Have you ever wondered how a child from the hoods of Santa Cruz can end up sponsoring fighters and events with his business, Santa Cruz County Life? This episode takes us through the life of Rob, a figure who has risen from the tough streets of California to become a successful entrepreneur. With vivid recollections of his childhood adventures in Watsonville, encounters with the gang culture, and his transformational journey beyond a 42-year prison sentence, Rob serves as a testament to resilience and the power of transformation.
Navigating through the harsh realities of California gang culture, Rob’s experiences reaching from juvenile hall to county jail, throw light on his trials in court, sharing how these experiences significantly shaped his life. His life in jail brought him face-to-face with the gang culture, where he learned about respect, loyalty, and brotherhood. His time in juvenile hall, his first-time jail experience, and the moment he stared down a 42-year prison sentence will keep you riveted till the end.
The episode further traces Rob's journey from jail to a fire department job, college education, and even flipping cars! Rob's story is a powerful reminder of how it’s not where you begin but where you end up that truly matters. We see the transformation of a person who grew up in the hood, lived the gang life, and faced jail time, only to become a successful entrepreneur. His past shaped him, but it did not limit him. End your day with the inspiring story of Rob, and let his experiences be a beautiful reminder of the power of transformation and resilience.
https://linktr.ee/Thehassleofhair
Have you ever wondered how a child from the hoods of Santa Cruz can end up sponsoring fighters and events with his business, Santa Cruz County Life? This episode takes us through the life of Rob, a figure who has risen from the tough streets of California to become a successful entrepreneur. With vivid recollections of his childhood adventures in Watsonville, encounters with the gang culture, and his transformational journey beyond a 42-year prison sentence, Rob serves as a testament to resilience and the power of transformation.
Navigating through the harsh realities of California gang culture, Rob’s experiences reaching from juvenile hall to county jail, throw light on his trials in court, sharing how these experiences significantly shaped his life. His life in jail brought him face-to-face with the gang culture, where he learned about respect, loyalty, and brotherhood. His time in juvenile hall, his first-time jail experience, and the moment he stared down a 42-year prison sentence will keep you riveted till the end.
The episode further traces Rob's journey from jail to a fire department job, college education, and even flipping cars! Rob's story is a powerful reminder of how it’s not where you begin but where you end up that truly matters. We see the transformation of a person who grew up in the hood, lived the gang life, and faced jail time, only to become a successful entrepreneur. His past shaped him, but it did not limit him. End your day with the inspiring story of Rob, and let his experiences be a beautiful reminder of the power of transformation and resilience.
https://linktr.ee/Thehassleofhair
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Hassles Hair Travel Show. Today's guest is Rob at a Santa Cruz County Life, one of the craziest stories that I've heard during this podcast. I hope you guys enjoy it. But before we get into the episode, this podcast is mainly run and powered by our photo booth, the Parasempray Photo Booth. If you guys need a photo booth for your next event your grand opening of your business, your quinceañera, your birthday party, your wedding reach out to us at Parasempray Photo Booth or just message me on Jesse, the house with Diaz. Just get ahold of us if you need a photo booth for your event. Also, subscribe like. Share all that stuff, guys. I hope you guys enjoy the episode. I love you guys. Peace.
Speaker 2:Cool hat store that has a lot of hats like that and stuff right by Bunny's shoes. If you look by Bunny's shoes downtown Santa Cruz, they have a cool hat place. You would love it. If you're looking for a cool hat, that's the place to go. All right, thank you. It's one of the little towns in Santa Cruz.
Speaker 1:And you're a prominent person in Santa Cruz. You, you own two businesses, and what? What businesses are those?
Speaker 2:So I got Santa Cruz County Life Water. As you can see, we sponsor all the fighters. We have Santa Cruz County Life. This is what we are rare and I grew up in. Pretty much every county started in Watsonville, then I lived in the west side of Santa Cruz and on the east side of Santa Cruz as well.
Speaker 1:And take me back like how was your childhood.
Speaker 2:Childhood. It was great. I grew up skateboarding, a lot of skateboarding, and I grew up in this little community in Watsonville that's where my mom lived it was called Clifford Manor and grew up there and it was a hood. Everybody if you don't know, you're going to know now. But that was a hood and all run by Northerners and that's where we grew up in Clifford. Yeah, and how was it? It was pretty cool. You know, I had a lot of good friends, about 20 of us, 25 of us maybe All childhood friends, some dead, some gone, some still alive, and you know I would jump back and forth from my dad's to here to my brothers, you know, from me here, santa Cruz, and this is where we all started.
Speaker 2:But growing up in Clifford was actually pretty cool because we grew up just like normal kids, you know, big wheels, playing Star Wars. And then we got a little older and got creative and we started like burning down mountains for our action figures like He-Man. It was funny that I could tell you a little story about that. So me, a couple of my friends, we had these He-Man little characters and we were zip lining them with string and we thought it was cool. So me, I went and got a thing of gas, got gas, brought the gas up there and it was all dry wood and dry like what was that? Like almost like hey, pretty much it was dry, it was a big mountain.
Speaker 2:So here I am, I poured gas on all these action figures and I lit it on fire and it blew up and it caused this big fire in my buddies and we all took off running and stuff. It was pretty cool. That was one of our funny memories over there as a child and we used to do some creative stuff like getting big tractor tires and roll down this big old hill and hit this bump and jump and miss cars and go into this cowfield. That was pretty cool and had a lot of friends as a childhood. And then as we got a little bit older I would get in trouble in Watsonville and I would get shipped back to Santa Cruz and then I would make my baby back to Watsonville and we started getting introduced to gangs, the gang life, and it was all run by Northerners and it was kind of cool. That was actually. That was something to avoid in my life.
Speaker 2:I missed growing up here and growing up there was almost like a tribe, you know and they were all my brothers and we all showed a lot of God of my leaves move to each other and we didn't really understand it yet because we were young. But as we started going to school we started getting with the business, you know, just fighting a lot. You know tearing people up and earning our respects, and that's all we had. And I came from. I graduated from that and got involved with an organization called Northside Watsonville you know that's right here and that's probably the oldest gang in Watsonville and we went buck wild from there and I have, you know, that's where the story began with me.
Speaker 2:I took a turn in my life and that was a lot of my friends pass away, a lot of my friends just dropping out, a lot of my friends raising their families and raising their kids, and that was a pretty interesting thing, but that's what made me who I am today. Yeah, you know, and I always been an entrepreneur, ever since I was a little kid, like I would go to school and try to make a, you know, a dollar out of 15 cents.
Speaker 1:What was your first? Well, first of all, it's crazy to hear you talk about your childhood and, like the person I met, like through Compton's Fighting Champion, the Central Coast Fighting Championship, you being there, you supporting it, like you're not the kind of guy that's like violent, like when you say tribe, like that's the kind of person you are, like you're cool with everybody as long as they don't disrespect you. Correct, yeah, you're super cool with everybody as long as they're cool with you. And you're probably the most friendliest person I met at the Central Coast Fighting Championship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've changed a lot in my life. I've changed a lot, like I've. It's just one of those things growing up Like after you, after you do, you've succeeded in a lot of things you try to look for more, to better your family, to better everybody. And me as a person, I'm still. I'm still a thug, you know, I'm still me, but I respect everybody, you know, and I get, and I'll take the t-shirt off my back. If I met you, you need a t-shirt. If I have two dollars, you'll get a dollar. That's who I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and how I met you is through the Daniel Confident Central Coast Fighting Championship. You know, danny is like a solid dude. I like him and I learned about fighting, learned it and respected, you know, and he's a he's a dude that is a solid individual, takes it good and he tries to help a lot of people too. Yeah, you know, tries to get in this sport to fight and you know, that's one good thing I like about Danny. That's why I I consider him a friend because he's a pretty cool, solid dude, real as they come, won't lie to you, will kick your ass, but he keeps it for the ring and for the most part, that's one of the things I like about him. I respect him. A lot of people respect him.
Speaker 2:You know he has a big heart, Cool dude.
Speaker 1:Take me, take me back to your childhood when did, when did? What was that first entrepreneur thing you dove into, like you said, you was throughout your whole entire life.
Speaker 2:So growing up, like growing up in Clifford, like Watsonville that's where it is Growing up there and growing up on the west side of Santa Cruz, and on the east side too, like my first thing I did was I learned because when I would come back from Santa Cruz I would have a skateboard and my friends would be intrigued by it. Some of them didn't even know what the fuck it was, but they loved it. We used to roll down the hill on it, jump on it, and then I had this great idea we went to school and I started actually making skateboards and shop class without the teacher knowing. So, like years plus, only make like one and I made like 50 of them. So and I got trucks there was this skateboard shop in Watsonville and we got trucks, the wheels and stuff and we started skateboarding. It was fucking cool and rolling down the hill. A lot of us didn't even know how to do tricks or anything. It was a lot of mixed, mixed culture and our hood you know it's called CML, clifford Mount or Locos, and there was tons of us. But we were kids still, we didn't know it yet, we still had fucking big wheels or riding down the hill doing crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:And then me, I noticed a lot of us. We didn't have money, you know. So I used to like, always like to have money or I always like, didn't like the fact that my friends couldn't eat or I couldn't eat, you know anything. We wanted to eat. And I was raised like my mom always cooked food for us, had stuff for us. It was a big in Clifford at that time like everybody's mom knew everybody. All the kids knew everybody. So we were all like brothers, you know, and it didn't all start off as gangs. It started off just as like a big family, like a cool, like a big tribe, right, and it was so cool. And I was blessed to have two worlds. But I chose more of that lifestyle because I had a lot of camaraderie with a lot of people. But the thing, when I, like you, said about what was my first making money, like my first hustle, like my first hustle really was just breaking into shit.
Speaker 1:I'd break into shit.
Speaker 2:I liked it, like so I would break into stuff. And there's, the store doesn't exist anymore. But I remember my first thing I ever done, probably, was like I broke into this one store I'm not going to say the name of it, but it was a long time ago. Store is done and gone but I jumped down, I went through a vent, I jumped down and I was a kid and me and my other buddy he's dead now but we grabbed all the candy and then we grabbed all the stuff and then we seen all these guns and we're like, well, what the fuck's this? And we got guns and we're like playing like dirty Harry inside there, like pointing at each other. So we took all that shit and we went back down and went to the older guys and of course it probably took like half and gave us some money. But like I took that money and I remember and I liked it, I like that feeling of having cash and so I just doubled up on that money.
Speaker 2:Then I started like getting stereos, because stereos back in the day were like if you stole one of those you know CD players, you could take it out of the car. You can take a car, you can get like an, a ball of coke for it, or you get 100 bucks for it. That's what you get for it. And so like I didn't even know what coke was, and like we would just take all the shit right and then we'd have a pile of it and we were just little shits and would sell it. We would sell that stuff and then then we got introduced more and more into that gang lifestyle, you know, and that's where a lot of things changed. It went from being a kid to becoming a man in a sense. And becoming a man in a sense it was a big deal, because I was blessed with a lot of guys that were ready, schooled down, went to prison, showed us what time it was, and we did our thing. And every day, all day, every day, we were smashing on anybody, anybody that imposed us. We would.
Speaker 1:How old were you at the time?
Speaker 2:How's it going? Good, good, I'll stop.
Speaker 1:That's really you dead. Yeah, oh shit, that's crazy that he saw it from, like that's the only thing he saw. Yeah, but you were. You were talking about your childhood, you were, so you asked me how old I was. How old are you when you're all?
Speaker 2:of it. Yeah, it's on. Ok. So I was about when I first started in the gang stuff. I was probably like 12 years old, 12 years old and I was starting to become a man. You know, I love the streets and I would jump back and forth, like I said. But then I got jumped in the hood, probably like I would say, 14 years old, around 14. I became a bona fide Northside Watsonville gang member and that's when it was on and cracking and we were just it was all about getting dressed, getting creased down, wearing penalties.
Speaker 2:You know, the steel back then was real, like the guys that we hung around with and fuck around. They were older dudes. A lot of them been to the pin, a lot of them were schooled down, ya, and we're getting all the cletcha we could and it was fun and I loved it. I loved every day getting up hunting that's what we used to call it and we're proud to be what we were. You know, and that's that's how it was. We just get busy every day and make a name for Watsonville and Watsonville.
Speaker 2:To this day and to from now, from since I was that age, to now, that gang still alive, both of them. They still are still alive and breathing. And I see a lot of those guys, a lot of the guys that I grew up with that are that were from my childhood friends till now, and you know I see how they became. A lot of them are good dads. A lot of them went back to school. A lot of them fucked out. A lot of them are heroin addicts. A lot of them are piece of shit now. So it's a crazy game. So if you're a kid and if you think about joining the gang, especially where I'm from, you better be with the business, because it's going to be a long road ahead of you, a long road ahead of you.
Speaker 1:And how long did that you, as you said you were going into the manhood. How long did that last? Until when did you start really supporting yourself through entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2:Well, after jail time and going to the, there was this place called the farm. It was so funny. So Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department have this, they have the jail, then they have the jail farm where you do time and so well, I kind of jumped the gun a little bit. They have juvenile hall. It was on Graham Hill Road and that was the first time I ever got locked up was at juvenile hall and it was. I didn't really like it and so I act like a little animal in there. I remember I flooded the flooded the toilets, kicking the walls, fighting with the staff. They hated me there.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I didn't understand the. They had a color, color thing back then. They had like a red for red tag. You stay in your cell for like the whole, for like 24 hours. You get out one hour a day. And then they had like brown, you get out more hours and more hours and I always fucked up. So I never got to come out and then when I did I would fight and then they would throw me back inside there. So I didn't really couldn't, I didn't really like juvenile hall. You know, it wasn't what I thought it was.
Speaker 1:And then what did you end up doing to get yourself there?
Speaker 2:If you want to, talk about that and juvenile hall, you hadn't talked about that, so like. So I was at a there's this place called Deller Cormenna in Wasambu, so I had a Volkswagen bug. Right, I was young, my mom, like bought me a Volkswagen bug. So I'm working on this thing, cause I was and I like cars. My dad was in the cars, my brother was in the cars, like everybody I ran was in cars. I just was just young. And so one day I was hanging out at Deller Cormenna by myself working on this, I had a tire, iron in my hand, right, I'm taking off this tire, and all of a sudden this car shows up. They show up, they're like, hey, where are you from? And of course I yell out you know, fuck you, what's up? And I bought myself. There's four of them. They jump out and all of a sudden there was this I could say it now like one of my homies. His dad recipes, his name was Pepe, he's a solid dude, he's from city hall and a couple of city hallers jumped out. They seen me. So we go after these dudes. We smashed the shit out of them. You know guy has a real scar in his face. I don't care, I'm young, we're bombing on all of these dudes and they fucking snitched on all of us and they came to do that. But whatever, we did our time in juvenile hall and you know there were poor side of Watsonville dudes and we smashed the shit out of them.
Speaker 2:And I get home and I'm thinking it's all cool. I'm drinking with all my friends and all of a sudden fucking SWAT team comes and breaks my door down and grabs me, takes me to fucking Graham Hill road and I'm like dang dude, this is like I didn't know what this was. You know it was. It was jail, but for like for kids. And so, like I'm in this tank and it's funny because of my brother-in-law his name was Danny, he was inside there in the sky, named Dito. That was his stepbrother and they were in there. And I'm over there banging on the wall, fucking, going all crazy, this and that, and I hear a voice and he's singing and I'm all. And then I'm a Danny and it was Danny and he's like chill, fool, like chill, what. Why are you doing that? Rip me up everything. Why are you smashing? Why are you doing all this stuff? And I was like I don't know, I was just a wild bull and that got caught.
Speaker 2:Like a lion, that got caught you know, during this cage and you're just all like what the fuck is this? Like, fuck this. These guys can't do this to me, like, and oh yeah, they can, and so like yes, they can.
Speaker 2:And then they got me and they fucking put me in this. Like a whole staff came inside there so you can learn your lesson today, and they put me in this fucking rubber room so you can't hear shit. You're yelling, you're screaming. They don't give a fuck. You can't hear anything. Finally, I calmed down. Then the staff came and talked to me and said you're going to be okay now and I'm like. I'm like you're young, so you almost want to fucking cry because you're so fucking mad. You're like fuck these guys. They fucking did this to me. I hate fucking cops, I hate this. I hate that. You hate the world when you're in there. So, like then I calmed down and they put me in the cell. I'm sitting there in the cell and Danny's talking to me. He's all what's up, we're talking.
Speaker 2:I remember this conversation very well and I remember a conversation with Dito and you know his name was Juan Rivera, rest in Peace and he was a solid dude. It was crazy too, and he was in there and we started talking to them and right away they have like this red tag on my thing. So everybody else gets to go fucking play basketball. You could actually watch them play basketball, but they let you out to go eat and they had really good food there, you know. And then I go to court, so and I remember the judge there it was so funny because the judge, they actually eat with the inmates, like all of us little guys, like they eat with us and so did the lawyers, and the courtroom is right inside the juvenile hall too. And so, like it was two weeks later, like the I remember, I went to court and the I think it was, it was a disc returning. Now I didn't know that, I didn't know about any of the stuff. Like me, I'm talking shit in there. I'm telling this guy that's trying to help me be a lawyer, I didn't know, I didn't know the system yet. So I'm telling him fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.
Speaker 2:And then my mom and my brother show up. So the whole fuck you thing was like different, because I got, I was like, oh shit, you know, and like they talked to my mom, they said you know what, this is what he's doing, this is what's happening. And my mom was always solid dude, like till this day, like she always backed me up, like I could never do wrong, you know, out of all my brothers. Like I was the black sheep and I could never do nothing wrong with in my mom's eyes. So they got me out of juvenile hall, right. So I get out of juvenile hall and I walk out and I was like kind of one of the first ones, like out of our little crew that got locked up. So I came out like thinking I'm all fuck cool, right.
Speaker 2:So we're chilling in Clifford and there's this bus stop, right, and it comes from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, right, and I think it. I think it was, if I could be mistaken, but I think it said like Watsonville 81 or Santa Cruz 81, like you can take the bus back and forth. Well, I get out and we're chilling at the bus stop and I see this dude right and he's like looking at us and he's flipping the soft and stuff. So I tell the bus driver the bus driver right there he was stopped and you know, like the airbags that go down, some old lady got out. So I walked in the bus stop.
Speaker 2:I got so excited I started bombing on this dude. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I drug him out by his hair. They mean my friends started smashing this dude and then we're here, we go throwing shit at the bus, doing crazy shit like that. And then the older guys, of course, because skate, we're making the block hot, so they fucking yell at us after like hey, idiots, calm down. And I forgot. I wanted to mention this one thing because it was kind of cool. They had a big construction site where we lived, so we took all the fucking wood and we took all the stuff and we built like a fucking mansion, fucking badass clubhouse. We called it the mud club. So it was called the mud club and it was crazy. So me and all my friends and then like this is before you got locked up.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to say that, because this was a funny story because it just came in my head, because we had the mud club and we took we had fucking windows, bathtub, we had a like, and none of it probably worked, but we like it was there and it was at the time. We're like, we're like everybody, like girls, but like like the other shit too, though, and so we could like that was like the little stabbing cabin, like for the older guys, it could take the chicks there, because we actually all got together and built this fucking mud club and it looked like a fucking condo, but it was in the sticks, so it was right by our neighborhood. We'd go down the hill and we would go to the mud club and one of our guys, I remember he was walking down the street and for some reason he went to somebody's garage and he found all these fucking Playboy magazines. So we covered it all in Playboy magazines. So we had the mud club there and there was this thing called I think it was Honda Hill.
Speaker 2:So if any of my friends remember this, if they see this I'm I don't know if I'm mistaken or not, but I think it was called Honda Hill and so we'd go to Honda Hill and all these guys would ride dirt bikes and all this shit there and we couldn't afford dirt bikes, right. So, like I remember this one time I'm like fuck it, and it was one of me and one of my homies he's still around and stuff and we took a, we took a dirt bike and we me and him were like Rambo the movie Rambo on a dirt bike. We took this, we took that dirt bike and we got away with it. We took it and we brought it to Clifford and everybody's like fuck it's so amazed on this dirt bike, right, cause now all of us have a dirt bike.
Speaker 2:It wasn't just mine, it was like the community dirt bike and so like we said, fuck yeah, and so we had so much fun on this dirt bike, we took another dirt bike, then we took another dirt bike and so we had a couple dirt bikes and we go dirt bike riding. We had fun and it was cool because a lot of us there are, like it was like that was a ghetto of Watsonville, you know, a lot of people weren't rich, they're report, you know, and that's how I actually started, like liking motorcycles. It was cool. And then we would have fun. We would make ramps, skateboard, we would play Thundercats, the movie Thundercat I don't know if you ever remember Thundercats back in the day.
Speaker 2:We'd fucking do Thundercats and hit people with it, and then we would like anybody would come down. It was like anybody that would come into Clifford. You would have to be known by somebody or else you would get fucked off. Your day would be fucked off. You come into Clifford, you get fucked off, Like for one time. I'm not going to mention his name, he knows who he is, he knows the story.
Speaker 2:We were young and I remember one time these poor-siders thought they were tough, right. So they come passing by and there's tons of us, there's a group of us, right, we had it sewed up there, you know, and we're hanging out, we're eating ice cream or whatever in the fuck we were doing, and all of a sudden this car pulls up and they're all like poor-side Watsonville. So we're like, looking at them and we're younger. These guys are older. We're like, fuck you, what's up? So one of our older friends, crazy fucker, crazy dude and everybody knows him that it's going to see this story he goes over there by himself with a tie. You know those old jacks, those that look like a machine gun but, like for old cars, you could jack them up with a jack. Well, he gets that thing and he starts smashing all of them, breaks their heads open. There's blood dripping everywhere.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm like fuck, looking at all this. We're kids. We're like damn dude, this is fucking crazy. You know, he beats the shit out of these dudes, right, and two days later we're hanging out and all of a sudden this fool's came back to get their getbacks right. They start blasting out all of us, Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We're running, ducking, diving and stuff. And it's crazy living inside there, because we have sports players inside there. We had big homies in there, you know, just like all these older North Settlers that were in there. Then we have, like us growing up, you know, becoming that, and we had a bunch of different things inside there going on. You know how old were you so when that that? Well, I grew up there, my whole life I was born there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but when you when that?
Speaker 2:when your buddy smashed? Oh, when he smashed him I was like 12 years old. I watched that shit. He fucked this guy up and then we ran over there and started fucking that guy up. We didn't know why we were fucking him up yet, right. But we fucked him up and then, like people were driving inside Clifford, right, and they knew they already knew it had a reputation Clifford back then in the nineties and the eighties like they knew not to come inside there. And there was another hood too, called the green valley. They were solid too. That was the same. They were like built the same way as us. But we were like, so it was Clifford manner, right. Then they called it Glyphos, then they called it CML, like now that's, that's the gang, now that's what it was. But when we grew up there we were like Glyphos.
Speaker 2:So, like I remember when they out I was young and we would always just stay there because it was community, we had everything. Like our moms would make manuvo, everybody would go eat manuvo Christmas time nobody got shit. You know what I mean Inside there. Like me, as a spoiled brat, I could have had anything from my family and the Santa Cruz, but I chose to be this little tyrant and wattable, because I loved it so much and I grew up with everybody there and there's some people that I still talk to that are from there.
Speaker 2:We had Indians inside there like native Indian people, like a whole community of that family was inside there. We had Mexican people in there. We had some white boys in there, crazy white boys in there too, yeah, you know. So we had some mixed people. We had a couple of black guys in there too, you know, like this dude named Malvin. He was a fool. You know. We had big Tony. I remember he was the guy that watched over everything and we had those family there that were Indian Indians too and they were the I don't even I fucking can't remember the name of their tribe, but they were cool as hell and we just everybody there was just had unity and family.
Speaker 2:And then back to the gang part, though, like that's when we graduated. We graduated from being from Clifford, being Norsiders, and that's when it was on a crack and that's when I went to jail and then that's the life I opened up. I opened up that black door and liked it and juvenile hall sucked. And then when I got a juvenile hall, that's when I, you know, bashed that dude. He comes, I drag him outside of the bus. We started smashing him and the bus driver comes out. We're like, fuck you throwing shit at the bus driver, we don't care about him, just mind his own business.
Speaker 2:Oh just mind your own business, fuck off, you're going to get it too. And we get yelled at by the older guys because you know they're, you know they don't want all that heat, right, but we're not giving a fuck. Then, after you got, you know, joined in this gang, right, this gang it's like a glory gang. You made it. If you were in this gang, you made it because those guys were like that. That back then, like when I was back then, when I was in it, it was like when you were there, that's. You made it to the Ivy League team. You know you're in the NFL, you know that's. You made it to the Niners and I got jumped in with them.
Speaker 2:There was like five guys and they hit me up because I was already doing a bunch of dirt for Clifford. You know where I grew up. So these four guys hit me up and they're all like, hey, bro, it's like it's about that time, you know you get into the hood. And I said like, fucking, I thought about it for a second. I said, fuck it, let's do it. And with no hesitation, and I'm like let's do this shit. And then we're in Clifford and, fucking, I got jumped in by all these dudes, right, and fucking. I was like dang. You know it was a good feeling. They gave me all hugs, fucking black eye, bloody lip, fucked up.
Speaker 2:Oh, you were 18 at the time, no hell, no, I was young, I was like I was like 14. God damn, got in the hood at 14. And then I had my friend, the guy who told you about the guy that I was telling you about with a jack, the guy that beat all those guys up. Well, he was like like a big dad to all those for Clifford, you know, he watched over everybody and he ran over there and he's like what the fuck are you doing? And why just got jumped in the hood and he belonged to the hood too. He was just older, right, and he wanted better for us. But he knew I was a fucking sad back then and so, like he's all, whatever, bro, you made it, give me a big old hug. And they call these things back then like people call them meetings, but they were like juntas, right. And so, like I show up and then all of a sudden I see these motherfucking guys like with fucking muscles, big guys, tacked down big brochures, fucking creased down smoking frajos and they're all like they're all what's up, little homie, and I'm all what's up. And they're like, oh, we heard you got in this and that and I'm all yeah, and it wasn't intimidation by them, it was like more, like I glamorize that shit. I fucking soaked that in. I was like I want to be fucking just like these guys.
Speaker 2:And then we had more people getting jumped in. There was some guys my age and there was a dude I'm not gonna say his name either, because he's out now and he did 25 years in prison. You know he got involved in a you know something that gave him 25 years and him and four other guys and he got out and recently we reconnected. He's all parole and all that stuff and he's doing his own thing. He's doing good.
Speaker 2:But here's one of the guys who's one of my road dogs and, fucking we just used to terrorize the town. You know we terrorized it Like we looked for we just wanted blood. That's how we were raised and we got schooled down and you know I was fortunate fortunate not to be with them there that night when they all got popped. You know I remember I was sick and saved me. The flu fucking saved me. You know you called him sick, yeah, and I was fucking really sick and I got lucky. And then all my friends that I used to hang out with that little group all got busted. They all went to the pin for 25 fucking years and I'm like fuck dude, lucky I was sick that day, you know, and you know we're just, you know, just uh.
Speaker 1:How old are you at that time?
Speaker 2:At that time. So it's 15. And all your friends just got lucky, like a lot of my friends got busted and then I'll have. And then all my other friends that didn't get busted were all together and we're like, damn dude, this was fucking crazy. You got these guys got busted for murder. Then it was on and cracking and then those guys tried to get their getbacks. You know we would smash them. And then, uh, anybody that came into Clifford I mean you would get checked, bro Hard Like, uh, there was so many of us, you know a whistle you have 20 deep Going to fuck you up, you know. And then that was just Clifford, not even Northside. Northside lived in there too.
Speaker 2:And then after that, like you know, just living that life, you know, living that life having to deal with, uh, having to deal with your family, acknowledging that you are no longer going to go to college, you're no longer going to fucking be this nice kid, no more. All of a sudden you start getting fucking tactoos of all this crazy shit on you and cops slap a bussing in your door and all these things. And that's a reality of it. Like, like my brain was already more advanced, you know, like I knew it. But even being in that, just being raised by my family from Santa Cruz, like I already had knowledge of, you know skateboarding, you know having good things eating at restaurants, going to these nice places, but that wasn't for me.
Speaker 2:You know what was for me as those people. They were my tribe, you know. And then I had a lot of my family, a lot of my cousins were involved in it and you know my cousin I could say his name's Sneaky, you know. Rest in Peace. He died. He was solid, he came later, he grew up later, he was younger than me, but I had my cousins. You know they're Indians. You know a lot of them died. There's two left. You know I love them, I talk to them on. You know we always fuck around on Instagram and Facebook and shit.
Speaker 2:And they're still my cousins. I love them to death and they were the ones on the streets with me and they're still good and they still made it. And in the first fucking term he went to prison at a young age. I remember he went, and my other cousin he never did and he lives in Stockton now and he's doing good and my other cousin lives in Tahoe and they're doing cool and I had a Rest in Peace.
Speaker 2:I want to tell you about a guy you know. His name is Babyface Marcos and he was a really good friend of mine and he schooled me down. He schooled me down to the fullest. And another individual you know, wolfie. You know, and he was always. They were always in and out of prison.
Speaker 2:They were doing their things and that's what I started really, really like getting all that, getting all this, you know, like just getting schooled down and I was with them, hanging out with them a lot. They were schooling me down. I was getting all the rundown and how things work and the first time I ever did something Now I could say it you know he's dead now and they called little Wolfie and he passed away. I mean the first time I ever fucking did anything with any fucking grill norciders was walking into a fucking bar with 12 gauge shotgun and these fools were fucking acting crazy and just going in and fucking, blasting at everybody, not giving a fuck, and he didn't give a fuck. And he was older than me, he'd been to the pin and we didn't give a fuck. And he was like we just went in there, blasted everybody, bounced out, fucking, and this is back in the day.
Speaker 1:Did you have any nerves going like cause that was?
Speaker 2:your first time. Yeah, I didn't even give a fuck, I liked it. You know I liked that shit Cause that's the product of your environment. You know that's what you're supposed to do. You know what I mean, and but I didn't even know how to load a fucking gun.
Speaker 1:You know I didn't even.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know how to load it. You know, and it was crazy. Because when you, you know you're young and you're doing that and you're just like you're just an animal, and so we go back to the hood and of course people know like what the fuck? And you start getting a little bit of clout, right, and you start doing your own shit with your homies. You want to get that? No, I'm good, Okay.
Speaker 1:You sure.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I didn't want to cut you off, I just it's been ringing now, and we started doing you know, crazy shit and everybody started getting, we started getting locked up, going to County, and then I remember, fucking I caught a bullet. Like I caught a bullet, so like a year in County, so I fucking I destroyed some fools, so I go to jail. First time I ever go to jail I'm like fuck, dude, this is jail. Like you know, they're a cop got to me and they open up these fucking things and it's all the sheriffs, right, and then it was a Watsonville PD that took me, and then the sheriffs, you know, they run it the jail, and I'm in this jail. So they put me in this holding tank. You know, first they like, they put you in the holding, they, they strip you for all your shit, right, they take all your stuff off, they take your shoes off and I'm inside there, I'm fucking now I'm 18. So I have no shoes, I have no belt. They take your belt, they search you and they bend your ass over, they make you cough, they do all that shit. And then you go in this holding tank and you're, they have one phone and they have, like, fucking.
Speaker 2:I remember, though it was just a homing from city hall, you know his name was Diablo. He was inside there, he was older than me and I knew him. I went what's up, full in here, was like laughing. I was in there, me and him were talking, we're bullshitting, and you know I I never been to jail, so he's just like, hey, calm down a little bit. You know this is how it's going to happen. They're going to, they're going to book you. You know they're going to take your fingerprints, take your picture, and then they're going to house you, right, and so like we waited there fucking all fucking day, all night, and then they give you a stupid ass Balini sandwich and you eat that and you're fucking hungry.
Speaker 2:And there's fools in there, like there's some white boys in there, some woods like hey, wood, there's some woods in there, a crazy wood, and I knew them. They're just, they're like I knew him from Santa Cruz, they're all what's up. Well, it's like I knew him and he was old, old school wood. He was from the east side of Santa Cruz and I knew him. And we're talking and fucking and there's all kinds of different kinds of east sides though too. So you have to remember there's like point boy East Siders, there's Southerner East Siders, and then there's like the wood East Siders, right. So there's different kinds Like and I hung out a lot with the Surfer East Siders, that's how I knew and then the Southern, the Sudanese ones were from like East Side, santa Cruz ones. So that's the East Side of guy I'm talking about, but he was a wood, though he wasn't a Surfer, he was a wood and but I knew him and he was in there with us and we're all hanging out and he told me like yeah, you're probably going to go in, you know a North housing unit. So there's just a fucking North housing unit.
Speaker 2:And so they put you in after they fingerprint you, all that. So like probably eight hours later, when you're in there smelling feet, smelling farts, all this bullshit, and I'm like just intrigued by all this shit, like what the fuck Like this is? This is what it is Like jail at fuck. Okay. So then they, they this guard, you know, they put you in after they searched you. That time they put you in this little room, right. Then this trustee comes and he gives you all these clothes. So you get all these clothes, right, you get all these clothes, they give you these clothes, you dress, and then you dress in this guard. He takes you to this unit. It's called the big unit, so it was called North housing unit. So we they open up the door and all of a sudden, when they open up this door, all kinds of people start fucking laughing and like what's up my girl.
Speaker 2:So I'm like damn, there's all. My homies are like that's where you've been.
Speaker 1:This is where this guy's been.
Speaker 2:So these are all these fools. Right, like we had, like it was it was, it was mixed. Back then. There was like we had like a. There was like Green Valley, there was like Clipper dudes in there, there was like city haulers in there. Of course North Siders were in there and that's where all the young bucks went, that's where we had no fucking roles and we would cause chaos.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to ask you how old were you? Yeah?
Speaker 2:18.
Speaker 1:So that's 18.
Speaker 2:That's jail. That's when I was an 18 years old in jail freshly in jail I was. I was, I was just turned 18, november, just got busted, went inside there. So I'm and I'm in there for a fucking crazy one too. Like a crazy one. My first, my first one was like uh, fucking, it was like they tried to get me for like a fucking kidnapping, throwing a guy in a trunk, having a gun. They're trying to do all this. They made all this fucking shit up, right. So one of the guys that was with us Give me one second.
Speaker 1:He says All right good.
Speaker 2:So I'm with I'm not going to mention his name, but I'm with this dude, his chick and me. So the cops accused us of grabbing this fucking fool, throwing him in the trunk, right, throwing him in the trunk and having a gun and trying to kill this dude, right? So they say that we did that, right? And they say that we did that, and so whatever happens, right? So a week later I'm fucking riding my cruiser, right, riding my cruiser, and all of a sudden, fucking a fucking SWAT team's after my ass and there was this fucking cop dude. He had a heart on for us. His name is Stackhouse, he had a dog, he was a dog cop and that fucking never caught me. But this day he caught me. So he fucking catches me. They wrestle me down, they grab me, I'm arrested and my fucking charges were kidnapping, attempted murder and some bullshit, right, and so fucking first time in jail.
Speaker 2:So my friends are all damn bro. You're looking at all this shit and I didn't know what the fuck it was. But then there was these two dudes I met from Salinas. They were old school dudes. They were inside there. They just happened to be in there and I don't even know if they're alive or anything. But I remember one of them. His name was Smokey and another name was Richard Rubio. They were from they were from San Jose, sorry, and they were. They were schooled down. Those guys were like fighting beefs and shit and they and I told them what was going on and they were kind of like new, like look at my paperwork, look at all this stuff. And I was in there.
Speaker 2:So my first day of fucking court, I go in the court and the judge and she was a well-known judge, she was cool actually, and her name was Heather Morris, right, and she's seen me a couple of times before. But she's seen me and she's all like, okay, she read me everything I'm facing, right, so you're facing up to like 45 fucking years. You have kidnapping gun, but they didn't have anything on us, right? Yeah, like so the dude I was with the reason how they found out my name because of him, right. But so his chick ends up going in court saying none of it was true, right, because it wasn't true.
Speaker 2:So they keep me in there and then they give me this bunk ass, fucking felony probation, three years joint suspended shit, right, and after all the stuff that I was doing, I was in kids shit. So I was already getting busted for all these little things going to juvenile, doing stupid ass shit. And I mean I say a stupid ass shit. Then they kind of kicked me out of Watsable. So I fought that case. I was in there fighting that case for and in my brain didn't really understand the concept that they could take me to prison for fucking 42 years. Yeah, you just got.
Speaker 2:I just didn't care, like I didn't, I didn't, I just didn't know. So I'm the. Then I got appointed as a public defender, right, and then my family hired a lawyer for me and then we beat that case because it was a weak case. I have the girl that was in the car saying it was bullshit, but she was fucking solid as fuck, and the guy was just a little weenie and he snitched and he couldn't snitch on anything because there was nothing to snitch about. So that was it, and I got out, you know, like fought that case for six months and inside there, though, like I could tell you one thing in the jail, like when you have like 50 guys, you fucking know, and it's a, it's a madhouse in there, like, rest in peace.
Speaker 2:Rascal, he was inside there with me, a lot of us, a bunch I can name a bunch of names, but him particularly because it was funny, because they had these, uh, these, these cops that were made out of plastic, right, and you could, we used to go on top of the stairs and fucking skateboard down like surf down these fucking stairs, right, it was so fun, like jumping, all the things. And then when people like homeless guys come in or people come in, we yell out fucking shower Fuckers would make them shower and shit and then we would smash on fools. You know it was anybody like people. They had a YA facility up here California. You did it for boys and some once in a while the Jews would escape and some of them were from like down south and they would like fucking come inside there and they would house them with us for some reason and they would be like fucking, like looking at us telling where they're from. We just mop them all up and room 14, you would never want to go to room 14 because room 14 was like a five man cell, right Five man cell. So if you fucked up or we didn't like you, you're going to room 14. And room 14, you're going to get fucked. You get handled Right. And then they had this panic button. There's always a panic button right there. If you fucking didn't like it in there, you press that button, you're out Right and you couldn't reach the panic button. You can get beat up first before you hit that panic button.
Speaker 2:And I remember that and it was just then fought my case and they're going to court and understanding it. And going to court is like the jail. It was so crazy they would. They would like, shock you up, shock with your feet up, and they'll put you in a van and they would take you to the courthouse underneath the courthouse, down at Chris courthouse. You'd go there and then you would, you would sit in like they.
Speaker 2:They would call it the I forgot what it was called. I haven't been there in a long time but though it's just, it was fucking horrible, like it looked like a, like a dungeon, right, and you're sitting in there and then this fucking you know the guards that were there, that were you know the bailiff here to come in there and read off your names, this person, you guys all come. So there's some guys shocked like this that really fucked up or really did some crazy shit. And then there was guys just shackled by their feet or you have a little buddy and then you go. Then you would go sit down and see the judge and you're in this orange suit, right, and you sit there and the judge is talking to you telling you're charges and all that stuff. Did you just have shackles? So at that time I had shackles. So at that time I had shackles. So the difference was they had.
Speaker 2:If you got busted in Watsonville, they would take you to Watsonville court that a Watsonville court it doesn't exist anymore the old court on freedom Boulevard. So they would put you there. The van would show up, you would go inside there and the bailiffs were there, little cocky bastards, they had guns, some of them had guns and you would sit there and they would call your name out and you would sit in this little roll in Watsonville on freedom Boulevard, that little jail, and then you would go there. The judge would tell you how much time you're looking at or what you're doing, this and that. So after six months I beat my case, I remember I got out and as soon as I got out, like fuck, it was crazy, I was looking for the fucker snitched on me and then he bounced and so that was an experience I had of the county jail. Then, like I remember, like two months later I get busted again, you know for bombing on some bulls. So there I am in county again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, were you already on, so you beat it totally, or so I beat it totally. Okay, so you were on, beat it totally.
Speaker 2:Okay. So then back to the story I was telling you about when we fought those guys. When we fought, those dudes rolled up on me at a crowbar and I smashed them and my friends smashed them and we get busted later for that, and that's when they gave me a year in county. So you do this year in county, right? This guy's like fucking head, you know, all smashed in. We bombed on this bull and my homie, pepe rest in peace. He was in there with me. He didn't roll on me, you know. He mean him did our time.
Speaker 2:And so they had this weird thing in Santa Cruz. They don't have it no more. It was called the farm, the jail farm. It was a rehab facility. So, basically, they had fucking peacocks that you can paint cars, you can go to school. It was bunk living. You know they had like. It was like, it was fucking, like it was great. It wasn't even jail, like, tell you the truth, you're in there and if you fucked up they'll take you back to the jail. But if you're in there, you're in there.
Speaker 2:But there was so much shit, that baseball that it was like a. It was a place to like, try to like. It was called the rehab, you know, to make you try to learn a career. But when you're young you don't really give a fuck about careers. So I liked cars. So they had a paint place that had a tearier. They had a. You could do that landscaping, any fucking thing you possibly wanted, or you can go out outside and clean up the roads and shit. So you had all that. Then they had to work furlough guys and we would make those guys bring us burritos and shit back, because they would go work and we'd tell them, like you know, bring a sis, bring a sat. So as we're in there, we're doing, you know, we're doing our time and it sucks because you're not at home. You know, if you had a little chick, I had a little chick at the time so I was like, oh, I miss her.
Speaker 2:Well, call her on the phone, whatever, come visit me. You get your little heart on and you're fucking can't fuck her because you're in jail. You know, you just lube her all up so she can go fuck somebody else, basically, and so like you're inside there.
Speaker 1:That's what it was.
Speaker 2:And you know you have all these older guys that you know had kids at the time. They're like with their families, are really enjoying it, this and that, and we just had. You know we're young. So we had these young little chicks coming over like fucking, bring us this, bring us that, trying to sneak it all in, like we whatever, whatever, right, and we're kissing these chicks and stuff and we can give a fuck about them. We just like it was more like for the show, like get all creased down and shit. Yeah, we have a chick bro Like this is cool, like visiting, and other people like that had their families, understood. I didn't understand that, but now I understand that was like they missed their families. They fucked up and now they're visiting them.
Speaker 2:And there were some guys in there like, and then I would see a lot of my like like surfer buddies, I got busted for DUIs and all this shit. So here I am, homie creased down, fucking when I had hair all creased down. We're in there fucking like that a weight room and we're just fucking like. We're there just doing it, fucking smashing on anybody. That was weak, right.
Speaker 2:And there was this one cop I get. His name is Andy. I forgot. His last name is Italian dude and for some reason he liked me. But he always used to tell me on my shift please don't fucking make it hard on me. He said, please don't, and I'm all right. And he goes I'm going to give you a job. So what do you like to do? And I'm all like I don't know, I don't know. And then I'm like I don't really want a job right now, I just want to see how this goes.
Speaker 2:So this pool, we're playing fucking pool in there and I'm young, right, and there's some older homies in there and they're they're like telling us to settle down because we're trying to run amok. Now there's like eight youngsters in there and there are a bunch of older guys in there, and the older guys they were sour bro, because you know they were schooled down and shit. That's not how you conduct yourself in jail, right. And we were conducting ourselves like a bunch of fucking hyenas, you know, just trying to like come up, and then that's. And then I started slanging in there, you know whatever for contraband. And then I get envelopes, sort of hustling inside there, and that's that, my the the. You know the hustle was real. I started saying like fuck, I have my money off. All these fools Like I saw telling all these work furlough guys. Hey, this is what I want you to bring me. I need stamps, I need this, I need this, I need that.
Speaker 1:You know, bring me this fucking, whatever weed anything Right, I can't believe I get where to get in, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, fucking, we're getting it. Because that place was, just, it was a fucking madhouse. People could literally throw shit over the fence for you, right? So then you're getting all these fuckers, high drunk or you know, bringing beer in there because these guys are, you know, like the work furlough guys. We're like pretty much like alcoholics and shit, but they had so had jobs, but they were doing bus for DIYs and you know there's a lot of like white-collar guys. You know what I mean and you know and who would use those guys to our advantage, because they would, they would have access to the streets and I Was doing, I was getting my hustle down.
Speaker 2:You know, just, I would make shit salad and I and I made these crosses out of wood Right now it's staying them and put their chicks name on it and shit, and I would sell it to these dudes and they would give me the money for it. So I was doing that for a while. That was fucking. That was okay. I was charging these like 50 bucks, 60 bucks, but in jail lots, a lot of money. You know, it means I started stacking my chips and and you get fucking actually have real money in there, right. And so like we're a fuck, yeah. And then I Started just hustling shit and so this cop, andy, was always on my ass. He's a Robert, you're not gonna be doing this stuff. No more. Like throwing bowling balls, that people. I mean I was like jeez Fucking baseball. No, we had a. What are those?
Speaker 1:Oh, Pull, pull ball pull ball.
Speaker 2:So when everybody was asleep, I remember I got all these fucking Pull balls and I threw on what they're fucking. Everybody wakes up in the middle of the night. So what the fuck? I was just doing stupid shit like that you know I was a kid, I was fucking doing stupid shit.
Speaker 2:So, andy, andy, he told me it was funny because he's all like okay, robert, you got a job, I got you a job. You know You're a AM chef and I'm all your am cook. So that's what he told me. I was like what the fuck, what does that mean? And so he showed me so, okay, this is what you do.
Speaker 2:Well, my dumb ass like to stay up at night, right and fucking. I never used to be a drinker and shit, but it was so fun in there to like fuck around and party, bam, and I would drink, right, and so I would drink, party and stuff. And then I was the AM cook, so he hired me, so I got a job. So then they put me on this fucking white thing so I had access, right. So one of my homies wasn't, he was doing all the clothes, mother homie was a janitor. Then I was there and I was a cook.
Speaker 2:So like, then they had a refrigerator, right, big old freezer stuff, then you could eat, good bro. And so like you would have to get up in the morning, prep all the fucking food for all the inmates and shit, right. And so like, on certain days you get certain kinds of foods, but my ass would fucking forget that. I even had a job sometimes and everybody would eat cereal. Me pissed, but the homies would be set up because I would still make them theirs. And so, like I think it was every Sunday, you get like we would make a sausage, pancakes and hash browns.
Speaker 2:Well, I put good breakfast, you know I mean for them, and like I couldn't fuck that off because then my own people Would fucking smash me you know what I mean, like I get up in the morning fucking we're making and those are the people helping us prep the food and all that stuff and I'd be like then they would serve the food and I would stack the homies up. Of course, you know, like all of us were in there and some people didn't have it coming. You know, and it means sometimes you know there would be like you want to fucking act stupid. You ain't gonna get shit. You want to. You know, if you give us this, I'll give you more food. If you're hungry, I can make sandwiches and give them to you. So you found out your worth.
Speaker 1:Yes, I found out my worth.
Speaker 2:So I went around Salling. You know, they had fucking like in the back. They had like fucking things hanging up of meat and shit and that was for the guards and stuff you have to make the guards their food. So I'm like, fuck, these guys eat like kings. So I started eating like them and they were cool. The guards like if you didn't fuck with the guards, they didn't fuck with you. And I learned that really quick and if you're cool, you know all kinds of shit, right, you know all kinds of shit. So like, and they were cool. If you're cool with them and if you make them their food and you make them all their good, you'd like you make them their food. I remember you make them fucking. They had good food, would. So it make them their food. And then all the homies and shit they were. They were stoked because we would fucking have. We'd be eating like kinks, we're hungry. I had access to the back. I'd make them whip them up fucking steak sandwiches, whatever we had, whatever that was there, that was good. We wouldn't start. So our, so our car was living fat.
Speaker 2:You know, for days I was in there I didn't fuck that up and then the hustle for me was like I talked to this dude I'm a. Why do you like work for us? I'm a network for a lot more. Why do you like going to Caltrans and all that shit and getting all these things? He's all dude because I can go fuck my chick. You know. She would meet me at a place where I would work and I'd go fuck her. I was like fuck dude, I'm fucking, like I'm kind of horny right now. So I was like I asked Andy, I was like bro, you know, like I really want to get out because I'm feeling, like you know, anxiety. You know I want to, really want to get out. I want to see how to work this and that you can just tell them hey, I want to go.
Speaker 1:Well, you have a little bit of pool though. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:So like the city picks you up, right, then you go, then you get like this thing and you pick up papers or you could work like at the fire department, like you go work for them and you do like paint or whatever they had right. So I I caught when the best place to do it is at this one place at the fire department don't even exist anymore, so it was like in the sticks. So I'm alright, so I call this chick and I'm on a meet me at the hall, because they had a hall there Right where they had king tigneras and stuff. So we, she met me there, she brought me a burrito from Delacormeira and I went over there Smashes, smashed her ass a couple times Inside there. Nobody watched us. They just left this. There was supposed to paint this building and cleaning, clean up all this fucking glitter. Right, they had us clean up this glitter. The fire guys didn't want to do that shit, we had to. But so I'm over there smashed chick, the homies looking out for me. I'm in there, and he was another homie. He was funny, he was. He was Actually there too.
Speaker 2:So I'm smashing my chick. I'm having a great old time. I came back. I slept like a baby, yeah, right, and and so you know a year a year, you know for now, these days, but for me, like that was just like what was a long time, you know, and I mean like year like, and Just doing that, learning, learning all this stuff to come up right. But then I started thinking about jail and I started thinking about life, like what the fuck am I doing? I started seeing like a lot of things not going nowhere, you know a lot of people not going nowhere in life, like, and I started like, well, you know, I need to go do something, you know, with my life. I started thinking about life in my head Calgary, 19, like 19. So I started thinking about that.
Speaker 1:So I Was there anything that Even got you thinking, or was it just jail?
Speaker 2:Money, yeah, yeah, like I liked money and I Wanted to have my own empire. You know, like ever since I was young, like I wanted money. I don't know why, I was money driven, it just in my head. So I the rehab thanks to them. Like there was a lady named miss Watson, I remember her. She was a teacher there.
Speaker 2:So, miss Watson, I told her like hey, I never got a Really good education. I want to, you know, go back to school, hmm, so I quit the, I Quit the job that I had as a cook. You know, I was a little, I was like half, half time and half time because it's going to school, hmm. And so I went to school and I went there and then I went. When I got back out, I ended up getting my stuff that I needed to go to college and so like, and then I Fucked up a little bit more, didn't go back to jail, but that I actually went back to college, you know, into college and fucking got what I needed to get a little after all that shit you ended up in college and then all my friends dude, like.
Speaker 2:So all my other friends were multiple. I didn't only have gangsters, so I had a good friend and I can mention his name, and a couple other guys like. I had my friend Phil Phil Gomez, so he actually had a scholarship right here at the Florida State to play baseball and shit, yeah. So all these guys, so I had jock friends too. Now, what's it? Was it only just gang members? So I had other friends like Eddie Padilla he was, he's my kong pa.
Speaker 2:I had like punch Ramirez, jesse Rojas, like, like a lot of these guys like and excuse me if I don't Like Jake and steel, like all these guys all went to fucking school. They were smart and you know, all these guys did go to college and Do all these things, always surrounded by them too, right, but I was the jackass of that crew. I was a black sheep of that crew too. Yeah, you know, I grew up with all those guys too and we had fun. And then I would take those guys. They would love it because we would come the west side of Santa Cruz and party with all these, you know, surfer chicks.
Speaker 1:You know we had fun with them.
Speaker 2:I know a bunch of them, you know, and we all had fun. So it's like mixed, you know, and and uh, those guys were all cool, they're all from Watsonville, but they were jocks, you know, like they live weights, that were cool or smart and and and I and I started thinking about all that Stuff and I never left my hood I still belong to my hood, you know, but I just, you know, I'm just doing my own thing. And then so I started Thinking of ways how to make money. Right, you know, talking to people, like talking to a landscaper guy that's a fucking bicep that came from Mexico, that owns fucking three trucks and fucking owns two houses, and everybody thinks he's a dumb Bicep, but he's fucking, he's fucking ballin.
Speaker 2:He's wearing fucking ill-skinned boots across 500 bucks. But nobody noticed that kind of shit, right, I did, because I was doing my research on this shit and like I'm all like if that motherfucker can do it, I can do it. He knew me now to speak English and he owns three companies and there any has a?
Speaker 2:fucking house. I'm like what the fuck, you know? And so that's what made my brain start thinking about things, you know, and I Always had anxiety. When I was okay, I started, I got hit with anxiety, really bad and post-traumatic stress and Derealization, and so, as I got older, that took a lot of play in my head right, stopped me from doing a lot of things, and, as as I I, I met a lot of really good people, you know, especially in Santa Cruz, you know, I met a lot of cool people, like I'm from the east side to the west side, you know, and Watsonville, and so I Started, you know, you know, I just started taking him ahead, you know, like I, I want a fucking million dollars, because a million dollars back when I was young, that was fucking a million dollars, yeah, million dollars. Now it's like man Shit, it's still a million Dollars.
Speaker 2:a biscuit, yeah, I would have been but a million dollars was like you can get fucking a big old mansion.
Speaker 1:You're living my family.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're sad like, and it really wasn't now, like today, a million dollars, you blow through that shit for a couple months living in Santa Cruz, you know. But so I always want to do that and and my brothers and stuff weren't in the gangs and One of my brothers in the cars. So I started flipping cars Right, started building and flipping cars and then, you know, then I really live on the west side. I met this girl and you know I was fucking up in Watsonville. Then I just actually got kicked out of Watsonville like the judge, legally kicked legally, legally. They kicked me out of Watsonville for six years. I couldn't go back to Watsonville. I only can go to visit my mom For like a week and then not leave my mom's house because they would arrest me and then our fun and come back.
Speaker 2:So then I stayed here solidly and that's when my, my life started changing from the attitude of not giving a fuck, let's go to prison, take me. Then I started enjoying life Right then. Then I seen my friends fucking, surfing and shit, going to Tahiti, going to Hawaii, going to all these cool places, bro, you know. And I'm like fuck, this is crazy. You know, these guys are doing all this cool shit. Then they take me to the beach. Then I see these white girls bro, fucking in bikinis. No, I'm like what the fuck? These are fucking hot chicks everywhere. I looked what the fuck was I doing? Jail, doing all this stuff.
Speaker 2:So, like I, I started meeting all these people right and I knew a lot of these guys because I went to Mission Hill Junior High. So, like I Started knowing all these people right growing up and I didn't really fuck with them and there was a lot of southerners it went there too to Mission Hill Junior High bunch of guys from the beach flats, but they never fucked with me. I was like it was weird, like I was. It was weird like I was like and I'm going back now. I'm reminding it back because I went to the junior high here and then, after they kicked me out of Watsonville, I lived in Santa Cruz and I met some really intelligent people, I mean from all walks of life. I met fucking hippies, ucsc students, fucking Entrepreneur people, people that were fucking doing it.
Speaker 1:It's crazy because, like you were, you were doing all that shit right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's some wild shit, like if you would. If you would, just if those people that you were talking to would be with you when that happened, they'd probably freak the fuck out right, probably, yeah but, how'd you?
Speaker 2:how'd you change your dynamic like I never did and you're just yourself. I was just myself Because, even though I was fucking a homie and a gangster and doing all this shit I've in my brain, I've always had it from my aunt that lived here and all of them. I've always had respect when it was coming to get respect and I never try to play the part like A S where you from homie this and that. That just wasn't in my DNA. I was more fucking wired. I was always wired like cause. I grew up here too, so I had a taste of two worlds in my tongue. Right, I just choose to be there and doing a lot of shit. Like you know, there's a lot of shit that I've done like that I like me and my friends done like fucking crazy shit, like these days.
Speaker 2:if I did that, I'd be prison for the rest of my life you know, but now, from then, like I look back at it, like, damn, we did all this shit. Fuck, it's fucking crazy. And then it kind of got old getting busted all the time, it kind of got old doing all this stuff. But the fire was still there, being fucking where I came from, like I could say for me, I could speak for myself, like the fire never goes away, right, you're? You know, like I can say for being, I'm gonna say this, you know, on here, like being a northerner, like it was fucking great. It was fucking great, like those guys from my hood and all of us, we're like brothers, bro.
Speaker 2:We had this. It was fucking fun and we didn't only just fucking go be terrorizing everybody. We had barbecues, we had shit to do, we had old. There was old cars, that people, the stories that these guys been through, ya, the struggle, you know all this stuff, that what we grew up into and it was cool. And a lot of these guys, like you, can consider them brothers. And Santa Cruz I could say this, like for the surfer world it's the same shit, but there's just less violence, right?
Speaker 1:It's the same shit.
Speaker 2:Like the surfers like, say, the West Siders right, they had, there were the West Side surfers, right, they protected their water and anybody that came, fucking all these guys that came and they were called like Cooke's and Tranny's Not Tranny's like the guys that call Tranny like a transplant. You weren't from here, but you're here and you're trying to surf and they would fuck these guys up Like there was this guy. He's a legend, he's passed away resting pieces in Vince Collier. He was a savage six foot something West Side surfer. You would try to fuck with him and he'd beat the fuck out of you in the water.
Speaker 2:So I learned that right, so I would surf once in a while, like not like I wasn't badass or I sucked, you know, but I surfed, you know, I loved it and I knew all these people who go surf for parties and I was with all these guys. So it wasn't me, just not. I didn't turn off, robert. I didn't turn off Robert, robert, just these guys were the same thing. They would fight, you know. And there was a lot of dudes from the East Side Santa Cruz surfers too. Like they fucking, there was the rail, you know. So we hung out on the rail so I kicked back there a lot. I had a lot of friends from the East Side, santa Cruz too, like old school dudes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hold on give me one. Whenever you're ready. You're talking about the.
Speaker 2:East Side, so like. So there was this thing called the rail right, and there was a lot of East Side guys there. They were super boys, right. So it was like kind of like the same shit as Watsonville, but, and they would fuck people up too. People would get bombed on too, cause they would like back up their waves, all their stuff. That was them right. So the West Side guys, they did their same shit. So it was kind of the same concept a little bit. But then, like it wasn't always like that, but they would fuck up people that would disrespect their shit, right. So they had respect and the water, and I was always around the water and the wilderness, you know too.
Speaker 2:So, like in my childhood, I would always come back and I'd always skateboard I love skateboarding fucking to death. You know it's called Derby Park. We'd hang out there, drink barbecue, skateboard, fuck around and do all this stuff. But I was always kind of like a. I was always like a lone wolf, like, as you could say, like I never, even when I was in the hood too, I was always not always too close to everybody, like I'd always. I'd always be here, be in Santa Cruz, be in Aptos, be on the East Side just doing all kinds of shit, because then I started like hustling weed and shit. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:This is before we got all legal and stuff, and I had always a shitload of weed making money. So I'd always make money off weed, right, but like I could say like for Santa Cruz too, like these guys were, how cool I was respecting them, they respected me, but I never changed my steelo and my get down. I always had my I, always who. I was right. And there was a lot of Southerners here in the 90s. So if you and they had it sewed up, the Southerners had it fucking sewed up here. And there was some crazy Northerners here too, and one of them got busted for murder. He did a lot of time in jail but in the 90s it was rough If you were a Northerner living here.
Speaker 2:You're fighting the boardwalk, you're the boardwalk, you're gonna fight. And as for that being said, growing up here like your whole life after a while, when you start getting older, like I started seeing it like, growing up here, you see a lot of the Southerners right, and they had their kids, I have my kids and we didn't have a beef anymore, like the fire kind of turned down cause we're not, like you know, trying to bang on each other anymore, right, cause we did it already, right, and it's kind of not like the same anymore, like how it was back in the 90s here, like there's more Northerners here now and me myself like I just didn't really like, I love it, I like it, I just don't like I don't wanna fucking go to jail you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It sucks, you know.
Speaker 2:I don't. A jail sucks. Whoever thinks it's fucking cool like it's retarded, you know what I mean. Like it is prison and all that shit. Like fuck I'm.
Speaker 2:I was blessed not to go to fucking prison. Tell you that like I spent a lot of money fucking not to go to fucking prison because I listened to fucking older homies that told me that that shit's real homie and it's not cool to go to fucking prison and it's not whoever tells you that's fucking retarded, you know. And so that stuck in my head because a lot of solid dudes that I knew would always tell me try to keep your ass out of fucking prison, right? So when I got kicked out, that was a fucking blessing in disguise, because that's where my road was going to. So and I know a lot of think that was, and I know a lot of guys that went to fucking jail for a long time and they told me they all told me the same thing fuck prison, nothing good out of prison.
Speaker 2:And if anybody wants to come out and tell you like fucking prison's great and it was cool and I stabbed 50 fucking people and I was a shot call and I was in the fucking full of shit, because that's not how it works. You know what I mean Because I seen the smallest guys that were fucking bad. I smell the fuckers that got out and didn't say shit and you know what they would tell me Prison's not for anything, prison's not good, don't go to prison. So mostly everybody that was solid and down and really down and were really killers and that really knew how to do shit, they were the first ones to tell you don't ever go to fucking prison.
Speaker 1:And in my head.
Speaker 2:I listened to that, bro, I didn't let it go and I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Because it kind of fucked me up, cause I'm thinking like well, that's graduation, you made it to the big leagues and you go to fucking prison. And then all these guys that are coming out I mean real dudes, and they're telling me that. So it's stuck in my fucking head not to go to prison. So the fire went a little low from being a homie, right, it was still there, don't get me wrong. Like till this day of some bull starts coming up and talking shit about our hood, smash on them. You know what I mean. But as you get older, you have kids and you see things a lot different.
Speaker 2:And living in Santa Cruz, growing up with a lot of these cats and I was a product of this environment too, because I did skateboard, I did surf, I did enjoy the mountains, I did all that shit. When I was young, I loved all that stuff and like, looking back at everything I've done, like I don't regret shit because that's who made me who I am. And at those times when I was going up, like with the dirt bikes and being stuff, I was intrigued with motorcycles, bro. I loved motorcycles, like I loved them. I loved the way it felt. I built a Triumph. You know that was my first bike And-.
Speaker 1:Those are not even. Are they still around? Yeah?
Speaker 2:Triumphs are still around, bsa Triumphs, they use them for racing. So that was actually my first bike. And so though it's a dude, right, though it's a dude, and I'm not gonna say his name, but though it's a dude, old Chicano dude, so I didn't even know what anything was yet about bike or stuff. And I was young, right, and he was a, he was an HA member and he was an old Mexican dude, right, and I met this dude and he was cool as fuck. And then, you know, he belonged to a charter I'm not gonna mention the charters name or anything, but he's still around and he's an older dude, solid guy.
Speaker 2:But I was the first person I ever encountered, right, and I got into motorcycles a lot more and more, cause my dad that's all he gave me out of his life is fucking motorcycle stuff, you know, and I started riding and started, you know, this guy it was a whole different, whole different get down, right, and I started getting bikes, started hanging out, started knowing what's up. So just like the surf world, just like norther's and stuff, though as this other guys they would call them like runs, right, and I went to this toy drive one time and there was all these fucking housing.