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Hey, everyone, welcome to The Daily Show Ears edition. This is Kat Radley, writer for The Daily Show. I'm here with actor, activist and Daily Show contributor John Liguizamo, contributor.
That's oh, that's a high praise. I don't deserve that.
You've gotten a promotion. You're a contributor.
Now, where's my salary? Bump? Though I didn't get that.
Oh I stole it.
Oh that's good. That's good. I'm glad you got it better than somebody else.
John, it's so exciting to have you back. You're back at The Daily Show for a segment about how pivotal Latino voters are in this election.
It looks like the Democrats are in trouble and you might be thinking, how is this possible? Donald Trump is winning Latino's Bill the Wall, Donald Trump, mass deportations, Donald Trump. Guy who thinks Daddy Yankee is a baseball player? Donald Trump.
It's exciting to be a writer on this piece.
And can you break it down for our listeners, Like, what was this segment about?
Oh, you know, it's about a call to action for Biden, a call to action to Julie Javis Rodriguez, his campaign manager. It's a call to action for Latinos and everybody listening that we are the largest voting block after white people. Thirty six million Latinos are going to vote and we're going to decide who's going to be president. And it's tricky now because we only care about that. We don't care about immigration. Unfortunately I thought we did, but we
don't give it. We don't give a flying f about immigration. We care about our businesses. We care about moving our business, about getting bank loans, about getting taxes cut.
Yeah, paying for groceries and gas. And that's what this piece is focusing on. And as writers we hear you're coming, we get very excited and we kind of want to pitch some ideas, like how important Latinos are.
They're the biggest voting block.
We are the fastest growing population in America. That's right, fastest growing. You know what that means? We be And the thing is that white people are shrinking too, And then you see white white fragility is such a thing.
I'm totally fine with it.
I wasn't looking at you, like blaming you or looking at you try to know.
I think there should be much fewer white people.
No, no, you don't. I mean we can all live together. I mean that's the one thing, the beautiful thing about Latin people. We love everybody. We'll have sex with everyone. We don't. We love everybody. We love having sex with everyone. We love Black, Asian, Jewish, white, you name it.
And that's what this podcast says really about. Who are the Latino voters also going to have sex?
Yeah, it's what are our tender possibilities?
Would they rather fuck Trump or Biden in this election? Is the question?
So, getting back to the piece, though, they're the real things. Like, so, since the Latino voters, they do have the power to really switch this election whichever.
Way they want.
And one of the things that this piece covers is that they are losing ground with Biden and gaining ground with Trump, even though Biden's the one who's trying harder. What is it that you think the Democrats are doing wrong in their messaging? Why are they losing Latino voters right now?
Because they take us for granted? Man, I mean, Trump already knew in twenty twenty, and that's why he was able to get Florida. Republicans are working hard. They were coming at us in What's app with ads. They were coming at us in our Spanish language radio stations with all kinds of trigger words like socialism that triggers Cubans, Venezuelans and Colombians now because the influx of immigrants from Venezuela escaping Maduro maybe getting thick into the Latin politics.
But that's what we're here for. And they came at us with ads, they talked our talk. Biden assumed in twenty twenty, the Democrats assumed that we were Democrats just because we were Latino. But no, you have to come for us, you have to work for us, you have to knock on our doors, you have to call us, you have to talk about the words that trigger us into voting for you. And there were so many Latin organizations, grassroots that got zero help in Arizona and Texas. Zero helped.
These Latinas were doing it by themselves, and they gave us Arizona and they almost purpleized Texas, but they didn't have any funds. And that's where the mistake is. Put that money in these grassroots organizations that are working their ass off to flip these red states which are ridiculous that they're read. I mean, Arizona is thirty percent Latino texts this is the majority is Latino forty Latino twelve percent. Black white people are minority in Texas.
The fact that Texas hasn't gone blue yet is such a failure I think on the Democratic Party's part, because we could have totally made that blue.
It's a hard one though, because they have Jerry Mander did too. Yeah a motherfucking inch. I mean now that they got Ai that she's gonna be even crazier. They have so many blocks over there, so many tricks up their sleeve.
Yeah, they're just making it so much harder to vote. And it's been proven, like you said, with the grassroots organizations that that is where the real difference matters.
When you get the people registered.
To vote in those communities, yep, and increase the voter block even by a few numbers, we realize it does make a big difference.
Yeah, that's the one thing I never knew about politics in voting was it's just a few numbers. I mean
sometimes it's one person voting that makes a difference. It's incredible. Yeah, So it makes you realize how important your vote is so the apathy you know, like Latinos have apathy too, They have apathy, you know, they feel like I mean, I've been traveling around with my show MSNBC show like It Does America, and I can't name the cities, but people are living in hard places that get no funding, that get no uh, the schools are defunded, hospitals going
away because they're trying to gentrify an urban renewal basically, you know, kill these cities where Latin people are living. So they understandably they're upset and angry and have apathy.
Yeah, and Biden's a president now, so it's natural to think, well, one to blame.
And people have short term memories too. They don't realize that Trump handled COVID so badly that that's why we had such huge inflationary problems and have all these economic problems. But Biden is fixing it and helping it.
But you know, but they're not good at getting that message across.
No, definitely, never. Never. We weren't good at it with Obama either.
Yeah, and in terms we're talking about like reaching them in their language, in Spanish, and now they're even putting money into like Spanglish.
Loves fish, I mean Staglish it only gets to makes you laugh. Yeah, I mean it's not really, it's it's Latinos who like to goofy. Yeah, it's not a thing.
That's fine. That's one thing that we didn't put into the piece.
But there was a lot of material on Biden getting what they called like a Spanish and Spanglish war room. We're like, it would be so funny if we could do a sketch to put John like in the Spanish.
Yeah, but we did Spanglish in our piece basically. I mean, all Latinos now are trying to do Spanglish, which is just a mixture. It's not like, uh, we're not using made up Spanglish words where that's really Spanglish to me, it's made up words like when I grew up, I was saying, which is locked the door? But it's an English word that doesn't exist. Caro parked the car wacha look out. We just words that we make up and
make Spanish eye that's the real Spangish. But now Spanglish just means you flip between both languages really easy.
It's like the brunch of languages, isn't.
There it's lunch and breakfast smashed together and it's yummy.
Yeah, that's putting that in brunch terms, so the white people would understand better.
And the hungry folk out there foodies.
The last time you were here, you had a piece about Univision. I was very fortunate I got to write on that pieces.
But oh, that great job.
Oh thank you. I'm just put a little humble brag out there.
But writing when you do come, all the writers, we are all anxious to write for you because you are so fun to write for because you as an actor, you know, you're really good at the characters and the voice acting, so we can have a lot of fun playing with the different characters in the pieces. And with Univision, we were looking at like the Trump interview and how they gave him the softball questions Udi visa, you own.
Face, and growing backlash after giving Donald Trump the royal treatment. Last week, the network hosted a very friendly, our long exclusive interview with Trump that his son in law Jared Kushner, helped arrange.
I'd mother meal. I don't know what's more shocking that Univision gave Trump a softball interview or that Trump led a Latin guy into his house. How did that happen? That piece that we did was vital because I got a call from Univision and they're they're marketing expert who tried to talk me down and I was like, nah, Obra, you softballed him on purpose, and you need to fix this because I've heard from a lot of newscasters that you're swinging right and on purpose and it's not okay.
You need to be neutral. And you go, oh, well, what are you talking about. You need to come down and meet with us. We love to because we really want to do the right thing, but it was bs because they have been swinging right and it's not okay to pick a side like that. You just got to be new to your news station. Yeah, they're swinging for them, you know, it's not okay.
Yeah, just as a journalist, whether it's a Spanish speaking organization or not. Like, as a journalist, you're supposed to be impartial, right, which.
Fox News obviously is not impartial.
I mean you know that, Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean there's American media, like on the left and right that is swinging both ways.
At least we're at least MSNBC swinging with the facts.
Yeah, that's true.
They're still swinging left. But I hate calling it left because we don't have a real left in America. I'm from Latin America. We have a real left. The real left wants to destroy the government. You don't have We don't have that in America. We have a left of center left, but we have a real right in this country. Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's what's weird.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They dig in.
They dig in so hard on the right, and they're really good at actually pulling like the social issues and making them like kind of take place in real life, in tangible legislation and things like that that are actually affecting people.
How do they do that?
I don't know.
I wish we could figure out how to do it the other way, I.
Know, because we don't. We can't pull them a little left, a little you know. Uh. They the vouchers are hitting everybody was believing that vouchers are great, which will destroy public school education for everyone, so only the best students will get an education. Everybody else will have to fall through the cracks.
I'm glad you brought up education because that's another thing I wanted to talk to you about really well, yeah, because I think.
Because that's my that's my passion, you know, is education. It's everything.
Actually I used to be a high school English teacher before I was a writer at The Daily Show while I was doing comedy.
But that's we can get into that later.
But one thing that like one piece of legislation I think on the right they are so good at, is getting like the anti CRT and the anti DEI legislation through. And it's interesting the past few years that looking at how whitewashed American education and curriculum is, people are finally kind of talking about it. But it's something that you've noticed a long time ago. And your show Latin History for Morons, you even tried to like essentially fill that whole yourself, fill that gap.
And it's for myself, for my children, for other people's children, for other people. Yeah, it's crazy. You grew up in America and you only learn about I mean, I hate to say white history, but it is like kind of like white people's history of America but denies everything that was there before. Like you barely touch upon the genocide of all the Native American people that stolen land. The treaties broken forever they invaded them and took it from them.
I mean they don't even mention that. They don't mention you know, of course, all No, we discovered it, right, right? How do you discover something and settled something that was already discovered and settled by another people. That's what's incredible. How you can whitewash that and change it and make the other people who were living there the villains. I mean,
that's what Westerns flip me out. It's like, wait, you made the people who are living here, the people who were genocided and attacked and murdered and slaughtered, you made them the villains. That's incredible writing and genius marketing.
Yeah, those people grew up.
Their descendants became the right wing media people who were so effective in getting that messaging right.
That messaging is so easy to get. I don't know how that's it's so much easier than I guess showing sympathy and empathy for others.
Yeah, which is sad.
You'd think that should be easier, right, But don't you think Americans do want decency? Though? I really feel like traveling around America and I travel a lot, people do want decency, They want decent people, they want respect, they want everybody to re respect it. I think that's that's why I love America because I know that's deep in our DNA in America.
Yeah, no, I agree, And it's it's sad for the people who maybe do get the misinformation or they're only hearing messaging that isn't actually reflective of reality or electing the people who really would do the things that would make their life better. You are a voice for the Latino community and one of the voices. Yeah, yeah, one of the many voices. But you've been vocal about, you know, increasing representation and equity for Latinos in Hollywood especially.
But across the board.
And it was something you got to cover during your guest week host here, which was always which is also very fun with like the various sketches and jokes we did for that. In terms of how you started out as like an actor and a comedian, was there a certain time where that shift kinda happened where you started to take on the role of activist and advocate as well for the Latino community. Was there like a certain moment were you or was it kind.
Of a yeah, I mean I was always always socially conscious. Cat. I was always socially conscious because I was aware of the disparity and the inequality. I mean, it was it was front and center in my life. Like here I am and NYU and the only Latino in my class. And you know, I had Andrew McCarthy in my class. I had dB Sweeney. I don't know if people do remember these. It's an age gap here. But they were going to five editions a day.
DB Sweeney. He was spreading edge.
Yes, yes, and Andrew McCarthy was it like every eighties movie, you know, every breakfast club. And they were going to five editions a day. And I was going to one every five months. Wow for a drug dealer. And I was like, oh my god. I was an idealistic young man, and I realized, oh my god, my opportunities are not the same. No matter if I got a's, they didn't get a's. I was paying the same tuition I did not. No matter how what I did, I was never going
to have the same opportunities as them. That's when I realized that this deck was stacked against me. And I didn't lose sight of that. And then you get older, and then you get invited to one DNC and then I flipped John Kerry. I was at the DNC and all of a sudden, I was like, oh, wow, this is politics. It's accessible. I can talk to these people.
They're reachable. That made me realize that there was something I could do, that I could talk to people, and it made me change my whole mind about it that it was not you know, certain people's politics that I had a little bit of that apathy too, you know, m hm, just because growing up in the hood and whatnot.
But actually you felt like there was something you actually could control or effect change in a certain way.
Yeah. Things that I did, things that I participated, had an influence of some you know whatever, small little influence. We all have some influence.
Yeah, that's great.
That's powerful to hear because I feel like a lot of people don't even bother to vote to the point where they think that vote wouldn't matter.
But there's even so much more they I.
Mean these when I go travel around America and I see these, it's mostly Latina's organizing with no money, nothing on their own and organizing and going door to door and and getting people to flip their votes and giving us Arizona. It means incredible and it's in Arizona, Texas, California. You know, AOC did it in New York. She went stomping. My mom went with her and all over queens and knock on doors. Hello, you want to vote for Rest? Come on, you can do it. I know you can't.
Come on vote, Come on, go got go go.
It's always the women who have to end up doing right. Yeah. The labor, yeah.
It maybe it's shit done.
Come on, yeah, yeah, no, it's always had yeah.
In terms of this piece, and like the writing process, I know, like the writers came with some pitches and I ideas, did you have like did you know what it was you wanted to talk about or were you kind of open to see like okay, well were their pitches? Is the way we kind of marry the two ideas.
Well. I talked to Jen and we text and I said I wanted to deal with the voting situation, and then boom she she ran for it, you know, and and I and I send her like, you know, thirty six million Latino little a little Wikipedia information or Google information. I gogglia, I go glad. That's the spang is right, there and uh, I sent it to and then boom she had a piece. And then I said, you know, I want to do accents and voices and do my cousins and do my uncles and whatnot. You know, you
guys wrote it. Yeah, and then boom, here we are.
Yeah, that's great.
One thing I thought was when I originally a pitch I had which we didn't get to. You were saying you wanted to focus on two is how it wasn't just immigration that Latinos are that they care about. In fact, they don't even really care about it that much at all, compared to other issues, like it's all about the economy and inflation. Now.
Yeah, I mean that's what I found talking to my because I thought we did care. I was out. That was in my own bubble. Yeah. I thought immigration was a big deal because I see the horrors happening. But no, Latinos are, especially immigrant Latinos who are naturalized, feel competitive. Yeah, that these other people are getting asylum and getting their naturalization really quick, and they didn't. They had to work their asses off, and they feel bitter. And I had
no idea. I thought they were full of empathy and love and the ad they see them as a threat because they actually can take their jobs, right, So that was a hard lesson for me.
Yeah, and that's I think probably what the two campaigns are having to learn as well. Not just inflation and the economy. Polls are also showing Latino voters are interested about crime and healthcare, and there's also all these other issues that disproportionately affect them. Like I was doing some research for the piece. Apparently, of all women of color,
Latinos are most hurt by abortion bands. Latinos are also more disapportionally affected by clime change because they tend to be working jobs that are like outdoors, they're vulnerable to extreme weather. And so I was like, oh, yeah, Like there's so much stuff other than immigration that the media and these campaigns shouldn't focus on because like another thing you were talking about that you want to say that
Latinos are not a monolith. You know, there are so many different issues that are affecting them, and that's something I think our piece kind of touches on, right ryb.
We trying to touch my I mean I got well like three minutes on on cameras, so it's hard. It's hard to touch on all the topics. But I mean, I guess everybody thinks immigration is a thing because even though we keep saying immigration, immigrants, what we're really saying is we're saying Latinos coming across the border. Yeah, nobody, I mean, that's that's what. It's so weird. We're seeing pictures of Latinos. We see pictures of them being rounded up by horses, we see them crossing river, we see
them dying. But nobody's saying Latinos. They're saying immigrants. So but that's the unspoken word that bothers me a lot. But but yeah, Latinos are deep in their lives. They got a lot of trauma. They can't be as concerned about their immigrant brothers and sisters. So we need to win this election to fix all these things. So let's focus on the things that are going to get Latinos to vote. You know, Bernie had it. Bernie had the Latinos. He had Latino consultants, he had AOC, he had a
ton of them. They spoke to Latino's. Latinos were fired up about Bernie because he spoke about these things. He spoke about jobs, lowering taxes, helping small businesses, get a little propped up. He spoke. He knew that the lingo he had it down. They should just hire all the people he had, which I mean, they're hard to get because they're all like moved.
Up, including Bernie Sanders.
Maybe yeah, Bernie Sanders talks to them. He talks to talk. I don't know how he did it, but he got it all.
That sounds like a great place to stop. And there's so much more that we didn't get to cover in this podcast or in the piece.
So look, yeah, actually, Cat, what a pleasure.
Thank you, Oh, thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast and for.
The thank you for writing a kick ass piece.
Yeah, hey, it's You're always a pleasure to write for.
And uh okay, thank you so much for joining me, and thanks for listening to The Daily Show Ears edition, and thank you so much John Leguizamo for being here.
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