April 23, 2021 • 49 mins
Young, poor, Hispanic, raised by a single mother — people who grow up like this are supposed to end up as just another statistic. But not Anna. Not in this life. For this podcast, Anna takes you through her story as a Hispanic-American raised by a single mother in southern California. There's no flash, no gimmicks, just raw honesty of Anna sharing her journey from a broken home to entering politics and hosting a podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Up next, Luna talks with Anna Paulina. Luna part of
the gang, which young poor Hispanic raised by a single mother,
people who grew up like me. You are supposed to
end up just another statistic, another life full of so
much energy and potential that becomes trapped in a web
of welfare and poverty. But not me, not in this life.
(00:20):
Let me tell you how I refuse to become a
victim and made my own reality and now hosting my
own podcast. Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning
into my podcast. I'm so excited to have this, especially
with I Heart Radio. But this week, instead of talking
about what we will be usually talking about every week,
(00:41):
which is issues not just politically but social and nationally,
I wanted to share with you my story. And it's
a little bit different because I want you to know
exactly who I am. Every single week that we do talk,
I said, from this one, We're gonna be talking about
other issues, especially the national ones, but I want you
to know where I come from, my perspective and why
(01:04):
I believe what I do, So please tune in. This
one's very special to me, very personal, and other than
that each week will have I'm an awesome meeting time
where you guys can come tune in, find out information,
straight talk, no political influence or propaganda, just my opinions,
me and you, and a place where you can come
with the whole family. So a lot of people, I
(01:25):
think looking at me, the general assumption is that you know,
I'm a young woman, probably didn't experience much other than
Starbucks and yoga pants right at ug boots. But I
think that there's so much more to that. Growing up,
I think that my unexpected path into politics was really
influenced by God. I think that a lot of times
(01:46):
when we look back at previous life circumstances and we
might not necessarily have an understanding as to why certain
things are happening the way that they are. But what
I found is in my journey that a lot of
what I've a id on to give me strength and
my voice to fight for what I believe is right
and for fighting for the American dream in this country
has really come from what I experienced as a child
(02:09):
and as a young adult and starting out. And I
give so much credit to my mom because she really
did raise me. As a young single mother. My mom
had me at around twenty years old. She had my
father actually when she was fairly young, and my mom
realizing it now, you know, you see how much I
think a young mother would go through. But ultimately, my
(02:32):
mom made the decision to choose life over abortion, and
that's not I think an easy decision for a lot
of young women, especially from the circumstances in which she
came from, which was essentially a really rough upbringing. I mean,
my maternal grandmother actually died of AIDS studo heroin use.
Drugs were prevalent, not just on my mom's side, but
(02:52):
really on my father's side as well, and she was
the only person that could take care of me. She
had no family to rely on. It's not like we
had a strong extended network of people that could really
care for her and care for me, and so we
did it on our own, and I remember those struggles
growing up. I mean, the earliest memory I have from
toys is actually going to this place called the Giving Spot.
(03:15):
And at the time I thought it was awesome. You know,
you'd go into it and it was like all these
toys everywhere and they were free. But what it was
is it was actually a donation center. And I look
back at that now and I see all of the
success that I've experienced, and then sometimes I bring it
up with my mom. But those are some of my
early memories as to what I thought was normal and
(03:37):
I didn't know any different. With my story, I want
people to remember that this is not a victim story.
This is about coming across being dealt with cards that
might not necessarily be in your favor, but being able
to take control of your life and change the outcome
if you're willing to put forward the hard work and
the effort in order to create your own reality. So
(04:01):
moving forward from that, it was hard. My dad was
not really in the picture. He as much as he
loved me and as much as he loved my mom,
ultimately their relationship did not work out because my father
really struggled with addiction. And for me as a child,
my father was such, you know, a superhero, and I
(04:22):
think a lot of younger kids you look at your
parents and they're just your night in shining armor. It
wasn't until I think I was really in high school
that I realized that my dad did have a severe
drug problem. He was using meth. Some of the times
I actually do remember I would come across different paraphernalia,
and I'm actually lucky that I was smart enough to
(04:43):
as a child navigate that and not try that stuff
or not ingested, because I think, honestly, probably could have
killed me. But those stories, especially now when we talk
about what's happening, you know with the Southern Board. I'll
get into the political aspect in a second. Seeing the
direct impact that all of this has had of my
family really does give me this fire and compassion to
(05:07):
want to share my story and fight the good fight
so that other people are aware of the impacts that
it has, especially to when we talk about the welfare
state and what impacts a fatherless home has on family
development and longer term impacts, whether it's the juvenile justice
system or whether it is talking about the welfare system,
the welfare state and then really setting children up for success,
(05:29):
the father is instrumental in all of that. Moving forward
from that, just to kind of give you guys some perspective,
you know, my dad again, having these experiences my father.
If I didn't go through them, I wouldn't be the
person that I am today. But you know, I do
remember things like we were at this hotel once and
(05:49):
my dad was using with one of his friends, and
he left actually me there at the hotel with my
friend den Hey and her older sister and her younger sister,
and so it was just the three of us, and
my mom actually ended up having to come get me
and found out that I was left at this hotel
because later on that day my father had been arrested.
(06:10):
And you know, you talk about these experiences and people
look at me and they just don't understand the magnitude
of what I've been through and why I'm conservative. People
so many times you're like, I don't understand. You know,
you're half Hispanic, you're half white, like you're a young woman,
and they assume because of how I look, that I'm
going to vote a certain way, and it just it
could be the farthest thing from the truth. So that
(06:31):
broken home mentality really did again provide me with a
lot of insight as to what things work and what
other things don't work, especially when it comes to policy.
But it wasn't necessarily all bad. Some of my youngest
memories with both my mother and my father is you know,
my my my own side. As much as she tried
to shelter me, I remember going to visit her family
(06:53):
on the weekends, and they would have these massive, I
want to say, like house parties, not like crazy drinking.
But we have a very musical family on that side,
so a lot of people would be singing and playing
the guitar, and very large family extended on that side.
And then on my dad's side, when I would go
to see him, you know, on the weekend instead of
going out, and you have like the ice cream truck guy.
(07:13):
When I would be with him on visitation, we would
have the alote guy, and so he would go around
with this basket and he'd be squeezing this horn, you know,
kind of getting people to go outside, and for a
dollar you could get two pieces of a lotte, which
is basically corn with mayo and and the chili pepper
on it and everything. And we'd got there and we
sit on the curb and eat that. You know, we'd
have the carne sava and tacos and or chata, or
(07:35):
we'd stop by my uncle Phelippa's house. And it was
interesting because as a child, you know, I grew up
actually with my father speaking Spanish around me, but I
didn't necessarily learn that, and I actually to this day.
Sometimes I asked my dad, I'm like, you know, why
didn't you teach it to me growing up? And I
think that from my father, he more or less wanted
me to assimilate. He grew up going back and forth
(07:56):
to Mexico City a lot, and for me, for whatever reason,
he wanted me to, I guess, embrace being an American.
He you know, he was first hin, I was second generation.
But you know, it wasn't ntil later on in life
that I realized, you know, being able to speak Spanish
is actually important, especially culturally to me as well. And
so I actually was able to spend a couple of
years in high school and college learning that. But you know,
(08:18):
you have these memories and then back to kind of
as who I am. You know. One of my best
memories as a child was with my great grandma Luna,
and she had come to visit my mom and me,
and we were sitting in the living room and there
used to be back in the nineties. It was a
Spanish soap opera and it was called Luz Gladita, and
(08:39):
it was about this young girl and she would always
wear her hair in two different braids, about three quarters
braided down and My grandma loved watching this show, and
so I would sit there in the living room with her,
and she would actually sit there pet my head and
do my hair like the little girl in the show.
And you know that, to me, whenever I thought about
the bad, I also remember the good. So I think
(09:01):
that that's actually been in part a big reason why
I've been able to push through is because everyone, no
matter what walk of life you're in, I think people
are going to have both negative and positive experiences, and
it's how you choose to move forward with that. You
don't ever fully dwell in the past, because that won't
help you as an adult moving forward, and it won't
help you or your family in regards to how you
(09:23):
can better your life for everyone. So, when I turned
about fourteen years old, my mom had actually gone through
a pretty crazy divorce and we moved to Los Angeles,
and for me, growing up in southern California, especially during
that era, what I experienced I thought was normal. I
didn't think that anything that I was going through at
(09:44):
the time was anything that anyone else didn't go through, right.
It wasn't until I actually joined the military that I
realized how abnormal those conditions were. But when I moved
to Los Angeles, I think that was the time where
I started becoming a teenager and my world just expanded,
you know. I started working from the time that I
was sixteen, and having gone from basically being in Santa
(10:05):
Ana area and South Orange County and then moving to
Los Angeles, you do have a change in the education systems.
But it's not just that. It's it's a change in
the demographic as well. Right you have inner city Los
Angeles being probably one of the most prevalent gang infested
places in the country, and here I was this young
girl basically moving into that with a young single mother
(10:27):
and then my younger two siblings. It wasn't just a
shock for us in regards to some of the things
that I would experience, but for me it was eye opening.
I mean, one, I ended up going to six high schools,
and one of the six high schools I went to
was really, really bad. They had tried to bust in
kids from Crenshawn Inglewood. And what a result of it
(10:51):
was is that you had gangs, you had gang wars,
and you had people fighting over turf. But there was
also I think this aspect of racial fighting between the
predominantly black and the predominantly Hispanic gangs in the area,
and I saw that. I remember the riots at Santa
(11:11):
Monica High School and basically all over you'd hear rumors
of them calling in the cops and shutting down because
they were having these serious gang issues. We're about to
get into my story where I tell you guys about
the gang shooting on my high school campus, So stay tuned.
We'll be right back after this quick break. I remember
being on campus. It was in the afternoon, and I
(11:35):
remember hearing two gun shots. I ultimately ended up being
right outside my classroom. There was a gang shooting on campus.
Between it was a I think an older boy and
a younger boy, and I think they're actually I don't
know what they're fighting over, but I remember leaving the classroom.
I didn't know what to do, Okay, I was like
someone pulled the fire alarm. We heard the shots. I'm
walking out of the classroom. I walk out to see
(11:56):
this group of kids huddled around. I get it was
the boy who had been shot, and another boy runs
away crying. And at the time, like we didn't really
have cell phones, so I just walked home and I
remember getting home and my mom grabs me. She's like,
oh my god, are you like kissing me on the forehead.
She's like, I just heard what happened. I'm never sending
(12:16):
you back to that school. And that this is, mind you,
after I had been jumped at that school, actually got
a concussion, This is after, you know, I was basically
at this point, so traumas highs from I think the
education system there. I mean I had girls in my
Spanish class that would come back in after fighting people
in the bathroom and one store in particular. And I
know you guys are probably thinking this is crazy, but
(12:37):
it's true. Her name was Paula, and she had come
back in from the bathroom and I noticed her hair
was messed up. I was like, are you okay? And
she had told me that she had literally just cut
some girl's face in the bathroom. Okay. So I got home,
I told my mom this, and I think after this,
in conjunction with the shooting and then obviously me being
jumped to my mom made the good decision of pulling
(12:58):
me out of that school, and then I ultimately ended
up graduating barely. But the point was is that, you know,
these experiences. Again, going back to who I am talking
about being battle hardened. I really feel like I kind
of went through all of the fire early on in
life and it prepared me for this political arena that
I'm now stepping into. But you know, through all that,
(13:18):
I did have dreams. I wanted to go to college.
I just I didn't know how. And I know that's
a weird concept, but I didn't know how to apply.
I didn't know that you had to take the A
C T or the S A T. In fact, I
didn't even know what that was. I didn't know how
I was going to pay for it. And the one
thing that my mom always told me, she goes, you know, like,
try not to take out loans. And I give her
(13:41):
so much credit for this because now I think a
big discussion is about the student loaned up. And for me,
I just remember my mom saying, you know, you're so caring,
you would be an incredible doctor, but but don't take
out the loans, like, try to do it on your own,
try to pay for it, because she's like, you don't
want the debt. It can really you know, like her
you in the long run, And so I always kind
(14:03):
of kept that in the back of my mind. And
I stayed in l A probably about a year after
my mom had left, which would have made me about
eighteen nineteen years old. And then I remember being at
a party. Of course, you know, being a young kid,
that's what you do out there, especially when you're on
your own, and I met this really incredible girl in
(14:23):
her name was Julianna. It was actually Juliana Redding, and
you know, I was out close with her, but I
would see her out and I just remember her being
so pretty and so kind. And then one day I
get a call from my friend Michelle to tell me
that Juliana had actually been murdered. And when that happened,
I think that that was when I basically cashed in
my chips with l A. I said, I'm not I'm
(14:44):
not doing this anymore. I like it was just too
much for me. And I ultimately ended up basically going
back to my mom's for a little bit and and
I just I was like, it actually traumatized me. Think,
And after I got back to my mom's, she was
she lived near Ocean Side, which is where a large
Marine Corps based installation is, and I actually ended up
(15:05):
being out at a house party and I heard these
two guys talking and they were about my age, maybe
nineteen years old, and they're talking about how the Marine
Corps would pay for college. And I really had no
immediate family in the military, and so I was obviously eavesdropping,
and I apologized for that, but I said, I'm you know,
excuse me, but can you just tell me a little
(15:27):
bit more about that? And I asked them everything that
you could possibly want to know about the military, was like,
do you guys live on your own? How does the
schooling work, what is your training like? And they basically
convinced me at that point in time, at least with
their responses, that I should consider going to talk to recruiters.
So I went on Google. And this is at the
(15:47):
time when people printed out map quest directions. I know
everyone has it on their phone now, but I printed
out map quest directions to go talk to recruiter and
I showed up, and I think the recruiter thought I
was joking at first. He took one at me and
he's like, can I help you? Like, are you lost?
Are you looking for a CVS? Where are you? And
I said, now I'm here to talk to you. And
so I actually I met with my recruiter and I
(16:11):
was considering joining the army at first, but then settled
on the Air Force. And I didn't even tell my
family that I was doing this for me, especially being
that young. I was excited about it. I looked at
it like an adventure, but I was also looking at
it as kind of a way out, a way that
I could find some form and type of way to
(16:32):
help my family. And so I enlisted. And mind you,
this is in the middle of the war in the
Middle East, And of course, the minute I told my mom,
I like had to hold my phone away from my
head because she was like freaking out. She thought I
was going to die. She was crying. She's like, oh
my gosh, what have I done, Like You're gonna get hurt,
(16:53):
And obviously I did not. And then you know, later on,
especially right before I ended up leaving, she was the
one that actually drove me out to MAPS, which is
your military in processing station, with my dad, and they
dropped me off and they ended up being okay with it.
But having that experience, having joined the military at such
a young age, if there's one thing I can say
(17:14):
that was probably one of the best decisions I ever
made in my life. And having been that young from
that type of environment and upbringing, a lot of people
like me are supposed to end up statistics like I
should have probably been sixteen and pregnant. I probably should
have a rap sheet, but I don't, and I think
that that's in large part because I was able to
(17:37):
literally find some form of structure and find a way
out that was going to empower me to help myself
and to help my family. So I left for the
military in February, and it was in the military that
I actually ended up meeting my husband. I also shortly
thereafter started going to school full time after I finished
my training, and it was also in the military terry
(18:00):
that I was able to not just pay for college,
but they literally sat me down, helped me and roll
told me what the a c T was, and I
think it helped me develop as an adult, right like
I spent my young adult life for the first time
in my life with a structure that I needed to excel.
I knew that I had rent paid, I knew that
I had a car because I was getting a reliable job.
(18:23):
I had health insurance, and my sergeants at my base,
wherever I was at, they almost more or less took
this i'd say parental type of role with me and
really did look out for me. And that's something that
I think a lot of times when the military, when people,
especially politicians, they talk about the military said, they say,
you know, the military, according to these people, unfairly targets minorities.
(18:48):
And I look at these people and I just I'm
shocked because if these people saw the environment and the
circumstance that some of us come from, and the opportunity
that the military allows and gives you to really succeed
in life, I think that these people would have a
different opinion. You know, I worked from people all the
(19:08):
way from the inner cities of Chicago, Detroit, two kids
that were trust fund kids that wanted to just prove
to their parents that they could essentially do it on
their own. So you're talking about the one place in
the country probably that everyone is created the same. You
were the same uniform. You show up to work. You're
working with people who you would probably never outside of
(19:29):
that environment maybe talk to because of how they look
or how they dressed, or where they're from. And yet
it's in the military where you can come together and
work towards a common goal and put the mission first,
and that again is probably one of the most incredible
experiences I could have had early on, and it was
in the military that I think I started developing my
leadership skills. So I was obviously awarded the Air Force
(19:51):
Accommodation Medal, and when I got to my first duty station,
I also became the President of the Airman's Council, which
at the time I didn't think was a big deal.
I mean, I would help younger airmen work on their EPR,
which is our enlisted performance reports. I would put together
food drives and donation drives across base. But I realized
(20:12):
looking back on it that that was basically me, I
think early on taking this leadership position, and it was
one of the first that I had. And also too,
I was able to work with different airmen to organize
them for Airmen against drunk driving, which is kind of
a I say the military did it first, but it
was basically our version of UBER for military members. If
you went out, we would actually um come pick you
(20:34):
up and you would just call a number and then
we would log it and bring you home safely. So
that we could avoid DUIs and drunk driving. So that
was one of my first i'd say big taskings in
addition to the military that I really wanted to make
change and I saw a way to do it, and
so I took that initial action. And then it was
in the military that again going back to how I
(20:55):
met my husband Andy, we actually had a mutual friend
and at the time I did not want to at
all get involved with anyone. I was trying to just
focus on my education, kind of like that Beyonce Song.
I wanted to be a young independent woman. And yet
I met him literally eight months into joining the military,
(21:15):
and he obviously busted out of the friend zone because
we were not romantically involved at first. We were just friends,
but ended up being one of the best things that
could have happened to me life. He really is one
of my best friends, and we actually had a looped
in secret. We did our paperwork at a small coffee
shop in Missouri, and that was mind you, after finding
a Justice of the Piece who could literally do our
(21:38):
paperwork for us on Veterans Day, so that's actually it
was twenty bucks Veterans Day and we got our marriage
paperwork signed and then It wasn't until a couple of
years later that we actually announced publicly that we had
been married, but that was already after the fact. And then, unfortunately,
my husband was shot in Afghanistan. And at the time,
(21:59):
I had actually just separated from my first enlistment to
start going to school full time UM at the University
of West Florida. And when I got that phone call,
I mean, talk about your heart just sinking into your stomach.
Leading up to that, Andy and I when he would deploy,
and we would have these time periods that we would
(22:22):
set up for us talking on Skype, and that's because
you have your you know, you're there's basically like almost
like a twelve fourteen hour time difference, and so I
would want to make sure that I was available to
speak with him. And I remember talking to him earlier
that day because he was going out on a mission
and he tells me, he's like, yeah, this team isn't
really they're very aggressive, and Andy typically didn't use that
(22:45):
language a little bit, so I knew something was off.
And he had been the second j tech which is
a joint terminal air controller to be replaced on that
team because the other guy had also been hurt. So
I was already uncomfortable with the situation. But then he
told me, he goes, you know, these guys they don't
really want to get to know me, like they're kind
of guarded. And I was like, okay, I'm not liking
(23:05):
the situation. And I had been on the call with
Andy before at different deployments where I could literally hear
gunshots in the background, and I was like, Okay, this
is not just like you don't ever want to have
your significant other, I think in those circumstances. But for me,
I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna push through it,
pretend like it's all good and mind you. That day
(23:26):
and he missed his skype calling time, which I think
was supposed to be around like six or seven, and
then I just knew at that point in time that
something I had this incredibly powerful premonition and I will
get to more of that after our quick break. And
I remember it was my friend's birthday and I told her.
(23:47):
I was like, I there's no way that I can
actually go out with you, like this is not going
to happen, Like I know something's wrong and so um
so I fell asleep and I told her. I couldn't go.
I fell asleep watching Netflix, and then at a round
(24:10):
four o'clock in the morning, I got this phone call,
and I'm so angry because I like saw the numbers,
like it looks like twenty something numbers long, it's like
a plus whatever the numbers are, and I was like,
I figured it might have been Andy Boda wasn't sure,
so I answered, and he goes, hey, babe, what are
(24:33):
you doing? And so, of course, being sarcastic and ticked off,
I go, I don't know, sleeping. What do you think
I'm doing. It's four o'clock in the morning. Why don't
you call me? I was stressing out word and before
I could even finish saying what I was going to say,
Andy literally on the phone, he goes, well, you know,
nothing's missing, but I got shot. And so I heard that,
(24:53):
And you want to talk about going from like kind
of being half asleep and ticked off to just up.
And I just completely at that point in time, like
really I didn't know what to expect. I freaked out
and I saw I was up, and just like my
heart dropped and then it just went radio silence. And
at that point, you know, you have so many emotions
going through your head and you don't really know what's happening.
(25:16):
And then I'm like, hello, is this a joke? Like Andy?
And then I realized he wasn't talking and I just
maybe for about it seemed like years, but it was
probably about just ten seconds of silence. And then this
really sweet man gets on the phone. He goes, oh
my gosh, Anna, UM, I'm so sorry, this is chaplain
so and so are you okay? I this wasn't supposed
(25:37):
to happen like this, and so I'm still trying to
figure out what's really going on. And he had told
me that Andy had been shot in Afghanistan and that
it had happened actually because I asked him the time
frame around the same time that Andy had missed his
call in time with me that I was freaking out
to my friends saying I can't go out with you,
something's wrong and had actually happened around that point in time,
(25:58):
and I didn't I wasn't notified several hours later. So,
I mean, I do believe that, especially when you're really
connected with someone, that you can just pick up on that.
I mean, they talk about these twin studies and how
people see, you know, their family members after they passed,
or they just know, And for me especially, it was
one of those things. And it's kind of funny because
my mom always says that our side of the family,
(26:20):
that the lunas have this ability to just sense things.
And I really do believe that after this. I mean,
my mom knew when her mother passed away. There's been
other stories about my grandmother, my Grandma Juty, actually knowing
about when her family members were in trouble or so
I I really do. I think I have that spiritual
aspect of me that feels like I had this connection
with Andy and I was able to just know that
(26:42):
something was wrong. But after that happened, it wasn't easy
recovering from that. Andy was actually medivact obviously out of
that situation, and then he did his He was brought
to Walter Reed, which is in Maryland, and it was
in Maryland that I really saw the aspect of war
that I think a lot of people miss out in
Hollywood movies. You know, Hollywood tries to make war glamorous.
(27:04):
They try to make it this romantic thing, and it's
anything but that. You know, you're talking about being in
a hospital with young kids, sometimes like seventeen years old,
because with parental permission, you can actually join the military
at seventeen, eighteen, nine, twenty years old that probably should
be off in college. And you're seeing them, you know,
missing a limb here, like quadriplegics because they got hit
(27:26):
by an i D. And they're there for years recovering
and through this process, and you're seeing all this and
at the time, I must have been maybe twenty three
years old, and this is what I'm going through now
with someone that I really very much so love, And
then I'm realizing, oh my god, Like when my mom
was freaking out at that call so many years ago,
it's because she was worried that this would happen to me. Granted,
(27:49):
my job wasn't anything combat oriented, and I never deployed,
and it wasn't because I didn't want to. It's just
because my deployment, my bucket number never came up. But
when I told that I was leaving, that's what she
was worried about. And then I understood. But it was
after Andy left the hospital and we started the recovery
process that I realized how much information. Although I had
(28:12):
been a military member and although I sat through so
many of those briefings talking about post traumatic stress disorder
and what happens, you know, after a military member comes home,
it wasn't real to me until that happened. And I
think that for a lot of military members, there's this
stigma that exists about PTSD or about what happens in
(28:33):
these deployment situations. And because that stigma is there, because
they call it a disorder, people don't want to get
the help that they need. And we saw it happened
with so many of our friends. You know, they deploy
as one person, come back as someone completely separate. Granted,
of course, if you're experiencing those things, those circumstances, you're
going to change, right Like I had nowhere near I
(28:56):
think any of this war situation experience, but it changed
me as a person. So I could only imagine people
deploying every six months coming back to an environment that's
completely different after having seen some of probably the worst
atrocities that exist in human kind. Is it's what's shown
in war, and then they come back and they're expected
(29:17):
to be normal, and it's anything but that. And so
Andy and I together we reconnected and we started and
again after experiencing all this part of what kept my
marriage together as I was able to be Andy's friend
first and foremost. And I think that a lot of times,
especially in marriages, people are like, Okay, well, how do
I reconnect with my spouse? How do we work through this?
(29:38):
And so I realized with Andy it was ultimately friend first,
wife second, and and that's really what kept us together.
So we started shooting together at a range actually on
the Panhandle, and after that I started using my social
media to really start working with different veteran nonprofits that
were specifically dealing with post traumatic stress disorder. So at
(30:01):
the time, I'd like to make important note that I
had separated from my first enlistment to essentially focus on
my undergrad which was in biology study for the MCAT
and apply to medical school. So during this time period
Andy gets shot, I started my first full time semester
of college. I fully withdraw, which pushes my medical school
(30:24):
application timeline back a full year because at that point,
having to lose that semester, it was going to push
all of my classes back literally a year. So I
was fine with that though, because obviously I wanted to
be with Andy and he needed my help, and I don't,
you know, regret that decision at all, But had that
(30:44):
not happened, I would not have gone the political route.
And so it's interesting again, Sometimes things happen in your
life and maybe you don't understand why God is working
behind the scenes. But let me tell you, if that
had not happened, hands down, I would not be where
I'm at today. It was through my work with different
(31:05):
veteran nonprofits that I came across one in particular that
was dealing with human trafficking at the US Mexico border.
And this veteran nonprofit specifically dealt with child trafficking. And
at the time, like most people my age twentysomething year old,
just graduating from college, trying to apply to medical school,
(31:27):
there was a lot going on. So I wouldn't say
that I was necessarily all that political. But this organization,
after I started reading into child trafficking, I was so
almost like frustrated but upset and then heartbroken at the
same time because of what I saw that these kids
were going through the whole concept of trafficking that's not
(31:50):
a conspiracy theory. I was able to request actually wrote
the State Department and I asked for their human Trafficking Report,
and they have actually sent me the entire copy of
it every single year since, and I've gone through it,
especially reading on Mexico South like portions of South America
and the United States, because that's right here and in
(32:12):
our backyard. And when I read through that, I was
I just knew I had to do something about it.
So at the time, I started using my social media
in order to talk on this topic. And I remember
posting a story about a young woman. Her name was
Carla jssin though, and I had actually found the article
on her that was written by CNN, and I think
(32:35):
it was written in I could be wrong, but it
was no. It was written so clearly we know that
CNN is aware that this is an issue. That there
had been other organizations that at the time, I didn't
know that they were liberal, but other liberal organizations had
reported on it, to include Uni Seth. And I had
(32:57):
all this information and I'm putting it online. I put
this article about this girl named Carla, and it was
simply the headline, her photo and the CNN title saying
she was raped around forty three thousand times other the
time period that she had been trafficked and I saw that,
and I mean, you see that number, and it's almost unbelievable, right,
(33:20):
But the fact is is that people that are trafficked
are raped, and they're forced into doing things that they
don't want to do, and they are treated like objects.
And so those numbers are real. And the alarming thing
to me was, though, is that so many people after
I posted this were uninformed as to what was happening.
(33:41):
And to give you a time period, this was tail
end of beginning of but so many people were uninformed
that they thought that was a made up story, that
it wasn't real, that wasn't happening. And at the time,
I had maybe on my Instagram around thirty to forty people.
So what I decided to do is I decided to
(34:03):
continue posting. And then my kind of light bulb moment
where I realized that I would have to take a
political stance on this was in the beginning of mind you,
this is prior to the November elections. I had heard
kind of murmurs of a candidate Trump, but I didn't
(34:25):
necessarily know who that was, and I really I wasn't
even registered to vote. So to give you some perspective.
I didn't grow up in a political household. Although I
didn't know that my mom was actually and I found
this later on, she was a staunch Democrat. I did
not know that at the time, but I remember hearing
a little bit about the border, and I agreed with
(34:48):
strong border policy because I was now informed as to
what was happening on the trafficking. And also, to mind you,
my family is part Mexican, and so I'm not looking
at this because I'm xenophobic or I'm anti immigrant. I'm
looking at this because it's it's a literally humanitarian crisis
and there's bad things happening. And this is happening because
(35:12):
people are literally able to easily access this country through
the southern border. And so I started taking a political stance.
And I remember, at the time I was watching CNN.
I did not know that political propaganda exist. It does.
For those that are listening. You're probably nodding your head
with me. It absolutely does. I was sitting in a
(35:32):
hotel room and I was working on something for school,
and I had the TV on in the background and
it was on CNN, and I wasn't actually really listening
until I heard them cover a segment, and the guy said,
this train was stopped because there was women and children
and cartel members on board, and so at that point
(35:52):
I kind of just turned from what I was doing.
I started watching the segment on television, and as the
reporter continues, they were talking about a train that was
coming up from South America that had been stopped in
Mexico City by the federal police because of what was
all on board. And as I'm listening to the commentator,
(36:13):
at first I'm thinking that he's going to start talking
about trafficking, but I was completely wrong. He started talking
about how here at CNN or here, we believe that
everyone has the right to access this country. And so
they actually ended up, from what I remember, putting together
money someone at the network put together money to bring
(36:33):
these people to the border, and then they filmed border
patrol turning them away, and then they ended the segment
with this Donald Trump person is apparently, according to this segment,
anti immigrant, and then it was like that was it,
and it cut to like a pillow commercial. And I
(36:55):
remember sitting there and I remember looking at this looking
at the TV screen like I was shocked. And then
at that point I got angry because I realized that
these people were being exploited for this political agenda against
someone who was running that I agreed with as a
(37:18):
half Hispanic. But I agreed with this person because I knew,
I was informed as to what was happening at the border,
and so I didn't know what to do except take
my phone and I recorded this video and I wish
I still had it because it went pretty viral. Actually
ended up removing it though, because I got so much
hate from this video, and all I said was, look,
(37:40):
I have worked to kind of help expose what's happening
with trafficking at the border. I am not racist, I'm
not xenophobic. In fact, I'm half Hispanic. My grandmother literally
is from Mexico City. But I don't agree with open borders,
and I don't agree with what they did, and they
were literally making the political and it should not be political.
(38:02):
This is something that's a humanitarian issue, and every single person,
if you care about people, if you claim to care
about this country, if you care about humanity, you will
know that open borders hurt an open border hurts people
on both sides. And so I posted that video, and
oh my gosh, it was the worst digital abuse I've
(38:23):
probably had to this day. I mean, some of the
messages that I was receiving from people were absolutely vile.
They were calling me a race trader. They said that
I was too that I was whitewashed, that I would
never be Hispanic, that I should be ashamed of myself,
that I was just, that the Hispanic culture would never
accept me, and that I was being used by white
(38:44):
people to pedal a message. I mean, it was so
vile that even just saying that today on this episode,
I mean, think about that these people didn't know who
I was, and yet because of the color of my skin,
because they were on the other side side of the
political spectrum, they were going to make such racially charged
(39:04):
and abuse of comments to me. And by the way,
I'm not ashamed of the fact that I'm half white.
I'm not ashamed of the fact that i'm half Hispanic.
In fact, I'm very proud of both. And I'm not
going to hate just one side because of political ideologies.
That's completely wrong. That's not how I was raised. And
in fact, my mother, my sister, my brother, and my
own father were all different colors of the rainbow. Okay,
(39:27):
we're all different shades, and so I've never looked at
someone's skin color to decide for them how they should
politically vote, or to decide what they were ethnically, because
the fact is is that the United States is such
a cultural and ethnic melting pot that there are many
people of many different mixed races. And I was not
raised to treat people like that. And so after I
(39:49):
saw that, I mean, I remember reading through the comments
and then I stopped myself halfway through and I said,
I'm not gonna do this to myself. Obviously there's a
lot of angry, negative people, but it's because they don't know.
And how can you expect people to understand if they
don't have all the facts. And so that's when I
made my decision to use my social media to educate people.
(40:12):
I realized that I had somewhat of a platform, and
I figured, I'm going to medical school. That's my game
plan here. I already worked with some incredible organizations and
shout out to Global Surgical Medical Support Group because Dr
Epstein there. He was actually my mentor for the route
that I was going. And it was Dr Epstein that
(40:33):
actually helped me decide to pursue politics. Instead of medicine
and moving forward from that. Maybe a couple of months
later after I posted that video, I came across Turning
Point USA, which is a conservative nonprofit. It was founded
by Charlie Kirk. They called me no kidding the day
(40:53):
before I was supposed to go to medical school to
offer me the position as their national Hispanic Outreach director,
and at the time, Charlie Kirk calls me, and I
didn't really know who Charlie was, and he goes, Hi
on end. I remember I was standing out in front
of my house and he goes, We've been looking at
(41:14):
what you're doing on your social media and you're one
of the only young Hispanic conservatives doing that. And actually
that was kind of the first time that someone had
actually called me conservative, because I know this sounds weird,
but I didn't know what a conservative was, and i'd
even really know, you know, what views I grew up with.
(41:34):
I know, I never thought about that. I was like,
that just never crossed my mind. But everything that I
was fighting for was a conservative value system. And this
also ties into my story growing up. I mean, you
want to talk about experiencing violence and especially that of
quote unquote people that would like to pass anti gun legislation.
(41:55):
They always used stories like mine. I had been I
had walked into an armed robbery at nine years old.
I had a cousin that was actually shot in the
head by her boyfriend. I had experienced the gang shooting
on campus. I had a friend later on in life, Juliana,
that was murdered when I was a nineteen years old.
And then when I joined the military, I had a
really scary experience of someone that was breaking into my house.
(42:17):
So my story, it never once occurred to me that
guns were bad, but I always knew that it was
the people that were the problem, not the fire. And
it was in fact myself that got my concealed carry
that really empowered me to protect myself again. And I
was talking about all of these things, but I didn't
know that that was part of what the conservative value
system was. And so Charlie calls me, goes, you're the
(42:38):
only young Hispanic conservative talking about this, and and really
people media that are Hispanic aren't even talking about it,
but you are. Can you come work with us? And
at that point in time, I remember kind of earlier
that those last couple of days I had a feeling
that they were going to reach out to me, but
I just wasn't sure. And I remember walking my dog
(43:00):
and having this I guess coming to Jesus moment where
I was like, okay, God, I really was hoping to
go to medical school. And I assure you that being
in a library somewhere would probably be more relaxing than
a political endeavor. But this is how I can best
help people. Then then this is around a minute ago,
and I talked to Dr Epstein. He said, you know,
(43:20):
on a you can help more people through legislation, then
you would entiree your entire lifetime as a physician. And
that's not to throw shade it physicians, because I've met
some incredible physicians, but he was right. Legislation impacts nationally,
and it impacts people's lives. And if I really wanted
to make this change, I had to do it through legislation,
and that meant eventually running for office. And so Charlie
(43:44):
calls me, and I didn't want to end up like
Joan in the whale in the Bible, and so I
asked Charlie said, well, well, Charlie, I'm supposed to leave
tomorrow to go to medical school, so you know why me?
And he again he's like, we we need your help,
like there a lot that we're up against, and you
have this incredible voice and your story. And he's like,
(44:05):
we're working alongside right now. Currently we have Candice Owens
who is our director of urban Engagement. Would you consider
coming to work with us? And so I googled Candace
Ellens and I was like, Okay, she's pretty cool. She
lines with me, people like you had to google her? Yes,
I had a Google her. And I took the job.
And I wrote my admissions director at the university that
(44:28):
I had gotten into and I said I will not
be in attendance. And it was the next week that
I flew out to Arizona to meet with the Turning
Points staff and then I came on board as their
national director of Hispanic Engagement. And it was through there
that I started doing outreach, grassroots activism. I was able
to travel the entire country and really through that talked
(44:51):
to kids from all colors and creeds. Kind of reminded
me of the military a little bit, actually, to be
honest with you, and I was able to debate ideologies,
which is so important. But I was able to do
it in a respectful fashion, which I think for most people,
especially through social media, it's something kind of that we've lost,
is being able to respectfully debate your opinion. And it
(45:12):
was through those experiences that I realized very shortly into
that job, probably two months after taking it, that I
would have to run for congressional office. I realized that
the media did not If I wasn't talking about what
stories the producers wanted me to talk about, they weren't
going to book me on television. And so I noticed
(45:32):
that every single news station, even if they didn't like
the political official that they were talking about, they were
talking about what the legislators were doing in d C.
And And that's the biggest Mike is being able to
get into office and change the discussion nationally, to help
focus America's attention on what issues are truly going to
help save this country and how we can take our
(45:54):
position as a world superpower and use that to make
a world a better place. And so for me, it
has been on the immigration topic, and it has been
on this whole topic of trafficking. Is that's why I
got politicals because I wanted to help people, And so
shortly thereafter I started trying to figure out how to
run for office, and there's no how to run for Congress,
(46:17):
and I'll actually be doing a separate episode on the
process of that entirely. But it was after I ran
and then I fully saw the process and actually was
able to win the Republican nomination in Florida for Florida's
third team congressional district, that I fully now understood how
(46:38):
DC works. I understood about the corporate lobbying. I understood
about why the media does what they do, and how
much propaganda is a thing within the mainstream media, but
not just that, how they will lie to entire demographics
of people, whether you are black, White, Hispanic, or Asian,
in order to get a certain voting base, or whether
(46:58):
you're a woman verse as a man. They do use
divisive politics in order to get people angry so that
they'll vote. And I realized all of that, and so
my story, I think, is again something that I've been
able to and I felt comfortable sharing because I realized
how much of an impact it has on people. Knowing
(47:21):
that you can essentially come from nothing, and only in
the United States can you come from nothing and attain everything.
Through hard work and effort. Only in the United States
can someone like myself who literally grew up young, single
mother household, had family members literally that were and and
drugs and violence infecting my family. Would I be able
(47:42):
to join the military, pay my way through college debt free,
and essentially become the Republican nominee for US Congress, and
move forward to not just write a book, but have
a deal with I heart Radio, but also to I think,
in the future be one of the most important voices
to the conservative Hispanic demographic, which is now the largest
(48:03):
voting minority in the country. And it is through my experiences,
through that of my family, that I have developed the
character that I have, And instead of choosing to be
a victim about it, I embrace it. I use it
as my armor to help me move forward and fight
for what I believe is right the American Christian to
jail value system here in this country. I've experienced these things,
(48:25):
whether they were bad at the time or not, they
empowered me to fight what I believe in to this day.
And I do believe that that was God working in
my life at an early time, and so I could
not be happier as to where I'm at today, and
for all of those tuning in, just remember you are
the captain of your ship. You are so gifted. You
(48:47):
are born and lucky to be born in one of
the greatest countries in the world. So don't let that
slip by you. Use that be empowered to tell your story,
to help others and to help save this country. Before
we go, I wanted to thank you guys very much
for tuning into my very first episode. If you enjoy
(49:07):
today's show, please leave us a five star review on
the Apple Podcast. You can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook,
and Instagram at real Anna Paulina. And a very special
thank you to our producer Drew Steele, writer Aaron Kleigman,
researcher sets In Bryson, and executive producers Debbie Myers and
Speaker new Ingridge, part of the Gingridge three sixty network.
Up next, Luna talks with Anna Paulina. Luna part of
the gang, which young poor Hispanic raised by a single mother,
people who grew up like me. You are supposed to
end up just another statistic, another life full of so
much energy and potential that becomes trapped in a web
of welfare and poverty. But not me, not in this life.
(00:20):
Let me tell you how I refuse to become a
victim and made my own reality and now hosting my
own podcast. Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning
into my podcast. I'm so excited to have this, especially
with I Heart Radio. But this week, instead of talking
about what we will be usually talking about every week,
(00:41):
which is issues not just politically but social and nationally,
I wanted to share with you my story. And it's
a little bit different because I want you to know
exactly who I am. Every single week that we do talk,
I said, from this one, We're gonna be talking about
other issues, especially the national ones, but I want you
to know where I come from, my perspective and why
(01:04):
I believe what I do, So please tune in. This
one's very special to me, very personal, and other than
that each week will have I'm an awesome meeting time
where you guys can come tune in, find out information,
straight talk, no political influence or propaganda, just my opinions,
me and you, and a place where you can come
with the whole family. So a lot of people, I
(01:25):
think looking at me, the general assumption is that you know,
I'm a young woman, probably didn't experience much other than
Starbucks and yoga pants right at ug boots. But I
think that there's so much more to that. Growing up,
I think that my unexpected path into politics was really
influenced by God. I think that a lot of times
(01:46):
when we look back at previous life circumstances and we
might not necessarily have an understanding as to why certain
things are happening the way that they are. But what
I found is in my journey that a lot of
what I've a id on to give me strength and
my voice to fight for what I believe is right
and for fighting for the American dream in this country
has really come from what I experienced as a child
(02:09):
and as a young adult and starting out. And I
give so much credit to my mom because she really
did raise me. As a young single mother. My mom
had me at around twenty years old. She had my
father actually when she was fairly young, and my mom
realizing it now, you know, you see how much I
think a young mother would go through. But ultimately, my
(02:32):
mom made the decision to choose life over abortion, and
that's not I think an easy decision for a lot
of young women, especially from the circumstances in which she
came from, which was essentially a really rough upbringing. I mean,
my maternal grandmother actually died of AIDS studo heroin use.
Drugs were prevalent, not just on my mom's side, but
(02:52):
really on my father's side as well, and she was
the only person that could take care of me. She
had no family to rely on. It's not like we
had a strong extended network of people that could really
care for her and care for me, and so we
did it on our own, and I remember those struggles
growing up. I mean, the earliest memory I have from
toys is actually going to this place called the Giving Spot.
(03:15):
And at the time I thought it was awesome. You know,
you'd go into it and it was like all these
toys everywhere and they were free. But what it was
is it was actually a donation center. And I look
back at that now and I see all of the
success that I've experienced, and then sometimes I bring it
up with my mom. But those are some of my
early memories as to what I thought was normal and
(03:37):
I didn't know any different. With my story, I want
people to remember that this is not a victim story.
This is about coming across being dealt with cards that
might not necessarily be in your favor, but being able
to take control of your life and change the outcome
if you're willing to put forward the hard work and
the effort in order to create your own reality. So
(04:01):
moving forward from that, it was hard. My dad was
not really in the picture. He as much as he
loved me and as much as he loved my mom,
ultimately their relationship did not work out because my father
really struggled with addiction. And for me as a child,
my father was such, you know, a superhero, and I
(04:22):
think a lot of younger kids you look at your
parents and they're just your night in shining armor. It
wasn't until I think I was really in high school
that I realized that my dad did have a severe
drug problem. He was using meth. Some of the times
I actually do remember I would come across different paraphernalia,
and I'm actually lucky that I was smart enough to
(04:43):
as a child navigate that and not try that stuff
or not ingested, because I think, honestly, probably could have
killed me. But those stories, especially now when we talk
about what's happening, you know with the Southern Board. I'll
get into the political aspect in a second. Seeing the
direct impact that all of this has had of my
family really does give me this fire and compassion to
(05:07):
want to share my story and fight the good fight
so that other people are aware of the impacts that
it has, especially to when we talk about the welfare
state and what impacts a fatherless home has on family
development and longer term impacts, whether it's the juvenile justice
system or whether it is talking about the welfare system,
the welfare state and then really setting children up for success,
(05:29):
the father is instrumental in all of that. Moving forward
from that, just to kind of give you guys some perspective,
you know, my dad again, having these experiences my father.
If I didn't go through them, I wouldn't be the
person that I am today. But you know, I do
remember things like we were at this hotel once and
(05:49):
my dad was using with one of his friends, and
he left actually me there at the hotel with my
friend den Hey and her older sister and her younger sister,
and so it was just the three of us, and
my mom actually ended up having to come get me
and found out that I was left at this hotel
because later on that day my father had been arrested.
(06:10):
And you know, you talk about these experiences and people
look at me and they just don't understand the magnitude
of what I've been through and why I'm conservative. People
so many times you're like, I don't understand. You know,
you're half Hispanic, you're half white, like you're a young woman,
and they assume because of how I look, that I'm
going to vote a certain way, and it just it
could be the farthest thing from the truth. So that
(06:31):
broken home mentality really did again provide me with a
lot of insight as to what things work and what
other things don't work, especially when it comes to policy.
But it wasn't necessarily all bad. Some of my youngest
memories with both my mother and my father is you know,
my my my own side. As much as she tried
to shelter me, I remember going to visit her family
(06:53):
on the weekends, and they would have these massive, I
want to say, like house parties, not like crazy drinking.
But we have a very musical family on that side,
so a lot of people would be singing and playing
the guitar, and very large family extended on that side.
And then on my dad's side, when I would go
to see him, you know, on the weekend instead of
going out, and you have like the ice cream truck guy.
(07:13):
When I would be with him on visitation, we would
have the alote guy, and so he would go around
with this basket and he'd be squeezing this horn, you know,
kind of getting people to go outside, and for a
dollar you could get two pieces of a lotte, which
is basically corn with mayo and and the chili pepper
on it and everything. And we'd got there and we
sit on the curb and eat that. You know, we'd
have the carne sava and tacos and or chata, or
(07:35):
we'd stop by my uncle Phelippa's house. And it was
interesting because as a child, you know, I grew up
actually with my father speaking Spanish around me, but I
didn't necessarily learn that, and I actually to this day.
Sometimes I asked my dad, I'm like, you know, why
didn't you teach it to me growing up? And I
think that from my father, he more or less wanted
me to assimilate. He grew up going back and forth
(07:56):
to Mexico City a lot, and for me, for whatever reason,
he wanted me to, I guess, embrace being an American.
He you know, he was first hin, I was second generation.
But you know, it wasn't ntil later on in life
that I realized, you know, being able to speak Spanish
is actually important, especially culturally to me as well. And
so I actually was able to spend a couple of
years in high school and college learning that. But you know,
(08:18):
you have these memories and then back to kind of
as who I am. You know. One of my best
memories as a child was with my great grandma Luna,
and she had come to visit my mom and me,
and we were sitting in the living room and there
used to be back in the nineties. It was a
Spanish soap opera and it was called Luz Gladita, and
(08:39):
it was about this young girl and she would always
wear her hair in two different braids, about three quarters
braided down and My grandma loved watching this show, and
so I would sit there in the living room with her,
and she would actually sit there pet my head and
do my hair like the little girl in the show.
And you know that, to me, whenever I thought about
the bad, I also remember the good. So I think
(09:01):
that that's actually been in part a big reason why
I've been able to push through is because everyone, no
matter what walk of life you're in, I think people
are going to have both negative and positive experiences, and
it's how you choose to move forward with that. You
don't ever fully dwell in the past, because that won't
help you as an adult moving forward, and it won't
help you or your family in regards to how you
(09:23):
can better your life for everyone. So, when I turned
about fourteen years old, my mom had actually gone through
a pretty crazy divorce and we moved to Los Angeles,
and for me, growing up in southern California, especially during
that era, what I experienced I thought was normal. I
didn't think that anything that I was going through at
(09:44):
the time was anything that anyone else didn't go through, right.
It wasn't until I actually joined the military that I
realized how abnormal those conditions were. But when I moved
to Los Angeles, I think that was the time where
I started becoming a teenager and my world just expanded,
you know. I started working from the time that I
was sixteen, and having gone from basically being in Santa
(10:05):
Ana area and South Orange County and then moving to
Los Angeles, you do have a change in the education systems.
But it's not just that. It's it's a change in
the demographic as well. Right you have inner city Los
Angeles being probably one of the most prevalent gang infested
places in the country, and here I was this young
girl basically moving into that with a young single mother
(10:27):
and then my younger two siblings. It wasn't just a
shock for us in regards to some of the things
that I would experience, but for me it was eye opening.
I mean, one, I ended up going to six high schools,
and one of the six high schools I went to
was really, really bad. They had tried to bust in
kids from Crenshawn Inglewood. And what a result of it
(10:51):
was is that you had gangs, you had gang wars,
and you had people fighting over turf. But there was
also I think this aspect of racial fighting between the
predominantly black and the predominantly Hispanic gangs in the area,
and I saw that. I remember the riots at Santa
(11:11):
Monica High School and basically all over you'd hear rumors
of them calling in the cops and shutting down because
they were having these serious gang issues. We're about to
get into my story where I tell you guys about
the gang shooting on my high school campus, So stay tuned.
We'll be right back after this quick break. I remember
being on campus. It was in the afternoon, and I
(11:35):
remember hearing two gun shots. I ultimately ended up being
right outside my classroom. There was a gang shooting on campus.
Between it was a I think an older boy and
a younger boy, and I think they're actually I don't
know what they're fighting over, but I remember leaving the classroom.
I didn't know what to do, Okay, I was like
someone pulled the fire alarm. We heard the shots. I'm
walking out of the classroom. I walk out to see
(11:56):
this group of kids huddled around. I get it was
the boy who had been shot, and another boy runs
away crying. And at the time, like we didn't really
have cell phones, so I just walked home and I
remember getting home and my mom grabs me. She's like,
oh my god, are you like kissing me on the forehead.
She's like, I just heard what happened. I'm never sending
(12:16):
you back to that school. And that this is, mind you,
after I had been jumped at that school, actually got
a concussion, This is after, you know, I was basically
at this point, so traumas highs from I think the
education system there. I mean I had girls in my
Spanish class that would come back in after fighting people
in the bathroom and one store in particular. And I
know you guys are probably thinking this is crazy, but
(12:37):
it's true. Her name was Paula, and she had come
back in from the bathroom and I noticed her hair
was messed up. I was like, are you okay? And
she had told me that she had literally just cut
some girl's face in the bathroom. Okay. So I got home,
I told my mom this, and I think after this,
in conjunction with the shooting and then obviously me being
jumped to my mom made the good decision of pulling
(12:58):
me out of that school, and then I ultimately ended
up graduating barely. But the point was is that, you know,
these experiences. Again, going back to who I am talking
about being battle hardened. I really feel like I kind
of went through all of the fire early on in
life and it prepared me for this political arena that
I'm now stepping into. But you know, through all that,
(13:18):
I did have dreams. I wanted to go to college.
I just I didn't know how. And I know that's
a weird concept, but I didn't know how to apply.
I didn't know that you had to take the A
C T or the S A T. In fact, I
didn't even know what that was. I didn't know how
I was going to pay for it. And the one
thing that my mom always told me, she goes, you know, like,
try not to take out loans. And I give her
(13:41):
so much credit for this because now I think a
big discussion is about the student loaned up. And for me,
I just remember my mom saying, you know, you're so caring,
you would be an incredible doctor, but but don't take
out the loans, like, try to do it on your own,
try to pay for it, because she's like, you don't
want the debt. It can really you know, like her
you in the long run, And so I always kind
(14:03):
of kept that in the back of my mind. And
I stayed in l A probably about a year after
my mom had left, which would have made me about
eighteen nineteen years old. And then I remember being at
a party. Of course, you know, being a young kid,
that's what you do out there, especially when you're on
your own, and I met this really incredible girl in
(14:23):
her name was Julianna. It was actually Juliana Redding, and
you know, I was out close with her, but I
would see her out and I just remember her being
so pretty and so kind. And then one day I
get a call from my friend Michelle to tell me
that Juliana had actually been murdered. And when that happened,
I think that that was when I basically cashed in
my chips with l A. I said, I'm not I'm
(14:44):
not doing this anymore. I like it was just too
much for me. And I ultimately ended up basically going
back to my mom's for a little bit and and
I just I was like, it actually traumatized me. Think,
And after I got back to my mom's, she was
she lived near Ocean Side, which is where a large
Marine Corps based installation is, and I actually ended up
(15:05):
being out at a house party and I heard these
two guys talking and they were about my age, maybe
nineteen years old, and they're talking about how the Marine
Corps would pay for college. And I really had no
immediate family in the military, and so I was obviously eavesdropping,
and I apologized for that, but I said, I'm you know,
excuse me, but can you just tell me a little
(15:27):
bit more about that? And I asked them everything that
you could possibly want to know about the military, was like,
do you guys live on your own? How does the
schooling work, what is your training like? And they basically
convinced me at that point in time, at least with
their responses, that I should consider going to talk to recruiters.
So I went on Google. And this is at the
(15:47):
time when people printed out map quest directions. I know
everyone has it on their phone now, but I printed
out map quest directions to go talk to recruiter and
I showed up, and I think the recruiter thought I
was joking at first. He took one at me and
he's like, can I help you? Like, are you lost?
Are you looking for a CVS? Where are you? And
I said, now I'm here to talk to you. And
so I actually I met with my recruiter and I
(16:11):
was considering joining the army at first, but then settled
on the Air Force. And I didn't even tell my
family that I was doing this for me, especially being
that young. I was excited about it. I looked at
it like an adventure, but I was also looking at
it as kind of a way out, a way that
I could find some form and type of way to
(16:32):
help my family. And so I enlisted. And mind you,
this is in the middle of the war in the
Middle East, And of course, the minute I told my mom,
I like had to hold my phone away from my
head because she was like freaking out. She thought I
was going to die. She was crying. She's like, oh
my gosh, what have I done, Like You're gonna get hurt,
(16:53):
And obviously I did not. And then you know, later on,
especially right before I ended up leaving, she was the
one that actually drove me out to MAPS, which is
your military in processing station, with my dad, and they
dropped me off and they ended up being okay with it.
But having that experience, having joined the military at such
a young age, if there's one thing I can say
(17:14):
that was probably one of the best decisions I ever
made in my life. And having been that young from
that type of environment and upbringing, a lot of people
like me are supposed to end up statistics like I
should have probably been sixteen and pregnant. I probably should
have a rap sheet, but I don't, and I think
that that's in large part because I was able to
(17:37):
literally find some form of structure and find a way
out that was going to empower me to help myself
and to help my family. So I left for the
military in February, and it was in the military that
I actually ended up meeting my husband. I also shortly
thereafter started going to school full time after I finished
my training, and it was also in the military terry
(18:00):
that I was able to not just pay for college,
but they literally sat me down, helped me and roll
told me what the a c T was, and I
think it helped me develop as an adult, right like
I spent my young adult life for the first time
in my life with a structure that I needed to excel.
I knew that I had rent paid, I knew that
I had a car because I was getting a reliable job.
(18:23):
I had health insurance, and my sergeants at my base,
wherever I was at, they almost more or less took
this i'd say parental type of role with me and
really did look out for me. And that's something that
I think a lot of times when the military, when people,
especially politicians, they talk about the military said, they say,
you know, the military, according to these people, unfairly targets minorities.
(18:48):
And I look at these people and I just I'm
shocked because if these people saw the environment and the
circumstance that some of us come from, and the opportunity
that the military allows and gives you to really succeed
in life, I think that these people would have a
different opinion. You know, I worked from people all the
(19:08):
way from the inner cities of Chicago, Detroit, two kids
that were trust fund kids that wanted to just prove
to their parents that they could essentially do it on
their own. So you're talking about the one place in
the country probably that everyone is created the same. You
were the same uniform. You show up to work. You're
working with people who you would probably never outside of
(19:29):
that environment maybe talk to because of how they look
or how they dressed, or where they're from. And yet
it's in the military where you can come together and
work towards a common goal and put the mission first,
and that again is probably one of the most incredible
experiences I could have had early on, and it was
in the military that I think I started developing my
leadership skills. So I was obviously awarded the Air Force
(19:51):
Accommodation Medal, and when I got to my first duty station,
I also became the President of the Airman's Council, which
at the time I didn't think was a big deal.
I mean, I would help younger airmen work on their EPR,
which is our enlisted performance reports. I would put together
food drives and donation drives across base. But I realized
(20:12):
looking back on it that that was basically me, I
think early on taking this leadership position, and it was
one of the first that I had. And also too,
I was able to work with different airmen to organize
them for Airmen against drunk driving, which is kind of
a I say the military did it first, but it
was basically our version of UBER for military members. If
you went out, we would actually um come pick you
(20:34):
up and you would just call a number and then
we would log it and bring you home safely. So
that we could avoid DUIs and drunk driving. So that
was one of my first i'd say big taskings in
addition to the military that I really wanted to make
change and I saw a way to do it, and
so I took that initial action. And then it was
in the military that again going back to how I
(20:55):
met my husband Andy, we actually had a mutual friend
and at the time I did not want to at
all get involved with anyone. I was trying to just
focus on my education, kind of like that Beyonce Song.
I wanted to be a young independent woman. And yet
I met him literally eight months into joining the military,
(21:15):
and he obviously busted out of the friend zone because
we were not romantically involved at first. We were just friends,
but ended up being one of the best things that
could have happened to me life. He really is one
of my best friends, and we actually had a looped
in secret. We did our paperwork at a small coffee
shop in Missouri, and that was mind you, after finding
a Justice of the Piece who could literally do our
(21:38):
paperwork for us on Veterans Day, so that's actually it
was twenty bucks Veterans Day and we got our marriage
paperwork signed and then It wasn't until a couple of
years later that we actually announced publicly that we had
been married, but that was already after the fact. And then, unfortunately,
my husband was shot in Afghanistan. And at the time,
(21:59):
I had actually just separated from my first enlistment to
start going to school full time UM at the University
of West Florida. And when I got that phone call,
I mean, talk about your heart just sinking into your stomach.
Leading up to that, Andy and I when he would deploy,
and we would have these time periods that we would
(22:22):
set up for us talking on Skype, and that's because
you have your you know, you're there's basically like almost
like a twelve fourteen hour time difference, and so I
would want to make sure that I was available to
speak with him. And I remember talking to him earlier
that day because he was going out on a mission
and he tells me, he's like, yeah, this team isn't
really they're very aggressive, and Andy typically didn't use that
(22:45):
language a little bit, so I knew something was off.
And he had been the second j tech which is
a joint terminal air controller to be replaced on that
team because the other guy had also been hurt. So
I was already uncomfortable with the situation. But then he
told me, he goes, you know, these guys they don't
really want to get to know me, like they're kind
of guarded. And I was like, okay, I'm not liking
(23:05):
the situation. And I had been on the call with
Andy before at different deployments where I could literally hear
gunshots in the background, and I was like, Okay, this
is not just like you don't ever want to have
your significant other, I think in those circumstances. But for me,
I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna push through it,
pretend like it's all good and mind you. That day
(23:26):
and he missed his skype calling time, which I think
was supposed to be around like six or seven, and
then I just knew at that point in time that
something I had this incredibly powerful premonition and I will
get to more of that after our quick break. And
I remember it was my friend's birthday and I told her.
(23:47):
I was like, I there's no way that I can
actually go out with you, like this is not going
to happen, Like I know something's wrong and so um
so I fell asleep and I told her. I couldn't go.
I fell asleep watching Netflix, and then at a round
(24:10):
four o'clock in the morning, I got this phone call,
and I'm so angry because I like saw the numbers,
like it looks like twenty something numbers long, it's like
a plus whatever the numbers are, and I was like,
I figured it might have been Andy Boda wasn't sure,
so I answered, and he goes, hey, babe, what are
(24:33):
you doing? And so, of course, being sarcastic and ticked off,
I go, I don't know, sleeping. What do you think
I'm doing. It's four o'clock in the morning. Why don't
you call me? I was stressing out word and before
I could even finish saying what I was going to say,
Andy literally on the phone, he goes, well, you know,
nothing's missing, but I got shot. And so I heard that,
(24:53):
And you want to talk about going from like kind
of being half asleep and ticked off to just up.
And I just completely at that point in time, like
really I didn't know what to expect. I freaked out
and I saw I was up, and just like my
heart dropped and then it just went radio silence. And
at that point, you know, you have so many emotions
going through your head and you don't really know what's happening.
(25:16):
And then I'm like, hello, is this a joke? Like Andy?
And then I realized he wasn't talking and I just
maybe for about it seemed like years, but it was
probably about just ten seconds of silence. And then this
really sweet man gets on the phone. He goes, oh
my gosh, Anna, UM, I'm so sorry, this is chaplain
so and so are you okay? I this wasn't supposed
(25:37):
to happen like this, and so I'm still trying to
figure out what's really going on. And he had told
me that Andy had been shot in Afghanistan and that
it had happened actually because I asked him the time
frame around the same time that Andy had missed his
call in time with me that I was freaking out
to my friends saying I can't go out with you,
something's wrong and had actually happened around that point in time,
(25:58):
and I didn't I wasn't notified several hours later. So,
I mean, I do believe that, especially when you're really
connected with someone, that you can just pick up on that.
I mean, they talk about these twin studies and how
people see, you know, their family members after they passed,
or they just know, And for me especially, it was
one of those things. And it's kind of funny because
my mom always says that our side of the family,
(26:20):
that the lunas have this ability to just sense things.
And I really do believe that after this. I mean,
my mom knew when her mother passed away. There's been
other stories about my grandmother, my Grandma Juty, actually knowing
about when her family members were in trouble or so
I I really do. I think I have that spiritual
aspect of me that feels like I had this connection
with Andy and I was able to just know that
(26:42):
something was wrong. But after that happened, it wasn't easy
recovering from that. Andy was actually medivact obviously out of
that situation, and then he did his He was brought
to Walter Reed, which is in Maryland, and it was
in Maryland that I really saw the aspect of war
that I think a lot of people miss out in
Hollywood movies. You know, Hollywood tries to make war glamorous.
(27:04):
They try to make it this romantic thing, and it's
anything but that. You know, you're talking about being in
a hospital with young kids, sometimes like seventeen years old,
because with parental permission, you can actually join the military
at seventeen, eighteen, nine, twenty years old that probably should
be off in college. And you're seeing them, you know,
missing a limb here, like quadriplegics because they got hit
(27:26):
by an i D. And they're there for years recovering
and through this process, and you're seeing all this and
at the time, I must have been maybe twenty three
years old, and this is what I'm going through now
with someone that I really very much so love, And
then I'm realizing, oh my god, Like when my mom
was freaking out at that call so many years ago,
it's because she was worried that this would happen to me. Granted,
(27:49):
my job wasn't anything combat oriented, and I never deployed,
and it wasn't because I didn't want to. It's just
because my deployment, my bucket number never came up. But
when I told that I was leaving, that's what she
was worried about. And then I understood. But it was
after Andy left the hospital and we started the recovery
process that I realized how much information. Although I had
(28:12):
been a military member and although I sat through so
many of those briefings talking about post traumatic stress disorder
and what happens, you know, after a military member comes home,
it wasn't real to me until that happened. And I
think that for a lot of military members, there's this
stigma that exists about PTSD or about what happens in
(28:33):
these deployment situations. And because that stigma is there, because
they call it a disorder, people don't want to get
the help that they need. And we saw it happened
with so many of our friends. You know, they deploy
as one person, come back as someone completely separate. Granted,
of course, if you're experiencing those things, those circumstances, you're
going to change, right Like I had nowhere near I
(28:56):
think any of this war situation experience, but it changed
me as a person. So I could only imagine people
deploying every six months coming back to an environment that's
completely different after having seen some of probably the worst
atrocities that exist in human kind. Is it's what's shown
in war, and then they come back and they're expected
(29:17):
to be normal, and it's anything but that. And so
Andy and I together we reconnected and we started and
again after experiencing all this part of what kept my
marriage together as I was able to be Andy's friend
first and foremost. And I think that a lot of times,
especially in marriages, people are like, Okay, well, how do
I reconnect with my spouse? How do we work through this?
(29:38):
And so I realized with Andy it was ultimately friend first,
wife second, and and that's really what kept us together.
So we started shooting together at a range actually on
the Panhandle, and after that I started using my social
media to really start working with different veteran nonprofits that
were specifically dealing with post traumatic stress disorder. So at
(30:01):
the time, I'd like to make important note that I
had separated from my first enlistment to essentially focus on
my undergrad which was in biology study for the MCAT
and apply to medical school. So during this time period
Andy gets shot, I started my first full time semester
of college. I fully withdraw, which pushes my medical school
(30:24):
application timeline back a full year because at that point,
having to lose that semester, it was going to push
all of my classes back literally a year. So I
was fine with that though, because obviously I wanted to
be with Andy and he needed my help, and I don't,
you know, regret that decision at all, But had that
(30:44):
not happened, I would not have gone the political route.
And so it's interesting again, Sometimes things happen in your
life and maybe you don't understand why God is working
behind the scenes. But let me tell you, if that
had not happened, hands down, I would not be where
I'm at today. It was through my work with different
(31:05):
veteran nonprofits that I came across one in particular that
was dealing with human trafficking at the US Mexico border.
And this veteran nonprofit specifically dealt with child trafficking. And
at the time, like most people my age twentysomething year old,
just graduating from college, trying to apply to medical school,
(31:27):
there was a lot going on. So I wouldn't say
that I was necessarily all that political. But this organization,
after I started reading into child trafficking, I was so
almost like frustrated but upset and then heartbroken at the
same time because of what I saw that these kids
were going through the whole concept of trafficking that's not
(31:50):
a conspiracy theory. I was able to request actually wrote
the State Department and I asked for their human Trafficking Report,
and they have actually sent me the entire copy of
it every single year since, and I've gone through it,
especially reading on Mexico South like portions of South America
and the United States, because that's right here and in
(32:12):
our backyard. And when I read through that, I was
I just knew I had to do something about it.
So at the time, I started using my social media
in order to talk on this topic. And I remember
posting a story about a young woman. Her name was
Carla jssin though, and I had actually found the article
on her that was written by CNN, and I think
(32:35):
it was written in I could be wrong, but it
was no. It was written so clearly we know that
CNN is aware that this is an issue. That there
had been other organizations that at the time, I didn't
know that they were liberal, but other liberal organizations had
reported on it, to include Uni Seth. And I had
(32:57):
all this information and I'm putting it online. I put
this article about this girl named Carla, and it was
simply the headline, her photo and the CNN title saying
she was raped around forty three thousand times other the
time period that she had been trafficked and I saw that,
and I mean, you see that number, and it's almost unbelievable, right,
(33:20):
But the fact is is that people that are trafficked
are raped, and they're forced into doing things that they
don't want to do, and they are treated like objects.
And so those numbers are real. And the alarming thing
to me was, though, is that so many people after
I posted this were uninformed as to what was happening.
(33:41):
And to give you a time period, this was tail
end of beginning of but so many people were uninformed
that they thought that was a made up story, that
it wasn't real, that wasn't happening. And at the time,
I had maybe on my Instagram around thirty to forty people.
So what I decided to do is I decided to
(34:03):
continue posting. And then my kind of light bulb moment
where I realized that I would have to take a
political stance on this was in the beginning of mind you,
this is prior to the November elections. I had heard
kind of murmurs of a candidate Trump, but I didn't
(34:25):
necessarily know who that was, and I really I wasn't
even registered to vote. So to give you some perspective.
I didn't grow up in a political household. Although I
didn't know that my mom was actually and I found
this later on, she was a staunch Democrat. I did
not know that at the time, but I remember hearing
a little bit about the border, and I agreed with
(34:48):
strong border policy because I was now informed as to
what was happening on the trafficking. And also, to mind you,
my family is part Mexican, and so I'm not looking
at this because I'm xenophobic or I'm anti immigrant. I'm
looking at this because it's it's a literally humanitarian crisis
and there's bad things happening. And this is happening because
(35:12):
people are literally able to easily access this country through
the southern border. And so I started taking a political stance.
And I remember, at the time I was watching CNN.
I did not know that political propaganda exist. It does.
For those that are listening. You're probably nodding your head
with me. It absolutely does. I was sitting in a
(35:32):
hotel room and I was working on something for school,
and I had the TV on in the background and
it was on CNN, and I wasn't actually really listening
until I heard them cover a segment, and the guy said,
this train was stopped because there was women and children
and cartel members on board, and so at that point
(35:52):
I kind of just turned from what I was doing.
I started watching the segment on television, and as the
reporter continues, they were talking about a train that was
coming up from South America that had been stopped in
Mexico City by the federal police because of what was
all on board. And as I'm listening to the commentator,
(36:13):
at first I'm thinking that he's going to start talking
about trafficking, but I was completely wrong. He started talking
about how here at CNN or here, we believe that
everyone has the right to access this country. And so
they actually ended up, from what I remember, putting together
money someone at the network put together money to bring
(36:33):
these people to the border, and then they filmed border
patrol turning them away, and then they ended the segment
with this Donald Trump person is apparently, according to this segment,
anti immigrant, and then it was like that was it,
and it cut to like a pillow commercial. And I
(36:55):
remember sitting there and I remember looking at this looking
at the TV screen like I was shocked. And then
at that point I got angry because I realized that
these people were being exploited for this political agenda against
someone who was running that I agreed with as a
(37:18):
half Hispanic. But I agreed with this person because I knew,
I was informed as to what was happening at the border,
and so I didn't know what to do except take
my phone and I recorded this video and I wish
I still had it because it went pretty viral. Actually
ended up removing it though, because I got so much
hate from this video, and all I said was, look,
(37:40):
I have worked to kind of help expose what's happening
with trafficking at the border. I am not racist, I'm
not xenophobic. In fact, I'm half Hispanic. My grandmother literally
is from Mexico City. But I don't agree with open borders,
and I don't agree with what they did, and they
were literally making the political and it should not be political.
(38:02):
This is something that's a humanitarian issue, and every single person,
if you care about people, if you claim to care
about this country, if you care about humanity, you will
know that open borders hurt an open border hurts people
on both sides. And so I posted that video, and
oh my gosh, it was the worst digital abuse I've
(38:23):
probably had to this day. I mean, some of the
messages that I was receiving from people were absolutely vile.
They were calling me a race trader. They said that
I was too that I was whitewashed, that I would
never be Hispanic, that I should be ashamed of myself,
that I was just, that the Hispanic culture would never
accept me, and that I was being used by white
(38:44):
people to pedal a message. I mean, it was so
vile that even just saying that today on this episode,
I mean, think about that these people didn't know who
I was, and yet because of the color of my skin,
because they were on the other side side of the
political spectrum, they were going to make such racially charged
(39:04):
and abuse of comments to me. And by the way,
I'm not ashamed of the fact that I'm half white.
I'm not ashamed of the fact that i'm half Hispanic.
In fact, I'm very proud of both. And I'm not
going to hate just one side because of political ideologies.
That's completely wrong. That's not how I was raised. And
in fact, my mother, my sister, my brother, and my
own father were all different colors of the rainbow. Okay,
(39:27):
we're all different shades, and so I've never looked at
someone's skin color to decide for them how they should
politically vote, or to decide what they were ethnically, because
the fact is is that the United States is such
a cultural and ethnic melting pot that there are many
people of many different mixed races. And I was not
raised to treat people like that. And so after I
(39:49):
saw that, I mean, I remember reading through the comments
and then I stopped myself halfway through and I said,
I'm not gonna do this to myself. Obviously there's a
lot of angry, negative people, but it's because they don't know.
And how can you expect people to understand if they
don't have all the facts. And so that's when I
made my decision to use my social media to educate people.
(40:12):
I realized that I had somewhat of a platform, and
I figured, I'm going to medical school. That's my game
plan here. I already worked with some incredible organizations and
shout out to Global Surgical Medical Support Group because Dr
Epstein there. He was actually my mentor for the route
that I was going. And it was Dr Epstein that
(40:33):
actually helped me decide to pursue politics. Instead of medicine
and moving forward from that. Maybe a couple of months
later after I posted that video, I came across Turning
Point USA, which is a conservative nonprofit. It was founded
by Charlie Kirk. They called me no kidding the day
(40:53):
before I was supposed to go to medical school to
offer me the position as their national Hispanic Outreach director,
and at the time, Charlie Kirk calls me, and I
didn't really know who Charlie was, and he goes, Hi
on end. I remember I was standing out in front
of my house and he goes, We've been looking at
(41:14):
what you're doing on your social media and you're one
of the only young Hispanic conservatives doing that. And actually
that was kind of the first time that someone had
actually called me conservative, because I know this sounds weird,
but I didn't know what a conservative was, and i'd
even really know, you know, what views I grew up with.
(41:34):
I know, I never thought about that. I was like,
that just never crossed my mind. But everything that I
was fighting for was a conservative value system. And this
also ties into my story growing up. I mean, you
want to talk about experiencing violence and especially that of
quote unquote people that would like to pass anti gun legislation.
(41:55):
They always used stories like mine. I had been I
had walked into an armed robbery at nine years old.
I had a cousin that was actually shot in the
head by her boyfriend. I had experienced the gang shooting
on campus. I had a friend later on in life, Juliana,
that was murdered when I was a nineteen years old.
And then when I joined the military, I had a
really scary experience of someone that was breaking into my house.
(42:17):
So my story, it never once occurred to me that
guns were bad, but I always knew that it was
the people that were the problem, not the fire. And
it was in fact myself that got my concealed carry
that really empowered me to protect myself again. And I
was talking about all of these things, but I didn't
know that that was part of what the conservative value
system was. And so Charlie calls me, goes, you're the
(42:38):
only young Hispanic conservative talking about this, and and really
people media that are Hispanic aren't even talking about it,
but you are. Can you come work with us? And
at that point in time, I remember kind of earlier
that those last couple of days I had a feeling
that they were going to reach out to me, but
I just wasn't sure. And I remember walking my dog
(43:00):
and having this I guess coming to Jesus moment where
I was like, okay, God, I really was hoping to
go to medical school. And I assure you that being
in a library somewhere would probably be more relaxing than
a political endeavor. But this is how I can best
help people. Then then this is around a minute ago,
and I talked to Dr Epstein. He said, you know,
(43:20):
on a you can help more people through legislation, then
you would entiree your entire lifetime as a physician. And
that's not to throw shade it physicians, because I've met
some incredible physicians, but he was right. Legislation impacts nationally,
and it impacts people's lives. And if I really wanted
to make this change, I had to do it through legislation,
and that meant eventually running for office. And so Charlie
(43:44):
calls me, and I didn't want to end up like
Joan in the whale in the Bible, and so I
asked Charlie said, well, well, Charlie, I'm supposed to leave
tomorrow to go to medical school, so you know why me?
And he again he's like, we we need your help,
like there a lot that we're up against, and you
have this incredible voice and your story. And he's like,
(44:05):
we're working alongside right now. Currently we have Candice Owens
who is our director of urban Engagement. Would you consider
coming to work with us? And so I googled Candace
Ellens and I was like, Okay, she's pretty cool. She
lines with me, people like you had to google her? Yes,
I had a Google her. And I took the job.
And I wrote my admissions director at the university that
(44:28):
I had gotten into and I said I will not
be in attendance. And it was the next week that
I flew out to Arizona to meet with the Turning
Points staff and then I came on board as their
national director of Hispanic Engagement. And it was through there
that I started doing outreach, grassroots activism. I was able
to travel the entire country and really through that talked
(44:51):
to kids from all colors and creeds. Kind of reminded
me of the military a little bit, actually, to be
honest with you, and I was able to debate ideologies,
which is so important. But I was able to do
it in a respectful fashion, which I think for most people,
especially through social media, it's something kind of that we've lost,
is being able to respectfully debate your opinion. And it
(45:12):
was through those experiences that I realized very shortly into
that job, probably two months after taking it, that I
would have to run for congressional office. I realized that
the media did not If I wasn't talking about what
stories the producers wanted me to talk about, they weren't
going to book me on television. And so I noticed
(45:32):
that every single news station, even if they didn't like
the political official that they were talking about, they were
talking about what the legislators were doing in d C.
And And that's the biggest Mike is being able to
get into office and change the discussion nationally, to help
focus America's attention on what issues are truly going to
help save this country and how we can take our
(45:54):
position as a world superpower and use that to make
a world a better place. And so for me, it
has been on the immigration topic, and it has been
on this whole topic of trafficking. Is that's why I
got politicals because I wanted to help people, And so
shortly thereafter I started trying to figure out how to
run for office, and there's no how to run for Congress,
(46:17):
and I'll actually be doing a separate episode on the
process of that entirely. But it was after I ran
and then I fully saw the process and actually was
able to win the Republican nomination in Florida for Florida's
third team congressional district, that I fully now understood how
(46:38):
DC works. I understood about the corporate lobbying. I understood
about why the media does what they do, and how
much propaganda is a thing within the mainstream media, but
not just that, how they will lie to entire demographics
of people, whether you are black, White, Hispanic, or Asian,
in order to get a certain voting base, or whether
(46:58):
you're a woman verse as a man. They do use
divisive politics in order to get people angry so that
they'll vote. And I realized all of that, and so
my story, I think, is again something that I've been
able to and I felt comfortable sharing because I realized
how much of an impact it has on people. Knowing
(47:21):
that you can essentially come from nothing, and only in
the United States can you come from nothing and attain everything.
Through hard work and effort. Only in the United States
can someone like myself who literally grew up young, single
mother household, had family members literally that were and and
drugs and violence infecting my family. Would I be able
(47:42):
to join the military, pay my way through college debt free,
and essentially become the Republican nominee for US Congress, and
move forward to not just write a book, but have
a deal with I heart Radio, but also to I think,
in the future be one of the most important voices
to the conservative Hispanic demographic, which is now the largest
(48:03):
voting minority in the country. And it is through my experiences,
through that of my family, that I have developed the
character that I have, And instead of choosing to be
a victim about it, I embrace it. I use it
as my armor to help me move forward and fight
for what I believe is right the American Christian to
jail value system here in this country. I've experienced these things,
(48:25):
whether they were bad at the time or not, they
empowered me to fight what I believe in to this day.
And I do believe that that was God working in
my life at an early time, and so I could
not be happier as to where I'm at today, and
for all of those tuning in, just remember you are
the captain of your ship. You are so gifted. You
(48:47):
are born and lucky to be born in one of
the greatest countries in the world. So don't let that
slip by you. Use that be empowered to tell your story,
to help others and to help save this country. Before
we go, I wanted to thank you guys very much
for tuning into my very first episode. If you enjoy
(49:07):
today's show, please leave us a five star review on
the Apple Podcast. You can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook,
and Instagram at real Anna Paulina. And a very special
thank you to our producer Drew Steele, writer Aaron Kleigman,
researcher sets In Bryson, and executive producers Debbie Myers and
Speaker new Ingridge, part of the Gingridge three sixty network.
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