This is the Daily Signal Podcast and I'm Kate Trinko. We're on a short hiatus for the holidays, but we wanted to share one of our favorite interviews from 2019 with you.

We'll be back to our regular programming on Monday, January 6th.

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We're joined today by Casey Diaz, the author of the new book, The Shot Collar, a Latino gangbanger's

miraculous escape from a life of violence to a new life in Christ.

Casey, let's start from the beginning. Can you tell us about growing up and how you ended up

joining a gang when you were 11? So I was brought here by my parents when I was two years old.

Our family comes from El Salvador and they came in here legally.

But unfortunately, we landed in an area which is called

the Rampart District of Los Angeles and someone you might know you know with

reference to the Rampart scandal that made the news.

So that's the area I grew up in and my mom was a seamstress.

So she would get up early in the morning, 4 in the morning,

and go out to work.

And I wouldn't get to see her until about 10, 11 o'clock at night.

And my father, on the other hand, was very just an alcoholic,

abusive, physically and vocally or verbally and so here comes my mom from you

...