Americanos: Anthony Cabassa, Mexico

my name is Anthony Cabasa I am in Los Angeles California and my mother is from Ensenada Mexico and my dad's from Puerto Rico I am a Latino man I am a proud son of an immigrant I'm a proud American I've served my country honorably I've yet to see anything that holds me back just because I am Latino and I refuse to accept that narrative my mother she's been an amazing fighter all of her life she came from a very small town in Ensenada Mexico little Pueblo and when she got here she was already very determined to make a new life for herself she was very determined to reach that American dream right that we all talk about my older sister was actually born in Mexico so I was actually the first one to be born here in America but my two younger brothers were also born in Los Angeles California and all of us lived under my mother's roof growing up the chancla the chancla is very well-known to the Hispanic community this is what your mom would whoopee with and a lot of them say made in Mexico so there's like an ongoing joke that a lot of Hispanic kids have made in Mexico on their buttocks the one thing that I would say really is the reason why I am here today or why I am the man that I am is because she was a strong mother and a strong father she had to play both roles and I think that that's a story with a lot of us in the Hispanic or Latino cultures unfortunately when I was 3 my father left my mom and it's kind of been asked just on our own since then a lot of us suffer through the same things a lot of us didn't have the nuclear family they didn't have fathers or we probably had fathers that were drunks or drug addicts or we're even in jail I had a lot of friends like that and there was a point in time where I just thought to myself I'm either gonna end up just like these people's fathers but you know in jail or a drug addict or an alcoholic or hanging out with the wrong crew or I can make a difference I can choose to not be part of that statistic so I knew at that time that I wanted to be with my girlfriend and that we wanted to have a serious relationship and I knew that I was going to need a job that was going to be able to provide for the both of us and that is when I looked to enlist into the United States Coast Guard [Music] when I was stationed in San Diego at the border of Tijuana and San Diego that was a kook you know we cooked for the crew day-to-day would be you know waking up early in the morning we do a lot of search and rescues we do boardings on foreign vessels that are trying to enter the US ports and we also do a lot of anti human trafficking and a lot of anti cartel what a normal operation would look like if we know we're going into a scenario where we're gonna be apprehending the illegal migrants is that we know that they're also going to be carrying drugs they don't waste any opportunities if they know they can get through they're gonna have traffic both humans and drugs alike there'd be a lot of times where you know we would detain these drug traffickers and I would tell them you know they would open up to me and I tell them why are you guys doing this why would you guys risk your life and risk years of jail if some of you are telling me you have families why would you risk this we would have them tell me basically that they're doing this because a family member was kidnapped by the cartel and this is the way to received a family member back it really just kind of broke my heart to see that I know for a fact that kidnapping is big in Mexico that's actually one of the main ways that cartel makes their monies by kidnapping people and having their families pay a fee to get them back I'll never forget there was a time I believe was 2009 and we were out in international waters and we apprehended drug runners and we had seas I mean thousands and thousands of drugs of pounds of drugs and as a cook you know and as Anna Spanish translator I was I was the one that actually gave them their food and so I just remember seeing their their nonchalant like non care like they don't care that they were detained and I was just kind of interested that they're laughing and having a good time and I asked them like can I ask you guys something like why is it that you guys don't seem to care that you guys were just detained for thousands of dollars worth of drugs and they just basically said because we'll be out as soon as you turn us in dude we're gonna go back to Mexico the cartel owns the lawyers they own the jails they own the police is like we'll walk in our lawyer will come bail us out or the cartel that hired us they'll pay money to get bail us out and they're just and we're just gonna be able to walk out and you'll probably see us again in six months I'll never forget that day because it really may open my eyes to this flawed system that is not working that we you know we pride ourselves as Coast Guardsmen to go and apprehend these bad guys but then these bad guys go right back to their country and there's and they're set free [Music] I think that the narrative that the mainstream media is portraying is that what's happening at the border is racist and what's happening at the border is just anti-immigrant or anti brown people and I think that this is very far from the truth I was there I was a Spanish interpreter at the border for many years and I witnessed firsthand what's really going on there the human trafficking the drug trafficking in my experience in over a decade of working in Department Homeland Security and US Coast Guard I have never witnessed or seen any maltreatment of any illegal immigrant we always tended to the you know the undocumented people or these migrants with dignity respect they were never abused that I witnessed and whenever I helped in their translating services they never told me that they were being treated badly by other people that I worked with I understand that people are wanting a better life but there's a right way to do it and by doing it the illegal way you're opening up yourself to being exploited the people that are advocating for you know less border security or open borders they just don't understand what's happening at the border when I got politically active back in 2017 I my sole focus was to educate especially the Hispanic community being Hispanic myself and I won't forget that last year 2019 I had talked and reached out to Univision when when we first sat down with the top executives I didn't even see on they just kind of wanted to get a feel for who I was and they heard my story and they thought that it was great you know being a veteran served my country being a son of an immigrant mother that was involved of in politics they're like great this is the perfect fit for a radio show and I think that once I kind of showed them who I really was after that I never really received a phone call they thanked me for my time and they said thank you but no thank you and I've had a lot of interviews that I've been buried and so I go on debates and sometimes those debates are you know recorded by Univision or Telemundo and then they call me back and tell me that this faulty or they tell me that they lost the footage somehow because they cannot have a conservative Latino speaking on their platform making a voice and kind of helping people realize hey less Latino swear a lot more conservative than we think I think that there's a misconception that conservative automatically means you're Republican it doesn't conservative is a lifestyle it's tradition is what's handed to you from generation to generation isn't this what Hispanics preach Family Values about being proud of where we came from of who we are as a people since when are we for this ultra progressive agenda that's being put out for us we don't stand for that we don't stand for abortion we don't stand for these policies that are very progressive and anti-christian anti-catholic which is part of who we are we don't forget where we're from we don't forget our religion we don't forget the the values and the morals that have been instilled with us from generation to generation remember who you are remember what your Willie Tony or Willie taught you remember that we serve a God that is bigger than any government stick with the way you were appraised and you will see that you've probably been voting wrong in almost every way a funny story is that one of my cousin's he's very liberal very progressive I believe this was 2018 when we were voting in for the governor of California and so you know he was telling me you're crazy for voting this way these are the people that really care about us the left really cares about us man this is than that and I try to tell him I try to tell him cuz I love you but these are the policies that you're voting in is a car they always talk about raising taxes but they're not really gonna do it man like and if they do it's for the children at the schools and this is not and so the election goes by his candidate wins I okay it fair's fair you know fair election process and I remember him contact me a couple months later and he's extremely upset that his rent went up and he's very upset that his gas prices went up and he called me and he's like what I don't get it they just raise rents they just raise taxes on me what can we do like I'm ready to move to Arizona and I'm like no you do not get to flee California you voted for this now you get to stay here and suffer the consequences this is what you wanted now you get to pay and like so you don't get to just flee I said though you must live with this you know so sweet funny there was a time in my life where I really hit rock bottom and this was in 2007 my firstborn is actually a twin so my son is a Miss Hector he just turned 13 years old and you know he had a twin brother Gabriel and six months I'll never forget the day I was working on bass so the supervisor that was there he came like a man you need to get down to the hospital and and you know you need to go you need to go now like something's happening with your family I'm like what are you talking about like I don't know something happened with one of your twin boys I remember showing up in my uniform to the hospital where my wife was transferred with my son Gabriel and apparently it was he was having like complications breathing or something I we know we came up to like a waiting room the doctor came out of that room and she's like are you the father I'm like I am and she's like let's come and sit down for a second and I was like okay like what's going on she started tearing up and she was like you know I have to tell you before you go in there but your son Kiros passed away you know she she the doctor led me inside and and in there like it was just her she was in her pajamas because it happened early in the morning and she was holding my son Gabriel and I just remember she I mean you know my mother just lost her son it was just the worst day of my life really you know and and I know that and I just blamed God for this situation had I not chose to just say you know what god I I could be angry right now I think it's normal for me to be angry at you but I'm going to choose not to you know and and I was always thinking all of these things the door opened up and that same doctor came in and they brought in my son Hector and I just remember he had the biggest smile on his face and I was just like God you knew what you were doing was sending me to I just remember at that moment I was like I need to be strong for Hector we need to be strong for Hector I'm just glad that God has given me the discernment and the will to continue to leave my family every day since then and I think that that's what really makes us very pro-life you know that I wish that this narrative would be taken away from the pro-abortion stuff you know and we went from something so you know maternal and so private to just celebrating it and I just I pray for all those people because I wish I could do anything to bring my son back my faith has taught me that one day I will be reunited with my son and that to me is very powerful not to me you know if I didn't believe in anything knowing that I lost my son and I'd never see him again that is something that really really sad about because I longed the day that we reunited and I would say again that that is something so huge in the Hispanic community is our faith in God a lot of us identifying as Christian or Catholic it's to kind of go back to that faith that has is where we are today you know and so I that would be my message to a lot of the people is stop putting your trust so much on elected officials or people with empty promises or people just needing sound bites for a quick vote and then they forget about you the moment they're in office but more faith and community and faith in God and and that would be my message being a Latino or whatever label the left has for me brown person person of color you know when I get labeled these things and they're trying to convince me that I am just by default because of the way I look or the way I speak or where I come from that I'm already a victim it's false it's a false narrative I am living proof you know I served my country honorably in one lifetime I you know I have my wife my three children that I'm very happy for and blessed with and we've been able to buy a home and I know that if I can do it anyone can do it there's nothing that I was born with I wasn't born with a silver spoon I grew up you know in Section eight housing to see that we came from that and see where I am today and to use this same system that people are saying are racist and that is that is built to be rigged against me as a person of color or as a Latino I've yet to see anything that holds me back just because I am Latino and I refuse to accept that narrative [Music] hey guys Anthony Cabasa if you enjoyed that content and you want the content to remain free please consider making a 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Views: 806,253

Rating: 4.9533048 out of 5

Keywords: prageru, prager university, latino, hispanic, immigration, immigrants, patriot, veteran, coast guard, immigrant family, border patrol, trafficking

Id: xXnUAy_p3HU

Length: 15min 17sec (917 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020