Last week, in a North Hollywood podcast studio, Gil Tejada and co-host Boo Boo, like all good Trumpers, trashed liberal assholes.
Puberty blockers for teens. Los Angeles Township Atty. Georges Gascon. Gavin Newsom. Homeless. high taxes. Unchecked migration.
The buzz wasn’t surprising. The settings and language were…
“My president has been charged with a felony, homeboy!” Tejada at one point yelled to hundreds of live viewers on YouTube and Instagram.
“He’s the best buddy around here,” replied Boo Boo, who proudly deemed Trump a “junkyard dog” ready to fight for America. “He was like, ‘I’m going to smoke it.’
Welcome to American Cholo, the podcast Tejada has hosted since 2018. At first it focused on stories about gang life and Chicano culture, but now it’s completely Trump-bro.
With his San Fernando Valley Chicano accent, close-cropped hair, and frequent use of words like “lust,” “playboy,” and “fool,” Tejada comes across to first-time listeners as a culture-clash, Pendleton-wearing clown. A skit that is sometimes played.
But dismissing him so easily is a mistake he fully expected Liberals would make to their own detriment. Mr. Tejada, 49, embodies a trend that is exciting Republicans and alarming Democrats as Election Day approaches: Latino men’s leanings toward President Trump.
Polls throughout the summer consistently found double-digit differences between Latino and Latino support for Kamala Harris. Although the gender gap exists to some extent between races and ethnicities, the media primarily attacks Latino men with distrust, premised on the following questions:
How can they support President Trump, who called Mexico a place that sends “rapists and drug traffickers” to the United States? They considered El Salvador a “shit” country and Puerto Rico a “dirty” country. He has repeatedly described Venezuelan immigrants as criminals. And does he continue to promise that if elected, he will carry out “the largest deportation in history”?
Gerardo Cadava, a history professor at Northwestern University who has written extensively about Latinos in the Republican Party, said he is “wary of explanations of masculinity, misogyny, and patriarchy” regarding Latino support for Trump. “There may certainly be elements of that nature,” he said. But I would also like those who discuss it to at least consider more important issues, such as industries that are majority Latino, such as construction and law enforcement. Their leaders are fully cooperating with Trump. ”
The threat is real enough that the Harris campaign announced its “Hombres con Harris” initiative this month, but it’s too much, too little to convince someone like Tejada. , which quickly drew derision from both progressive and conservative commentators as too slow.
“A lot of Latinos are going to Trompitland, you idiot,” he told a caller during a podcast recording I attended, referring to the former president Tejada reused as a nickname. He spoke using the diminutive term uttered by Latino haters: little Trump. His tone was a masterclass in old-school talk radio: fast-talking, furious, informative and well-timed with jokes.
Podcast co-host Boo Boo appears on camera monitor during the taping of “American Cholo” in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blacksher/Los Angeles Times)
He considered California’s proposals on this year’s ballot, focusing for a time on Proposition 6, which would ban forced labor in state prisons.
“Inflation has gotten so bad that prison officials want more money,” Tejada said, and Boubou laughed. “Is that what happened, America?”
The two, once rival gangsters in North Hollywood, were seated at an elegant desk built by Tejada’s brother-in-law. Five cameras set up by Boo Boo captured their every reaction. Behind them was a screen with the “American Cholo” logo on the microphone with the Stars and Stripes in the background. Above the soundboard was a framed canvas airbrushed with the names of deceased members of Tejada’s former gang, the North Hollywood Boys. In front of him was a plaque that read, “Every day I am Hustlin.”
“I don’t really like that stupid Trump, but I’m going to vote for him,” Tejada finally declared. He stopped, looked straight into the camera and grinned. “That should be his campaign slogan.”
The “American Cholo” studio is five blocks away from where Tejada grew up. Among the memorabilia on the walls are the pool table where he recorded his first podcast, a copy of the Constitution and a fence at what was once the long-closed He-Man G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino. A rusty sign hung there, where he did his stint.
Pictures of American flags lined the hallways. “I’m grateful for this country so we have them everywhere,” he said. “I’ve lived in a third world country, and a lot of liberals didn’t do that.”
Tejada came to the United States legally from Honduras at age 6 to live with his mother, who was in the country illegally at the time. He dropped out of high school as a freshman and cycled in and out of juvenile detention centers.
“So when I finally saw the older man sitting in the cell, a light bulb went on in my head,” Tejada said. He is stocky, with hazel eyes and a tattoo of his late brother, including a Highway 170 sign on his upper chest. “I look around and ask myself, ‘Is that what I want to be?’ I was 24 years old, unemployed and on parole. My daughter’s mother was going to prison. So I chose family, and it was the best choice ever.”
Tejada, who learned how to lay cement and is now a foreman at a concrete company, tried to get young people from his neighborhood into the industry.
He paid attention to politics but did not get involved. Because he thought the country was largely on the right track under Democratic leadership. “Bill Clinton was a good president. [George W.] Bush Jr. was a complete idiot. President Obama did a good job. ”
He voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because he was displeased with Trump. she’s ferocious ”
And then the summer of 2020 came. Tejada was working on a project near the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica when a rally over the killing of George Floyd devolved into looting of small businesses.
“Law enforcement had a chance to stop them,” he said. “Instead, they stood down.”
The next day, he saw the damage up close. “Then I thought, ‘I can’t go to church and pray to God, but I can march 10,000 people and cause destruction?’ Are you kidding me?'”
He still wasn’t convinced by Trump, but he couldn’t support Joe Biden — “Democrats took a left turn and then a U-turn and became hyper-woke.” So he wrote “American Cholo” as a presidential candidate.
Mr. Tejada, who has never registered with a political party for the past four years, was concerned about permanent Democratic rule. He thought Boo Boo was “crazy” for supporting Trump in 2016, but now the two hit it off.
“If California is a prison, it’s run by Democrats — and look what’s going on,” said Booboo, who declined to give his real name. “I’m fine.” refused.
“My mother can’t ride the subway,” Tejada answered. “My friend’s neighbor was robbed. [The L.A. City Council] More transitional housing is under construction in North Hollywood. Why isn’t it built in Brentwood or Hancock Park? ”
“My stocks skyrocketed under the Trump administration. Now they’re in the dumps,” Boo Boo added.
“Latinos think carne asada is $12 instead of $7.99,” Tejada said. “Democrats are having a hard time selling that. But now you’re running the show, brother. They think we’re [Latinos] I’m too stupid to say anything. And when we say something, they say we’re too insensitive. ”
Gil Tejada poses for a portrait before recording an episode of his podcast “American Cholo” in North Hollywood.
(Michael Blacksher/Los Angeles Times)
I asked my colleagues if they were concerned about President Trump’s growing rhetoric against Latinos.
“It’s like having a nagging wife,” Boo Boo chimed in. “They go in one ear and come out the other. I hate to say this, but these [world leaders] They will say, “We want a man who will take care of us.” Under the Biden administration, they are not listening. That won’t happen with Kamala. Trump was that gangster that was running that show. ”
“He’s an idiot!” Tejada shouted as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “If I could interview him, I would ask for an apology. But I won’t vote for him to join me or marry into my family. I won’t vote for him to run this country like a business.” I vote to run it and get us back on track.”
Alexandro José Gradilla, a professor of Chicano studies at California State University, Fullerton, listens to “American Cholo” and understands where Tejada and Bubu are coming from, even if he doesn’t agree with their politics.
He has seen some of his former students approach President Trump. A person who works at a trucking company said, “Under the Trump administration, taxes have become lower, [it’s] You hurt them in order to hire people. ”
Gradilla said these men are “not monsters,” but they are emblematic of how “all cultural and ethnic groups struggle with how to involve men in civic life.” Ta.
He said too many Latino men “embrace a hyper-individualized sense” of masculinity.
“Someone pressed Control-Alt-Delete from memory, and people say, ‘Sure, grandma was an illegal alien, but we’re good people now,'” he said. spoke. “‘These immigrants are different, they should be deported.’ They’re giving themselves this weird, invisible inoculation that says, ‘I’m not the one to suffer.’ Someone else probably deserves it. ”
Tejada scoffed at suggestions that he considered himself superior to other Latinos. He organizes backpack giveaways and coaches Little League. “American Cholo” also features Chicano musicians and artists while Tejada interviews local political candidates such as Nathan Hochman, who is running for Los Angeles County District Attorney on a law-and-order platform. Continuing.
Earlier this year, Tejada also served on the North Hollywood Northeast Neighborhood Council. “Until I realized that instead of dealing with actual city problems, you’re going to sit there and argue about buying a microwave for an hour.” He resigned six weeks later.
“People say that because of my conservative views, I have forgotten where I came from,” he says with a smile. “But I never left.”
