March 25, 2025 • 30 mins
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Imagine a world where your birthplace doesn't dictate your future. In this groundbreaking podcast episode, 74-year-old author Luis Romano shatters the myth of geographical limitation, transforming personal struggle into a powerful narrative of hope and possibility.
From Bronx Projects to Literary Success: A Story of Resilience
Growing up in the challenging landscape of the Bronx, Romano experienced firsthand the crushing weight of societal expectations. Told he wasn't "college material" because of his Italian heritage, he defied every stereotype—becoming a successful businessman and launching his writing career at 58.
Key Insights You'll Discover:
- The profound impact of systemic barriers on youth opportunity
- Real-life stories of individuals who transcended socioeconomic constraints
- Practical inspiration for overcoming societal limitations
- A nuanced exploration of race, geography, and personal potential
"Zip Code": More Than Just a Book—A Movement of Possibility
Romano's novel doesn't just tell a story—it challenges fundamental assumptions about success. By following teenagers who swap lives between the South Bronx and affluent Ridgewood, New Jersey, he exposes how geography and background shape our perceptions of opportunity.
Transformative Takeaways:
- Learn from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's extraordinary journey
- Gain unfiltered advice for navigating societal obstacles
- Understand how personal determination trumps external limitations
A Message of Hope for Every Dreamer
"If anybody tells you you can't do something... just do it." These aren't just words—they're a lifeline for anyone feeling trapped by circumstances. Romano's commitment goes beyond writing; he's actively supporting young readers by offering free book copies to those who can't afford them.
Whether you're a teenager in urban America, a student in rural Africa, or anyone feeling constrained by your background, this episode promises to ignite your potential and challenge your perceived limitations.
Don't miss this transformative conversation that proves your zip code is just a starting point—not your destiny.
To go straight to the book, please click below.
https://louisromanoauthor.com/products/zip-code
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https://www.youtube.com/@TheMindShifter
Thank you for listening.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fatima Bey (00:01):
Welcome to MindShift Power Podcast, the only
international podcast focused onteens, connecting young voices
and perspectives from around theworld.
Get ready to explore the issuesthat matter to today's youth
and shape tomorrow's world.
I'm your host, fatima Bey, theMindShifter, and welcome
everyone.
The Mindshifter and welcomeeveryone.
(00:26):
Today we have with us LuisRomano, and he is from New
Jersey.
He's an author, and today we'regoing to talk about his book
called Zip Code, which is really, really interesting.
So how are you doing today,luis?
Louis Romano (00:40):
I'm great Fatima.
The only thing is I'm not fromNew Jersey, I'm from the Bronx.
I have to correct you there.
I live in New Jersey.
I raised my family in NewJersey, but I'm a Bronx boy from
the projects.
Fatima Bey (00:52):
I didn't mean to hurt your pride, I'm sorry.
No, okay, you're forgiven.
He's in New Jersey now.
Louis Romano (00:57):
Yeah, right, you're forgiven.
Fatima Bey (01:00):
All right, so tell us a bit about your background.
Louis Romano (01:04):
All right, so tell us a bit about your background.
So I was born in the Bronx,like I just said, and I went to
Catholic school, which was goodand bad for me.
I'm a child of immigrants whocame here from Sicily and Italy,
so I had a kind of roughbackground growing up.
The Bronx was kind of tough inthose days.
I went to college after I wastold I couldn't and then I
(01:26):
started after business and afterraising my family in New Jersey
, I started writing novels.
I started writing when I was 58years old, believe it or not,
and I'm old enough to be thegrandparents of most of your,
the grandfather of most of yourlisteners.
Fatima Bey (01:42):
Yes, you are Back up for a second.
You said you went to collegeafter being told you couldn't.
Could you briefly tell us aboutthat?
Louis Romano (01:50):
All right, senior year at St Raymond's High School
for boys in the Bronx, I was abad student.
I'm not going to lie, I'm notthat gifted when it comes to
math and sciences.
I'm probably not that giftedwith anything, but I have a
creative mind.
So that doesn't work whenyou're in a math science school.
For me it didn't.
And I was in my senior year andthe Vietnam War was about to
(02:13):
draft me to go fight Vietnam,which I didn't want to do, and
the brother asked me what I wasgoing to do when I left St
Raymond's and I said I'm goingto go to college, I think,
brother.
He said don't waste yourmother's money.
I said we don't have any money.
I said we live in a project.
There's no money to waste.
He said well, I don't mean thetuition, I mean the application
fee.
Don't even apply.
He said you're Italian.
(02:34):
Take the sanitation departmenttest in New York City, work for
the sanitation department.
And I wanted to say what Iwanted to say to him, but in
those days they used to beat theshit out of you, so I didn't
say it.
I said okay, brother, I'll see.
Then he said well, doesn't yourfamily own a pizza shop or a
restaurant they did.
It was a very famous place.
I said, yeah, he goes.
(02:57):
Well, go learn how to make apizza pie.
I mean, that was my advice as asenior in high school.
Unfortunately, I listened tohim.
I went to a community collegebecause we didn't have any money
.
Then I went to a state collegein New Jersey and then I went to
graduate school in New Jersey.
I did okay in business and thenI had a really good business
career in sales and left thatafter I don't know 35, 40 years
(03:20):
and decided to be a writer.
I opened up a couple ofbusinesses too with the money I
had.
So we did all right.
Fatima Bey (03:27):
I want to say I asked you about that because
unfortunately that was a longtime ago, but unfortunately
there are kids today who arestill being told that they can't
do something or being guidedinto a lesser career than
they're capable of, and thatpisses me off.
Louis Romano (03:44):
Well, that's what zip code's about.
I'd hate to step on your toes,but that's what zip code's about
.
Fatima Bey (03:49):
Yes, it is so.
How many books have you written?
Louis Romano (03:53):
Last count, 21.
Most of them are fiction, crimefiction, serial killer stuff,
and I have a mafia series and Ihave a serial killer series.
And I have a couple of otherstandalone books.
One we're promoting right now.
It's about a couple of childrenthat were separated at birth in
(04:13):
Barranquilla, colombia, and onebecomes a drug dealer, the
other becomes a nothing.
And what happens to their lives?
That's a standalone book and acouple of real life crime books.
John A Light is a mafia killer,gene Borrello is a mafia hitman
and another guy who's a PuertoRican drug dealer.
(04:35):
So I have three nonfictionbooks, but my forte is really
fiction.
I like to develop stories in mymind and that's that's what
that's what my, my passion is.
Fatima Bey (04:47):
What got you for for the?
For the youth that are outthere right now listening who
they might want to writesomething too, and they don't
want to use AI.
They want to use their ownbrains and be, use their own
creativity and write something.
How did you get into get intowriting after you know working
for?
Louis Romano (05:07):
so many years?
That's?
That's a great question.
In fact, I really always wantedto write, uh, even as a boy.
Uh, I don't know if you guys,uh your audience, ever heard of
the twilight zone, but it was aTV show called the twilight zone
and I used to watch that ontelevision and a few other
movies and so forth, some realfeature films and I used to be
(05:28):
intrigued with how they came upwith the story, who wrote this
story, who made this story, andthat stayed with me my whole
life.
And then I finally, at 58 yearsold, wrote a not such a great
book, but some people liked itand it started me writing more
seriously.
It wasn't my best book, becauseyou get better at what you do
when you continue to do itExactly.
(05:49):
I think my newest book isbetter than my first book, and I
hope so.
So it just intrigued me towrite and then I finally did it,
and it took me a long time towrite the first one.
Fatima Bey (06:00):
Wow, that's interesting.
That's very interesting becauseit often does work that way.
We try something out for thefirst time, we have these big
dreams and visions and we'relike I'm going to be great at
this and you will be if you keepdoing it anything about where
you're writing it.
Louis Romano (06:12):
I mean, a lot of my stuff takes place in the
Bronx, but it also takes placein Europe, where I visited.
I was very blessed to be ableto visit Europe many cities
around Europe and Boston and Ihave a great memory for places
(06:35):
that I've seen and I've alwaysintertwined them within my
stories, and people arefascinated by the trips that I
take them on in the books.
Fatima Bey (06:42):
Well, it does sound interesting actually.
Louis Romano (06:44):
Yeah, and one book Intercession.
We just got word that we'regoing to be able to get some
money to make a feature film, soI'll believe that when I see it
.
But you know, it's okay, Ididn't write books to make
movies.
I wrote books so people couldread them.
Fatima Bey (06:58):
Right, can I be an extra in a movie?
Louis Romano (07:00):
You got it, you in a movie.
You got it, you got it.
I do not want to be an extra.
Well, and, and, and one of thebooks.
They do kill a nun, so youcould be able to put you in a
habit.
You know wait, you gotta kill meyeah, yeah, we do a lot of
killing in some of the books no,I I know how much work goes
(07:21):
into movies yeah a lot of workgoes in, and one and one of the
reasons I wrote zip code wherethere's a lot of really more
important reasons, but onereason was to prove to myself I
could write a book withoutkilling anybody.
Nobody dies.
Fatima Bey (07:36):
You challenge yourself.
Louis Romano (07:38):
Yeah, I challenge myself.
Fatima Bey (07:39):
So tell us now, we're here to talk about zip
code what is zip code about?
Louis Romano (07:45):
Well, could make the balance of the rest of your
life.
So I was from zip code 10472 inthe Bronx in the projects and
we were labeled as 10472.
Poor kids, some ethnic, manyethnic.
I grew up in mostly PuertoRicans and blacks and you know
(08:06):
Italians, jews, but mostlyPuerto Ricans and blacks, and we
were told that we were not goodenough, not even in those words
, but subliminally we were toldwe were not good enough, for
example, in the book all right.
So two teenagers from Ridgewood, new Jersey, two seniors on a
(08:27):
sociological experimentexperiment, two kids from a very
, very important, rich, wealthyschool in New Jersey go to
school in the South Bronx andtwo kids from the Bronx, a black
kid and a Puerto Rican girl,they go to school in New Jersey,
in Ridgewood, and they live inthis big mansion and they, you
know, and they're in thisfabulous school.
(08:48):
When I was doing the researchand at the schools at DeWitt
Clinton High school in the bronxwhere we did, it was a charter
school now and the importantthing was they said, okay, we
have, uh, the, you have to meetthe um, the einstein class, the
kids who were called thesmartest kids in the school,
einstein.
And okay, so what's?
How do you get into theeinstein class?
(09:09):
You have to have an 80 average.
Well, to me that's bullshit,because an 80 average is a b.
I was a 77 average, so I'm notscoffing at an 80 average man,
but I could say that, um, if youhave an 80 average, yeah,
you're pretty, you're notbrilliant, you're okay, but
you're not einstein.
(09:29):
But they but they put the balllow.
In the ethnic schools and thebad neighborhoods.
They put the ball low.
So you shouldn't.
You should be a 90 or a 95 tobe in the Einstein group, not an
80.
So they're setting the ball low.
Fatima Bey (09:45):
So what's wrong with that?
Louis Romano (09:47):
What's wrong with that is that you don't achieve.
You're not studying hard enough, you're not looking more,
you're not doing more researchor reading more, and you're not
going hard enough, you're notlooking more, you're not, and
you're not doing more researchor reading more, and you're not
going to get there in real life.
I mean, you could be happy.
You could be happy as awaitress.
I mean, my father was a waiter,my grandfather was a waiter.
I mean my other grandfather wasa plumber.
They were relatively happy.
(10:07):
They didn't know any better.
It was happy.
But if you, if you want moreout of life, you you got to go
get it.
You can't say, oh, because I'mBlack or because I'm Italian and
they told me I can't do this,I'm going to not do it and I'm
just going to lay here and getmy AV average and I'll be
Einstein.
No, because when you get out ofschool, the world changes.
Fatima Bey (10:28):
Yes, and I agree with you.
I cannot stand it when the baris set lower for our people and
then when they get out in thereal world, they're not matching
up with their peers.
Louis Romano (10:41):
They're not.
Fatima Bey (10:42):
They're not.
And then they fail.
And they fail in a much worseway, because now your ego is
like drop, kicked in theforehead.
Louis Romano (10:50):
And no one gives a shit about your race card.
It's not going to happenanymore.
People are not looking at yourrace card saying, oh, because
I'm black, I should beconsidered an Einstein because
I'm a B-play no, that's notworking anymore.
It's just not.
Fatima Bey (11:05):
Yes, do you mind if we say what your age is?
Louis Romano (11:08):
I'm 74 years old.
I was born in 1950.
Fatima Bey (11:11):
And the reason I'm mentioning that is because I
think it's a very large part ofa lot of what you're saying is
the era that you grew up in,because our youth know a
different world than what yougrew up in, and I think it's
important to note that, becausesome of the stuff you're talking
about and some of the stuffthat's in your book is still an
(11:32):
issue today.
We say it's not, it is, but itreally is, and I like the fact
that you're an old white guysaying some of the same stuff
that young black people arealready saying.
Louis Romano (11:45):
Listen, I saw I'm sorry, I saw three boys, three
of my sons, grow up as teenagers.
They're all growing up now.
One went bad with drugs and Ilive in a beautiful neighborhood
.
I live in a beautiful area.
I made very, very good moneywith my career.
They all went to good colleges.
The third one didn't, but itcost me more to keep him out of
(12:06):
jail than it did to pay thecolleges for my other two kids.
They've all done well.
He's done well, but he's not agood person and we stay away
from him.
And it breaks my heart.
And it breaks my heart becausehe got in with the wrong people,
with drugs at 13 years old anddaddy, who thought he was slick
from the project, didn't evensee it.
So you know, everybody's gottheir own baggage man, and I
(12:28):
have baggage.
And now I have a 13-year-oldgrandson who's the apple of my
eye and he's a basketball player.
And now I have a 13-year-oldgrandson who's the apple of my
eye and he's a basketball player.
He thinks he's an NBA player.
He's a terrific kid and we havea great time watching him.
So I've seen kids go throughtheir teenage years as an adult
and as a parent and as agrandparent.
So I think I have something tosay and Zip Code said it.
(12:50):
I think very, very well.
Fatima Bey (12:53):
Now something I think is very interesting I want
the audience to know whatinspired you to write the book.
Louis Romano (12:58):
Wow.
Well, my own personal insultshelped me.
I wanted to show people that,okay, there was a young girl in
my class.
I went to a Catholic school inthe Bronx, and Blessed Sacrament
School, and in 1964, Igraduated elementary school.
So your readers are probablygoing oh shit, this guy's old.
(13:19):
So I graduated elementaryschool in 1964.
She was in the class of 1960,this young girl and this is the
idea behind zip code so thisgirl had a couple of strikes
against her in 1960.
She was in my brother's classand I remember her well.
She was Puerto Rican, that wasstrike one Hispanic.
(13:43):
She was poor, dirt poor.
She lived in the in theBronxdale projects and that was
a pretty.
My project was better than herproject.
And if you want to believe thatit was a bad project, my
(14:06):
project was better than herproject.
And if you want to believe thatit was a bad project and number
three and I hate to say this toyou, fatima, and don't get
angry Well, she was so smart.
Her father was dead.
I think it was her mother.
I met her mother several timesand I think her sister or
brother.
I don't remember that now.
But anyway, this young girl wentto a very good Catholic high
school on scholarship becausethey were poor.
(14:27):
It was called Cardinal SpellmanHigh School in the Bronx.
From there she went to a littleschool nobody ever heard of
called Princeton University,which is one of the biggest
schools in the country right Now.
Yeah, right, and she went to.
It was then too.
She went to PrincetonUniversity on scholarship and
all of a sudden now she's goingto Yale Law School.
(14:49):
After that Yale University, allIvy League schools, this little
Puerto Rican girl who had nofuture.
So she got into the lawbusiness and blah, blah, blah,
and now fast forward.
She's four years younger thanme, so she's 70.
And they named the projectsafter her, the Sonia Sotomayor
Houses.
(15:09):
Now, if you don't know whoSonia Sotomayor is, she is a
Supreme Court justice, one ofnine Supreme.
So this little Puerto Rican girlfrom my school who had no shot
for advancement became a SupremeCourt justice.
That's a lifetimeacknowledgement, it's a job for
lifetime, and I'm not saying Ibelieve in her politics, but I
(15:33):
believe in her.
I believe in what she came to.
And she wasn't the only one,general Colin Powell.
There were so many ethnicpeople that came out of the
neighborhoods that I lived inand they became very successful
people.
Why?
Why because they wanted to,because they had the internal
(15:54):
something that said I'm notgoing to stay here, I'm not
going to stay in the projects,I'm not going to stay in this
bad neighborhood anymore.
I'm going to do something withmy life to make myself better,
to make my family better and tomake myself more secure and have
a happier life.
Fatima Bey (16:11):
I want to interject right there.
Louis Romano (16:12):
I'm so sorry, I talk too much.
Fatima Bey (16:13):
I know You're fine, but I want to say this right in
this moment, while you're sayingwhat you're saying, because
this is an international podcastI want to talk to some of these
kids that are in right now.
We're talking about New YorkCity and the Bronx and the poor
areas in the US, but there arekids out in the village of
Zimbabwe who need to understandand hear the principle that
you're talking about, because itstill applies for them too.
Louis Romano (16:36):
Absolutely.
Fatima Bey (16:37):
You could be the poorest area.
I don't care what yourchallenges are and some of them
have real serious challenges youcan still make it to wherever
you want to make it If you aredetermined.
I don't care what your societysays, I don't care what the
boundaries are.
You can break through them, andthat's what I love about zip
(16:57):
code is that it really is allabout that.
Demonstrating some people ofcolor are what we already live
through, but also for somepeople who might not live
through that, for them tounderstand that there are still
differences, for them tounderstand that there are still
differences and although we'vegotten better as a society, we
haven't arrived.
You know, we definitely haven'tarrived.
(17:18):
There's some of the same issuesthat you talk about in the city
All over the world.
Louis Romano (17:22):
Could be Nigeria, it could be Southern Italy, it
could be France, it could beanywhere Northern Ireland,
anywhere.
Fatima Bey (17:31):
I love that.
I knew that there were somethings about Sotomayor, but I
didn't know all that you weretelling me and I was like, ah,
okay, Now I see why people likeher so much because of her story
.
I'm a big fan of people whohave come from nothing, or have
come from a place and rose toanother place, whatever that is.
Those kinds of stories inspireme all the time.
But you know something in myneighborhood when I was, those
(17:52):
kind of stories inspire me allthe time.
Louis Romano (17:53):
But you know something In my neighborhood
when I was a kid, there was alot of street money, especially
with the Italian kids.
There was money to be madeillegally.
The mob wanted us to work forthem and once you cross over
that line, you're no longer acivilian, You're a mobster and
you could be killed for anyreason they deem necessary.
(18:13):
I decided not to go that way.
I mean, I didn't think that wasthe right life to have and
that's really appealing.
When I didn't have $300 to paymy last month's tuition in
college at Montclair StateUniversity, I was offered $1,000
to make a delivery.
I didn't know what the deliverywas.
I'm going to tell you it wasn'tmozzarella salami.
(18:35):
They wanted me to make adelivery from one point to
another for $1,000 in 1969.
My new car cost $2,600.
So it was almost half the valueof a new car to make a delivery
.
And then I decided at thatpoint, in that moment in time no
, I'm not doing this, becausethen I'm in and I'm going to be
(18:56):
in for life.
So I made a decision.
It was easy money.
I didn't even have the tuition,I had no money at all.
And I said you know what?
I'm going to do this on my ownand my mother was behind me.
My mother always told me tostay away from those bad guys,
so it was kind of I'm sort ofhappy I did that, because I'd be
dead or in jail today for sure.
Fatima Bey (19:15):
So I think you kind of answered this, but I know
that you have more to say on it.
Why should young adults readthis book?
Louis Romano (19:22):
Well, I think not only young adults, I think their
parents as well, older people,should read it and say hey, wait
, wait a second.
So one of the girls has alittle weight problem in the
Bronx the Spanish girl and shegets involved with a mother in
Ridgewood who really works itout with her, she helps her and
(19:44):
she becomes this knockoutbecause she had all this
self-esteem questions.
The black kid that came toRidgewood, new Jersey, his name
is Jamal Jamal Samaj.
I'm sorry, samaj Samaj thoughteverybody was prejudiced against
him and he was blamed forrobbing a store and he didn't do
(20:04):
it.
But he feels he finds out atthe end that they were not
prejudiced about him and itopens his eyes.
And then it talks aboutinterracial dating a little bit.
It talks about the people whowent to the Bronx and how they
(20:30):
had to look around and say, hey,I can't get on this subway at 4
o'clock in the morning and gethome alive.
You know, I got to be home at acertain hour.
That's why there's a curfew atnine or 10 o'clock, because
after that all hell breaks loosein the New York City subways
and if I'm on that subway I'mgoing to get killed.
And they learn that prettyquickly.
They learn the streets prettyquickly.
So, yeah, I think it's alsoabout understanding each other
understanding each other'sfoibles, understanding each
(20:52):
other's racial makeup,understanding each other's
customs.
I mean, I have a friend whodoesn't want his son to be
involved with this girl becauseshe's Dominican and he doesn't
understand the customs of theDominicans.
He doesn't even know it.
So he needs to go to theDominican Republic and spend
time and see what the culture isabout.
It's a wonderful culture.
(21:13):
I go every year, so it's aculturally.
People need to open their minds.
Fatima Bey (21:20):
I agree.
Louis Romano (21:26):
And once that prejudice goes away and once
those, it's going to take a long, long time more for that to
happen, but it's happening, Isee it happening yeah.
I mean when we, when I was ateenager, if you saw a black guy
and a white girl, or a whitegirl and a black guy you know
mixed couple you stared at them.
We stared at the black what thefuck Excuse my language that's
a black guy and a white girl.
Today it's commonplace and noone's staring at them.
(21:48):
I mean, it's just commonplace.
It's like okay, no-transcript.
(22:14):
Systemic racism is absolutelyan issue, and it's not an issue
in the United States.
You're a global network.
It's an issue globally, and theonly way I think you could
fight it is one at a time, oneperson at a time.
Fatima Bey (22:31):
And I love that love .
That's why I brought that up,because I like hearing that
coming from an older whiteAmerican who's, you know, not
one of us, who's complaining allthe time or whatever nonsense
they want to say, but hearing itfrom someone else who's not,
who's not in this, so to speak,but who understands it because
of the fact that you grew up inthe South Bronx and and I it
(22:56):
because of the fact that yougrew up in the South Bronx and I
get where you're coming from.
Louis Romano (22:59):
Back then, you was just the same as a Black guy.
First of all, Italians weren'tconsidered white until 1940.
Fatima Bey (23:04):
I mean that and I lived in a neighborhood I don't
think most of our youthunderstand that though, oh yeah,
oh, absolutely Just the same,black, puerto Rican or Italian,
you were all the same.
We were the white elites.
Louis Romano (23:12):
Now in the neighborhood.
I grew up in Arthur Avenue,also before I moved to the
projects.
A black person or a Spanishperson were not allowed to walk
through the neighborhood.
They'd get stopped by the guyswhat are you doing?
Where are you going from here?
Well, we're going to thehospital.
Walk around.
They made them walk around theneighborhood.
This was in the 60s and the 50sand I remember it.
(23:39):
I mean now the neighborhood isfine.
It's right near FordhamUniversity.
I go every week for lunch andhave cigars with my friends and
it's a melting pot.
Sure, every once in a while, aDominican or a Puerto Rican
drive by in their car andthey're blasting the music and
it sort of like pisses me offbecause it's loud, it's loud,
it's loud.
But I understand it.
That's their culture, that'stheir expression.
Let it happen, let it happen.
(24:00):
I mean, I don't like tattoos onpeople.
People have sleeves of tattoos.
That's cultural.
Yeah, that goes back to mygrandmother who fainted when my
uncle had a tattoo of the wordmom on his arm and she fainted.
So you know.
Fatima Bey (24:13):
I mean, come on, man , and look, you know well, yeah,
because she grew up in adifferent time different time
but.
But what I like, though, isthat a lot of the stuff that you
are talking about and, as youjust mentioned, is in the book.
It's it's some of it is verytime-centered, but a lot of it
isn't.
A lot of the principles behindsome stories are thank you for
(24:36):
saying that timeless and theyare still very, very, very
relevant.
Plus, you're just interesting.
You like to put murder andserial killers not a good stuff
in there, and that's what we alllike to hear about.
All the gory details.
Louis Romano (24:53):
And so I have to tell you I want people to read
the book.
I don't care about making money.
I made my money in my life.
If you want to buy the book andI can make two dollars on the
book, thank you very much.
I'm gonna use the two bucks.
But if you, um, if you don'thave the money, you can get it
cheaper by going online.
It says uh, what do you call?
What is that called?
(25:14):
Not audio book?
It's not on audio books, it'ssigned ebooks.
But if you're in the unitedstates and you don't have the
money for it, send me a letterand I'll send you a book for
free oh, wow yeah, I mean, ifyeah, I'll send you a book for
free, because I want the book toget into the people's hands.
I don't really care about makingthe two bucks per book, I don't
.
You know it's.
(25:34):
It's more of the awesome, it'smore of the, it's more of the uh
, the uh.
Fatima Bey (25:40):
Get the word out yes , it's more about getting the
information that's in there intopeople's brains and helping
them to think differently.
It's got to be, you saidstorytelling is one of the best
ways to do that.
Louis Romano (25:52):
You said you were an international and I know you
are very well known throughoutthe world.
So I was doing a lecture at alibrary in Jersey and this big
kid comes up to me.
He was 13, 14 years old,handsome kid, blonde hair, blue
eyes.
He goes.
I read your book before thislecture and he had a little bit
of an accent.
He was Russian and he said wow,I am so happy to meet you.
(26:14):
This book meant so much to me.
His parents didn't speakEnglish, they were Russian
immigrants.
He goes.
Now I know I can make it here.
I have to tell you I almostfell into a puddle of piss.
I mean, I was really, really sotaken by him.
Fatima Bey (26:30):
Oh, I would have started feeling up.
Louis Romano (26:32):
I did really so, taken by him, oh, I would have.
I did and, and and I.
And how I affected this youngman's life by what I wrote.
Fatima Bey (26:39):
I won.
Louis Romano (26:39):
I was, as far as I'm concerned, I won.
Fatima Bey (26:42):
I agree, cause I'm the same way, totally.
Louis Romano (26:44):
Now I'm going to give you a moment?
Fatima Bey (26:46):
um, louis, did just talk to the teenagers out there
for a minute who are listeningright now.
What, what do you have to sayto them out there for a minute,
who are listening right now?
Louis Romano (26:53):
What do you have to say to them?
Well, this is the old mantalking.
Your life is what you want to dowith it.
If anybody tells you you can'tdo something, I'm going to say
the word fuck you, just do it.
Just go, do it.
Do it the best you can.
I don't care if you're in NorthAfrica and in Detroit, in the
(27:14):
hood in LA.
Don't let that shit be yourlife.
Don't make it.
Manage your life.
Like I told you before, I had ason he's still alive, but we
don't talk anymore who wentreally bad, and he didn't have
to go bad.
We lived in a lily white,beautiful community.
His two brothers graduatedmajor colleges.
They're both very successfulbusinessmen.
(27:35):
He himself is a successfulbusinessman, but he's a drug
dealer not anymore drug abuserand a thief, and I couldn't have
that around me.
So imagine me having threegrandchildren that I don't see.
That breaks my heart.
So don't do that to your family, don't do that to yourself.
Don't try to be slick becauseof whatever drugs are popular
(28:00):
today.
I don't even know what drugsare popular today.
When I was a kid it was heroin,and I think it might be back to
that Fentanyl.
Who the hell knows all thesebad things and look at all the
kids we buried and look at allthe people who meant so much to
us, who could have affected ourlives so well, like Michael
Jackson, like all these great,great performers who died from
(28:23):
drug overdose.
They robbed us.
So if you're doing that, you'rerobbing society.
You're robbing your familyNever mind your mother's crying
over your casket.
That's bad enough, but you'rerobbing society of your positive
possibilities.
All I say is go do it.
Fatima Bey (28:42):
Beautifully said, beautifully said.
Louis Romano (28:44):
Thank you.
Fatima Bey (28:44):
Well, lewis, thank you so much for coming on.
For those of you that areinterested in this book, there
will be a link to that book onhis website in the show notes,
and you can also, once you go tohis site, you can go to the
contact page if you need tocontact him, right on his site.
So once again, louis, thank youfor coming on today.
Louis Romano (29:06):
Thank you, Fatima.
Fatima Bey (29:07):
It has been enjoyable and fun talking to you
.
Louis Romano (29:09):
I had a good time.
Thank you so much.
Fatima Bey (29:13):
And now for a mind shifting moment.
Let's talk about the title ofthis book Zip Code.
Your zip code is the area inwhich you live within the US,
canada and a few other places inthe world.
You might call them postalcodes, but some of you listening
(29:33):
don't have postal codes.
That doesn't matter.
You still have an area that youlive in, and I want to say this
to everyone.
Listening when you come fromdoes not have to define you.
You do not have to follow thesame path as everyone else
around you.
In fact, you should stepoutside the box, outside your
(29:57):
postal code, outside your zipcode, outside your village, step
outside of everyone else'sexpectation.
That is where you can find truefreedom.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to follow or subscribeto MindShift Power Podcast on
(30:19):
any of our worldwide platformsso you, too, can be a part of
the conversation that's changingyoung lives everywhere.
And always remember there'spower in shifting your thinking.
Welcome to MindShift Power Podcast, the only
international podcast focused onteens, connecting young voices
and perspectives from around theworld.
Get ready to explore the issuesthat matter to today's youth
and shape tomorrow's world.
I'm your host, fatima Bey, theMindShifter, and welcome
everyone.
The Mindshifter and welcomeeveryone.
(00:26):
Today we have with us LuisRomano, and he is from New
Jersey.
He's an author, and today we'regoing to talk about his book
called Zip Code, which is really, really interesting.
So how are you doing today,luis?
Louis Romano (00:40):
I'm great Fatima.
The only thing is I'm not fromNew Jersey, I'm from the Bronx.
I have to correct you there.
I live in New Jersey.
I raised my family in NewJersey, but I'm a Bronx boy from
the projects.
Fatima Bey (00:52):
I didn't mean to hurt your pride, I'm sorry.
No, okay, you're forgiven.
He's in New Jersey now.
Louis Romano (00:57):
Yeah, right, you're forgiven.
Fatima Bey (01:00):
All right, so tell us a bit about your background.
Louis Romano (01:04):
All right, so tell us a bit about your background.
So I was born in the Bronx,like I just said, and I went to
Catholic school, which was goodand bad for me.
I'm a child of immigrants whocame here from Sicily and Italy,
so I had a kind of roughbackground growing up.
The Bronx was kind of tough inthose days.
I went to college after I wastold I couldn't and then I
(01:26):
started after business and afterraising my family in New Jersey
, I started writing novels.
I started writing when I was 58years old, believe it or not,
and I'm old enough to be thegrandparents of most of your,
the grandfather of most of yourlisteners.
Fatima Bey (01:42):
Yes, you are Back up for a second.
You said you went to collegeafter being told you couldn't.
Could you briefly tell us aboutthat?
Louis Romano (01:50):
All right, senior year at St Raymond's High School
for boys in the Bronx, I was abad student.
I'm not going to lie, I'm notthat gifted when it comes to
math and sciences.
I'm probably not that giftedwith anything, but I have a
creative mind.
So that doesn't work whenyou're in a math science school.
For me it didn't.
And I was in my senior year andthe Vietnam War was about to
(02:13):
draft me to go fight Vietnam,which I didn't want to do, and
the brother asked me what I wasgoing to do when I left St
Raymond's and I said I'm goingto go to college, I think,
brother.
He said don't waste yourmother's money.
I said we don't have any money.
I said we live in a project.
There's no money to waste.
He said well, I don't mean thetuition, I mean the application
fee.
Don't even apply.
He said you're Italian.
(02:34):
Take the sanitation departmenttest in New York City, work for
the sanitation department.
And I wanted to say what Iwanted to say to him, but in
those days they used to beat theshit out of you, so I didn't
say it.
I said okay, brother, I'll see.
Then he said well, doesn't yourfamily own a pizza shop or a
restaurant they did.
It was a very famous place.
I said, yeah, he goes.
(02:57):
Well, go learn how to make apizza pie.
I mean, that was my advice as asenior in high school.
Unfortunately, I listened tohim.
I went to a community collegebecause we didn't have any money
.
Then I went to a state collegein New Jersey and then I went to
graduate school in New Jersey.
I did okay in business and thenI had a really good business
career in sales and left thatafter I don't know 35, 40 years
(03:20):
and decided to be a writer.
I opened up a couple ofbusinesses too with the money I
had.
So we did all right.
Fatima Bey (03:27):
I want to say I asked you about that because
unfortunately that was a longtime ago, but unfortunately
there are kids today who arestill being told that they can't
do something or being guidedinto a lesser career than
they're capable of, and thatpisses me off.
Louis Romano (03:44):
Well, that's what zip code's about.
I'd hate to step on your toes,but that's what zip code's about
.
Fatima Bey (03:49):
Yes, it is so.
How many books have you written?
Louis Romano (03:53):
Last count, 21.
Most of them are fiction, crimefiction, serial killer stuff,
and I have a mafia series and Ihave a serial killer series.
And I have a couple of otherstandalone books.
One we're promoting right now.
It's about a couple of childrenthat were separated at birth in
(04:13):
Barranquilla, colombia, and onebecomes a drug dealer, the
other becomes a nothing.
And what happens to their lives?
That's a standalone book and acouple of real life crime books.
John A Light is a mafia killer,gene Borrello is a mafia hitman
and another guy who's a PuertoRican drug dealer.
(04:35):
So I have three nonfictionbooks, but my forte is really
fiction.
I like to develop stories in mymind and that's that's what
that's what my, my passion is.
Fatima Bey (04:47):
What got you for for the?
For the youth that are outthere right now listening who
they might want to writesomething too, and they don't
want to use AI.
They want to use their ownbrains and be, use their own
creativity and write something.
How did you get into get intowriting after you know working
for?
Louis Romano (05:07):
so many years?
That's?
That's a great question.
In fact, I really always wantedto write, uh, even as a boy.
Uh, I don't know if you guys,uh your audience, ever heard of
the twilight zone, but it was aTV show called the twilight zone
and I used to watch that ontelevision and a few other
movies and so forth, some realfeature films and I used to be
(05:28):
intrigued with how they came upwith the story, who wrote this
story, who made this story, andthat stayed with me my whole
life.
And then I finally, at 58 yearsold, wrote a not such a great
book, but some people liked itand it started me writing more
seriously.
It wasn't my best book, becauseyou get better at what you do
when you continue to do itExactly.
(05:49):
I think my newest book isbetter than my first book, and I
hope so.
So it just intrigued me towrite and then I finally did it,
and it took me a long time towrite the first one.
Fatima Bey (06:00):
Wow, that's interesting.
That's very interesting becauseit often does work that way.
We try something out for thefirst time, we have these big
dreams and visions and we'relike I'm going to be great at
this and you will be if you keepdoing it anything about where
you're writing it.
Louis Romano (06:12):
I mean, a lot of my stuff takes place in the
Bronx, but it also takes placein Europe, where I visited.
I was very blessed to be ableto visit Europe many cities
around Europe and Boston and Ihave a great memory for places
(06:35):
that I've seen and I've alwaysintertwined them within my
stories, and people arefascinated by the trips that I
take them on in the books.
Fatima Bey (06:42):
Well, it does sound interesting actually.
Louis Romano (06:44):
Yeah, and one book Intercession.
We just got word that we'regoing to be able to get some
money to make a feature film, soI'll believe that when I see it
.
But you know, it's okay, Ididn't write books to make
movies.
I wrote books so people couldread them.
Fatima Bey (06:58):
Right, can I be an extra in a movie?
Louis Romano (07:00):
You got it, you in a movie.
You got it, you got it.
I do not want to be an extra.
Well, and, and, and one of thebooks.
They do kill a nun, so youcould be able to put you in a
habit.
You know wait, you gotta kill meyeah, yeah, we do a lot of
killing in some of the books no,I I know how much work goes
(07:21):
into movies yeah a lot of workgoes in, and one and one of the
reasons I wrote zip code wherethere's a lot of really more
important reasons, but onereason was to prove to myself I
could write a book withoutkilling anybody.
Nobody dies.
Fatima Bey (07:36):
You challenge yourself.
Louis Romano (07:38):
Yeah, I challenge myself.
Fatima Bey (07:39):
So tell us now, we're here to talk about zip
code what is zip code about?
Louis Romano (07:45):
Well, could make the balance of the rest of your
life.
So I was from zip code 10472 inthe Bronx in the projects and
we were labeled as 10472.
Poor kids, some ethnic, manyethnic.
I grew up in mostly PuertoRicans and blacks and you know
(08:06):
Italians, jews, but mostlyPuerto Ricans and blacks, and we
were told that we were not goodenough, not even in those words
, but subliminally we were toldwe were not good enough, for
example, in the book all right.
So two teenagers from Ridgewood, new Jersey, two seniors on a
(08:27):
sociological experimentexperiment, two kids from a very
, very important, rich, wealthyschool in New Jersey go to
school in the South Bronx andtwo kids from the Bronx, a black
kid and a Puerto Rican girl,they go to school in New Jersey,
in Ridgewood, and they live inthis big mansion and they, you
know, and they're in thisfabulous school.
(08:48):
When I was doing the researchand at the schools at DeWitt
Clinton High school in the bronxwhere we did, it was a charter
school now and the importantthing was they said, okay, we
have, uh, the, you have to meetthe um, the einstein class, the
kids who were called thesmartest kids in the school,
einstein.
And okay, so what's?
How do you get into theeinstein class?
(09:09):
You have to have an 80 average.
Well, to me that's bullshit,because an 80 average is a b.
I was a 77 average, so I'm notscoffing at an 80 average man,
but I could say that, um, if youhave an 80 average, yeah,
you're pretty, you're notbrilliant, you're okay, but
you're not einstein.
(09:29):
But they but they put the balllow.
In the ethnic schools and thebad neighborhoods.
They put the ball low.
So you shouldn't.
You should be a 90 or a 95 tobe in the Einstein group, not an
80.
So they're setting the ball low.
Fatima Bey (09:45):
So what's wrong with that?
Louis Romano (09:47):
What's wrong with that is that you don't achieve.
You're not studying hard enough, you're not looking more,
you're not doing more researchor reading more, and you're not
going hard enough, you're notlooking more, you're not, and
you're not doing more researchor reading more, and you're not
going to get there in real life.
I mean, you could be happy.
You could be happy as awaitress.
I mean, my father was a waiter,my grandfather was a waiter.
I mean my other grandfather wasa plumber.
They were relatively happy.
(10:07):
They didn't know any better.
It was happy.
But if you, if you want moreout of life, you you got to go
get it.
You can't say, oh, because I'mBlack or because I'm Italian and
they told me I can't do this,I'm going to not do it and I'm
just going to lay here and getmy AV average and I'll be
Einstein.
No, because when you get out ofschool, the world changes.
Fatima Bey (10:28):
Yes, and I agree with you.
I cannot stand it when the baris set lower for our people and
then when they get out in thereal world, they're not matching
up with their peers.
Louis Romano (10:41):
They're not.
Fatima Bey (10:42):
They're not.
And then they fail.
And they fail in a much worseway, because now your ego is
like drop, kicked in theforehead.
Louis Romano (10:50):
And no one gives a shit about your race card.
It's not going to happenanymore.
People are not looking at yourrace card saying, oh, because
I'm black, I should beconsidered an Einstein because
I'm a B-play no, that's notworking anymore.
It's just not.
Fatima Bey (11:05):
Yes, do you mind if we say what your age is?
Louis Romano (11:08):
I'm 74 years old.
I was born in 1950.
Fatima Bey (11:11):
And the reason I'm mentioning that is because I
think it's a very large part ofa lot of what you're saying is
the era that you grew up in,because our youth know a
different world than what yougrew up in, and I think it's
important to note that, becausesome of the stuff you're talking
about and some of the stuffthat's in your book is still an
(11:32):
issue today.
We say it's not, it is, but itreally is, and I like the fact
that you're an old white guysaying some of the same stuff
that young black people arealready saying.
Louis Romano (11:45):
Listen, I saw I'm sorry, I saw three boys, three
of my sons, grow up as teenagers.
They're all growing up now.
One went bad with drugs and Ilive in a beautiful neighborhood
.
I live in a beautiful area.
I made very, very good moneywith my career.
They all went to good colleges.
The third one didn't, but itcost me more to keep him out of
(12:06):
jail than it did to pay thecolleges for my other two kids.
They've all done well.
He's done well, but he's not agood person and we stay away
from him.
And it breaks my heart.
And it breaks my heart becausehe got in with the wrong people,
with drugs at 13 years old anddaddy, who thought he was slick
from the project, didn't evensee it.
So you know, everybody's gottheir own baggage man, and I
(12:28):
have baggage.
And now I have a 13-year-oldgrandson who's the apple of my
eye and he's a basketball player.
And now I have a 13-year-oldgrandson who's the apple of my
eye and he's a basketball player.
He thinks he's an NBA player.
He's a terrific kid and we havea great time watching him.
So I've seen kids go throughtheir teenage years as an adult
and as a parent and as agrandparent.
So I think I have something tosay and Zip Code said it.
(12:50):
I think very, very well.
Fatima Bey (12:53):
Now something I think is very interesting I want
the audience to know whatinspired you to write the book.
Louis Romano (12:58):
Wow.
Well, my own personal insultshelped me.
I wanted to show people that,okay, there was a young girl in
my class.
I went to a Catholic school inthe Bronx, and Blessed Sacrament
School, and in 1964, Igraduated elementary school.
So your readers are probablygoing oh shit, this guy's old.
(13:19):
So I graduated elementaryschool in 1964.
She was in the class of 1960,this young girl and this is the
idea behind zip code so thisgirl had a couple of strikes
against her in 1960.
She was in my brother's classand I remember her well.
She was Puerto Rican, that wasstrike one Hispanic.
(13:43):
She was poor, dirt poor.
She lived in the in theBronxdale projects and that was
a pretty.
My project was better than herproject.
And if you want to believe thatit was a bad project, my
(14:06):
project was better than herproject.
And if you want to believe thatit was a bad project and number
three and I hate to say this toyou, fatima, and don't get
angry Well, she was so smart.
Her father was dead.
I think it was her mother.
I met her mother several timesand I think her sister or
brother.
I don't remember that now.
But anyway, this young girl wentto a very good Catholic high
school on scholarship becausethey were poor.
(14:27):
It was called Cardinal SpellmanHigh School in the Bronx.
From there she went to a littleschool nobody ever heard of
called Princeton University,which is one of the biggest
schools in the country right Now.
Yeah, right, and she went to.
It was then too.
She went to PrincetonUniversity on scholarship and
all of a sudden now she's goingto Yale Law School.
(14:49):
After that Yale University, allIvy League schools, this little
Puerto Rican girl who had nofuture.
So she got into the lawbusiness and blah, blah, blah,
and now fast forward.
She's four years younger thanme, so she's 70.
And they named the projectsafter her, the Sonia Sotomayor
Houses.
(15:09):
Now, if you don't know whoSonia Sotomayor is, she is a
Supreme Court justice, one ofnine Supreme.
So this little Puerto Rican girlfrom my school who had no shot
for advancement became a SupremeCourt justice.
That's a lifetimeacknowledgement, it's a job for
lifetime, and I'm not saying Ibelieve in her politics, but I
(15:33):
believe in her.
I believe in what she came to.
And she wasn't the only one,general Colin Powell.
There were so many ethnicpeople that came out of the
neighborhoods that I lived inand they became very successful
people.
Why?
Why because they wanted to,because they had the internal
(15:54):
something that said I'm notgoing to stay here, I'm not
going to stay in the projects,I'm not going to stay in this
bad neighborhood anymore.
I'm going to do something withmy life to make myself better,
to make my family better and tomake myself more secure and have
a happier life.
Fatima Bey (16:11):
I want to interject right there.
Louis Romano (16:12):
I'm so sorry, I talk too much.
Fatima Bey (16:13):
I know You're fine, but I want to say this right in
this moment, while you're sayingwhat you're saying, because
this is an international podcastI want to talk to some of these
kids that are in right now.
We're talking about New YorkCity and the Bronx and the poor
areas in the US, but there arekids out in the village of
Zimbabwe who need to understandand hear the principle that
you're talking about, because itstill applies for them too.
Louis Romano (16:36):
Absolutely.
Fatima Bey (16:37):
You could be the poorest area.
I don't care what yourchallenges are and some of them
have real serious challenges youcan still make it to wherever
you want to make it If you aredetermined.
I don't care what your societysays, I don't care what the
boundaries are.
You can break through them, andthat's what I love about zip
(16:57):
code is that it really is allabout that.
Demonstrating some people ofcolor are what we already live
through, but also for somepeople who might not live
through that, for them tounderstand that there are still
differences, for them tounderstand that there are still
differences and although we'vegotten better as a society, we
haven't arrived.
You know, we definitely haven'tarrived.
(17:18):
There's some of the same issuesthat you talk about in the city
All over the world.
Louis Romano (17:22):
Could be Nigeria, it could be Southern Italy, it
could be France, it could beanywhere Northern Ireland,
anywhere.
Fatima Bey (17:31):
I love that.
I knew that there were somethings about Sotomayor, but I
didn't know all that you weretelling me and I was like, ah,
okay, Now I see why people likeher so much because of her story
.
I'm a big fan of people whohave come from nothing, or have
come from a place and rose toanother place, whatever that is.
Those kinds of stories inspireme all the time.
But you know something in myneighborhood when I was, those
(17:52):
kind of stories inspire me allthe time.
Louis Romano (17:53):
But you know something In my neighborhood
when I was a kid, there was alot of street money, especially
with the Italian kids.
There was money to be madeillegally.
The mob wanted us to work forthem and once you cross over
that line, you're no longer acivilian, You're a mobster and
you could be killed for anyreason they deem necessary.
(18:13):
I decided not to go that way.
I mean, I didn't think that wasthe right life to have and
that's really appealing.
When I didn't have $300 to paymy last month's tuition in
college at Montclair StateUniversity, I was offered $1,000
to make a delivery.
I didn't know what the deliverywas.
I'm going to tell you it wasn'tmozzarella salami.
(18:35):
They wanted me to make adelivery from one point to
another for $1,000 in 1969.
My new car cost $2,600.
So it was almost half the valueof a new car to make a delivery
.
And then I decided at thatpoint, in that moment in time no
, I'm not doing this, becausethen I'm in and I'm going to be
(18:56):
in for life.
So I made a decision.
It was easy money.
I didn't even have the tuition,I had no money at all.
And I said you know what?
I'm going to do this on my ownand my mother was behind me.
My mother always told me tostay away from those bad guys,
so it was kind of I'm sort ofhappy I did that, because I'd be
dead or in jail today for sure.
Fatima Bey (19:15):
So I think you kind of answered this, but I know
that you have more to say on it.
Why should young adults readthis book?
Louis Romano (19:22):
Well, I think not only young adults, I think their
parents as well, older people,should read it and say hey, wait
, wait a second.
So one of the girls has alittle weight problem in the
Bronx the Spanish girl and shegets involved with a mother in
Ridgewood who really works itout with her, she helps her and
(19:44):
she becomes this knockoutbecause she had all this
self-esteem questions.
The black kid that came toRidgewood, new Jersey, his name
is Jamal Jamal Samaj.
I'm sorry, samaj Samaj thoughteverybody was prejudiced against
him and he was blamed forrobbing a store and he didn't do
(20:04):
it.
But he feels he finds out atthe end that they were not
prejudiced about him and itopens his eyes.
And then it talks aboutinterracial dating a little bit.
It talks about the people whowent to the Bronx and how they
(20:30):
had to look around and say, hey,I can't get on this subway at 4
o'clock in the morning and gethome alive.
You know, I got to be home at acertain hour.
That's why there's a curfew atnine or 10 o'clock, because
after that all hell breaks loosein the New York City subways
and if I'm on that subway I'mgoing to get killed.
And they learn that prettyquickly.
They learn the streets prettyquickly.
So, yeah, I think it's alsoabout understanding each other
understanding each other'sfoibles, understanding each
(20:52):
other's racial makeup,understanding each other's
customs.
I mean, I have a friend whodoesn't want his son to be
involved with this girl becauseshe's Dominican and he doesn't
understand the customs of theDominicans.
He doesn't even know it.
So he needs to go to theDominican Republic and spend
time and see what the culture isabout.
It's a wonderful culture.
(21:13):
I go every year, so it's aculturally.
People need to open their minds.
Fatima Bey (21:20):
I agree.
Louis Romano (21:26):
And once that prejudice goes away and once
those, it's going to take a long, long time more for that to
happen, but it's happening, Isee it happening yeah.
I mean when we, when I was ateenager, if you saw a black guy
and a white girl, or a whitegirl and a black guy you know
mixed couple you stared at them.
We stared at the black what thefuck Excuse my language that's
a black guy and a white girl.
Today it's commonplace and noone's staring at them.
(21:48):
I mean, it's just commonplace.
It's like okay, no-transcript.
(22:14):
Systemic racism is absolutelyan issue, and it's not an issue
in the United States.
You're a global network.
It's an issue globally, and theonly way I think you could
fight it is one at a time, oneperson at a time.
Fatima Bey (22:31):
And I love that love .
That's why I brought that up,because I like hearing that
coming from an older whiteAmerican who's, you know, not
one of us, who's complaining allthe time or whatever nonsense
they want to say, but hearing itfrom someone else who's not,
who's not in this, so to speak,but who understands it because
of the fact that you grew up inthe South Bronx and and I it
(22:56):
because of the fact that yougrew up in the South Bronx and I
get where you're coming from.
Louis Romano (22:59):
Back then, you was just the same as a Black guy.
First of all, Italians weren'tconsidered white until 1940.
Fatima Bey (23:04):
I mean that and I lived in a neighborhood I don't
think most of our youthunderstand that though, oh yeah,
oh, absolutely Just the same,black, puerto Rican or Italian,
you were all the same.
We were the white elites.
Louis Romano (23:12):
Now in the neighborhood.
I grew up in Arthur Avenue,also before I moved to the
projects.
A black person or a Spanishperson were not allowed to walk
through the neighborhood.
They'd get stopped by the guyswhat are you doing?
Where are you going from here?
Well, we're going to thehospital.
Walk around.
They made them walk around theneighborhood.
This was in the 60s and the 50sand I remember it.
(23:39):
I mean now the neighborhood isfine.
It's right near FordhamUniversity.
I go every week for lunch andhave cigars with my friends and
it's a melting pot.
Sure, every once in a while, aDominican or a Puerto Rican
drive by in their car andthey're blasting the music and
it sort of like pisses me offbecause it's loud, it's loud,
it's loud.
But I understand it.
That's their culture, that'stheir expression.
Let it happen, let it happen.
(24:00):
I mean, I don't like tattoos onpeople.
People have sleeves of tattoos.
That's cultural.
Yeah, that goes back to mygrandmother who fainted when my
uncle had a tattoo of the wordmom on his arm and she fainted.
So you know.
Fatima Bey (24:13):
I mean, come on, man , and look, you know well, yeah,
because she grew up in adifferent time different time
but.
But what I like, though, isthat a lot of the stuff that you
are talking about and, as youjust mentioned, is in the book.
It's it's some of it is verytime-centered, but a lot of it
isn't.
A lot of the principles behindsome stories are thank you for
(24:36):
saying that timeless and theyare still very, very, very
relevant.
Plus, you're just interesting.
You like to put murder andserial killers not a good stuff
in there, and that's what we alllike to hear about.
All the gory details.
Louis Romano (24:53):
And so I have to tell you I want people to read
the book.
I don't care about making money.
I made my money in my life.
If you want to buy the book andI can make two dollars on the
book, thank you very much.
I'm gonna use the two bucks.
But if you, um, if you don'thave the money, you can get it
cheaper by going online.
It says uh, what do you call?
What is that called?
(25:14):
Not audio book?
It's not on audio books, it'ssigned ebooks.
But if you're in the unitedstates and you don't have the
money for it, send me a letterand I'll send you a book for
free oh, wow yeah, I mean, ifyeah, I'll send you a book for
free, because I want the book toget into the people's hands.
I don't really care about makingthe two bucks per book, I don't
.
You know it's.
(25:34):
It's more of the awesome, it'smore of the, it's more of the uh
, the uh.
Fatima Bey (25:40):
Get the word out yes , it's more about getting the
information that's in there intopeople's brains and helping
them to think differently.
It's got to be, you saidstorytelling is one of the best
ways to do that.
Louis Romano (25:52):
You said you were an international and I know you
are very well known throughoutthe world.
So I was doing a lecture at alibrary in Jersey and this big
kid comes up to me.
He was 13, 14 years old,handsome kid, blonde hair, blue
eyes.
He goes.
I read your book before thislecture and he had a little bit
of an accent.
He was Russian and he said wow,I am so happy to meet you.
(26:14):
This book meant so much to me.
His parents didn't speakEnglish, they were Russian
immigrants.
He goes.
Now I know I can make it here.
I have to tell you I almostfell into a puddle of piss.
I mean, I was really, really sotaken by him.
Fatima Bey (26:30):
Oh, I would have started feeling up.
Louis Romano (26:32):
I did really so, taken by him, oh, I would have.
I did and, and and I.
And how I affected this youngman's life by what I wrote.
Fatima Bey (26:39):
I won.
Louis Romano (26:39):
I was, as far as I'm concerned, I won.
Fatima Bey (26:42):
I agree, cause I'm the same way, totally.
Louis Romano (26:44):
Now I'm going to give you a moment?
Fatima Bey (26:46):
um, louis, did just talk to the teenagers out there
for a minute who are listeningright now.
What, what do you have to sayto them out there for a minute,
who are listening right now?
Louis Romano (26:53):
What do you have to say to them?
Well, this is the old mantalking.
Your life is what you want to dowith it.
If anybody tells you you can'tdo something, I'm going to say
the word fuck you, just do it.
Just go, do it.
Do it the best you can.
I don't care if you're in NorthAfrica and in Detroit, in the
(27:14):
hood in LA.
Don't let that shit be yourlife.
Don't make it.
Manage your life.
Like I told you before, I had ason he's still alive, but we
don't talk anymore who wentreally bad, and he didn't have
to go bad.
We lived in a lily white,beautiful community.
His two brothers graduatedmajor colleges.
They're both very successfulbusinessmen.
(27:35):
He himself is a successfulbusinessman, but he's a drug
dealer not anymore drug abuserand a thief, and I couldn't have
that around me.
So imagine me having threegrandchildren that I don't see.
That breaks my heart.
So don't do that to your family, don't do that to yourself.
Don't try to be slick becauseof whatever drugs are popular
(28:00):
today.
I don't even know what drugsare popular today.
When I was a kid it was heroin,and I think it might be back to
that Fentanyl.
Who the hell knows all thesebad things and look at all the
kids we buried and look at allthe people who meant so much to
us, who could have affected ourlives so well, like Michael
Jackson, like all these great,great performers who died from
(28:23):
drug overdose.
They robbed us.
So if you're doing that, you'rerobbing society.
You're robbing your familyNever mind your mother's crying
over your casket.
That's bad enough, but you'rerobbing society of your positive
possibilities.
All I say is go do it.
Fatima Bey (28:42):
Beautifully said, beautifully said.
Louis Romano (28:44):
Thank you.
Fatima Bey (28:44):
Well, lewis, thank you so much for coming on.
For those of you that areinterested in this book, there
will be a link to that book onhis website in the show notes,
and you can also, once you go tohis site, you can go to the
contact page if you need tocontact him, right on his site.
So once again, louis, thank youfor coming on today.
Louis Romano (29:06):
Thank you, Fatima.
Fatima Bey (29:07):
It has been enjoyable and fun talking to you
.
Louis Romano (29:09):
I had a good time.
Thank you so much.
Fatima Bey (29:13):
And now for a mind shifting moment.
Let's talk about the title ofthis book Zip Code.
Your zip code is the area inwhich you live within the US,
canada and a few other places inthe world.
You might call them postalcodes, but some of you listening
(29:33):
don't have postal codes.
That doesn't matter.
You still have an area that youlive in, and I want to say this
to everyone.
Listening when you come fromdoes not have to define you.
You do not have to follow thesame path as everyone else
around you.
In fact, you should stepoutside the box, outside your
(29:57):
postal code, outside your zipcode, outside your village, step
outside of everyone else'sexpectation.
That is where you can find truefreedom.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to follow or subscribeto MindShift Power Podcast on
(30:19):
any of our worldwide platformsso you, too, can be a part of
the conversation that's changingyoung lives everywhere.
And always remember there'spower in shifting your thinking.
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