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Speed.

Mark.

Okay. So, talk to me more about like how your mom never put stereotypes on you.

Okay. Yeah. I'm really grateful that my mom was never one to put stereotypes over me. Like when I
started dressing more baggier clothes, and she noticed I was very into what my brothers wear. She never
told me, "No, you can't wear that. That's men's clothes. No, you can't do that. That's what your brother's
doing." She never told me that. She was just always very accepting of who I am, and what I wanted to
do. And she's like, "Okay, you want to learn how to play guitar? Okay, cool. Go ahead. We'll help you
buy a guitar. You want to learn how to do special effects makeup? Go ahead." Growing up, I was
always into picking different things up, because— I stuttered. I stuttered. Yeah. I would just pick up
different hobbies, which after the years, I realized that was just me trying to find myself. And luckily, she
was always accepting of what I wanted to learn about. And that helps a lot when I got into cars, because
she was like, okay, you want to learn how to work on cars? And I was like, "Yeah, I want to move schools
and go to this school because they have this program." And at first, she was hesitant, both of my parents
are hesitant because I wasn't doing so well at the moment at school. And they're like, yeah, and you want
to move to this school, just like, what's it going to change? But then, once I started showing them like,
"Hey, this program offers this, I'm going to learn this. It'll help me in the future." And then, finally, they're
like, okay, you can go. And then, once I did go, they were like, I'm glad that We let you go, because they
saw how much better I was doing in school. Being in those programs actually helped me improve my
grades in other aspects of school. And yeah, did I get off topic?

Can you give me— tell me if the soundbite is fair. Could you say my mom helped me find myself?

Yeah. Just that?

Yeah.

Okay. My mom helped me find myself.

And what traits do you have of your mom? What do you get from your mom?

What traits do I have from her? Oh my God, her goofiness, her sarcasticness, but also her stubbornness.
And I also have her— she's very good at working with her hands. And she also has a lot of hobbies,
gardening, painting, sewing. So, I've just picked up little things from her, just like how I saw that she has
her hobbies. I guess that's why I got into a bunch of different things growing up, because I was like, okay,
she's pretty good at that. And so like, "Oh, I think I can do this. My mom is capable of working with her
hands. I think I can do that." And then, that helped with things that I wanted to learn.

Could you give me a soundbite of like, I really love working with my hands and I got that from my mom?

Okay. Yeah. I really enjoy working with my hands. And I'm very grateful that my mom gave me that
characteristic.

And what are the things that your mom has taught you?

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What are some things that my mother has taught me? My mother has taught me that no matter how
badly someone treats you, treat them good because it's just a reflection of them. Well, obviously, to like a
certain extent. Don't put that in. Obviously, until a certain extent. Because some people are being
disrespectful, I don't know. But yeah, when people were rude to her, she doesn't respond back with
rudeness or anger. What did my mom taught me? One more— do like, I don't know.

[Off Mic]

What did she teach me? She taught me that love is very important in this world. And that following your
dreams and following what you want to do in your life is very important. Because if you don't and you live
—

Sorry, I'm just worried about this towel.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

No, it's my bad. That was great. So, your mom taught you about love.

Okay. Yeah. My mom taught me that love is very important. And that— Can I start over?

Yeah.

Okay. My mom taught me that love is very important. And to make sure to always follow your own
dreams, and live the life that you want to live for yourself. Don't allow other's images of you in their head
to play a part of how you live your life because at the end of the day, you're going to regret it if you don't
go out and do what you want to do. What else did she teach me? She taught me that trades are very
important, because trades are pretty much what helped her get by throughout all these years ever since
she got to the United States. She came over, and she already knew how to sew. So, she got a job as a
seamstress. And that helped her for a while. And then, now, she does side jobs, or sewing, or she works
on people's gardens now. And that's just trades that she picked up on her own, and that's a skill that you
can take anywhere. And it'll help you in life wherever you go. So, that's one thing that I really am very
grateful for, that she pretty much taught me how I can make myself successful without anyone's help.

What do you hope for your mom?

Happiness, love. I hope she gets the love she deserves.

Could you say like I hope my mom dot-dot-dot, you can fill in the blank?

Okay. I hope my mom feels like she did good raising us. And I hope she is proud of herself as to how
she raised us. And I hope that she gets the love that she deserves. Because her marriage was very
toxic. Yeah.

Do you want to say— because I don't want to talk about any details you don't want to. But maybe is there
a way to talk about how your mom decided for herself to take care of herself in that situation? Or like—

Without getting into it.

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Yeah. How has it affected your parents getting divorced? You don't even have to talk about what
happened, like how has it affected you?

How did it affect me? Made me depressed, if we're going to keep it real here. How did it affect me? My
parents getting divorced just made me realize that sometimes you don't have to be blood to be family.
Because whenever I felt like my family was falling apart, I found people out there who helped me, and
supported me, and helped me get by. And they weren't blood, but they became family for sure. And so,
yeah, that I really appreciate. And they taught me a lot of lessons about life. Just like seeing what my
parents went through, it showed me situations that I do not want to be in, situations that I didn't want to
place myself in, and situations where you are diminishing your own worth. And so, I was like, okay, it just
showed me that there's certain things that you do not have to— you're not forced to deal with if you know,
if you feel something is not right, in any situation, you're able to get up, and walk out of it whenever you
like. Yeah. Does that work?

I love it.

Okay.

You're doing good. Okay, cool. I think you're good, you're nailing this.

Okay.

Okay. So, I will want to spend like our last few minutes talking because I know I keep asking you this
over and over again. But I would love your—

[Off Mic]

Thank you. Yeah. And let's keep going on it too. Yeah. Give me the definition that we talked about low
riders again.

Low riding?

Yeah. What's low riding?

Low riding is a form of self-expression. It's a way where everyone can get together, and meet eye to eye
on their cars, and tell each other our stories, but through our cars. And it's a way for everyone to unwind,
and just be, and live in the moment, and see that life is precious. It's not just bills, and work, and to
repeat. There's a lot more to life than just that.

And could you give me some sort of soundbite of like, I found my adopted family or I found my people
through low riding? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Once I've gotten to the low riding community, I really felt like I had people there for me and
people who understood me. And I felt like I found a family in that.

And could you just give me the soundbite of like, I found another family in low riding?

Okay. I found another family in low riding for sure.

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Okay. And tell me a little bit about the history of low riding like? And it can be pretty for you—

I don't know much really.

Well, so it started off in California, right?

Yeah.

In, what, the '60s and '70s, it wasn't?

El Paso is when where all the Zoot suits really started rooting from there. But it is common, a lot of
people do think it was from Cali. Why? Because Cali's culture is very deep. Their roots out there are
every deep. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, it was actually in El Paso, Texas where all the Zoot suits
were coming out and stuff. But—

And what's a Zoot suit?

A Zoot suit is pretty much, we would wear these really baggy pants or slacks, and then we decrease
down the middle. And then, our tops, we didn't have regular suits like others, we wanted to stand out.
And so, they're longer, baggier, and that's where our style now routed from, is as you can tell, we will be
creased up with baggy pants or baggy shirts and stuff. And that's another way of expressing ourselves
and telling people about us is what we wear.

And what happened to the late Zoot suits?

There was a lot of riots in the '40s. Why? Because what was going on in the '40s was in World War II.

It was after World War II.

Yeah. Whenever they were on a shortage of materials. So, they were only to use a certain amount of
fabrics or materials on clothes.

So, could you— this is exactly that. But could you say like after World War II.

Okay, it was after, yeah, I get confused. It feels like during or after. But yeah, okay. Yeah. After World
War II, there was a shortage of materials with fabrics. So, people were only allowed to use a limited
amount on their clothes, but our Zoot suits, they're baggy. So, obviously, that's extra fabric that
technically not needed, but that's just how we like to dress. And so, that's what rooted the Zoot Suit riots,
where literally the policemen or the Navy men that they would go out and beat the Zoot suiters and strip
them off their clothes. And there's pictures where there's a lot of people circled around them, and they're
just lying on the floor naked, with the police around them with their bats and stuff. And it's simply because
of how we dressed. They thought we weren't as worthy as they were. They thought we were less than
them. But we're still here. We're still here standing strong. We're not going to let anyone get us down.

And could give me a soundbite of yeah, from that low riding, like low riding came out of that generation
that disappeared?

From that, how about like, that's what stems us expressing ourselves through our cars?

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Yeah, I love that. That moment in history led us to express ourselves through our cars.

Okay.

Maybe?

Okay, yeah. Those moments in history were the ones that led us to expressing ourselves through our
cars.

And then, I want to talk a little bit about what we were talking about with all of your friends yesterday of,
what do you identify as, and what are these other excensus designation words that people use?

Yeah. So, I identify as Chicana, and a Chicano or Chicano is someone who's both parents were born in
Mexico, but you were born here in the United States. So, your roots are pure Mexican, but you were
raised here in the United States. And where was I going with that? I'm so sorry.

It's okay. Or talk to me about like, you don't have to define them, but like Hispanic and Latino, and why
don't people just call you Mexican-American or Chicana?

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, a lot of people don't really know that we're Chicanos. We're not really Hispanic
or Latinos. That we prefer the term Chicanos because Hispanic or Latino is pretty much them trying to
put us into one category when really, we're all just so unique, and we're all doing your own thing out here.
And it's— yeah, oh, no.

Great. It's great though.

No, that's great. Okay. I got stuck.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What do I want to be when I grow up? I want to be successful in my own terms. I don't necessarily have
a set certain goal, because I'm still in a place in life where I'm figuring myself out in who I am. So,
obviously, as the years go, my career choices are going to change. But the only thing I really do know is
that cars are most definitely going to be a part of my life for the rest of my life. I do not see myself not
being around cars, that's just what I really enjoy and I genuinely like. Yeah.

And if there were other girls your age watching this who have a weird obsession with their brother's Hot
Wheels—

A weird obsession with—

Something else that they think they can't do, but really want to do, what would you want to tell them?

What I want to tell them. Believe in yourself, as corny as that sounds, that's literally the foundation of it
all, believing in yourself. And then, with that, you find the confidence to go out and do what you want to
do without letting other's opinions affect you. Because although someone may say something to you,
their words have literally no effect as to what you do. So, just don't listen to the negativity, and really
follow your heart at the end of the day, and chase what you want to chase. Don't build someone else's
life with your life. And you may not— oh, sorry.

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Could you give me like, I'm never going to build someone else's life with my own life?

Okay. So, I'm never going to build someone else's life through my life.

Yeah. Hundred years from now, where do you want your culture, Chicano culture to be? What do you
want for your people 100 years from now?

I want my people to feel more united than we already do. And I want them to stand with a just as much
pride as we were, we are. And what else? I'm just thinking about pushing it. I'm sure 100 years from
now, people are still not all going to like us. And people are still going to want us bring us down. But my
ancestors, and then 100 years from now, their ancestors, which is now as generations go on, we've all
have stood strong, and we're still here. And so, I would like for the future generation to know that if you
just stand strong no matter how hard it gets, then it'll be okay. And be there for each other.

Do you have anything?

Yeah. One of the questions, what are—

[Off Mic]

And why are they important?

Oh, sure.

[Off Mic]

I think that's going to be like the shop talking about working on a shop.

Yeah. Oh, we covered that already?

Yeah, yeah. It's okay. Yeah. Are we good?

[Off Mic]

Can we tell our deliver guy to—

[Off Mic]

Cool. Okay. Last question.

Okay.

Okay. Tell me what a cruise is. What's cruising?

Cruising is when everybody gets together, and they bring their rides out, they bring their family, friends,
anybody's welcome, really. And we just all kick back, enjoy each other's company, unwind from the
week, and just be there for each other, really. If you had a hard week, that's something to look forward to.

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And to know, okay, yeah, I'm going to go out, and it's going to be a great time. And these people are
going to be here. And just yeah.

And can you give me that soundbite from yesterday, cruising is where all the other stress melts away?

Okay. Yeah. Cruising is where we're able to unwind, and all of our problems go away. But no, I don't
like that one. Can I do it again?

Yeah.

I don't know why I said but. Okay. Okay. Cruising is where everyone can get together, and unwind from
the week, and just let all their problems go away.

And could you say like cruising is where all my problems melt away?

Cruising is where all my problems melt away, for sure.

Okay.

Yeah, that's great. And do we want to also acknowledge that—

[Off Mic]

Or thrifting.

Oh, yeah, let's talk about thrifting.

Thrifting?

Tell me about like, yeah, why do you thrift?

Why do I thrift? Because of the unique things you can find out there.

Could you say I love thrifting because?

Okay. I love thrifting because of the unique things that you can find out there. Because if you go to the
mall, you're going to see 100 of the same shirt. If you go to a thrift store, 100 of different things. And it
really helps with just trying to find who you are, and what you're into because there's such a variety of
things to pick from. And they're all really unique. And they just have so much history to them, like the
pieces, you can find pieces and you're like, "Wow, they don't even make these anymore." Or you can
also find newer things like, "Wow, this goes for 300, but I just got it for 30 bucks." It's just really fun. And
plus, it's a way of like, so our closest of way we express ourselves and going thrifting helps expressing
yourself as to where you're not telling what someone else is telling through their clothes. And I just really
like the uniqueness of it. Fuck, sorry.

Can you just say I just really like the uniqueness of it again?

I just really like the uniqueness of it.

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[Off Mic]

Is there anything else?

Just one more thing.

Yeah, let's go.

When you're describing low rider style, low riding option, can you—

We have one minute and 43 seconds left in the card, so we should probably—

Okay, yeah. Can you just give me a quick—

Like, tell me what you wear, what are you going to wear at the cruise?

Okay. Yeah. I'll wear the Cortez, which are classics known in our culture. And my creased up 874s,
which I wear with an old English, just belt, and then top it off with a Charlie Brown because got to keep it
classic because resembles how the Zoot suiters were styling back in the day, and my brim. Got to add
the cherry on top.

I love that. Let's get room tone.

Room tone.

Room tone, 15, 34, 11.

Cut.

TAPE ENDS – [23:18]

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