Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Art saved my life.
I'm definitely not joking around on set.
My father figures were all gang members.
No one cares about you when you're in jail.
My family had been involved in gangs since the 1970s.
In society, you are taught to belong. You have to belong to something.
Majority of minds are warped into the belief of the only person worth helping is themself.
I really embrace the person and the life that I came from because that made me who I am today.
The lifestyle that I grew up in, it was passed on to me. I didn't know there was another world.
Your only true obligation in a gang is to be committed and be there when your brothers need you.
In this society, you have to belong to something, I feel, and all we have in the neighborhood is a gang.
Just like the rest of the world, I became a product of my environment, and this environment was gang culture.
It's about being a voice in the community. There's so many ways to be a voice, and that's what I'm figuring out.
I think 98% of gang members in Los Angeles would agree that being a gang is just like being part of a community.
The true meaning of an artist/actor is opening my heart to the audience and, at the same time, opening their heart.
The theater is the 'church' and when I'm on that stage I am the Priest/Pastor, it is a pure spiritual journey for me.
I grew up in East Los Angeles, which is the biggest population of Mexican-Americans in America. I was born and raised there.
I was one step away from getting my life taken away, whether it was life in prison or being dead on the streets. But I was saved.
Audiences are more drawn in to what they can relate to, so it would be stupid not to have great Latino films for the Latino audience.
The agricultural fields throughout the Southwest, those jobs needed to be filled, and who were the ones to do it? It was the Mexicans.
I didn't grow up with any brothers, but I have my cousins, and I had my good friends, so I know what it is to have that bro relationship.
When you're in a gang, you go through life like any other individual. You have certain obligations, but you are not forced to do anything.
There are many things in common with my life and my character in 'American Crime.' My upbringing has definitely helped me out in this role.
Being an artist, being an actor, it's about telling stories that could heal, that could open up discussion that could make the community better.
Through sharing my pain, I can possibly heal your pain. There is no other feeling like it. Money doesn't compare. This is the true meaning of art.
I can't point my finger on a 'dream role,' but the days that I'm able to fulfill the stories of the 'hood/barrio on film, those will be great days.
I believe God talks to us in mysterious ways. I knew if I did not pay attention to His message, I was going to do life in prison, or I was going to end up dead.
It's nothing like changing or helping a person find themselves, but who would've thought that I would make it to a point in my life where somebody would be naming a damn burrito after me.
If we grow up in these communities where we have gangs, well, what do you think we're going to belong to? That's what happened to me and what's still happening to hundreds of thousands of other individuals.
Nobody succeeds on their own. Someone has to be there to show them the way, and if you give that experience to a person on the street - a gang member, a prisoner - he might succeed. That's how it was for me.
The power of belief, of God is beyond what mere mortals can Imagine. There is no restrictions in my Life. If I do what I love, work night and day, and I'm open to the spirits. that's when the "Greats" take over.
If you grow up on the good side of the tracks, you're going to belong to something over there. If you grow up on the bad side of the tracks, you're going to belong to something over there. It's not rocket science.
I spent my life behind bars, and what people don't know is getting out of prison is really nerve-racking - you're not used to society; you're not used to the world going by so fast - so to step on that lot was quite overwhelming.
I didn't know that I could be an actor until I was 25 years old, and now I continue to go back to the prisons and probation camps and the inner city to say that you don't have to go through the violence, through the trauma like I did.
Homeboy Industries is a healing center for broken children. I was a broken child, and they showed me how to put all those pieces back together. It's not about being a gangster. It's about being a man or a woman trying to recover and live better.
I never became an actor for people to want to take pictures with me or wanting my autograph. I feel I am nothing more special than the next living soul, but I understand that I work in entertainment, and this attraction comes with the territory.
I remember my first thing was 'CSI: Miami.' I played a Cuban gangster. And that was it. I was like, 'Wow, I don't have to clean toilets.' I could actually dress up and get paid equivalent to that. So that was my introduction into the Hollywood industry.
When I die I want a child that never met me, to hear were I came from and what I accomplished and for him or her to live their life to the fullest and do what they were put on this world to do. No limitations, blowing past everybody's expectations. Screw whatever body thinks!
The true meaning of an artist/actor is opening my heart to the audience and at the same time opening their heart. Through sharing my pain I can possibly heal your pain, there is no other feeling like it, money doesn't compare. This is the true meaning of Art. I will attempt to do it till my dying day.
I feel that in all kids that I've came across, that at the age of 12-13 is a big transition . They begin forming the Young Adult there going to become, here molding . I can't put a "name" on it but it's something. Your trying to find yourself, were getting ready to go to High School and as this world teaches you, you must "belong" to something. (So we Belong to Something)
There's so many ways to be a voice and that's what I'm figuring out. Being an artist, being an actor, it's about telling stories that could heal, that could open up discussion that could make the community better. There are many (Latino) stories that need to be told and haven't been told right. If I could help be that voice then that's what I'm going to do, because this is a reality for me.
Learning the craft as an actor in Los Angeles is a very hard thing to do, in my opinion. We all come from a certain world and when you start learning the craft, you need material to read/study that you can relate to. We do not have too many Latino writers on the West Coast that I was able to relate to (or at least, I didn't know at the time). I came from the streets, so the most published authors had no relation to my world. As soon as I picked up Pinero & Guirgis, it was all over. It was my world, just in a different location. They cracked me open inside and out.