that many.
Latino kids.
There's not that many kids fromthe hood.
Everybody's coming in.
You know people coming in andtheir beamers and their nice
fancy cars and all this stuffand I'm like man, how many of
these you know our people arethe soccer players and how many
of our kids are in the hood notbeing able to get this
opportunity?
Then they provide college,college assistants, getting you
(07:04):
interviews with recruiters andstuff like that.
And and so no, it's.
It's such a crazy thing tothink that you know, oh, if you
had a little more money and youwere a little bit there, you
might be able to become thatdream that you wanted to.
So it's nice to see you know.
I'm glad you were able to getin there.
But were you taking classeslike that at an early age?
You said 14 is when you started, or.
John Gonzalez (07:25):
Yeah, so my dance career is a funny story.
I just did salsa merengue byChata, dancing at home with my
cousins.
Whenever there's a party, theywill ask, you know, john, me to
put on a show.
So my cousin and I will put ona show.
And so I didn't really take anytechnique classes until I got
(07:48):
into high school.
My freshman year of high schoolI auditioned for the Spanish
dance team as a freshman and Ididn't make it.
Right, I didn't make it and Itold myself, oh, no, no, no, who
know?
That is false.
I'm, I'm making this team.
So I saw the list, didn't seemy name.
(08:09):
I went up to the moderator, tothe classroom, and I said hi,
I'm John Gonzalez, I'm afreshman.
I tried out for the danceSpanish dance team.
I noticed that my name wasn'ton the list.
I'm going to assume you forgotand I'll be there.
The first day of rehearsal.
The teacher was just like, okay, I guess.
(08:31):
So, like I advocated for myself, I was like I know what I can
bring to the table and I'm goingto show it to you, right?
But I soon later found out thatthe only reason why I didn't
make it is because she doesn'ttake freshman.
I'm a freshman arm and she waslike once you become sophomore,
(08:51):
I would have taken you, but youwere so you know, strong in your
thoughts and so, likeadvocating for yourself, there
was nothing else I could do butaccept you.
So from there, this white ladywho owns a dance studio saw me
performing at my show at my highschool and from there she spoke
to me and she was like I see aspark in you, I see a passion in
(09:16):
you and I see something in you.
So I'm actually going to giveyou a scholarship to attend my
dance studio and get thetechnique that you need in order
to make it if you want tobecome a professional dancer.
So I feel like I owe my wholecareer and my trajectory to this
one white woman who believed inme and paid for everything
(09:42):
Everything costumes, training,anything.
I didn't spend a dime.
Raul Lopez (09:45):
Nice, yeah, and it's , you know, I think, one of the
previous interviews that I had,david said, you know, sometimes
it's not so much about findingthe opportunity.
Is that being able to see thatan opportunity has been given to
you by someone and takingadvantage of it.
And I mean it's wonderful youdid that.
I'm glad I was able to help youout.
(10:07):
Did you come from a family ofdancers at all, or was it just
you that?
John Gonzalez (10:10):
can have that spark.
No, my mother, my mom and mydad cannot dance.
They cannot dance.
I have a nephew who's 25 nowand he dances Latin dance.
So when he was younger until mysister he wanted to dance.
Like I felt a joy in my heart,like, oh my God, he wants to
(10:32):
dance too, like it's uncool.
So it's just him and me.
Raul Lopez (10:36):
Nice, nice.
So you?
For a lot of people, especiallyparents in general, a kid says,
hey, I want to do dance, that'swhere I want to go for the
future.
You know, do you ever runthrough any issues, or were your
parents very supportive of youdeciding you want to do dance?
John Gonzalez (10:55):
Supportive?
Absolutely not.
They were not supportive at all.
I went to college.
I entered college as a businessmajor and a dance minor,
because you know, you got to bea lawyer, you got to be a
businessman, you got to be adoctor.
You have to do something that'sgoing to make you money.
And so that whole thoughtprocess growing up is what we
(11:18):
thought we needed to do.
And so I went in my freshmanyear of college as a business
major and failed.
I failed.
I got on freaking academicprobation because everything
that was on my schedule wasbusiness and it's not the
passion that I had, it's not thelove that I had, like I didn't
care.
I didn't care about business.
(11:39):
I wanted to before, I wanted toentertain.
And that same semester, when Itold my parents I'm switching
majors, it was like, oh my gosh,what are you going to do with
your life?
That's not a real job.
Are you going to make money?
And here I am making money andactually sending them money.
Nice.
Raul Lopez (11:59):
Nice, I just see.
I just see like in the videos,like what are you going to do?
So I dance, you know like I'mgoing to dance.
And then the music starts.
The musical starts.
You know it's like the musicalof John.
You know that's how it goes,yeah, so, but then you know the.
So we talk about Hofstra.
You got into Hofstra.
I think you mentioned that youwere able to get a dance
(12:20):
scholarship while you were inHofstra.
John Gonzalez (12:21):
Yeah, so that.
So usually the dancescholarships are done the year
prior.
You attend the audition and youknow as a senior high school
you'll attend the audition andthen you get accepted to a dance
program or any arts programyour freshman year.
From there you can either youcan also get a scholarship.
So I had to do that part.
(12:42):
My second semester year offreshman, of my freshman year.
They actually had a specialaudition slash scholarship
opportunity for me because Iexpressed so much interest in
the program and they sawsomething in me too which was
(13:03):
like wow, I guess something ishere because so many people see
it and I wasn't really seeing itwithin myself, but others were.
So from there I did theaudition and I got into the
program and I got a scholarshipas well as cheerleading.
Raul Lopez (13:22):
Nice, and so did you start cheerleading in college,
or was that something youstarted doing earlier on as well
?
John Gonzalez (13:28):
I started doing it in high school, also
something against my not againstmy parents, but something they
didn't understand because theydidn't.
And then that cheerleading isan American thing.
It's really that now it'sbecoming bigger to the point
(13:48):
where it's not going to be inthe Olympics, in case you didn't
know, yeah in the in theOlympics, and there is actually
a world cheerleadingchampionship is called worlds
happens every year at DisneyWorld, where different countries
do come and compete is like theOlympics that we've created on
our own.
But I did start cheering inhigh school because I will watch
(14:13):
it on TV.
I saw the ESPN nationalscompetitions and, being this
little gay boy, I'm like, oh, Iwant to be sassy, all those
things.
And I found friends that werealso doing it and I was able to
part, be part of an all startcheerleading team, which is
(14:33):
different from schoolcheerleading team.
I'm part of an all start teamin Jersey in which I didn't have
to pay anything either.
I got my training forcheerleading and became a
collegiate cheerleader nationalchampion.
I'm a coach.
Yeah, it's just.
I feel it's just all been in me, I guess.
(14:54):
No, you just somebody to bringit out.
Raul Lopez (14:56):
Yeah, I was just gonna say like all you need to
do is someone to believe in youand give you that outlet to say,
hey, here, give this a try.
And cheerleading too it's.
I mean, my school wasn't bigwith cheerleaders, we barely had
the funding for it and they hadto kind of cheerlead.
It's funny, they had tocheerlead at all the sports.
So they're like at soccercheerleading, at baseball
(15:16):
cheerleading, just because theywere like we're not going to
sign up, pay for a cheerleadingteam that's only going to go to
football games and so.
But we only had like 12 girlsand they were kind of.
You know, it wasn't really wellorganized and we didn't have a
band.
We had a DJ.
So we had one of my senior year, one of our students, our
classmates, who was a senior too.
He was a DJ, so he'd come tothe baseball, football games and
(15:39):
play music and stuff.
So we're coming out like, wow,loud and rough, pride of the
anthem.
So it was fun, it was funny.
Yeah, so.
So you started doingcheerleading in high school, and
then you also mentioned youwere out by that point in high
school as well.
John Gonzalez (15:54):
Yeah.
So I love this question becauseeveryone asks oh, when did you
come out?
Or when did you tell yourparents?
I never had a coming out story.
Raul Lopez (16:04):
Oh yeah, nice.
John Gonzalez (16:05):
So I never had a moment where, like, all right,
we need to have a family meeting, I need to sit you down and to
say to tell you, mom and dad,I'm gay.
That never happened.
That never happened because my,my viewpoint on it is no one,
no one says, no one has astraight coming out.
Yeah.
(16:26):
So why should I have a gaycoming out?
I just live my life the way Iwanted to live, and they figured
it out.
Raul Lopez (16:35):
They figured it out on their own.
John Gonzalez (16:37):
They weren't any questions, so I never had a
coming out.
I was just me, and if peopleask that, I will say yes, nice,
but from high school on.
I mean I was a freshman in highschool and my boyfriend was a
junior in my high school.
Raul Lopez (16:56):
Okay, okay, you swing for the for the rafters.
I went.
John Gonzalez (17:00):
I went in, I was quick, I was like, let's go.
Raul Lopez (17:04):
Nice, nice, yeah.
And so when, when talking aboutcollege again, you're in my
fraternity as well and we're ina lot of fraternity, Phi Iota
Alpha and 20 years ago comparedto now, is very different and
being queer, was there any otherstruggles or within the
(17:27):
fraternity or college schoolthat you had to deal with?
John Gonzalez (17:30):
Oh, 20 years ago when I pledged and crossed, is
way different than thebrotherhood that's coming in now
because it wasn't as acceptingback then.
I can actually tell you and ifthey hear this podcast they're
probably like oh, why are youtalking about us that when I was
(17:51):
an interest for the fraternity,the chapter actually did not
want me and voted not to haveput me online.
I found out later, obviouslybecause they didn't want to be
known as the gay chapter andthey did, or they didn't want to
be known as the gay fraternityon the campus.
So that that hit me.
(18:12):
That hit me a bit.
Finding out later that likethese guys there, like training
me to become a brother or wantme to call them a brother or
want this title of brother, nowsaying that they didn't even
want me in the first place.
So how am I supposed to respectyou and give you that brotherly
love and call your brother whenin the back of my head I'm
(18:36):
thinking and knowing that youdidn't even want me?
So it was like All right, now Ihave to prove myself double
time Because I'm the gay pledgeor the gay person, the gay guy
on the line.
I had to prove myself more thanall my other line brothers who
were straight and back in theday it I had also interest in
(19:00):
other organizations and it wasthe same thing.
They didn't want to be known,they didn't want that stigma
attached to them.
So I don't want to say, andthey were fired off of, but
fired off of, show me more lovethan all the other organizations
that I was showing interest in.
(19:21):
But now these pledges arecoming out of the gate.
I was waiting for you at thedoor.
They're just like living theirlife.
The non-binary interest,non-binary pledges are online
and it's funny because even tothis day I have chapters that
(19:43):
give my information out topledges to reach out to me,
because I was the first openlygay pledge and the first openly
gay brother 20 years ago and nowI guess my name is still around
Niki Moose, as my pledge namesays.
Raul Lopez (20:03):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's a big difference.
You know, there was, I think, ahandful of brothers back in the
day and now it's, you know, alot more accepting brothers.
I think, I think people ingeneral, you know, I just a lot
more accepting on all that stuff, and it's a wonderful thing to
see.
I mean, I think we hit it offsince day one.
Back in the day we used to meetat convention.
I think we'd see each otherlike once a year at conventions
(20:24):
and we just party, and you knowso.
John Gonzalez (20:27):
Macho thing too.
Raul Lopez (20:29):
Yeah, it's the machismo thing.
John Gonzalez (20:31):
Machismo thing, and it's the same thing
translates over to being in aLatino frat.
It's not any different.
Raul Lopez (20:37):
I mean it's between that and the urban environment A
lot of us grew up in.
I mean, I know kids that werein high school that were gay,
but they weren't coming out inthe hood, they were just out of
fear.
You know, some of them didn'teven graduate because of it.
And you know, even when I wasin high school I was kind of was
like, you know, they would saystuff and you're like, oh yeah,
(20:58):
I want to deal with that either.
And then I get to college andit's like, oh, my RA is gay.
Oh, and it's like five gay kidson my floor and my neighbor is
gay and I'm just like I'll justget over it, you know.
But then I have my boys come upto visit and we go in the
elevator and my RA comes in andI'm like, hey, how's it going?
Is this your friend?
Well, you guys have a good time.
And they like walked out andhe's like, hold on, is your RA
(21:20):
gay?
He's like, oh, yeah, he's likeif he touches me I'm going to
beat him.
Like dude, that's not how itworks and I was like shut the
hell up, but like that's not howit works.
Nobody's going to jump out toyou Like just go upstairs and go
have fun, Like stop being weird, you know, but it's that
mentality that they just can'tget out.
And it's good to see that it'sa lot different now and more
accepting, you know.
But I'm glad it worked out foryou and I'm glad that you're
(21:41):
still a resource, because evenyou know, regardless of the time
, it's so difficult for queerpeople.
You know, you know.
And so college, we're workingthrough that.
So you mentioned that yourcollege during actually took you
about 20 years.
John Gonzalez (21:57):
You started taking gigs and jobs in there
and coming in and out, yeah, andI said, yeah, and this is
something that I teach my kidsnow, because we're not going to
be young forever.
Our bodies are not going to bethe way they are when we were
young.
So for me, during my collegeexperience, I would audition,
(22:21):
get a gig.
Then I'll have to leave schoolfor a bit.
The longest was five years awaybecause I was a dancer at
Disney World.
So I would go away, then comeback, do a semester, maybe a
year, get another gig, had toleave because I was on tour or
doing something, and so mycareer path took a long time and
(22:45):
even that aspect of it.
My parents were like when you'regoing to graduate, when you're
going to graduate, you need todegree, you need to do something
.
It's already bad that you'regetting a degree in dance.
What is that going to do?
You don't have a degree, you'renot going to get paid as much.
And my sister actually justfinished her bachelor's and
(23:07):
she's 60, she's 60.
She's 60, yeah, and so for meit just took long because I just
had to do what I needed to do,because I was young and still
able to do it.
So I tell anyone that wants tobe in entertainment, like
(23:31):
college is going to be there.
It's going to be there, butyour ability to execute things
won't be your look, andunfortunately, the entertainment
world is the way it is Like.
The way you look is how you'regoing to get gigs, how you're
going to get jobs, how you'regoing to get booked, and then
(23:52):
your reputation and your workethic is how you're going to
keep getting booked and keepgetting gigs, which I've been
lucky enough to also have in mypocket.
My gig now with the WNBA NewYork Liberty, the timeless
tortures I, the senior directorof entertainment.
She reached out to me becausewe used to dance together for
(24:13):
the Knicks, so she was a KnicksCity dancer and I was on the 7th
Avenue Squad, which is like acheer dance team for them, and
so later on she went on to theBrooklyn Nets and now she is the
senior director entertainmentfor the Brooklyn Nets and the
WNBA New York Liberty.
And just having thatrelationship with her, she
(24:35):
reached out to me hey, you wantto be part of this party and
over team that we have and I'vegotten other gigs as well by,
just, you know, having good,great work ethic.
Raul Lopez (24:48):
So you're bringing a very interesting point and I
think a lot of people don'tthink of it that way.
But this is similar to likesports.
You know what I mean.
You can't be an oldprofessional athlete.
You know this is a dancecheerleading.
You know athletic.
You have to be athletic.
You usually have to be young.
(25:08):
You can't be hurt.
You know dance has that extrapart with the looks.
You know you have to usuallyfit a part to be accepted and
stuff like that.
And what kind of toll does thattake?
You know you have to bephysically fit to do that.
John Gonzalez (25:28):
I had to leave Disney World, which was my dream
job to dance at.
I flew down to Florida just toaudition and was lucky to get it
the same day.
And I say lucky because, as inthe beginning, as all the
dancers are out stretching andgetting ready to go in get their
(25:51):
number, do the routines, I wasmeeting people and they were
saying this is my fifth timeauditioning.
This is my sixth time and theystill never got it, like they
haven't gotten the job.
But yet my first timeauditioning I got it, and the
reason I say that is because itwas my dream job.
(26:13):
But then I had an injury.
I had an injury and I had toget surgery in my back.
It was workers come because ithappened during the show and the
doctor was like you're notgoing to be able to dance again
Like this.
This is it.
So that's the worst thing andany athlete wants to hear from a
(26:36):
doctor is you're never going tobe able to play football,
you're never going to be able toplay basketball, and to me I
didn't know anything else.
I went to college for dance,like there's nothing else that I
knew or wanted to do but be anentertainer, and so I went into
a deep depression because I hadto move.
(26:59):
I moved back to New York andthe reason why I moved to
Florida is to dance.
I mean, this goes back to.
My parents were a lot world off, thank goodness.
But my parents bought me ahouse and I was like, all right,
I'm ready, I'm going to live mylife in Florida.
Here we go, and then it justgets snatched away.
(27:19):
I moved back to New York anddeep depression.
I actually tried to take mylife.
Once God was with me.
I guess it wasn't my time to go, because my neighbor found me
and did the whole hospital thingand I'm here today, but it's
(27:39):
still for years and years.
I still was deep, deep dead tothe repression where I ate my
depression I started doing.
At that time marijuana wasn'tlegal, so it was like taboo,
like oh my gosh, you're smokingmarijuana, I will do it all the
time just to like escape.
But it never led to like harderdrugs.
(28:00):
So thank you for that.
But I thought that I will neverdance again because that's what
I was told.
And here I am dancing again.
I made a work, I figured it out, I said I they had.
There was a moment where Ineeded to just tilted or to turn
(28:24):
, and so myself, you know I needto get out of this space and I
need to make a change, which forsome people does, it's hard,
it's hard for some to do, and ittook me over 10 years to make
that, that, that change in mylife, to realize that you need
to get your ears together.
Raul Lopez (28:43):
Yeah, it's, it's difficult, you, I mean from age
of 14 on.
But you were dancing as youwere a little kid, and it's kind
of always been in your bloodand to be so committed and so
getting to the point of you'vegotten what you wanted and
you've gotten what you needed todo and to be taken away from it
(29:04):
and put it as difficult, and soI commend you for one your
honesty with it.
I appreciate you being open andhonest about all that stuff, and
I'm glad you're still here withus.
There's a lot more of you.
For people who don't know, yourbrother's name is Movimiento.
So Movi, there's a lot morepeople need a.
Movi.
So I'm glad to have you here,bro, but so I'm glad you
(29:28):
overcame everything.
Were you doing cheerleadingcoaching at that same time, or
was that something you starteddoing after the injury?
John Gonzalez (29:38):
Coaching happened .
Yeah, it was happening before,more so choreography setting,
choreography with differentschools and different teams.
But coaching diving really deepinto coaching happened
afterwards.
Yeah, after Disney Once I movedback to New York.
Yeah, and what?
Kind of Because I told myself,no, I told myself, okay, well,
(30:00):
if I really can't dance anymore,then the plan B is coaching
cheerleading, because I don'thave to actually do dances that
will be straining us on the bodyor things that I can no longer
do because I'm not young and butViral is the word, yeah.
Raul Lopez (30:23):
You know, they say that.
What's the saying?
Those that can do it, thosethat can't teach so that's, and
do you think teaching kind ofhelped keep you ahead above
water from?
John Gonzalez (30:33):
thinking even deeper, absolutely, absolutely.
I think seeing the passion fromyounger kids and passing that
passion and that drive to theyounger generation kept me going
and kept me afloat.
Seeing them succeed has mesucceeding.
(30:54):
You know, I have threechampionship rings as a coach
and I wasn't on the mat.
I didn't put the hard work onthe floor they did, but I helped
them get there, you know, andjust having that moment of like
a proud dad, yeah, I did that.
And now, as they grow older,they're going to remember me
(31:17):
like, yeah, I won this becausemy coach was so great.
Or yeah, my coach was hard onus, but was hard on us for a
reason because I'm a hard coachGood, definitely a hard coach
which is hard to be in this dayand age where, if a kid doesn't
get on the team, all of a suddenparents are calling
(31:38):
administration and all theseshenanigans because you know the
privileged life of kidsnowadays.
Raul Lopez (31:46):
Yeah, I assist coach with my daughter, I mean
they're only ten so you can'tyell at them as they'll go do
laughs, but you know it is avery you know.
Oh, you have to be very carefulabout everything you say and
how much you say now Things likewhen I was, when I was a kid
playing soccer and being treatedlike an asshole.
(32:08):
We could also chop a kid and Iwas like they can't talk to kids
like that anymore.
John Gonzalez (32:14):
Yeah, no, fire immediately, yeah, exactly.
Raul Lopez (32:16):
And so when you're part of the cheerleading
industry and things like that,it's I think it's an enigma for
a lot of people.
They don't know what that lifeis like and what's that thing.
You know, cheerleading is huge.
I've been to, I've seenchampionships, like when I went
to visit LSU once and there werejust huge amounts of
cheerleading competitions forthe weekend.
It's a big moneymaker.
(32:37):
It's very dangerous.
It's a very injury.
Yeah, number one injury andthing.
How is it as like a Latino anda queer coach, to like handle
all that when I started shootingcollege.
John Gonzalez (32:54):
Well, there's this already.
There's already this stigmaabout oh, if you're a guy
cheerleader, you're gay.
When I went to cheer in college, I was the only gay one.
All right, all the guys aregoing to be gay.
Yes, it's going to be a party.
I was the only gay one.
All the other guys on the teamwere like ex football players.
(33:16):
They were like these masculine,big muscle dudes and I'm just
like, well, that's, that's awaste, because you don't even
want me.
Raul Lopez (33:26):
It's funny because I played football and I know a
lot that it was very common forfootball players who didn't make
the team would become go intocheerleading, you know, and
sometimes they get scholarshipsfor cheerleading.
John Gonzalez (33:38):
And people think they're like oh, it's
cheerleading, whatever.
No, like we are holding humansin our hand.
We are throwing over like ahundred pound humans in the air
and catching them in our hands,like that's, that's not easy,
you need the strength for that.
It was in addition to being theonly gay one, but then also
(34:03):
cheerleading.
And it goes back to the dance.
How, like, if you don't have themeans to get the training to
become a dancer, same thing withcheerleading, and cheerleading
you have to have gymnasticsability, you have to be able to
dance, you have to be able tostun, you have to be able to,
you know, even have the athleticability.
(34:23):
Like going to the gym havingthat in your disposal.
Not many people of color in thecheerleading industry, because
we don't have those, because wedon't have those means, we don't
have the money to pay forgymnastics classics, to take
tumbling, and that's somethingthat's the first thing.
The first requirement incheerleading is you have to be
(34:46):
able to know how to tumble,because that takes longer to
coach and learn than throwingpeople in the air.
Raul Lopez (34:52):
Yep, yep.
And I mean as a dad who had adaughter who wanted to do
gymnastics for a year.
It can get expensive, you know.
They lower you in with thesecute little one classes where
they do a couple little thingsand then they're like oh, are
you interested in signing up forcompetitions?
Oh, sure, okay, well, that'sgoing to be an additional $100 a
month plus competitions.
John Gonzalez (35:11):
And you got to pay for competitions and now
you're looking at like four or$500, $600 a month or, and if
it's a way, then you have to geta hotel.
Yep, then you have food, soit's a big expense.
Raul Lopez (35:24):
And it's with a lot of sports.
Like I mentioned, soccer, mydaughter's soccer, the same way.
We luckily were pretty localwhere we don't go too far.
You know, her soccer games areabout an hour away every Sunday
or Saturday, so we drive onehour.
I got to go down there, comeback.
And then my cousin, who's a bigsoccer guy same thing, his
daughter, like she, goes toFlorida every year for soccer
tournament, you know.
So they take road trips to Ohioand they drive and they go for
(35:46):
the weekend and if you don'thave, that means you're, you're
left out.
And so how are you able toovercome some of that stuff with
within the community as a coach?
John Gonzalez (35:55):
Yeah, being a Latino coach, it was, and
coaching in predominantly whiteschools and with predominantly
white teams, it was difficult.
It was difficult because I hadparents contacting
administration or talking to mebecause they didn't like the way
(36:19):
I spoke to their kid or theydidn't like my tone or my
sassiness, because, of course,when you're gay, you're
automatically attached to beingsassy and it's just like no, I'm
just being direct and honestand I'm letting you know what
you need to do.
If I was a white coach, itwould have been okay, but
(36:41):
because I'm a Latino, y'allthink that I'm being disgruntled
or you think that I'm doing toomuch.
So it was.
I had to prove myself a lot.
I had to prove myself a lot ofthe times, and when I won the
championships and had oneconversation, that was proof
enough.
Raul Lopez (37:01):
Yeah, yeah, put, put um.
Was it good how?
Do you?
Like them apples.
John Gonzalez (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, Basically how do you like them?
They don't lie here what yougot yeah, no.
Raul Lopez (37:12):
And so, um, you're doing teaching, cheerleading,
coaching, um you're doing dance,uh, instructor and stuff.
And then now you're also, youjudge a lot of these
competitions as well.
John Gonzalez (37:24):
Yep on weekends.
So I have no life.
Um, that's why I'm still single, because I have no life.
I teach at a normal, at aregular school.
It's part of the curriculum.
Where the kids take dance aspart of like usually gets like
the PE credit for the state.
And then right after that Idrive to coach until 8pm and
(37:47):
then on weekends I, if my kidsare not competing, I'm judging.
So I don't judge thecompetitions therein for obvious
reasons, and I don't judge forthe section that I coach in in
New York state, but I do judgein other sections for obvious
reasons.
But yeah, it takes a lot of you, but how does the same go?
(38:11):
When you love what you do, itdoesn't feel like it's not work,
or it doesn't feel like work.
I don't feel like I work at all.
I just feel like I'm doingsomething that I love, and I
wake up every morning and I'mnever like, oh, I got to go to
work.
It's always like okay, work, Igot to go to work.
Raul Lopez (38:29):
Yeah, and it's a nice transition too, cause
obviously when you're youngerlike you mentioned the
athleticism you're there, you'reready, you want to be the one
performing.
You know, and even though youhad your injury, I think at some
point you have to wean off andgo the other route.
You know, and find um,regardless of whether or not you
were injured or not you're notgoing to be able to do it
(38:49):
forever and eventually, you needto figure out and find what's
going to keep your passiondriving and so it's it's nice to
see that you were able to findthat through teaching.
John Gonzalez (38:58):
Yeah, and I was actually talking about the, my
therapist, cause I am seeing thetherapist after I tried to do
the thing that wasn't successful.
And we were talking about ithow the aging the aging dancer
is always a thing.
Like dancers or anyone inentertainment goes through that
(39:20):
part in their life.
Like wow, I'm aging.
Now I'm not how I used to look,my body is not the way it used
to look.
I'm not going to get thoseopportunities that I had before.
I now have to look at otheropportunities, like if I'm an
actor, now I need to look atroles that are the mom or the
dad and not the child or thehigh school student.
(39:42):
Now you're the administrator orthe teacher.
So it's just like realizingthat and navigating that pathway
through like yeah, this is life, you're going to age.
Raul Lopez (39:53):
Yeah, and it's.
It's funny when you think of.
I was thinking about that onewhen I was watching that new
Chucky movie that came out a fewyears ago and the mom was Audre
Plaza and I'm like I keepthinking of her like the young
girl from Parks and Rec you knowwhat I mean and I'm like, oh my
God, I guess she's gettingolder and I'm like oh my God,
I'm getting older.
We all get older.
(40:15):
It doesn't end, it doesn't stop.
John Gonzalez (40:16):
I mean, what I know right is the mom and
stranger things.
But I remember her being thehigh school student.
Raul Lopez (40:21):
She was using Beetlejuice.
She was a young kid inBeetlejuice, yeah, no little
woman, yeah.
So I mean we all get older andit's sometimes you have to find
a different outlet, especiallyin certain industries, and so,
like I said, it's it's good tosee that from you as well.
And so when did you graduatefrom House Show?
John Gonzalez (40:44):
I walked in 2016, .
but I got the official paper,the official degree, in 2020.
Because I was able to walk withsix credits remaining.
So I did the walk, not for me,because I didn't even want to
(41:04):
walk.
I did it for my parents.
I wanted them to see me in thecap and gown from college,
walking down and, you know,doing the whole graduation thing
, because that's what they wantto see, that's what they want,
that's what they all, to me,want to see.
Like I came to the Statesbecause you know better life for
(41:24):
my kids, yada, yada, all thatstuff.
And they got it.
And now they're.
I feel that they could diehappy.
You know, they haven't beenbothering me, Not necessarily
bothering me, but just like.
What are you going to do withyour life?
What are you going to do?
Well, here it is.
I finished.
Raul Lopez (41:41):
And what did you graduate with?
Was it music?
I mean dance, sorry, Dance.
John Gonzalez (41:44):
Yeah, I had to do green dance.
I fully switched over to danceand not business.
Raul Lopez (41:49):
Nice, nice, good, good.
And then, what do your parentsthink about your career now?
I mean, you got a lot more toshow them than they did before.
John Gonzalez (41:59):
Yeah, I do.
I don't want to say that theydon't care, but they're just
like, okay, I mean, I could tellthem I'm dancing with Beyonce
and they're going to be like,okay, I could say I'm dancing
with like someone from who theyknow, like Cheyenne or something
.
I'm like, yeah, I'm going to goon to where Cheyenne, okay, que
(42:19):
, without Be careful out therewhen you're in different
countries, like it's nothing,like oh, wow, you're doing this.
I guess maybe that's just myparents.
Raul Lopez (42:29):
Maybe you spoiled them, because I think you did
mention too that you did dodances with other some
performing artists too right.
John Gonzalez (42:36):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, but to them it was just
nothing, it was all right.
Have fun, be careful.
Raul Lopez (42:44):
No, parents are funny.
Sometimes the everything you dois amazing.
Sometimes everything you do isjust kind of oh, that's kind of
great, it's fine.
John Gonzalez (42:56):
It's fine.
Yeah, I'm like.
I'm so in my, in my craft, likefor me being able to perform at
Disney World or with these bigtime artists, like I've
succeeded, I've gotten to whereI needed, I wanted to be.
And some dancers is sometimesdancing on Broadway, like when
they make Broadway, all right,they succeeded.
(43:18):
Or cruise ships, whatever itmay be.
It's different for anyone inentertainment, like being in the
movies for an actor or gettinga TV show, but to our parents is
just like okay.
Raul Lopez (43:33):
And it's a success is always relative.
You know everybody's success isgoing to be different.
What makes you successful isn'twhat somebody else thinks
success is, is what you feel andwhat makes you feel like you've
accomplished something.
John Gonzalez (43:44):
Exactly.
Raul Lopez (43:45):
Right, I'm glad man.
And so if we go back and youthink about everything you've
gone through your life and youcan go back and say, hey, you
know, we have a time machine,you go back in time and you go
talk to Yang Zhang.
That's something, some adviceyou'd keep yourself.
John Gonzalez (44:02):
Wow, that's a good question.
It's weird because I want tosay go after all those
opportunities.
But I did.
I pursued every opportunitythat was given to me.
I think I would say value mycraft earlier on in my career.
(44:22):
What I mean by that is as astruggling artist, as they say,
in the beginning of your career.
You usually do a lot of thingsfor free to get your name out
there, to get your face outthere.
Or you do things for extendedperiod time and not really get
paid where you should be gettingpaid, because you're so fresh
(44:44):
and you're not aware.
Or you're the new face in townand I think telling my younger
John they're like no, no, you'reworth earlier on.
Raul Lopez (44:56):
Yeah, advocate for yourself, like that first
audition you did.
John Gonzalez (45:01):
Like I did in high school, yeah, and, but do
it in the professional world nowI don't know what happened to
that John in high school, butwhen he became a professional it
wasn't that much.
Raul Lopez (45:11):
Yeah, I think sometimes we get stuck with that
in postures and journalism butwe feel we're you know, oh,
we've made it here but we'restill not there.
I don't know if I'm still goodenough, and you eat shit a
little bit and then eventuallyyou get to the point you're like
, fuck that, I ain't nothing.
John Gonzalez (45:27):
Exactly what.
That's exactly what my thirdperson.
I talked about the process ofthem and how I felt like I
wasn't good in certain spaces.
Raul Lopez (45:35):
Yeah, Well, look, it's impressive and it's amazing
journey that you've beenthrough and there's so much that
you've accomplished and youknow, I'm glad to see you're.
You're happy man.
I think that's ultimately themost important thing.
John Gonzalez (45:48):
So yeah, yeah, dark times but the light.
There was a light at the end ofthe tunnel.
Raul Lopez (45:52):
Yeah, no man, that's wonderful man and so I really
appreciate it.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I definitely hope to, in thefuture, have more little things
where we talk about industryspecific questions and maybe
start getting some stuff likethat.
But, like, I really appreciateyou being here today.
Thank you so much, yeah.
John Gonzalez (46:10):
Thank you for having me.
Raul Lopez (46:11):
Oh, no, man, Like I said, you reached out to me and
I thought you know, and I waslike why don't I have you on
here?
So thank you, you know, thankyou and thank you for advocating
for yourself and pushing me tojoin my audition here and to
everyone else listening.
Once again, thank you, guys allfor the support you give me and
(46:32):
all the kind words and hopeyou'll join me again next time
as we continue to learn how tosay success in Spanish.
Hey guys, before we start I wanted to give a little
bit of a warning.
In this episode we do have adiscussion regarding depression
in an attempt at suicide.
If you are struggling withthoughts of suicide, please dial
988 or visit 988 lifelineorg.
There are lots of resources outthere that are available 24-7
(00:25):
to help.
The path to success isn't easyFor minorities and people of
color.
Many attempts to turn you withlittle to no guidance.
(00:56):
Join me as I sit down withindividuals who share their
stories of perseverance so thattogether we can learn how to say
success in Spanish.
We have a great episode with agood friend of mine, one of my
fraternity brothers JohnGonzalez.
Hello, hello.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I appreciate you taking thetime.
I know you're probably verybusy, but just to kind of give
(01:18):
an intro, john Gonzalez is astaff instructor and judge with
the Universal CheerleadersAssociation and the Spirit
Consultants.
A judge master teacher forDancers Inc Dance Conventions
and Competitions.
A judge master teacher for StepUp to Dance Dance Conventions
and Competitions.
Certified dance instructorthrough Dance Educators of
America.
A certified cheerleading coachto USA Cheer and a member of the
(01:41):
National Dance EducatorsOrganization, all while teaching
dance full-time at AscentCharter School and still
performing as a timeless torchwith a WNBA New York Liberty at
the Barclay Center, and wow,that's a lot of stuff to do, man
.
So I guess, to start off, tellme a little bit about you.
Who is John Gonzalez?
John Gonzalez (02:02):
John Gonzalez is a lot so, since I've done so
much in my life and throughvarious avenues of entertainment
.
But it did all start growing upas a Latino in the Upper East
Side, which already is differentbecause the area was
(02:24):
predominantly white.
So I was the only Latino in thebuilding that I lived at, and
it was a building with a doorman, and I was very fortunate for
my parents to be well off.
So that's the first thing, likemy parents were luckily well
off and I was in private schoolall my life.
(02:46):
I went to a private universityand navigating through that as a
Latino when the predominantlywhite spaces was, it was a
journey.
It was a journey.
But I did grow up on the UpperEast Side.
I went to college in LongIsland and I danced and cheer
(03:12):
almost my entire life.
I mean, dance started late inmy life, as opposed to those
that choose career paths earlyon and they start training from
when they were like five yearsold, straight out the womb.
But for me it started later.
So I had a lot of catching upto do and luckily I had a lot of
(03:33):
mentors and people thatbelieved in me and guided me
down the right path to makeeverything that you just said
happen.
Raul Lopez (03:43):
Nice, nice yeah, and I mean it's an interesting
point you bring out and I thinkI know you did mention that in
your in our pre interview thatwe had with you, where you did
feel kind of like you weren'tquite Latino Puerto Rican enough
for your Puerto Rican communityand you didn't really feel
mainstream enough for mainstream.
And I think identity is alwaysan issue with us, regardless of
(04:05):
how we live and where we're at.
You know, some of us don'trecognize that until we get
later into, like college orwhatever.
And some of us and someone likeyou in your situation actually
had to deal with it at anearlier, at an earlier age.
How does how did that affectyou and what are some of the
challenges you had to deal withthat?
John Gonzalez (04:25):
So and it's funny because I also dealt with it
when I was a dancer at DisneyWorld, being typecasted for
different roles, like what?
When I did the Lion King atDisney World, you would notice
that predominantly the cast waspredominantly people of color,
because it's the Lion King,right.
(04:46):
So.
But then when it came to othershows at Disney, the, the
technique part of it came in.
So because I had a greattechnique in dance, I was casted
more at Magic Kingdom whereit's more of technical dancers
as opposed to it's calledHollywood Studios.
(05:09):
Now Dancers had more like a hiphop, jazz dance kind of vibe,
but then I was only.
I was always the one Latino inthe cast, or there was always
one black guy and one black girlor and one Latino and then
everybody else was white.
Because technique, technicaldance is not really taught or
(05:35):
people of color don't have themoney to afford taking those
classes, so predominantly whitespaces or white people are the
ones they succeed in thatbecause they have the money to
pay X amount of dollars to takeclasses.
So it was.
It was, I don't want to saydifficult, but it was different.
(05:56):
It was different because I wasthe Latino and everybody else
was white and I knew that Ibelonged in the space, but then
I didn't belong as well, so itwas difficult.
It was difficult, but I stilldid it and I pushed through
because I knew that my talentwill make it.
Raul Lopez (06:18):
Yeah, no, and it's.
It's an interesting point youput out when you talk about the
training that people can'tafford.
So it kind of keeps a lot of usout of it, out of that area,
out of that spectrum.
My daughter, she's soccer wewere talking about that a little
bit earlier and she's doing atravel team expensive, you know,
it's like three thousand forthe year for her to play soccer
(06:41):
and when I go to her practicespredominantly white you know,
there's not that many.
Latino kids.
There's not that many kids fromthe hood.
Everybody's coming in.
You know people coming in andtheir beamers and their nice
fancy cars and all this stuffand I'm like man, how many of
these you know our people arethe soccer players and how many
of our kids are in the hood notbeing able to get this
opportunity?
Then they provide college,college assistants, getting you
(07:04):
interviews with recruiters andstuff like that.
And and so no, it's.
It's such a crazy thing tothink that you know, oh, if you
had a little more money and youwere a little bit there, you
might be able to become thatdream that you wanted to.
So it's nice to see you know.
I'm glad you were able to getin there.
But were you taking classeslike that at an early age?
You said 14 is when you started, or.
John Gonzalez (07:25):
Yeah, so my dance career is a funny story.
I just did salsa merengue byChata, dancing at home with my
cousins.
Whenever there's a party, theywill ask, you know, john, me to
put on a show.
So my cousin and I will put ona show.
And so I didn't really take anytechnique classes until I got
(07:48):
into high school.
My freshman year of high schoolI auditioned for the Spanish
dance team as a freshman and Ididn't make it.
Right, I didn't make it and Itold myself, oh, no, no, no, who
know?
That is false.
I'm, I'm making this team.
So I saw the list, didn't seemy name.
(08:09):
I went up to the moderator, tothe classroom, and I said hi,
I'm John Gonzalez, I'm afreshman.
I tried out for the danceSpanish dance team.
I noticed that my name wasn'ton the list.
I'm going to assume you forgotand I'll be there.
The first day of rehearsal.
The teacher was just like, okay, I guess.
(08:31):
So, like I advocated for myself, I was like I know what I can
bring to the table and I'm goingto show it to you, right?
But I soon later found out thatthe only reason why I didn't
make it is because she doesn'ttake freshman.
I'm a freshman arm and she waslike once you become sophomore,
(08:51):
I would have taken you, but youwere so you know, strong in your
thoughts and so, likeadvocating for yourself, there
was nothing else I could do butaccept you.
So from there, this white ladywho owns a dance studio saw me
performing at my show at my highschool and from there she spoke
to me and she was like I see aspark in you, I see a passion in
(09:16):
you and I see something in you.
So I'm actually going to giveyou a scholarship to attend my
dance studio and get thetechnique that you need in order
to make it if you want tobecome a professional dancer.
So I feel like I owe my wholecareer and my trajectory to this
one white woman who believed inme and paid for everything
(09:42):
Everything costumes, training,anything.
I didn't spend a dime.
Raul Lopez (09:45):
Nice, yeah, and it's , you know, I think, one of the
previous interviews that I had,david said, you know, sometimes
it's not so much about findingthe opportunity.
Is that being able to see thatan opportunity has been given to
you by someone and takingadvantage of it.
And I mean it's wonderful youdid that.
I'm glad I was able to help youout.
(10:07):
Did you come from a family ofdancers at all, or was it just
you that?
John Gonzalez (10:10):
can have that spark.
No, my mother, my mom and mydad cannot dance.
They cannot dance.
I have a nephew who's 25 nowand he dances Latin dance.
So when he was younger until mysister he wanted to dance.
Like I felt a joy in my heart,like, oh my God, he wants to
(10:32):
dance too, like it's uncool.
So it's just him and me.
Raul Lopez (10:36):
Nice, nice.
So you?
For a lot of people, especiallyparents in general, a kid says,
hey, I want to do dance, that'swhere I want to go for the
future.
You know, do you ever runthrough any issues, or were your
parents very supportive of youdeciding you want to do dance?
John Gonzalez (10:55):
Supportive?
Absolutely not.
They were not supportive at all.
I went to college.
I entered college as a businessmajor and a dance minor,
because you know, you got to bea lawyer, you got to be a
businessman, you got to be adoctor.
You have to do something that'sgoing to make you money.
And so that whole thoughtprocess growing up is what we
(11:18):
thought we needed to do.
And so I went in my freshmanyear of college as a business
major and failed.
I failed.
I got on freaking academicprobation because everything
that was on my schedule wasbusiness and it's not the
passion that I had, it's not thelove that I had, like I didn't
care.
I didn't care about business.
(11:39):
I wanted to before, I wanted toentertain.
And that same semester, when Itold my parents I'm switching
majors, it was like, oh my gosh,what are you going to do with
your life?
That's not a real job.
Are you going to make money?
And here I am making money andactually sending them money.
Nice.
Raul Lopez (11:59):
Nice, I just see.
I just see like in the videos,like what are you going to do?
So I dance, you know like I'mgoing to dance.
And then the music starts.
The musical starts.
You know it's like the musicalof John.
You know that's how it goes,yeah, so, but then you know the.
So we talk about Hofstra.
You got into Hofstra.
I think you mentioned that youwere able to get a dance
(12:20):
scholarship while you were inHofstra.
John Gonzalez (12:21):
Yeah, so that.
So usually the dancescholarships are done the year
prior.
You attend the audition and youknow as a senior high school
you'll attend the audition andthen you get accepted to a dance
program or any arts programyour freshman year.
From there you can either youcan also get a scholarship.
So I had to do that part.
(12:42):
My second semester year offreshman, of my freshman year.
They actually had a specialaudition slash scholarship
opportunity for me because Iexpressed so much interest in
the program and they sawsomething in me too which was
(13:03):
like wow, I guess something ishere because so many people see
it and I wasn't really seeing itwithin myself, but others were.
So from there I did theaudition and I got into the
program and I got a scholarshipas well as cheerleading.
Raul Lopez (13:22):
Nice, and so did you start cheerleading in college,
or was that something youstarted doing earlier on as well
?
John Gonzalez (13:28):
I started doing it in high school, also
something against my not againstmy parents, but something they
didn't understand because theydidn't.
And then that cheerleading isan American thing.
It's really that now it'sbecoming bigger to the point
(13:48):
where it's not going to be inthe Olympics, in case you didn't
know, yeah in the in theOlympics, and there is actually
a world cheerleadingchampionship is called worlds
happens every year at DisneyWorld, where different countries
do come and compete is like theOlympics that we've created on
our own.
But I did start cheering inhigh school because I will watch
(14:13):
it on TV.
I saw the ESPN nationalscompetitions and, being this
little gay boy, I'm like, oh, Iwant to be sassy, all those
things.
And I found friends that werealso doing it and I was able to
part, be part of an all startcheerleading team, which is
(14:33):
different from schoolcheerleading team.
I'm part of an all start teamin Jersey in which I didn't have
to pay anything either.
I got my training forcheerleading and became a
collegiate cheerleader nationalchampion.
I'm a coach.
Yeah, it's just.
I feel it's just all been in me, I guess.
(14:54):
No, you just somebody to bringit out.
Raul Lopez (14:56):
Yeah, I was just gonna say like all you need to
do is someone to believe in youand give you that outlet to say,
hey, here, give this a try.
And cheerleading too it's.
I mean, my school wasn't bigwith cheerleaders, we barely had
the funding for it and they hadto kind of cheerlead.
It's funny, they had tocheerlead at all the sports.
So they're like at soccercheerleading, at baseball
(15:16):
cheerleading, just because theywere like we're not going to
sign up, pay for a cheerleadingteam that's only going to go to
football games and so.
But we only had like 12 girlsand they were kind of.
You know, it wasn't really wellorganized and we didn't have a
band.
We had a DJ.
So we had one of my senior year, one of our students, our
classmates, who was a senior too.
He was a DJ, so he'd come tothe baseball, football games and
(15:39):
play music and stuff.
So we're coming out like, wow,loud and rough, pride of the
anthem.
So it was fun, it was funny.
Yeah, so.
So you started doingcheerleading in high school, and
then you also mentioned youwere out by that point in high
school as well.
John Gonzalez (15:54):
Yeah.
So I love this question becauseeveryone asks oh, when did you
come out?
Or when did you tell yourparents?
I never had a coming out story.
Raul Lopez (16:04):
Oh yeah, nice.
John Gonzalez (16:05):
So I never had a moment where, like, all right,
we need to have a family meeting, I need to sit you down and to
say to tell you, mom and dad,I'm gay.
That never happened.
That never happened because my,my viewpoint on it is no one,
no one says, no one has astraight coming out.
Yeah.
(16:26):
So why should I have a gaycoming out?
I just live my life the way Iwanted to live, and they figured
it out.
Raul Lopez (16:35):
They figured it out on their own.
John Gonzalez (16:37):
They weren't any questions, so I never had a
coming out.
I was just me, and if peopleask that, I will say yes, nice,
but from high school on.
I mean I was a freshman in highschool and my boyfriend was a
junior in my high school.
Raul Lopez (16:56):
Okay, okay, you swing for the for the rafters.
I went.
John Gonzalez (17:00):
I went in, I was quick, I was like, let's go.
Raul Lopez (17:04):
Nice, nice, yeah.
And so when, when talking aboutcollege again, you're in my
fraternity as well and we're ina lot of fraternity, Phi Iota
Alpha and 20 years ago comparedto now, is very different and
being queer, was there any otherstruggles or within the
(17:27):
fraternity or college schoolthat you had to deal with?
John Gonzalez (17:30):
Oh, 20 years ago when I pledged and crossed, is
way different than thebrotherhood that's coming in now
because it wasn't as acceptingback then.
I can actually tell you and ifthey hear this podcast they're
probably like oh, why are youtalking about us that when I was
(17:51):
an interest for the fraternity,the chapter actually did not
want me and voted not to haveput me online.
I found out later, obviouslybecause they didn't want to be
known as the gay chapter andthey did, or they didn't want to
be known as the gay fraternityon the campus.
So that that hit me.
(18:12):
That hit me a bit.
Finding out later that likethese guys there, like training
me to become a brother or wantme to call them a brother or
want this title of brother, nowsaying that they didn't even
want me in the first place.
So how am I supposed to respectyou and give you that brotherly
love and call your brother whenin the back of my head I'm
(18:36):
thinking and knowing that youdidn't even want me?
So it was like All right, now Ihave to prove myself double
time Because I'm the gay pledgeor the gay person, the gay guy
on the line.
I had to prove myself more thanall my other line brothers who
were straight and back in theday it I had also interest in
(19:00):
other organizations and it wasthe same thing.
They didn't want to be known,they didn't want that stigma
attached to them.
So I don't want to say, andthey were fired off of, but
fired off of, show me more lovethan all the other organizations
that I was showing interest in.
(19:21):
But now these pledges arecoming out of the gate.
I was waiting for you at thedoor.
They're just like living theirlife.
The non-binary interest,non-binary pledges are online
and it's funny because even tothis day I have chapters that
(19:43):
give my information out topledges to reach out to me,
because I was the first openlygay pledge and the first openly
gay brother 20 years ago and nowI guess my name is still around
Niki Moose, as my pledge namesays.
Raul Lopez (20:03):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's a big difference.
You know, there was, I think, ahandful of brothers back in the
day and now it's, you know, alot more accepting brothers.
I think, I think people ingeneral, you know, I just a lot
more accepting on all that stuff, and it's a wonderful thing to
see.
I mean, I think we hit it offsince day one.
Back in the day we used to meetat convention.
I think we'd see each otherlike once a year at conventions
(20:24):
and we just party, and you knowso.
John Gonzalez (20:27):
Macho thing too.
Raul Lopez (20:29):
Yeah, it's the machismo thing.
John Gonzalez (20:31):
Machismo thing, and it's the same thing
translates over to being in aLatino frat.
It's not any different.
Raul Lopez (20:37):
I mean it's between that and the urban environment A
lot of us grew up in.
I mean, I know kids that werein high school that were gay,
but they weren't coming out inthe hood, they were just out of
fear.
You know, some of them didn'teven graduate because of it.
And you know, even when I wasin high school I was kind of was
like, you know, they would saystuff and you're like, oh yeah,
(20:58):
I want to deal with that either.
And then I get to college andit's like, oh, my RA is gay.
Oh, and it's like five gay kidson my floor and my neighbor is
gay and I'm just like I'll justget over it, you know.
But then I have my boys come upto visit and we go in the
elevator and my RA comes in andI'm like, hey, how's it going?
Is this your friend?
Well, you guys have a good time.
And they like walked out andhe's like, hold on, is your RA
(21:20):
gay?
He's like, oh, yeah, he's likeif he touches me I'm going to
beat him.
Like dude, that's not how itworks and I was like shut the
hell up, but like that's not howit works.
Nobody's going to jump out toyou Like just go upstairs and go
have fun, Like stop being weird, you know, but it's that
mentality that they just can'tget out.
And it's good to see that it'sa lot different now and more
accepting, you know.
But I'm glad it worked out foryou and I'm glad that you're
(21:41):
still a resource, because evenyou know, regardless of the time
, it's so difficult for queerpeople.
You know, you know.
And so college, we're workingthrough that.
So you mentioned that yourcollege during actually took you
about 20 years.
John Gonzalez (21:57):
You started taking gigs and jobs in there
and coming in and out, yeah, andI said, yeah, and this is
something that I teach my kidsnow, because we're not going to
be young forever.
Our bodies are not going to bethe way they are when we were
young.
So for me, during my collegeexperience, I would audition,
(22:21):
get a gig.
Then I'll have to leave schoolfor a bit.
The longest was five years awaybecause I was a dancer at
Disney World.
So I would go away, then comeback, do a semester, maybe a
year, get another gig, had toleave because I was on tour or
doing something, and so mycareer path took a long time and
(22:45):
even that aspect of it.
My parents were like when you'regoing to graduate, when you're
going to graduate, you need todegree, you need to do something
.
It's already bad that you'regetting a degree in dance.
What is that going to do?
You don't have a degree, you'renot going to get paid as much.
And my sister actually justfinished her bachelor's and
(23:07):
she's 60, she's 60.
She's 60, yeah, and so for meit just took long because I just
had to do what I needed to do,because I was young and still
able to do it.
So I tell anyone that wants tobe in entertainment, like
(23:31):
college is going to be there.
It's going to be there, butyour ability to execute things
won't be your look, andunfortunately, the entertainment
world is the way it is Like.
The way you look is how you'regoing to get gigs, how you're
going to get jobs, how you'regoing to get booked, and then
(23:52):
your reputation and your workethic is how you're going to
keep getting booked and keepgetting gigs, which I've been
lucky enough to also have in mypocket.
My gig now with the WNBA NewYork Liberty, the timeless
tortures I, the senior directorof entertainment.
She reached out to me becausewe used to dance together for
(24:13):
the Knicks, so she was a KnicksCity dancer and I was on the 7th
Avenue Squad, which is like acheer dance team for them, and
so later on she went on to theBrooklyn Nets and now she is the
senior director entertainmentfor the Brooklyn Nets and the
WNBA New York Liberty.
And just having thatrelationship with her, she
(24:35):
reached out to me hey, you wantto be part of this party and
over team that we have and I'vegotten other gigs as well by,
just, you know, having good,great work ethic.
Raul Lopez (24:48):
So you're bringing a very interesting point and I
think a lot of people don'tthink of it that way.
But this is similar to likesports.
You know what I mean.
You can't be an oldprofessional athlete.
You know this is a dancecheerleading.
You know athletic.
You have to be athletic.
You usually have to be young.
(25:08):
You can't be hurt.
You know dance has that extrapart with the looks.
You know you have to usuallyfit a part to be accepted and
stuff like that.
And what kind of toll does thattake?
You know you have to bephysically fit to do that.
John Gonzalez (25:28):
I had to leave Disney World, which was my dream
job to dance at.
I flew down to Florida just toaudition and was lucky to get it
the same day.
And I say lucky because, as inthe beginning, as all the
dancers are out stretching andgetting ready to go in get their
(25:51):
number, do the routines, I wasmeeting people and they were
saying this is my fifth timeauditioning.
This is my sixth time and theystill never got it, like they
haven't gotten the job.
But yet my first timeauditioning I got it, and the
reason I say that is because itwas my dream job.
(26:13):
But then I had an injury.
I had an injury and I had toget surgery in my back.
It was workers come because ithappened during the show and the
doctor was like you're notgoing to be able to dance again
Like this.
This is it.
So that's the worst thing andany athlete wants to hear from a
(26:36):
doctor is you're never going tobe able to play football,
you're never going to be able toplay basketball, and to me I
didn't know anything else.
I went to college for dance,like there's nothing else that I
knew or wanted to do but be anentertainer, and so I went into
a deep depression because I hadto move.
(26:59):
I moved back to New York andthe reason why I moved to
Florida is to dance.
I mean, this goes back to.
My parents were a lot world off, thank goodness.
But my parents bought me ahouse and I was like, all right,
I'm ready, I'm going to live mylife in Florida.
Here we go, and then it justgets snatched away.
(27:19):
I moved back to New York anddeep depression.
I actually tried to take mylife.
Once God was with me.
I guess it wasn't my time to go, because my neighbor found me
and did the whole hospital thingand I'm here today, but it's
(27:39):
still for years and years.
I still was deep, deep dead tothe repression where I ate my
depression I started doing.
At that time marijuana wasn'tlegal, so it was like taboo,
like oh my gosh, you're smokingmarijuana, I will do it all the
time just to like escape.
But it never led to like harderdrugs.
(28:00):
So thank you for that.
But I thought that I will neverdance again because that's what
I was told.
And here I am dancing again.
I made a work, I figured it out, I said I they had.
There was a moment where Ineeded to just tilted or to turn
(28:24):
, and so myself, you know I needto get out of this space and I
need to make a change, which forsome people does, it's hard,
it's hard for some to do, and ittook me over 10 years to make
that, that, that change in mylife, to realize that you need
to get your ears together.
Raul Lopez (28:43):
Yeah, it's, it's difficult, you, I mean from age
of 14 on.
But you were dancing as youwere a little kid, and it's kind
of always been in your bloodand to be so committed and so
getting to the point of you'vegotten what you wanted and
you've gotten what you needed todo and to be taken away from it
(29:04):
and put it as difficult, and soI commend you for one your
honesty with it.
I appreciate you being open andhonest about all that stuff, and
I'm glad you're still here withus.
There's a lot more of you.
For people who don't know, yourbrother's name is Movimiento.
So Movi, there's a lot morepeople need a.
Movi.
So I'm glad to have you here,bro, but so I'm glad you
(29:28):
overcame everything.
Were you doing cheerleadingcoaching at that same time, or
was that something you starteddoing after the injury?
John Gonzalez (29:38):
Coaching happened .
Yeah, it was happening before,more so choreography setting,
choreography with differentschools and different teams.
But coaching diving really deepinto coaching happened
afterwards.
Yeah, after Disney Once I movedback to New York.
Yeah, and what?
Kind of Because I told myself,no, I told myself, okay, well,
(30:00):
if I really can't dance anymore,then the plan B is coaching
cheerleading, because I don'thave to actually do dances that
will be straining us on the bodyor things that I can no longer
do because I'm not young and butViral is the word, yeah.
Raul Lopez (30:23):
You know, they say that.
What's the saying?
Those that can do it, thosethat can't teach so that's, and
do you think teaching kind ofhelped keep you ahead above
water from?
John Gonzalez (30:33):
thinking even deeper, absolutely, absolutely.
I think seeing the passion fromyounger kids and passing that
passion and that drive to theyounger generation kept me going
and kept me afloat.
Seeing them succeed has mesucceeding.
(30:54):
You know, I have threechampionship rings as a coach
and I wasn't on the mat.
I didn't put the hard work onthe floor they did, but I helped
them get there, you know, andjust having that moment of like
a proud dad, yeah, I did that.
And now, as they grow older,they're going to remember me
(31:17):
like, yeah, I won this becausemy coach was so great.
Or yeah, my coach was hard onus, but was hard on us for a
reason because I'm a hard coachGood, definitely a hard coach
which is hard to be in this dayand age where, if a kid doesn't
get on the team, all of a suddenparents are calling
(31:38):
administration and all theseshenanigans because you know the
privileged life of kidsnowadays.
Raul Lopez (31:46):
Yeah, I assist coach with my daughter, I mean
they're only ten so you can'tyell at them as they'll go do
laughs, but you know it is avery you know.
Oh, you have to be very carefulabout everything you say and
how much you say now Things likewhen I was, when I was a kid
playing soccer and being treatedlike an asshole.
(32:08):
We could also chop a kid and Iwas like they can't talk to kids
like that anymore.
John Gonzalez (32:14):
Yeah, no, fire immediately, yeah, exactly.
Raul Lopez (32:16):
And so when you're part of the cheerleading
industry and things like that,it's I think it's an enigma for
a lot of people.
They don't know what that lifeis like and what's that thing.
You know, cheerleading is huge.
I've been to, I've seenchampionships, like when I went
to visit LSU once and there werejust huge amounts of
cheerleading competitions forthe weekend.
It's a big moneymaker.
(32:37):
It's very dangerous.
It's a very injury.
Yeah, number one injury andthing.
How is it as like a Latino anda queer coach, to like handle
all that when I started shootingcollege.
John Gonzalez (32:54):
Well, there's this already.
There's already this stigmaabout oh, if you're a guy
cheerleader, you're gay.
When I went to cheer in college, I was the only gay one.
All right, all the guys aregoing to be gay.
Yes, it's going to be a party.
I was the only gay one.
All the other guys on the teamwere like ex football players.
(33:16):
They were like these masculine,big muscle dudes and I'm just
like, well, that's, that's awaste, because you don't even
want me.
Raul Lopez (33:26):
It's funny because I played football and I know a
lot that it was very common forfootball players who didn't make
the team would become go intocheerleading, you know, and
sometimes they get scholarshipsfor cheerleading.
John Gonzalez (33:38):
And people think they're like oh, it's
cheerleading, whatever.
No, like we are holding humansin our hand.
We are throwing over like ahundred pound humans in the air
and catching them in our hands,like that's, that's not easy,
you need the strength for that.
It was in addition to being theonly gay one, but then also
(34:03):
cheerleading.
And it goes back to the dance.
How, like, if you don't have themeans to get the training to
become a dancer, same thing withcheerleading, and cheerleading
you have to have gymnasticsability, you have to be able to
dance, you have to be able tostun, you have to be able to,
you know, even have the athleticability.
(34:23):
Like going to the gym havingthat in your disposal.
Not many people of color in thecheerleading industry, because
we don't have those, because wedon't have those means, we don't
have the money to pay forgymnastics classics, to take
tumbling, and that's somethingthat's the first thing.
The first requirement incheerleading is you have to be
(34:46):
able to know how to tumble,because that takes longer to
coach and learn than throwingpeople in the air.
Raul Lopez (34:52):
Yep, yep.
And I mean as a dad who had adaughter who wanted to do
gymnastics for a year.
It can get expensive, you know.
They lower you in with thesecute little one classes where
they do a couple little thingsand then they're like oh, are
you interested in signing up forcompetitions?
Oh, sure, okay, well, that'sgoing to be an additional $100 a
month plus competitions.
John Gonzalez (35:11):
And you got to pay for competitions and now
you're looking at like four or$500, $600 a month or, and if
it's a way, then you have to geta hotel.
Yep, then you have food, soit's a big expense.
Raul Lopez (35:24):
And it's with a lot of sports.
Like I mentioned, soccer, mydaughter's soccer, the same way.
We luckily were pretty localwhere we don't go too far.
You know, her soccer games areabout an hour away every Sunday
or Saturday, so we drive onehour.
I got to go down there, comeback.
And then my cousin, who's a bigsoccer guy same thing, his
daughter, like she, goes toFlorida every year for soccer
tournament, you know.
So they take road trips to Ohioand they drive and they go for
(35:46):
the weekend and if you don'thave, that means you're, you're
left out.
And so how are you able toovercome some of that stuff with
within the community as a coach?
John Gonzalez (35:55):
Yeah, being a Latino coach, it was, and
coaching in predominantly whiteschools and with predominantly
white teams, it was difficult.
It was difficult because I hadparents contacting
administration or talking to mebecause they didn't like the way
(36:19):
I spoke to their kid or theydidn't like my tone or my
sassiness, because, of course,when you're gay, you're
automatically attached to beingsassy and it's just like no, I'm
just being direct and honestand I'm letting you know what
you need to do.
If I was a white coach, itwould have been okay, but
(36:41):
because I'm a Latino, y'allthink that I'm being disgruntled
or you think that I'm doing toomuch.
So it was.
I had to prove myself a lot.
I had to prove myself a lot ofthe times, and when I won the
championships and had oneconversation, that was proof
enough.
Raul Lopez (37:01):
Yeah, yeah, put, put um.
Was it good how?
Do you?
Like them apples.
John Gonzalez (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, Basically how do you like them?
They don't lie here what yougot yeah, no.
Raul Lopez (37:12):
And so, um, you're doing teaching, cheerleading,
coaching, um you're doing dance,uh, instructor and stuff.
And then now you're also, youjudge a lot of these
competitions as well.
John Gonzalez (37:24):
Yep on weekends.
So I have no life.
Um, that's why I'm still single, because I have no life.
I teach at a normal, at aregular school.
It's part of the curriculum.
Where the kids take dance aspart of like usually gets like
the PE credit for the state.
And then right after that Idrive to coach until 8pm and
(37:47):
then on weekends I, if my kidsare not competing, I'm judging.
So I don't judge thecompetitions therein for obvious
reasons, and I don't judge forthe section that I coach in in
New York state, but I do judgein other sections for obvious
reasons.
But yeah, it takes a lot of you, but how does the same go?
(38:11):
When you love what you do, itdoesn't feel like it's not work,
or it doesn't feel like work.
I don't feel like I work at all.
I just feel like I'm doingsomething that I love, and I
wake up every morning and I'mnever like, oh, I got to go to
work.
It's always like okay, work, Igot to go to work.
Raul Lopez (38:29):
Yeah, and it's a nice transition too, cause
obviously when you're youngerlike you mentioned the
athleticism you're there, you'reready, you want to be the one
performing.
You know, and even though youhad your injury, I think at some
point you have to wean off andgo the other route.
You know, and find um,regardless of whether or not you
were injured or not you're notgoing to be able to do it
(38:49):
forever and eventually, you needto figure out and find what's
going to keep your passiondriving and so it's it's nice to
see that you were able to findthat through teaching.
John Gonzalez (38:58):
Yeah, and I was actually talking about the, my
therapist, cause I am seeing thetherapist after I tried to do
the thing that wasn't successful.
And we were talking about ithow the aging the aging dancer
is always a thing.
Like dancers or anyone inentertainment goes through that
(39:20):
part in their life.
Like wow, I'm aging.
Now I'm not how I used to look,my body is not the way it used
to look.
I'm not going to get thoseopportunities that I had before.
I now have to look at otheropportunities, like if I'm an
actor, now I need to look atroles that are the mom or the
dad and not the child or thehigh school student.
(39:42):
Now you're the administrator orthe teacher.
So it's just like realizingthat and navigating that pathway
through like yeah, this is life, you're going to age.
Raul Lopez (39:53):
Yeah, and it's.
It's funny when you think of.
I was thinking about that onewhen I was watching that new
Chucky movie that came out a fewyears ago and the mom was Audre
Plaza and I'm like I keepthinking of her like the young
girl from Parks and Rec you knowwhat I mean and I'm like, oh my
God, I guess she's gettingolder and I'm like oh my God,
I'm getting older.
We all get older.
(40:15):
It doesn't end, it doesn't stop.
John Gonzalez (40:16):
I mean, what I know right is the mom and
stranger things.
But I remember her being thehigh school student.
Raul Lopez (40:21):
She was using Beetlejuice.
She was a young kid inBeetlejuice, yeah, no little
woman, yeah.
So I mean we all get older andit's sometimes you have to find
a different outlet, especiallyin certain industries, and so,
like I said, it's it's good tosee that from you as well.
And so when did you graduatefrom House Show?
John Gonzalez (40:44):
I walked in 2016, .
but I got the official paper,the official degree, in 2020.
Because I was able to walk withsix credits remaining.
So I did the walk, not for me,because I didn't even want to
(41:04):
walk.
I did it for my parents.
I wanted them to see me in thecap and gown from college,
walking down and, you know,doing the whole graduation thing
, because that's what they wantto see, that's what they want,
that's what they all, to me,want to see.
Like I came to the Statesbecause you know better life for
(41:24):
my kids, yada, yada, all thatstuff.
And they got it.
And now they're.
I feel that they could diehappy.
You know, they haven't beenbothering me, Not necessarily
bothering me, but just like.
What are you going to do withyour life?
What are you going to do?
Well, here it is.
I finished.
Raul Lopez (41:41):
And what did you graduate with?
Was it music?
I mean dance, sorry, Dance.
John Gonzalez (41:44):
Yeah, I had to do green dance.
I fully switched over to danceand not business.
Raul Lopez (41:49):
Nice, nice, good, good.
And then, what do your parentsthink about your career now?
I mean, you got a lot more toshow them than they did before.
John Gonzalez (41:59):
Yeah, I do.
I don't want to say that theydon't care, but they're just
like, okay, I mean, I could tellthem I'm dancing with Beyonce
and they're going to be like,okay, I could say I'm dancing
with like someone from who theyknow, like Cheyenne or something
.
I'm like, yeah, I'm going to goon to where Cheyenne, okay, que
(42:19):
, without Be careful out therewhen you're in different
countries, like it's nothing,like oh, wow, you're doing this.
I guess maybe that's just myparents.
Raul Lopez (42:29):
Maybe you spoiled them, because I think you did
mention too that you did dodances with other some
performing artists too right.
John Gonzalez (42:36):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, but to them it was just
nothing, it was all right.
Have fun, be careful.
Raul Lopez (42:44):
No, parents are funny.
Sometimes the everything you dois amazing.
Sometimes everything you do isjust kind of oh, that's kind of
great, it's fine.
John Gonzalez (42:56):
It's fine.
Yeah, I'm like.
I'm so in my, in my craft, likefor me being able to perform at
Disney World or with these bigtime artists, like I've
succeeded, I've gotten to whereI needed, I wanted to be.
And some dancers is sometimesdancing on Broadway, like when
they make Broadway, all right,they succeeded.
(43:18):
Or cruise ships, whatever itmay be.
It's different for anyone inentertainment, like being in the
movies for an actor or gettinga TV show, but to our parents is
just like okay.
Raul Lopez (43:33):
And it's a success is always relative.
You know everybody's success isgoing to be different.
What makes you successful isn'twhat somebody else thinks
success is, is what you feel andwhat makes you feel like you've
accomplished something.
John Gonzalez (43:44):
Exactly.
Raul Lopez (43:45):
Right, I'm glad man.
And so if we go back and youthink about everything you've
gone through your life and youcan go back and say, hey, you
know, we have a time machine,you go back in time and you go
talk to Yang Zhang.
That's something, some adviceyou'd keep yourself.
John Gonzalez (44:02):
Wow, that's a good question.
It's weird because I want tosay go after all those
opportunities.
But I did.
I pursued every opportunitythat was given to me.
I think I would say value mycraft earlier on in my career.
(44:22):
What I mean by that is as astruggling artist, as they say,
in the beginning of your career.
You usually do a lot of thingsfor free to get your name out
there, to get your face outthere.
Or you do things for extendedperiod time and not really get
paid where you should be gettingpaid, because you're so fresh
(44:44):
and you're not aware.
Or you're the new face in townand I think telling my younger
John they're like no, no, you'reworth earlier on.
Raul Lopez (44:56):
Yeah, advocate for yourself, like that first
audition you did.
John Gonzalez (45:01):
Like I did in high school, yeah, and, but do
it in the professional world nowI don't know what happened to
that John in high school, butwhen he became a professional it
wasn't that much.
Raul Lopez (45:11):
Yeah, I think sometimes we get stuck with that
in postures and journalism butwe feel we're you know, oh,
we've made it here but we'restill not there.
I don't know if I'm still goodenough, and you eat shit a
little bit and then eventuallyyou get to the point you're like
, fuck that, I ain't nothing.
John Gonzalez (45:27):
Exactly what.
That's exactly what my thirdperson.
I talked about the process ofthem and how I felt like I
wasn't good in certain spaces.
Raul Lopez (45:35):
Yeah, Well, look, it's impressive and it's amazing
journey that you've beenthrough and there's so much that
you've accomplished and youknow, I'm glad to see you're.
You're happy man.
I think that's ultimately themost important thing.
John Gonzalez (45:48):
So yeah, yeah, dark times but the light.
There was a light at the end ofthe tunnel.
Raul Lopez (45:52):
Yeah, no man, that's wonderful man and so I really
appreciate it.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I definitely hope to, in thefuture, have more little things
where we talk about industryspecific questions and maybe
start getting some stuff likethat.
But, like, I really appreciateyou being here today.
Thank you so much, yeah.
John Gonzalez (46:10):
Thank you for having me.
Raul Lopez (46:11):
Oh, no, man, Like I said, you reached out to me and
I thought you know, and I waslike why don't I have you on
here?
So thank you, you know, thankyou and thank you for advocating
for yourself and pushing me tojoin my audition here and to
everyone else listening.
Once again, thank you, guys allfor the support you give me and
(46:32):
all the kind words and hopeyou'll join me again next time
as we continue to learn how tosay success in Spanish.
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