OG Ronald Reagan

But maybe it's because on this day in Fernando Vallenzuela is standing in the White House next to maybe one of the only people in America that is more famous, President Ronald Reagan. In the early eighties, the Dodgers picture was so talented and well known that the phenomen of

his fame was cobbed Fernando Mania. It was infectious to root for this five eleven Gordo from Sonoda, a rookie who was so good in his first season with Los Dwyers that he made history by capturing the cy Young Award and the Rookie of the Year Award, and the attention of millions of fans all over the world. Fernando was so famous that he made baseball more popular internationally. He created a whole generation of Mexican American fans of

the sport. He also helped the Dodgers win the World Series and thus made his way to the Oval Office to meet an equally famous fan, the President of the United States. And I have this theory that maybe Fernando just did a little bit more than win games for my favorite baseball team. He went over the country at a time when Mexican immigrants like him were being rounded up in immigration raids and blamed for all of America's woes.

He humanized people like my parents, And even now when I look back at his legacy, I feel seen, which brings me back to that photo of the two eighties superstars standing next to the President is Hope in a pinstripe suit, Because maybe that day in the White House

was the day Reagan saw us too. It's a moment where a Mexican wasn't seen as a threat, but something to be celebrated, to be recognized, Fernando standing tonics to one of the most powerful people on the planet, who in just a few years will get a bill on his desk that will do more than make us feel seen.

It will give us a chance to be Americans. And I don't know if this moment Fernando and Reagan meeting has much of an impact on Reagan, a staunch conservative whose policies like the war on drugs and trickle down economics largely decimated my community, that it influenced his decision to sign a bill that would give three million families a shot at coming out of the shadows. Because honestly, it's hard to tell what's going through Reagan's head that day in but it's for sure fun to imagine, Mr

because maybe, just maybe and went a little something like this. Okay, you ready, it's November six, Mr President. There's a whole bunch of press outside waiting to see what you're going to do about SP twenty two two. So tell me what it is again. Simpson's bill. Oh, he won't shut up about it. You remember, Oh Simpson, the football player. No, no, Mr President, the cowboy from Cody, the tall fellow ron. Where are you on this one? Well? What's up? Oh?

That's right, the bill legalizing all the Mexicans. How could I forget? This was a tough one, A lot to put on one man's shoulders. But thankfully that man was me, the gipper, ron ron Ronnie the money. That's right. I'm Ronald Reagan, I'm Patty Rodriguez, and I'm Mary Glendo. And this is out of the shadows. Children of eighty six. Immigrants and their children have long lived in the shadows of America. Their destinies aren't just shaped by where they

come from, but by their particular place in history. In the lives of millions of immigrants and their children were changed by one lucky stroke of a pen by an likely allah, President Ronald Reagan. This podcast will examine the ripple effects the bill had on first generation kids of immigrants, who are navigating intergenerational mobility and transforming the cultural landscape. This is an untold story of luck, timing, triumph, opportunity, survival,

and of course hope. I have to admit Eric, before we started this podcast, I didn't know a lot about Ronald Reagan, and I realized for a lot of Latinos Mexican Americans, especially, Reagan's legacy is kind of like an iceberg. You know, when you first see an iceberg poking its head out of the water. At first, it looks small, pretty even, like you see it one way, but then you realize how big it actually is beyond what's on

the surface. It's so big and deep and devastating. I totally get that Reagan's true legacy also depends on who you ask, and we asked a lot of people. I mean, I think Ronald Reagan was the devil. I definitely feel, like, definitely complicted feelings. And it's so complex and contradictory because he's also one of the reasons you're here in the first place, and you left your land. When I think about Ronald Reagan, I think about you know, I know that he was an actor, Like if that never happened,

like I would not be doing what I do. There was a lot of things that I felt had more of a negative impact, like the increase in homelessness and all of that stuff. A lot of damage was done, reaching back to even Ronald Reagan when he was governor here when we were outed up a lot of people and set him across the border, and some of the probably weren't Mextic considered that they were probably things. Yeah, yeah,

everyone's a critic. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to be a gangster or I mean Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, the greatest scratch that second greatest president of all time f D R H. Golly. I witnessed firsthand what that man could do. See. I was there in the depression when good, honest Americans, white people felt hopeless, people were starving, and things felt dim. But hearing f DR was like a warm blanket. You people must not lose faith. Let

us unite in banishing fear. And also the Japanese. We just announced us special camp. I mean a housing opportunity for the Japanese in America. Wow, good old Franklin Frankie, my boy, he was really my um what what what do your kids call it? How do I help you understand? Oh? Wait, yes, I got it. F DR was like my tupac. I remember the first time frank made me feel warm inside. It was the winter of ninety three. I was heartbroken.

Not only had my father lost his job in the depression, but my dear Sally told me we can't go steady anymore. So when Frankie talked about not being afraid, it was like he was talking directly to me. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and started dating Sally's sister. Boy, could she cut a rug? So I vowed to be like my hero. He helped he, so did I. He did radio, so did I. He became president, well so did I. Mr President, damonies, and get off your high horse.

You're no john Ford yourself. I mean what what was what was I high? Yes, the Mexicans? Yes, where are we on that? M hmm? What after you are? Do? Oh? Dang it all to hell? Like I said, this was a tough one. On one hand, unemployment was really high. It was double digits when Reagan came in, and people

were really concerned about that. But you also had the growers also said, everybody's going to be eating tomatoes growing in Mexico because we're not going to be able to grow tomatoes, the rapples or whatever in the US because we don't have the labor. I don't understand. If unemployment is so high, why is there a problem finding workers to pick our tomatoes? Well? Mr President, those aren't well they're not really American jobs. Farming Oh it's not really farming. Um,

it's u picking, harvesting it best. But real American blue collar workers, well, well they're salt of the earth. And they could. Now I'm not telling you what to do because I know you ate that, but this bill could cost some people their jobs, not us, mind you. He just won our last election. But the last thing Americans want is to compete with Well, Fernando Mania is alive and well, this kid from Mexico is a phenomenon, or, as they would say down South, Fernando pitch of bitch.

Oh that's a job that once belonged to an American. Ah. Yes, Fernando Allen's way a lot. It's June of the Middle East. Well, well, the Middle East is the Middle East, and I've decided to start selling weapons to China. Raiders of the Lost Arc is hitting theaters. God, I would have been great in that one. And then there was Fernando. Hell of a picture, and I know something about that. I won

the series against the Yankees. In the winning game, pitched lights out on the Warner Brothers law as Grover Cleveland Alexander. So when I tell you Fernando was the real deal, I know from which I speak. Another strike out by Fernando Valenzuela, and that's a no hit up, folks. He's a pollous but off the mound very shy man. He came to the White House for lunch and hardly spoke a word. By God, there was this other guy with him, an interpreter of some sort. What was his name? That's right, JJ.

The most powerful people in the country were in line waiting for this kid who was only anything years old, who couldn't speak about the English. So they consigned them a baseball or an autograph. Now, wait a minute, he doesn't mean me. F d R would not stand in line to ask for an autograph, and neither would I. I stand in line for no one. It was listening to Ragan, then the Vice President, George Bush, Father, the Senator of the State, Alexander Haig, the Secretary of the things.

Gospel was better from Los Angeles. Okay, so I was there. Maybe I got an autograph, Maybe I had a soft spot for the kid. Even FDR like baseball, and you should have seen this Fernando kid. Not only was he great, but he reminded me of my best pal back in Los Angeles, Peppe Rubies. Out of the shadows, will be right back now, back to the show. Oh, my first time walking into Jason's was like walking into the green room at the Tonight Show. Jason's was a restaurant in

Beverly Hills that was known for three things. The clientele I'm talking Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, all the chili. Heck, Liz had it flown into Rome when she was filming Cleopatra. Man, I would have been great in that film. Can you imagine me as Julius Caesar Germanicus guard to escort Queen Cleopatra to her apartments? Anyway, where was i? Ah? Yes? The third thing was pepe Ruise, the legend dairy bartender and Amy go too to the stars, even future stars

like me. How's it going, young man? You look lost? What? What? Oh? He their friend? Uh? Sorry, you just have a big audition, Sam would pepper ree, No, I'm not the director. Sam would a knight at the opera? Oh yes, I love that picture. Mr Marcus over there. Time flies like an arrow, for it flies like a banana. Wow, this is quite a place. You know what? You need a drink? Well? What do you recommend? Whom do you like? Dean Martin? What?

What is he here? Not today? But I'll make you Mr Martin's favorite vodka, A bit of sherry orange Rent and my secret oil orange shows which Stuart, that's more jeepers a name did a flame of love. It was inspired by his song And I'll give you Dean Martin's confidence until midnight. Oh is that right? That's right? Amigo? Realuise Huh? Is that Italian? No Spanish? Mexican? Well yeom meymo. Ronald Reagan, Nice to meet you. How you peppe? The usual? Please?

Oh my god, ground show? Why how did you call me? Man's as only as old as the woman he feels? My god, what an angel? That's no angel, that's uh, that's Nancy d They call her queen of no Peppe. That's some mory. Nancy Davis, my god, the love of my life. Well you sure are tall, aren't you. Well? The weather is fine up here. It's a little warn do fruit. She was had brand new, recently arrived as a young contract player at MGM. Yes, that's Karen to Multi,

my wife's biographer. A truth teller if I ever met one. He was an actor who had, you know, didn't have exactly an illustrious career, and he was hitting middle age and he was finding it sort of harder and harder to come by parts his first wife had essentially walked out of the marriage, so he was kind of at a low point in his life when when he met Nancy.

Nancy would never really kind of make it as an actress on her own either, So both of these people were at a point in their lives where you would not have expected like great things out of their future, but it really turned out that they you know, it was quite a match. Now, wait a minute, Karen, you don't know what you're It's more complicated than that, Oh Nancy, Yes, Mr President, Mr President, that's itty. Wrap your lips around running. Stop out of it? What what what are you even

talking about? I'm not out of it. I'm in here, damn it. I'm in it. Now give me that damn bill, I'm gonna sign that thing for Peppe for love. Oh stop that, yesha, stop give me that thing. And you know, damn it, I'll fire you in a minute. I made you, I'll make you. Wait, wait, don't what would at all do? My mom loved Donald Reagan. She prays for him all the time. I've known that since I was little. I always just kind of like had my parents thinking, you know,

Reagan was a great president. People say he was an optimist. Well he was, but he was also an idealist. The more you learn about Reagan, the harder it is to square some of his decisions that impacted my community the

real Reagan. You know, they always said about Reagan. That's one of his biographers, veteran journalist leukennont what you see is what you get, And I I think that's one of the silliest phrases I've ever heard, because sometimes he got a lot more than you saw, and sometimes you didn't. You didn't get anything. If you talk to enough people who personally benefited from Reagan's policies, you start to get

this picture of greatness. Nancy Reagan's biographer Karen to Multi especially tied Reagan's thinking on the issue of immigration to an inherent optimistic patriotism. I do think that Reagan and a lot of conservatives had this very idealistic view of America that it was a country of strivers. I mean that it was it was a place that people came because they were seeking freedom and opportunity, and that that

freedom and that opportunity should essentially be available. When I hear that and imagine the gipper hanging out with guys like Paperuis and Fernando. It's really easy for me to tap into my own optimism, especially when I try to imagine Reagan having to decide whether he was going to sign or veto Urka. But that optimism, like Patty said at the top of the show, is just the tip of the iceberg, because if you look at Reagan's policies as a whole, they paint a different picture. Here's Homeboy

Industry's founder, father Boyle. A lot of damage was done reaching back to even Ronald Reagan when he was governor here where he shut down all the mental hospitals with the promise that there would be smaller, more community based and that's exactly why the largest mental institution on the planet Earth is Los Angeles County Jail. And we owe it to him for that. And here's Communities in Schools,

Los Angeles executive director Elmer Roldan. Ronald Reagan's policies told people that anything that was happening in the streets of America that was even it was impacting Black communities or

Latino communities, was a product of our violent nature. The crack epidemic that aids epidemic wouldn't have been what they became if it wasn't for his positions to who, what and why When it comes to Reagan can be a bit of a minefield, especially for people like me and for most of the people who make this podcast Patty, Karen, Betsy, and Caesar, who all had parents or relatives that benefited from IRKA directly or indirectly. For us, Reagan's legacy is

hard to reconcile. That was fascinated by the fact that he was a Republican, and I wanted to understand why. I was now shocked by that me finding out what happened in Central America, which I didn't know, and then I started feeling guilty for having these feelings. My dad has always said that his favorite president is Ronald Reagan, and it's interesting because we didn't even get amnesty from it. So it was just because of him helping out so many other people that in my household it was like,

this is a good guy, so my entire life. To me, of course, I'm gonna think he's a good guy. Who's my dad thinks he's a good guy. So I think, for the first time, working on this podcast, now I think I'm able to make my own educated opinion, not based on what my parents taught me, but based on my own research. What's fascinating to me about Ronald Reagan is the juxtaposition of someone who spoke very passionately about immigrants, but then on the back sekend he was also doing

these really atrocious things. It's like a complicated web of like ship going on, like even him, you know, stepping away from like what FDR did and like going against that. I don't know, it's like an interesting story. Yes, f d R, Franklin, Delano Roosevelt, not a saint, not even close. Another guy who did good and bad and it really all depended on what you look like and who you were.

And thinking about that, the full legacy of Ronald Reagan's life as a politician, I think that there was more going through his head when it came to Erica, more than just Fernando and Peperois. Or maybe it really was as simple as what what f DR do out of the shadows? Will be right back now, back to the show, damn it all the hell? That is the question that guided my soul. How do I become FDR? Think like him,

lead like him, be like him. I realized a long time ago, you needed to be like to be that powerful, and I figured the easiest way to get people to like me was to be seen. And what better way to be seen than on the big screen? Randy, Randy, where's the rest of me? Cat? Cat Cat? Let's try this again, but but this time do it well? Or

or this time try to act. He had been a kind of not very successful movie actor, had been more successful as the host of a couple of television program but he did have this way of speaking and of connecting with people. All right, Karen, Maybe I wasn't the best actor, but but it didn't matter. I needed people to know my name. I needed the power. And what better way to be at the seat of power than

as the face of the General Electric Company. No, I'm not recording, I promise, well, did you see me on TV last night? To see those those monkeys? Oh? Gosh, sorry, wrong clip. Here's the g e thing. Here is Ronald Reagan. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's my pleasure to appear with Cloris Leachman and she he presents. Stick your hands up and hand us the loote. General Electric money is

our most important product. Part of the gig was traveling the country and meeting with General Electric employees all over the country. I mean he would talk to tens of thousands of people, and even in the fifties he was adv cating very much the sorts of things that he would later become his hamart. Working as the host of ge Theater kind of required me to be a conservative and a good actor has to believe he is the character. Sorry, FDR.

I had to ditch that Democrats ship because it wasn't taking me anywhere, which I didn't mind because the bag was good. Man, Do I love money? I basically became Alec Baldwin and thirty Rock, except more conservative, and boy did I have power. Finally, so I became president of the Screen Actors Guild. Will you name names? Senator McCarthy, Oh, boy, who I have a list as long as you're bar

dab oh my. So he was the president of the Union and he did testify in Congress, and he really walked of very very narrow wine between Again, you have to understand what the country was going through at the time, and the Union had been in the middle of all these gigantic battles. Uh and they're, you know, over communism. Well you didn't hear this from me, but I hear that redhead, you know, the one she's married to, that Spanish fellow. Well I heard the hair Dante, the only

red she carries in her purse. She's got some explaining to do. It would later be revealed that both Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman, were FBI informants during all of this. Uh, to be fair, like, like I've done most of my life, I just read whatever script the directors put in front of me. Well, in this case, it just happened to be j Edgar Hoover, and hey, I was able to get actors residual checks. You're welcome,

Tom Hanks. I at that. So not all bad? Right? So? Yes, the battles with communists and the specifically communists in the Hollywood unions that sort of implanted the anti communist side of his of this ideology. Yeah, kill those COMMI bastards. I'll give you all my guns if you will. The president, you'll need to snap out of it. You're having a Central American flash back. After sag and ge that angry Barry Goldwater hit me up with another gig. He basically

wanted me to tell people to vote for him. Good luck with that, Barry. The way I saw it, Barry was going to lose even if I was able to channel the Almighty's voice and command people to vote for him. So I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a little bit of Ronnie magic. I spit a couple of bars to the crowd, and they ate that it up. I've spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course the money.

There has come a time for choosing between being broken, righteous or making a buck off the backs of others. It was one of my fine air moments, and it led to the next bag. Some dudes came up to me, like, you ever think of running for office ship? Not really, but they gave me a mill for my campaign, and I had to take it because I was still out here hustling, trying to be like my boy Frankie Roosevelt. But you know, by destroying everything he built, Mrs Welfare

Queen tear down that mall, My campaign was ironclad. I talked a little bit about welfare queens cutting social programs, making America great again, and general inspirational shit, change the game type it. And then there was the war. I led comfortably from home against the Red Army by funding civil wars in Central America. It was primarily through the prism of the proxy wars that were going on at

the time with the Soviet Union and anti communism. And you know, he would compare the Contras in Nicaragua, the you know, Founding Fathers. So I made Central America a killing field, big deal. I wasn't going to relive Vietnam. We had the damn commies just a boat right away. I'm pretty sure Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have knute the bastards if I had done that. I bet these damn Mexican Commies wouldn't be all up in my face. I bet we don't lose half the Western hemisphere to that

Red menace. In fact, the more I think about it, that man was a gangster, and so am I Does that mean you've come to your senses? Damn right, I'm not signing this on American dribble. Get me my veto stand. Ronnie, you better look at this. Oh what is it? So? In November of nine at you know, at a moment when the Senate has just in the mid term elections,

gone from being Republican held to Democratic held. Word gets out that Ronald Reagan has secretly been trading arms to Iran, one of America's enemies, a country that has been branded a terrorist country. Reagan has secretly been trading arms to Iran in an effort to get out American hostages that were held in the Middle East. And that is bad enough, and that is you know, it is a violation of

every US policy there was. But then a few weeks later, it is discovered that the money from those arms sales is actually going in contravention of a law that Congress had passed to fund the Nicaraguan rebels. The contrast, I mean, it was a flat out violation of the law. So you had both in Iran, a violation of US policy, but also lawbreak going on within the White House. And it becomes clear very quickly that if Ronald Reagan knew about the diversion of this money, he is in danger

of getting impeached. And it really does become the biggest crisis of his presidency. Man alive, there's a whole bunce of press outside the room waiting you know what you have to do. A real one does what he has to do to survive. I'm very pleased that you could all be here today. This bill, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of that I will sign in a few minutes is the most comprehensive reform of our immigration laws

since nineteen fifty two. It's the product of one of the longest and most difficult legislative undertakings in the last three Congresses. Further, it's an excellent example of a truly successful bipartisan effort the administration of the allies of immigration reform on both sides of the Capital and both sides of the Aisle work together to accomplish these critically important

reforms to control illegal immigration. Al Right, So, maybe it's a little cynical of me to imagine Ronald signing the bill that gave my parents amnesty Urica to divert attention from the Iran Contra scandal that almost got him locked up. Maybe he did have more idealistic motives. Maybe it was because he lived and worked in a very Latino city and state before he got to the White House. Maybe it was fandom of Fernando and the Dodgers, or his

lifelong friendship with the Mexican bartender named Peperois. I don't know though, f Dr Johnson Nixon, Bush, Trump, Clinton, Reagan honestly as a Mexican American kid who grew up in Southeast Dely in the nineties, it's hard for me not to see most moves by presidents in this country as gangsters doing gangster ship. But the truth is, after more than a year reading about it and dozens of interviews

with experts, I'm still lost on Reagan and Urica. After all that, I still didn't really know about this guy. Why did the same guy who I have to honestly thank for giving my parents amnesty is the same dude that is championed by conservatives, the guy who used parts of Latin America as a proxy war game to fight a European superpower, The guy who led the war on drugs that gave rise to cartel violence, and whose domestic policies felt like they were directly aimed at keeping black

and brown people from ever having a shot. But here's the thing. I'm gonna pull the curtain way back and say that when I was writing this episode, I had no idea that my partner and co host Patti Rodriguez had tracked down the author of a letter that may prove Reagan's motives were actually pure and she was just a ten year old kid writing to the most powerful man in the world asking for him to do the right thing. Please help us with this one thing, All

we Go residents. That's on the next episode of Out of the Shadows, Children of eighty six. If you love this podcast, please help us get the word out by following, rating, reviewing, and sharing it with your friends. I'm Christopher Matthew Spencer, and I played a fictional version of Ronald Reagan, FDR and many of the other voices you heard today, who were all invented and dramatized for the purposes of entertainment.

This episode also featured some very real legendary voices. They're great journalist Mario Lena Salinas, author and Gif figaroa legendary Dodgers broadcaster, Heim Haden, Nancy Reagan's biographer, Karen Tumulti, Ronald Reagan's biographer, Luke Cannon, Father Boyle Al Murodan Lila Villas, Marlino Rosco, Borney Santos, Rena, Solise Lose Thompson, Adriano Venegas and Alejandro via Bando. Thank you everyone. Out of the Shadows is written by Caesar Hernandez. It's also written, edited, hosted,

and executive produced by Patti Rodriguez and Eric Galindo. It's produced by Betticrdanaz, Karen Lopez and Gabby Watts. It's sound design, mixed and mastered by Jesse nice Longer. Our studio engineer is Clay Hillenburg. Karen Garcia That's Me is our announcer. Out of the Shadows is the production of In the Other Productions and School of Humans in partnership with I

Hearts Michael Tura Podcast Network. The podcast is also executive produced by Giselle Bancees, Virginian Prescott, Brandon Barr and Chad Crowley. Our marketing and our team is led by Jasmine Maheia. Original music by a Arenas and if you loved his cover of Los Caminos la vida this podcast theme song, you can listen to it on all music platforms. Historical audio for Out of the Shadows comes from the Reagan Presidential Library and the National Archives. Special thanks to Ian Vargas,

Alex and Ali Caitlin. Becker, gob Chabran, Daisy Church, Angel Lopez Galindo, Julianna Gamis, Ryan Gordon, Brian Matheson, Claudia Marti ConA, Oscar Ramirez, John Rodriguez, Juan Rodriguez, Joshua Sandovald, Eric Sclar, Tony Sorrentino, and Megan Tangy