Hope Dealer with José Rico

Cultivating Hope Through Community and Love with José Rico

• Jose Rico • Season 1 • Episode 1

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How does one cultivate hope amid systemic oppression and cultural erasure? Join me, on "Hope Dealer," as we embark on a powerful journey through stories of love, resilience, and community. I am interviewed by my compañera, Cecily Relucio, as we honor the indigenous lands of San Diego and pay tribute to my late Tio Cosme, whose tireless work embodies the spirit of sacrifice and familial pride, challenging xenophobic narratives with a celebration of collective well-being and cultural strength.

Experience the profound transformation as I reflect on crossing borders and navigating identity in the face of internal colonization in the U.S. Growing up in Chicago, I reflect on the systemic efforts to marginalize Mexican heritage and the incredible perseverance of those who remain rooted in their cultural values. Witness my community's resistance to fear and oppression, from gang violence and immigration raids to the empowering moments of pride like the Mexican Independence Day parade, and the crucial role of activists in fostering safety and empowerment.

Finally, we delve into the systemic issues that continue to affect us, from capitalism to racism, and the pressing need for healing and spiritual resilience. Embrace the concept of being a "Hope Dealer," focusing on building a tribe of trust and love to create transformative experiences. Hear about the historical unity of Black and Brown communities and the importance of collective action in combating oppression. As we honor the past and look towards the future, this episode serves as a call to reignite our spirits through hope, love, and community.

F.L.Y. L.I.B.R.E. a guide for healing and liberation can be purchased here: amzn.to/4iCzAAM

Speaker 1:

Buenas familia. Soy Jose, rico or Rico. Thank you so much for your attention today. It means everything to me. I want to welcome you to Hope Dealer, and this is a podcast about our journey towards hope, resilience and joy through the stories that we carry about our return home stories that we carry about our return home. I want to introduce you to somebody that has allowed me to expand my power of love, my love in many, many, ways.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations on launching your podcast, Thank you. So I wanted to start today with an acknowledgement that we are our Camaro home earths we're in the area of the country most commonly known as San Diego and to start with a practice of gratitude to the Camillan for our existence, our wolf land. And so I'll start with the question of what are you a Greek hope for today?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this morning when I got up right before the sun came out of the mountains there and the first thing I did is I came out and put my hands on the dirt here and recognizing the lands here and just how grateful I am for for these labs to sustain me and sustain us. And then I immediately went to yesterday, diego contacted me and wanted to get his baseball equipment so he could, if he wants to start playing baseball again. So I felt really good when he did that. And then Maya contacted me because she wanted some information, because she's studying therapist on Wednesday, then on Monday, a couple of days ago.

Speaker 1:

This was part of the lens group that we started so he participated in, not only joined, but just so. I mean this morning I was grateful that that my kids are also taking it upon themselves to do that. So I was grateful one that I was in contact with them within the last 24 hours and, in their own accord, right are doing this and they're on the court, right are doing this and I just saw how fortunate I was that I'm here and that you know they reached out to me and were in space and they prevented themselves and you know, you know this. It's been a long road to see that happen, and just for them to be able to do that and for me to be part of that, I was very, very grateful this morning and very grateful now.

Speaker 2:

That's beautiful. Yes, it has to be better. You know, I get to see every day how you love your children, your heart's desires for their well-being, and so, yeah, I love that acknowledgement, you know, of gratitude for where they are, for their journeys. I teach you a lot every day about how to center the well-being of my older children. I just learned a lot from you about the things that I have to release if I really truly want them to be well and to be skilled. Yeah, also, as we open, are there specific ancestors that you wish to enlighten you to the conversation or to acknowledge today?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know I was yesterday. You know I invited my uncle, who I was with, about two years ago here right, Cornelio passed away from cancer and that was in these lands where he worked. He actually worked not too far from here in construction. He was one of the many workers in this area that built these water filtration systems so people could actually live here, build these water filtration systems so people could actually live here, and he worked out here for over 20 years. You know left his brothers and his family in Mexico to come here, like my dad did and a lot of people of our family did.

Speaker 1:

And I came here with my dad because I didn't want him to be alone.

Speaker 1:

You know, when I got here, I realized he was not necessarily alone, but what I was able to learn from him while I was here was that, you know, he came here because he wanted to make something of himself, he wanted to provide for his family, particularly my grandparents, and he was very proud of that.

Speaker 1:

That he was able to, you know, work really hard, but that my grandparents never needed anything when they needed medical attention or anything and he was able to send money back, and that you know he saw it as a sacrifice.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think, many people who come to this side of the border and work, you know this sacrifice is already given, but he felt very proud that he was able to do that and do his part, and I didn't hear any like regrets. So you know, I think about that sometimes when people sacrifice their lives to be able to provide for others. But I'm sure there has to have been some right or at least you know just the sacrifice of, I think about what his life would have been if he didn't have to come over here. So my uncle, who basically died not too far from me in these lands to be able to work in a very similar environment like this, he had a trailer park. When I visited him he was in a trailer home in the desert next to a casino, and I think about him every time I come near here. So I would like to invite him here with us.

Speaker 2:

Welcome, like to invite him here with us. Welcome, um. I think what's so important about the story that you're telling, particularly in this political movement where there's so much um xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-latino, anti-mexican rhetoric right about what brings people to migrate to the United States, what their intentions are. You know all of this kind of fear-mongering and hate stoking of hatred, you know, against people who are othered, and I think what your story illustrates is that value of love, family, so like collective well-being, that fortunately, because of the economic systems that we live in, is so very much tied to what we produce in a capitalist economy. So I think that you naming and talking about his story, I think, is um such an important counter narrative to to you know the stuff that we're swimming in right. So tell us a bit about your story. Who are you? What do you want people, especially the people listening to this podcast, to know about you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think you know I share a very similar story to my uncle's story, right when I came here as a kid with my brother. We were young, we actually crossed the border right over those mountains, which is the Tijuana entry points over there, and my brother and I crossed when we were children he was, I was, I think, six, he was five. My parents had already come to Chicago. My dad worked in a railroad and came when I was probably around two or three, and then my mom came soon after to work, and the reason why she came was because they both wanted to bring us over as quickly as possible, so that was a good way to try to save as much money as possible from chicago.

Speaker 1:

Um, and so during that time, uh, that my parents were here, I was in mexico city or a town outside of mexico it's a city called and live, you know, a pretty normal life of a four or five-year-old playing out in the streets. Well, they weren't streets, they were. It was dirt, because where we were at was a shantytown outside at that time, with my grandparents, my little bae and my grandfather and my brother and my cousins and the kids who lived in that block. And you know, at that time, I mean, my life consisted of taking care of the animals in the house, which were rabbits, chickens, pigs. We had like a little farm in our house. We had an outhouse that was an all-indoor plumbing, and you know, my earliest memories were of playing with the chickens and running away from the roosters, because the roosters get really mad when you play with the chickens, mad when you play with the chickens. Um, we used to uh, play with beetles, that flies and tie strings to the back of their neck or the back of their legs, and as they flew away they were like kites, and so we would go. When it rained, we would like play under mud and find, um, frogs, saples, and we will play with the frogs, with the saples, when it will rain. Those were our toys. Um and um. And you know I, I felt, I mean, there were days when we didn't have potable water, there was days when we didn't eat. Um, you know I, I, like my brother and other kids, would work out in, you know, out in the city, but I felt loved and it was great being there.

Speaker 1:

But for me, you know, what changed was that one day my grandmother put my brother and I in a train to come to Tijuana and then, while we were there, this white family took us into their house. They had other kids there and slept there. They kept us up really late. I remember watching wrestling and I don't know if it was like, I don't remember if it was like Mexican lucha libre wrestling or like WWE wrestling, but it was wrestling, um, and their kids were up late and we were exhausted because it was a long train ride from Antigua City to Antigua, um. But the next thing I remember in the morning was being being almost picked up or dragged to go into the car because we were sleeping, and put in the back seats of the car with the children in laundry bags so we could cross the border. And at that moment, you know, we didn't know where we were going. We crossed the border and met up with my uncle at the parking lot of San Diego Zoo and then we got on the plane and flew to O'Hare and that's where my mother picked me up.

Speaker 1:

What I've come to realize many, many years later was that you know that crossy, which is a very short cross, was the beginning of probably, you know, the biggest challenge and the biggest transformation really of me as a human being. Right, because I went from a place where I was loved to where my identity was never an issue, where, you know, I was never seen as a threat, where, you know, I was never seen as a threat. And then, immediately when I crossed the border, my being was criminalized. When I went to school, my identity was seen as deficient or inferior. My language there was a systematic effort to eliminate my language and, you know, as a six-year-old and then growing up in Chicago and you know, on 18th Street and 26th Street, which is where I grew up for my childhood, there was definitely an intentional system to control and to criminalize and to dehumanize. And so that crossing, you know, and that border automatically put me and you know, and the rest of other people, in a trajectory of really trying to control us and trying to set us in a path that was really against who we can be and separate us from who we really are.

Speaker 1:

And it's been a process, you know, again, over many, many years, to really understand just how sinister and how difficult and how harmful that that loss has had. You know, on the flip side, it also is a testament to how people are able to not only be resilient but persevere and still be able to love and still be able to make music and value the culture and everything that we have within us. But there is one thing that you know. A lot of times people ask me like what has been some of the biggest challenges that you've overcome? I'm like what? I don't know if I'm overcoming them, but if there's a challenge it's, it's, it has to be.

Speaker 1:

You know what some people here in these parts still consider an occupation and a militarization of people's bodies and people's identities. Uh, and that's something that you know. For people that are conscious of that process, it's something that we consciously try to bring love out of that. And, you know, unfortunately, for a lot of people that are not conscious and aware of that, have spent many years trying to figure out what's wrong with them and not really understanding what's going on with, what's really going on with them and how they're being treated and controlled. So I guess part of my story is defined by that crossing going from you know Mexico and coming here and then really spending the majority of my life finding home, and at first I thought it was going back to Mexico, but it's not that. It's really about being able to connect to spirit and being able to come out.

Speaker 2:

Of who you are in the world and your relationship with yourself. What has allowed you to remain connected to that core truth of who you are as a human being, as a Mexicano, as someone of Purépecha descent, that core truth of who you are in your full human dignity?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, I think that what I realize now is that that never leaves right. You know, humanity doesn't ever leave you. What? What I have realized is that there were certain points in my life that I'm looking back at now was like oh, that's why I was there and that's what gives me an insight on why I behaved a certain way or why that was presented to me.

Speaker 1:

I mean, one of the earliest memories I had when I was I mean I grew up in 18th Street and 26th Street in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I mean that's arguably probably the most it was at the height of the gang and drug wars in the country. You know, those of us that grew up in those streets during that time probably saw the largest number of street shootings in Chicago. And during that time also in the 70s, there were a lot of liberation raids in the neighborhoods, and so you know, my dad got deported once my uncles got deported. I had family members and in the 70s, you know we'll go to family functions and people were scared that they will go to work one day, they will do a work raid, and then you didn't know if you were going to come back. People couldn't pick up their kids. So there was a strong feeling of fear. I didn't know that. That was something that was part of us, that took a hold of us until you know.

Speaker 1:

I remember one day, 18th Street, there was this guy named Cardenas I forgot his first name, but he used to own the biggest grocery stores there and he used to do a Mexican Independence Day parade on September 16th and he used to come. You know where his. You know all the horses will come out. Every state will have a float.

Speaker 1:

So it was a time where, you know, in Chicago, people felt a lot of pride. It was a time where you could feel proud about being Mexican. It wasn't just about going to work and trying to avoid La Migra. And I remember one year, you know, and I don't remember, I'm assuming it had to be in the early 80s, because I must have been, you know, been maybe 11 or 12 years old, but I remember one year there was a group of people in the parade that started making fun of immigration. They would wear the green uniforms, they would dress like pigs and they would walk around trying to deport people and almost like um, like uh, what's that show? Where, like, the police, were made to look silly or or incompetent police academy yeah, maybe police academy or there was some other.

Speaker 1:

There was some other like Barney, anyway. So they were made to look incompetent, right and silly, and the whole purpose of that float or that part was for people to laugh at the immigration. And then you could throw a ball into a booth of water and they will fall into the booth of water, or you could throw paint at them and it was a way to get people to release that fear, right. And I remember that parade in particular, and it was during Fiesa del Sol, and I remember they would do it during Fiesa del Solazo, and I remember that that was a time where I realized that around me and it wasn't just me, right, because it's your community that I felt that the fear would give away. And that was a moment when I realized that it's not just the fear that I had, but it was a collective fear, but also that, um, that we could move past it. Um, and you know, and years later I found out that, uh, rudy lozano senior was the organizer of those um and the organization casa were the organizers of those of those things in the parades and they would do them all over the all over the city. Uh, so that was one, you know, very important memory that I had as a kid, because you know when, when you're, when you're a kid and then you go to school and you see that that that shapes so much about who you are and that explains a lot why you know, during that moment in my history, again in the 80s and 90s, a lot of us that came and that were in Chicago particularly Mexican kids assimilated and how that assimilation was such a powerful force because the schools promoted it.

Speaker 1:

Right. There were no teachers, no bilingual teachers at that time, and then they would be like look, if you want to get a job, if you don't want to be chased by police, if you don't want to do this, you got to change your name. You can't speak in Spanish, you have to do that. So I saw in a lot of, a lot of my friends that that's what happened.

Speaker 1:

I was fortunate that I hung out with some street kids. So assimilation wasn't necessarily a cool thing to do in my elementary school because we were out on the streets and you know, because of my experience with schooling, I wasn't, I wasn't trying to be the best student, but it did happen when I went to high school because it was a whole different situation that I was there. But for me the activist that was in Chicago has always been the lifeline or the example of really rejecting that control and also being able to be in community and heal. I guess, for you know, we wouldn't use that language back then, but it was an acknowledgement that the fear that we were feeling and that lack of safety is something that we need to control ourselves. So those are my earliest memories is how the activist community in Chicago, one of the major roles that they play, was just to try to comfort and reassure.

Speaker 2:

You know people that the power of a social critique right that was enacted in this experience in the parade hope through like resistance, through that act of resistance, through that act of you know kind of mockery, of you know the that complexity, order, industrial, complex, you know that um, and just saying like, yeah, we're, we're not afraid, we're not afraid to be out in public and critique and say like, yeah, this is bullshit, even if it's just.

Speaker 2:

You know that one day a year, creating that space to say, to like, express this is not okay, because I think that when we have these alternative visions and pathways and stories, that's what enables us to have more choices in the world about how we respond to oppression.

Speaker 2:

So and I'm also thinking about something we learned yesterday when we arrived on these lands was about what we heard from our friend that lives here, about the Green Lives Matter movement. I guess, shall we say, you know that is about you know it's a play on Blue Lives Matter and it's about you know Border Patrol agents matter too. You know it's a play on Blue Lives Matter and it's about you know border patrol agents Matter 02, you know, and so I'm struck by like, because these are structures, like a lot of things that you're sharing about your experience that you know remain consistent, you know, because of the day, so I'd love if you could talk a bit about this moment that we're in, um. How are you understanding it? How is that connected to, like how we got here and what are we being called to do in this moment or in your opinion?

Speaker 1:

yeah, um, so you know, um, unfortunately, you know, we're, we're at, we're in the middle, or yeah, of a presidential election right where, where trump again is calling out mexicans um and um and dehumanizing Mexicans again in public and fear-mongering I mean he's very deliberate of, you know, putting situations and particularly putting Mexicans and other folks that come here into a position to get folks here in this area and across the country to fear the other and to particularly target Mexicans and criminalize others and really, I think, make a lot of the systems that have been challenged during the pandemic and during the uprisings, you know, led by black folks here in this country and really trying to counter some of the treetelling that happened. But also, you know, some of the changes in law, some of the reforms that happened, and you know, for us and for myself, you know somebody who's spent over 30 years really trying to help others not just transform themselves through education and through community organizing I see this as something that could very easily make this country and this society worse and for me that is something that is very real, that's a very real possibility where you know my grandfather when he came to work here he was part of the Bracero program and then was deported through the Bracero program, and I remember him talking about how they would just go to restaurants and just round up people and put them in detention camps but mostly deport them, and we know that that's a plan that's in the works right now if Trump gets elected. So how do we, as people that understand, where you know, the natural conclusion of this capitalist, racist structure, that that could happen to a lot of us and obviously the most palatable place that people that that will happen to will be immigrants and people that are seen as other, and so I think we're in a very dangerous time. But I also think that, again, those of us that are targeted and those of us that have been working doing this type of work, we're also tired, and we've been doing so much we've been spending so much time fighting and we've been spending so much.

Speaker 1:

We've been spending so much time fighting and we've been spending so much time calling out the system and we've been spending so much time fighting within each other that my hope is that we spend time understanding not only what's wrong, but also spending some time and some dedication and get together with people who are doing this type of work is see how they're doing it and see what we can learn about how people are reconnecting with themselves, what their healing journey is, what is their path to um, reconnecting with their spirit, um, and, and how that is done in community, um, and, and being able to provide either um an opening for people to take that path, connecting them to a community that's already practicing, that's near them, or encouraging people to actually start their own um community of practice, of um, of uh, centering not just our humanity but the love that we must have if we're going to defeat the hate, um and the fear that's out there.

Speaker 1:

So for me, this is I think I'm in a moment in time where I've not only felt the harm from the systems, but from individuals and institutions, and I just wanted to focus my energy in what I had to offer, to being able to connect with people in as many ways as possible are doing and see what I could learn from them, but, more importantly, also how other people uh, what other people can learn uh, from, uh, from them and uh, and not give in to all the negativity, the news, the rumors, all the toxicity that's out there and really um, uh, hear people's stories and their voices and get inspiration from them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I feel like what I'm hearing is in this moment that feels like this very intense spiritual warfare. You know and I think it's really important for us to get clear and name things for what they are that the antidote to that is our own spiritual practice, that being in both a deep and intense individual practice, but then also sharing of that practice collectively of you know, how, how do we remain connected to our spirits and how can our spiritual practice guide and inform what we're being called to do in this moment? Um, so one of my favorite things about you, um and there are many is your capacity to see, um, to envision possibility. Um, at times and at moments where others including myself, you know are more constrained in our belief in what's possible, and I think that's why, when you started to talk to me about envisioning the podcast and I immediately was like it should be called Hope Dealer, and you were like yes, so talk about why Hope Dealer, and why did that resonate for you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, the first reason why is because it's hood, right, and there's so much that we, there's so much in hood people that we need to not only learn from, but frankly, that that's where a lot of the resistance is. So I like that, I like the hope dealer, I like the vibe. I like the vibe and you know, and, and I think it is about a practice of hope and and it is a discipline and it is something that we need to be intentional about, making a commitment to connecting with our spirit and to be able to practice love and gratitude. And you know, it's not one of those things where I hope things will get better, but it is about how can we be intentional about not only connecting to our spirit but to also make the practice be who we are, and that requires for me to let some things go right. So it's a choice. It's a very deliberate choice of practicing hope, because and then it means you can't peddle in, you know, in hate, and you can't peddle and this other stuff that brings people down and that makes people go against each other. Um, and, and you know, and, and, and it is about, you know, the dealer part is about really trying to see who else you could connect with and who will, who will be your tribe, who are the people that you're going to commit with, um, uh, to do this right? I mean, I think you know you're very good at this. It's, um, how can we create a community of um, of trust and love to be able to make magic happen? Uh, because at the end of the day, that's what I've learned is that that's where home lies, it's where that magic happens, between people and amongst people. That it's, you know.

Speaker 1:

Two of the elements are hope, love and trust, and that's the dealer part. It's like I want to be out there slanging and see who is going to take some of this good stuff that we have and be able to bring people together and I mean, and get high on not only get high on life, but get high on each other's willingness to be in community. Because you know, I mean, that's we're not going to. I haven't found enlightenment and my higher self on my own, and I think that that's something that, intuitively, I've never had that happen. But I think sometimes people think that if you do your yoga and if you practice by yourself or you do whatever, that that's where you're going to find your higher self and I've never experienced that.

Speaker 1:

But it is about being out there and trying to connect with people and you know, and there's many different ways to do that and just, I'm actually want to be able. I mean, I I believe I still need to go deeper into my practice and I want to connect deeper with people and that's something that is as um, hopefully, as this podcast and my work continues, uh, we're able to find places and spaces to be able to, for me to be able to learn more and go deeper into my practice and go deeper into my relationships with people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so who is Hope Dealer for and who are you hoping is going to tune in?

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, I'm hoping it's the folks that have been doing this work on a variety of levels.

Speaker 1:

You know, I saw our last election for mayor and, like thousands of people, filled with hope of what we could accomplish and there's a lot of things that have been accomplished in the city.

Speaker 1:

But there's also a lot of disappointments and I've seen a lot of people now turn negative and have been not only disappointed but have been very critical justifyingly so but I think, almost like don't want to continue the fight to be able to do this work.

Speaker 1:

So for me, if I were to pick a target audience, it would be those individuals that have been doing work on a variety of different levels, not just political, electoral things, but I've been working, whether it's with the migrant issues or whether it's with reparations and the different areas that we know and care about, that they're able to listen to me and others and keep their, to know that they're not alone in this work but also to, if they are continuing, a practice of hope or discipline, of hope, that they get energized to continue to do it and then also, you know, again to be encouraged to be with a community of folks that they want to reengage, to teach, learn and practice the discipline of love, the discipline of hope, the disciplines of belonging. So it's solidarity that is something that's not an individual practice that you pay a membership for somewhere, but that it's a communal practice that spreads all over the city and just reconnect people and be able to reengage people in a way that people are able to see hope. It's not as a slogan but as a practice.

Speaker 2:

I can't wait.

Speaker 1:

Me neither, thank you. Thank you, amor. I didn't know you were going to be this good. Why are you surprised? I shouldn't be surprised. I was like, damn, maybe she should do it. Thank you, baby. Your history book's got it all wrong. So I come to you with a song In 1810, con el gran grito de pasión se levantaron con razón. Black and brown fighting together on a day I'll always remember. Thank you.