Episode Transcript
Welcome back to Sort of Sophisticated, the podcast where we make you feel like you know things without making it feel like homework. The whole idea here is we're trying to make learning fun, right? It is fun and I for one love it. So it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. It doesn't. Because I use this shit all the time. So go us. So I'm Amanda and I'm here with Pete as always. Hello people! And today we are going to jump straight back into part two of our three part series with our dear friend, uh, well, now my dear friend. I'm totally stealing him from you. Totally. We love Alex, Alex, and if you listen to part one, you already know he has one heck of a story. Oh my God. Yes, totally. And if you haven't heard part one yet, we highly, highly in bold people recommend going back and catching up because we're not doing a recap people. We're just dropping right back in here. No preamble. No context. Just Alex mid thought like you never left. Let's get ready I mean, well technically that's because he is actually mid thought right now. Wait, what? Yes Well, we recorded this whole conversation in one go and Alex himself So you're just gonna have to keep up. Oh, I think I'm screwed yeah, usually. Yeah, that's kind of like getting up to go take a whiz during a dinner party and then walking back into a conversation like nothing ever happened, but they changed the topic like three times and I have no idea where we're at. We're in trouble. We are so not in trouble. Where the hell are we? No, you have to have confidence. Please tell me I'm freaking out a little bit. No, you have to have confidence in my editing skills. Oh, I totally do. Goodness gracious. Okay, fine. Alright, so here's a little context for you if you remember last time we left off right as we're about to ask Alex how the Bible and transcribing it in Russian. And the radio had anything to do with how he came to the United States. Oh my God. Yes. No, I totally remember that. Right. Like that was absolutely. Batshit crazy cuz we were like dude, what does that have to do with it? He's like, oh, I got another story about Russian Bibles and another story He had like four or five stories about Russian Bibles. What a badass mofo. Okay, um, let's rip the band aid just cue Alex Let's just go. Let's just start go. Okay. Wait a minute, but we got to do wait first. Oh my god. Holy crap You're right. We got to do that shit We're gonna pull off word of it. Like how are we gonna work word of the day in it's gonna sound perfect Don't worry. The editing will make it all better. Okay, fine, dude Can we just use the same word today as last time whatever like that was what was it history annex? Oh my god, yes, that one, yes! No, it's not gonna be histrionics. Oh, okay, fine. What, what do you got? Then, you got a new word? Like, I didn't come up with a word. Yes, we have a new one. What? Like, you are so thoughtful that you're like, trying to figure out how to fix all this. Go, what is it? Pernicious. Pernicious? Oh my god, pernicious. That sounds totally like an STD. Like, right? Like, uh, excuse me doctor, uh, it's all itchy down there. I think I, uh, got pernicious again. I'm gonna need some cream. One, I have so many questions, and two, you're disgusting. Okay, okay. Really? That goes without saying. We know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're kind of randomly kind of close. Aha! See? I knew it! A little, a little, but it's not STD or anything. What is it? It actually means something that's subtly harmful or destructive over time. Like it doesn't hit you all at once, it just slowly wears you down. Oh my god, so it's totally like an STD. No, some of those things like knock you on your ass. Yes it is, I got this. No, some of them put you on your ass. Let's see how you edit this in. Okay, are we good to go? Can we start now? This is going to be amazing. Oh yeah, I love this one. Okay, so we left off where Alex was supposed to be explaining what all the Bible smuggling stories had to do with immigrating to the United States. But he just had too many stories and we didn't quite get there. So, here we go. I'll ask again, officially. What does all of this have to do with immigrating to United States? So, and the last one about this, uh, smuggling Bibles and smuggling the Word of God into, uh, Russia was that we also had a shortwave radio station in Quito, Ecuador. Now, you know, the equator is the half of the world. How did you have, who did you know in Quito? We the community. The Slavic community. The Slavic community, right? You were connected, dude. So, oh, yeah, we became a force, right? Everybody just got, got, uh, I guess excited about doing something. Yeah. To try to get the word into Russia. Yeah. Because there were Russian Christians over there suffering. So, when is it? Sorry, this is 1970? Yeah, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74. So, um, so this They told us that short, you know what short waves are? Yes. Short wave radio. Before computers, before internet, before everything else. They told us that if you put it, if you put a short wave transmitter on the equator, then you can bounce off the short wave signals all the way, six times on the crust of the earth, all the way to the Siberia. Right. So that's how it works. And, uh, so these guys from the United States, from the, uh, Gospel Association would come in. And I was, I mean, just so impressed because they would bring a Sony reel to reel recorder. Mm hmm. They would give us a Bible in Russia. And they go, okay, we're 8, years old. Start reading. passages of the Bible in Russian and they would record it and just start bouncing that shit over to Russia, right? And we didn't know why they picked us. Damn, but there's a twist to it, right? So the word was getting all the way to Siberia. I'm gonna fast forward and in the year 2000 1999 actually three months before Y2k I Was already in the States and I'll get to how I got to the States and everything else. They were already best friends But, I was asked to go as an interpreter and translator for a group of To Siberia! I remember this! To Siberia. Oh my god, I remember when you went! Yeah. That's why you went! They needed people who spoke Russian. I was a Rotarian at the time. Long story short, while I was there, I said, hey, is there a Christian church anywhere here? And they said, yeah, Wednesday nights they meet at this apartment house. So I went over there and they were having service. So I stand up, I introduce myself and they go, great, welcome, God bless you and everything else. And then after this service, I said, I looked at an old man in the back of the church, because remember I'm talking Yeah, you were, you were nine years old, you were translating shortwave radio in Argentina through Ecuador, all the way over there, I'm picking this up And now, right, and now it's Y2K, so everybody has a computer Yeah, yeah, yeah So I look at this old man, and he says, yeah, I'm one of the elders in this church And I said, hey, uh, Vladimir I go, yeah, do you remember? Do you, do you know who I am? No shit! He goes, how can I know who you are? You're half American, you speak with an accent, you come here, uh, uh, you know, you say greetings from California. How can I? Pour me a vodka. Well, I go, um. When I was a little kid, we had a shortwave radio station in Ecuador, and he went like this. He did the code letters for the radio. He went H C J B, the voice of the Andes. Every Wednesday night, we got the word of God He says, we were lucky. We were listening to, to the message and then you kids. Couldn't read Russian fast enough or good enough, but we were handwriting What you were writing and correcting your mistakes in your pronunciation. Holy shit. It's crazy. Oh my god in this day I can't even like that gives me chills. It's like full circle. That is the best story I've ever heard. Oh my god I love that. Okay. I have a question though. Don't get me wrong. Like I'd love your stories cuz they're really good But you have to explain what this all has to do with like immigrating to the United States because Amanda asked you about an hour ago, like, so why America? And you went through this whole thing and I loved it. So now get us on track and talk to me a little bit about how you got here. So, right. So like I told you, I, I decided on my own about 14, 15, that not in Argentina, because I was already split. That was, you know, half. European half argentian, and I didn't really know what much about the Argentinian and you were about to become half American and, and that's three halves. And I said, right, that's a very large person, a third, a third, and a third Holy shit. That's 150%. So, okay, go ahead. So I go, okay, well in a year or a year, uh, or two, I was gonna graduate from high school. I have to look for, um, a university that will take me Amanda. The universities in Argentina, all of them, because by that time, by that time, the militaries had stepped back. But this new era of Marxism Leninism came into play. They called it socialism. But just as the fall leaves in the middle of a park all of the universities had. Tracts, uh, pamphlets, paper, uh, all of the professors had long Fidel Castro beards, uh, you could not get an education unless you were leaning left. And I said, that's not what my parents left. My parents left, uh, Russia just because of that, right? And I said, that's not my place. So knowing what America was doing for us, for our community, I said, I think I want to leave Argentina. Because I didn't choose to be born there. Right. Yeah. And so my only out was at that age, cause I'm, you know, under 18 was to go to my mom and dad and say, just like my three brothers ahead of me were missionaries and preachers and pastors. I want to be in the ministry too, just to get out and go to a Baptist seminary in, in the United States. So I went to an American missionary. Lyle Eggleston will never forget his name. Change your life. Cheers to Lyle Eggleston. Uh, you know, and, and he knew me. And he knew that I was also I would have never have met you if it wasn't for good ol Lyle. I know. So he goes, I think I can get you a, a student visa to go to, uh, uh, Baptist Seminary, uh, in the United States. And I said, that's my ticket. I want to be a preacher. Preach a man. Hey. You know what, dude? Get me a visa. By the way, all these years later, you would have been an excellent preacher. I mean you did some preaching don't get me wrong, but I'm just saying you're that good. Yeah Yes, so I'm not in them. I'm not a minister right Alex. You can tell a story like nobody else by vocation I guess I am did you come to SoCal or no? So no when I decided to come here on a student visa Obviously, Argentina was going through 1, 500 percent inflation, hyperinflation, so it was impossible to live there. So I got a, I got a visa, right? A student visa. And the only, uh, I guess affordable school was at El Paso, Texas. We call it the El Paso Retirement Plan at my office. Why? Because it's cheap to live there? Because it's so cheap. Really? Yeah. El Paso? You went to El Paso, Texas? El Paso. You're a Russian Argentine and you go to El Paso, Texas? It's the southernmost tip of the Gulf of America. This is excellent. Well played, well played. That was awesome. Uh, that's where, that's where the wind turns around. I mean, that's, it's, it's like the end of the, of, of, yeah, of the Earth, of America. JC Penney's had, uh, uh, signs on the door saying we speak english here. I mean, this is yeah Latino community. So what'd you do? You went to JC Penney college. So I went to Rio Grande Rio Rio Grande. Oh my god. This is classic Rio Grande. Yeah, a bunch of texans trying to bunch of white people in you right trying to teach Uh, you know, a bunch of, uh, Latino guys, how to be, um, you know, preachers. And I said, I'm not Latino and, uh, but this is cheap. So I'll stay here for a semester. Um, pretty soon I called California cause I had a lot of, uh, Slavics, Russians that left Argentina and already settled in California. They were all pretty well off. And they had a Russian Baptist church in Hollywood. I didn't realize your Russian Baptist church connection ran so deep through your whole story. Like, this is how you get around. Oh, it's like your network. Oh, it's amazing. I don't mean to throw you off, but like, why'd you come out to SoCal? Yeah, so, so impossible to forge a future in Argentina with the turmoil, with the hyperinflation, with all of the problems, political problems, and And I knew that in my heart, that system of government or political or whatever wasn't what I wanted for my life. I wanted freedom. I wanted freedom of expression. I wanted to have the good things that Americans had. As a matter of fact, uh, in Argentina, we were prohibited from listening to rock and roll from the United States. You didn't listen to Elvis? No, we were listening to By that time, dude, let's get serious. We're in the 70s already. We got, we are in like yacht rock land already. Yeah. Let's go! And, and we're listening to, uh, like old, uh, Frank Sinatra or whatever. So all of the, all of the American music that I heard in Argentina was about 10 years old. That makes, I mean, that sort of makes sense. What, so what, like, how'd you get on it? What'd you do? Hop on a plane? Who, who, how, you had no money. You're going to Rio Grande. Some guy tells you, Lyle Eagleson, God bless him. Right. But like, then you leave him. Like, how the hell did you get out here? So, so I got, uh, I called my aunt in California and I said, I can't stand it here. Right. So my aunt Maria, and she goes, okay, well, I'll get the Russians, you know, our church to, uh, uh, prepay an airplane ticket. If you go to damn Russian Orthodox is again, they're taking care of you. If you go to McAllen airport, right. Um, you're going to have a ticket waiting for you at the counter. That, to me, that blew my mind. I mean, in Argentina, you would have to go and triple notarize a ticket, to buy a ticket. And over here, you can walk up to a counter, and a ticket to your name was waiting for you to get on an airplane. That's America, brother. Let's go. Incredible, right? So, I Said goodbye. I left. I came to California and You land in Rosemead, California Rosemead, California people! Shout out to Rosemead! El Monte, right? Let's go! So, Santa Anita and Rosemead and all of that. It's all of that hood. Yeah Was now my new home. Okay, I love that And then you had to be a, like, what, since the, since the Russians took care of you, you had to be a preacher boy. You're still preaching. Oh yeah, so then they said, okay, well, we give you work in construction, we give you work in carpentry, and all of the businesses that they started here. We're gonna pay for your tuition at California Baptist, uh, College. Oh, Cal Baptist. Right. Out in Riverside. Now it's, right, now it's CBU, California Baptist University. Um, but there was a caveat. And You know, I hate caveats because they're almost like a moral obligation. This is a tit for tat. Right. So they said, okay, you can go to college there. What is this? What, what is, this was in Sounds of the Lambs. Quid pro quo, quid pro quo. Sure. Go, go ahead. What, what was the quid pro quo? So is we help you get through college, but every Sunday you come here and you preach to our children, uh, Sunday school. In Russian. In Russian. In Russian. In Russian. Right. There it is. I love it. But that's like not the worst possible thing that not at all. Let's go. It is when you have a Buick Electra 457 engine that it was like, I don't know, half a mile to the gallon. Okay, fair. How much was petrol here in the United States? You're an idiot. Sorry. Well, sorry. So, like, what did you do? Like, how did you make money? So, uh, from, I guess, from 5 o'clock in the morning until first class, which was 7. 30, 8 o'clock. Yeah. I got up. I went to, uh, Chino and Norco and I worked in the dairy farm. And my job was, after all of the cows were milked You was milking the cow's teats. No, after they were, uh, milked. There was a healthy three, four, six inches of poop. So I put this overall You were shoveling it. I put this overall in a high pressure hose. You were shoveling shit. Shoveling shit, going to Cal Baptist University. And then being a, a Russian preacher on Sundays, you got it. Okay, I love this story. And I showed up, I showed up for the first class in the morning smelling like a cowboy. And I had a, I had a gaucho, you are a gaucho. I had a bumper sticker in my car that says, I'm not a cowboy, I just found a hat. Well, then how long did it take you to get a green card? Cause that's your student visa still, right? Oh, yeah. So, oh, God. So, I'm in America, right? Total culture shock. Obviously, I wanted nothing to do with speaking Russian, but I had to do it. Uh, I wanted nothing to do with speaking Spanish because I knew it well. I said, I just want to be a white boy. I want to be American. You know, I want to be here. You want to assimilate. I want to assimilate. I want to, I guess, de socialize and re socialize in the American way. Harder than what I ever tried. Harder than speaking a language or learning words or whatever is to try to assimilate into a new culture. Fast forward 45 years. You did amazing. You're excellent. You nailed it. So from far away. There you go. Spoiler alert. You nailed it. Alright, sorry. Get back to your green target. So, um, I kept extending my student visa. Okay. Um, but here's where it got really, really hard. Um, so I was, I was doing both sociology and religion, then I changed my, uh, major to business. Um, but after a few years, um. You know, your, your visa, student visa expires. So I applied for a green card under a conversion, from student visa to green card. That process took me 11 years. Wow. So is that like, is it easier now or harder now? No, it's still the same. It's still the same. Okay. You'll wait forever. Pain in the ass. Oh, yeah. Okay. Trump didn't fix anything? Not yet. Not yet? Okay. The hardest thing is, um, you can't leave because you're applying for this, right? If you leave, you can't come back. Oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So, by that time, I started my carpet cleaning business when I was in college. I bought a house, uh, My father passed away, and I couldn't go bury him. If I left, I would leave everything that I did here. Oh my god. And never come back. That's terrible. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't. See, this is the problem with, with me. Like, I just grew up here and don't know any different. And you had to like, totally like, make a really hard choice. No, it's, it's. That sucks. Yeah, yeah. When you, when you drive, uh, everyday to go to work. Cause you knew you couldn't get back in. And. Oh my god. And you never thought about that. You just hit me, you hit me square in the face with that. Peter? What? I used to look at guys going to work, right? Um, drinking a tecate at 7 o'clock in the morning. And I said, these people MFers. Were born here. Right. With an American passport in their hands. And they're drinking beer. They don't And I'm going to work and they don't know. They don't appreciate it. This is priceless. I mean, I really don't want to know what you think of my generation onward. Because I, I mean, I have a conniption with this, you know, being from an immigrant parent. Um, and so, but even to think that. Your father passed and you couldn't go back and you had to make that choice. It's the hardest thing that you can, I mean, just to be strong. So that's what I'm saying. Anybody can get here. They can just run down the hill and cross the river and be here. Uh, but if you really want to be American. You gotta live the dream though. You gotta put the work. And you gotta put in the work. It's absolutely right. It's absolutely right. Otherwise, and you know, you talk to People that are worth, uh, millions, and you just think about it and say, well, They do because they saw the opportunity. So there's no, there's no difference between one human and another here. The only thing that makes you different is opportunity. You put a hundred guys in a line and you put in front of them, uh, opportunity. Ten guys will step up and ninety will step back and say, I don't want this. Yeah. But these keep staying here. I think I'm a step backer. No, you're not. I don't know, man. Alex, you're giving it to me. So, so question about the whole like, green card. Like, is there any, like, did you get any shit for it? Was there any story? Like, because you're a good storyteller, you'd like flash it to people that go, what the hell are you doing here? Like, are, or no. I know where you're going with this, but I was, I was driving through Norco, California. Um, and I guess I made the wrong turn and a cop pulls me over. Um, I get out of the van and I was cleaning carpets. So I didn't know if I was breaking the law because I was cleaning carpets on a student visa. I had no idea what the guy would do to me. And so I started shaking. And the guy goes, why are you shaking? And I said, uh, I came from Argentina and I guess the next step is that you're going to beat me up with your baton over something wrong. And he looked at me, he's going, why do you say that? Because I go, that's the way it goes. You're supposed to hit me with your baton. Because you grew up in a military state. Correct. So that was what you would expect. The cops, right. Do not represent the law, they are the law. Another one is, um, coming back from a Ukrainian wedding in Canada, which I'm not supposed to leave the country. Well, I'm waiting for my visa for my green card, but a whole bunch of Ukrainians from our church decided to go to a Ukrainian wedding, five day Ukrainian wedding in Calgary, Canada. And we're coming back. It's like zero degrees, right? On the way back, two o'clock in the morning. And, uh, six of my buddies are in the van. They all had green cards. Because it happened that they were Russian Argentinians like me. I was the only one with a, still a pending student visa. So I told my friend and I said, let me drive across the border. He goes, are you kidding me? You don't have any papers. I said, well, I have a California driver's license, so let me drive. So we're driving across the border. We stopped at the gate and this Canadian immigration officer comes out. Shines a flashlight in my face and they're going, are you all American citizens? And I said, well, I am, uh, my buddies in the back are not, and they all had green cards. Uh huh. So they had to open the back, the back of the van, everybody ruffling through their backpacks, looking at me, like cussing me out and everything else. They all pass the test. The guy goes, well. Show me your driver's license. So I show him my driver's license. He goes, Oh, California. Okay. Then he notices that the driver's license said AR for previous license expired in Argentina. So he goes, Oh, what state were you born? I'm gonna look at him and I'll go, Arkansas. That's amazing. Let's go. I swear. It's a good thing you didn't say Arkansas. Or you would have been killed. He goes, oh, welcome to the United States. So I came right back in. But that was before 9 11, right? Yeah, right. You're like, we're in the 70s. So, um, I gotta go political. So, uh, you get here, you're hanging out, you're 18, you're 20, whatever it is, I don't know where we're at. Uh, first presidential election. Like, like, what, what, you voted, who was it? Yeah, no, sorry, I landed here. No, it wasn't Nixon. Well, no, Nixon got ousted. So it was Ford and then Ford was, uh, uh, stepping out or took over for, okay. So it was, it was, it was the Ford Carter, right? Ford Carter, Carter, right. Carter Carter, uh, the, uh, the democratic primary, right. He was running shout out, shout out, we did a whole episode on Carter, he just turned 100, and then he subsequently decided to kick the bucket. Well, I basically had to root for him. I couldn't vote for him because I wasn't a citizen, but I was rooting for him. Why? Because he was a Baptist. Uh huh. Yes. So I go, okay, that's our boy. That was our right time, right place president. We did a whole thing on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. That's wild. Yeah. Funny thing about Carter. Hey, wait, hold on. So wait, you were a, uh, you once voted blue, my friend. Well, in my heart, in my heart, right, in my heart. Okay. Sorry, we won't get political. Sorry. You were going to tell a story. Sorry. Sorry. A story about Carter is that, you know, um, like in Argentina, if the president was going to speak, they, they basically just almost shut off your power. They shut off all the TV channels and everything else. And a big emblem from the government comes on TV and says, the president is going to speak. Right. So it was a lot of. Fear and respect for the authority of the president or any cop down the street, but fast forward Carter's a president. This is a funny story, by the way, and I'm watching I'm watching the Johnny Yeah, Johnny Johnny Johnny Carson. Yeah, and Johnny Carson and his opening monologue Starts making fun on national TV about Carter's hemorrhoids Is the president had hemorrhoids that week? Um, I, I still remember. You had no idea what the hell was going on. No, no. I got fearful. Right. You're frustrated. I started looking at everybody in the room. They're all laughing. I'm looking at the front door saying anytimes, anytimes the Gestapo is going to bust through the door and pick us up for laughing at Carter's hemorrhoids. That's how. Oh my god. That is different today. Oh my God. Oh my God. You know what they say about hemorrhoids, don't you? They're totally pernicious. Yes. I just nailed it. Right? Like they're the king of like perniciousness. Perniciousness. Is that even word tm? I just TM perniciousness. Let's go. They're totally like harmful and destructive over time. I just nailed that. I love that. Okay. Good for me. Yay. I love that. You know so much about hemorrhoids. Wait, wow. You know it is kind of wild like as you tell this story is just how here in America and especially You know people who are second third generation here like they don't have that fear, right? It's our right We can say and do whatever we want. We can be jerks to the next person and again, you know it's nobody can say anything but people lived in fear of things that you might say That would come back on you. And what a privilege that we have here in America, in America, to be able to. And this is, right, and this is me from a third world country. I didn't come from, uh, you know, like a totally communist controlled country. This is just a third world country with a demagogue that said, you know, uh, you're going to respect me because I'm a tyrant. Right. This is not. China or Russia? Go ahead. So then what do you think about America in general? Was it a good choice overall? That you came? It was. And, uh, overall, I had to get, I guess, uh, some balance. Because you can really be whoever you want here. I mean, you can be a terrorist, you can be a, you know, a depraved, uh, uh, guy, or you can be president of the United States, or you can be, uh, a preacher, or a dope smoking son of a gun. Right. You are absolutely free. Absolutely free to be whoever you want. So that was hard for you to figure out. And to choose right. Really? Correct. Fudge. That's crazy. So then what'd you do after college? So Cause you had to choose at that point what you wanted to be. Started to work. Started working construction. You know. I started to appreciate things like Other guys will tell me you keep your nose to the grindstone, you know, and then, uh, somebody said, Oh, have you ever read the book about the millionaire next door? He rides a station wagon. Wow. You know, and honestly, it's not your title is not who you become. Uh, a lot of friends became lawyers and doctors and such. Right. Um, and yet they were still paying their student loans when I was. Rolling into my second and third house by working. So, um, have you ever read the book Outliers? Yeah. It's the people, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The people that open those doors for you. because that's another option I had. Do I marry an American so I become a green card holder? Or do I marry the person I want? And it so happened that the person that I really wanted and the person that wanted me was my friend from high school, my high school friend, not sweetheart, my high school friend from Argentina came to visit and we said, Hey, we're friends so many years, uh, how about if we just get married and we both stay here waiting for some kind of a green card so we can become, uh, American citizens. So I married Sylvia in 1982. We, we, we love Sylvia. Sylvia is awesome. And then you, like, didn't necessarily drag her up here, but, like, she wanted to visit. No, she, she, actually, what happened was funny, but, uh, she was a chaperone for Miss Argentina. Uh huh. In, uh, Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico is USA, so she got a USA visa. She thought that USA, it's all USA. Well, from Puerto Rico to California, it's like 5, 000 miles. Yeah. And she goes, hey, you know, are you gonna be home? Uh, uh, you know, I have a, a US visa. And I said, where are you gonna be? And you're like, yeah, I'm gonna be home. Yeah. So, yeah, why don't you come over to my, came over to see me come over to my place. Right? And then you netflixed and chilled before there was Netflix. Why don't we get married a little bit? So let's do this. See how, so like, how did you go? What, by the way, just last week, we, last week we had our, our 43rd anniversary. Cheers. You brother. But it's one of those marriages where you guys grew together. Right? Like you both started not with nothing because you had already started your business and stuff, but you grew Oh, absolutely. You made the life that you guys wanted together. Right. So then at what point in your life did you know that you made it? When you made it here in America, Bretta. Okay, there's, so there's one point I have to make. I was at California Baptist College, uh, on the third floor looking out my window. Uh, I didn't have enough money to go and buy another, uh, tube of toothpaste. And I'm looking out and I'm going, I wonder where I'm going to be in the year 2000. And if I'm going to have a car or not, because I didn't have a car going to college. And if I would have a house, because if it's hard to buy a house. To, uh, to a toothpaste. How much harder will it be to have things, right? To buy a bottle of whiskey, uh, look out the front window and look at your car and swirl, uh, you know, a glass of whiskey out of your own bar. I'll never forget that vision. I think that as soon as I started working. For, um, a restaurant chain and they said, we'll pay you 1, 150 a month plus, um, all of the bonuses off of the, profits you make because I started as a general manager, um, and I could Purchase my own car and I said with the stability, the economic stability that you have, I think that if I can achieve stability, then I can achieve security and after security, I get achieve, uh, financial freedom. And in those stages, I knew that you could go 10 years on each stage. But that I would be pretty comfortable without being there. So it started all the way back when you were probably in your early 20s. Oh, absolutely. But then it sort of cemented itself as you moved on through sort of trying your own businesses and then ended up as the GM of restaurant chains. Alright, so, so far you're like, I don't know, I'm trying to keep up. 27, maybe 28 years old. So, so, so, go back to that time in your head. So, looking back from that time, right? So, it's, we're maybe 1983, 1985, I don't know, around that. Right. What's the biggest takeaway you learned at that time? Not yet, not when you're this old, but back then. Um, like when you moved to America, like by the early 80s. Biggest takeaway. Absolutely that there is stability, there is freedom, and there is a future. I mean, I don't care. The rest of Europe and Latin America, um, yeah, they enjoy long vacations or, or, or outings or not going to work on a Monday morning because your favorite soccer team wins on a Sunday, right? Boca juniors, right. And over here, like people work Monday through Friday, but guess what? Those weekends. Those long weekends, um, you have jet skis, you have motor homes, you have the river, you have to do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. And that kept me going. And I said, I know, I know that, um, this, you know, this lifestyle is secure. It's just great. Good for you. I love that so far. Um, we gotta stop though. Cause we got a whole to be continued for this one. All right, we gotta do our last two be continued for this one 'cause we still got a ton of other shit to go over and no one really wants to listen for more than like 40 minutes. Well, don't we're, 'cause I have to go pee ADHD like super bad or Pete has to pee right? I mean, we still have to get through having your kids, starting your career in the beauty industry, your missionary work, the Rotary Club, and then just all the other random wisdom you can share with us now that you have all this perspective. So stick around, people. We'll have part three in a few weeks. Alright, so we're calling it a wrap for now then and you know know what time it is, right? What time is it? Fun fact time. Fun fact. Have we added music to this yet? Fun fact, fun fact. No, we keep talking about it, but we haven't yet. Okay, I know we don't really have any specific fun facts about Alex or anything, but did you? Maybe prep anything. I mean, last time I was Argentina, it was good. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Um, you know me, I always prep something. I know you do. I got faith. Not so pernicious anymore, am I? Oh, I guess not. Not so, yeah, okay. Um, I got nothing about Argentina this time because we already did that. Uh, but I think, I picked a few fun facts on immigration instead. I figured that might work. Interesting, interesting. Yeah. Okay, go for it. All right. Okay, so to become a citizen of the United States, you have to pass something called a naturalization test. And it asks questions about history, government, and civics, like how many amendments does the Constitution have? Uh, it's 27, in case you were wondering. Fun fact, Amanda, more than 60 percent of Americans fail the test when given the same questions. Yeah, because they would just sort of fail number one. Right, we suck. Okay, um, and yes. There are practice tests online in case you were wondering. I feel like this should be, like, part of our education. Like, so go, let's go take a test and see how we do. Right! I know! Okay. Uh, I think everybody should. If you want to be cultured and curious people, just go take the naturalization test. Okay, number two. Becoming a U. S. citizen isn't quick. On average, like Alex was explaining earlier, if you already have a green card, the wait time is, like, six to nine years. Um, if you start from scratch, Like, waiting for a green card first, like you don't have one, anywhere from 6 to 30 years, depending on your country of origin and visa type. Holy shit, that's a long time, 30 years, that's what he's, ugh, anyway. That is a long time. Kill me, I know, I mean, I know we have to have rules and everything, but oh crap, okay. Number three, if you become a naturalized citizen, you have to swear an oath renouncing loyalty to other countries. It's called the Oath of Allegiance. And some countries, like China and India specifically, don't allow dual citizenship, meaning new Americans from those places technically lose their original nationality. So, uh, there's that. Right? That's kind of a big deal. That's like, holy shit. Like, you're born in India, then you want to be a You can't have dual citizenship. Sucks. Okay. And finally, despite the long process, almost one million people successfully become U. S. citizens every year. That's like adding the population of San Francisco to our country every year, people. Holy crap. No wonder it's so crowded. Uh, that's all I got? That's crazy. I know. That last one? Dang. It's a lot. All right. Well, I like the whole fun fact about immigrants. Good job. As always. And good job adding a little something fun to a hard and touchy subject. Okay. So do I dare ask if we have any calls to action for this episode or any summary really, or do we just say stay tuned? Well, shit, I don't know. Stay tuned works. But I did have something ready to just tie a bow on things and stay true to our mantra of becoming cultured and curious people. Uh, okay, so, staying on the subject of immigrants. Okay? Are you with me, people? First. When you're having a minute and feeling all entitled, like I was born here and these people weren't, and you're all pissed off about something. Cause like, are we kidding? Like that happens all the time. Just breathe for a sec and try to imagine what it would be like to move to a new country with barely any knowledge of the language, no idea of the customs. And no understanding whatsoever of our legal system. And then ask yourself, how would you want to be treated? And hopefully that shifts your perspective a little bit, right? What you're saying to have a little self awareness, right? Seriously, right? Like I was talking to a buddy today, like a long story, but like he handles, shout out to Kim McDonald, the CEO of Long Beach transit. Um, he handles, uh, all of like the. Bus system right for Long Beach. It's huge. It's massive and like a bunch of immigrants come to this country And they don't speak the language and they have no idea of like the laws or anything like of like what to do how to Do it and they're like riding all over and trying to figure it all out and like here like these are his customers Thousands of illegal immigrants trying to work their way through Long Beach and it's like, it was, I just had a moment of like, like self awareness and trying to be awesome. Right. And I get, they're all like, I get it. Some of them aren't here legally. Some of them are, have a green card and are waiting. Some of them are waiting for their green card. Like they're all in different stages, but like, anyway, there's no, like, I don't have some great right answer for this whole thing. I just, it was a moment of like, wow, that was very overwhelming. So anyway, shout out to Ken. Um, second, try to remind yourself of the ways immigrants contributed to American culture. Like food, music, business, science, uh, like basically everything, Amanda, right? Immigrants made and continue to make America awesome. And let's be honest, like, unless you're indigenous, like, we were all immigrants at one point. Facts. Right. Just like, just keep the bad ones out, please. Like, do you know what it says, like, at the bottom of, uh, like, the Statue of Liberty? Like, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Like, that whole, like, thing. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, right. Just somehow, like, I don't mind taking all of them in, just Somehow make them not to shitty people like and like just make sure they contribute in some way. Thank you very much. Okay, um, and Finally read the distance between us by Raina Grande or a hope more powerful than the sea By Melissa Fleming the real story of a Syrians refugees harrowing journey both Totally amazing stories. I mean really read anything on just an immigrant story. They're, they're all Unbelievable. I've read a few in my lifetime life changing for sure. That's all I got. Wrap it, Amanda. And there you have it, fellow listeners. The second leg of the journey through the life of a dear friend whose story spans continents, cultures, and eras From growing up in politically turbulent 1960s Argentina to boldly moving to the United States at just 18 to pursue college and a fresh start. This episode has been a deep dive into resilience, identity, and the pursuit of new beginnings. If we've done our job today, you're leaving with more than just a window into one man's remarkable journey. You're getting a deeper understanding of how history and personal experiences are woven together from the struggles of immigration to the search for belonging in a new world. One thing is certain, life's path is rarely straight, but every step is worth taking. Amen to that, sister. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review, and share it with someone who appreciates a story that's equal parts inspiring and thought provoking. And remember, every life, no matter how far it travels, holds lessons worth uncovering. Until next time, stay curious and stay inspired.
