Hi, I'm Mayan Beallik. And I'm Jonathan Cohen. And welcome to our breakdown. You know, today we wanted to do something special. It's alcohol awareness month. So we'd like to revisit a very special episode from 2023 with the one and only Danny Trejo. Now, you may know Danny from obviously the machete films from Breaking Bad, Boba Fett. And if you're in LA local, Trejo's Tacos, Trejo's Cantina, Trejo's Donuts, as well as his cookbooks, Danny opened up with us in a way that really we hadn't heard him talk about before, about the culture that he was raised in, how he began his alcohol use at a very early age, what early sobriety taught him and his transformation from convicts, someone who was in solitary confinement to a beloved actor, author, and restaurateur? He also opens up about his relationship with a higher power, how he developed that, and his role as an inmate social catalyst while he was in prison, as well as the negative effects of toxic masculinity. We really thought this would be an appropriate conversation to re-air during alcohol awareness month, where we're obviously focusing on the complexity around alcohol misuse and preventing alcohol-related problems, as well as reducing the stigma around help. If you or someone you know is struggling, please seek out peer support. There are recovery communities like alcoholics anonymous, as well as Alonon. There's professional treatment organizations. Check out the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism or many other rehab programs you do not have to suffer alone. Also, friendly reminder, check us out on Substack. Mine bex Breaktone on Substack. And now we hope you enjoy taking a listen to our episode with Danny Trejo. Break it down. Danny Trejo, what an incredible honor it is to have you here. First of all, I read your book. I'm just gonna say, I read, it is called, Theréjo, my life of crime redemption and Hollywood. And I read it and I have to say, and this is a completely superficial thing to say, you look freaking amazing. For the life that you lived, I expected you to crawl in here, you look like a young man. You were born during World War II. Yeah, yeah. In fact, the reason I got was born in Maywood is because in 1944, the general hospital downtown was full of soldiers. Right. When they took my mom to have me, it was full. So they had to take me to Maywood. Well, I don't even know. I'm from Los Angeles. Where's Maywood? Well, they used to call it Billy Goat Acres. Now it out way, Compton out that way, you know. Wow. So there's so many places that we could start. I want to say, first of all, I I know you as an actor because I've seen most every movie I think that you've been in pretty much. And you were also in a lot of films at it's time in my life when as a person who grew up at LA, you were part of many films that really described a lot of the complexity of the Chicano, we called it Chicano then, but the Latino American experience and the Mexican American experience here, which is a huge part of evangelist. And then I knew that you had a restaurant. And I kind of was like, how did that all come together? But then I read the book. And I think that there were things I knew about you kind of here and there. But you know, the first half of the book is very difficult. It is very painful. Yeah. Um, you, you wrote it with, I don't know how to pronounce his name. Donald Logan. Donald Logan. Donald. Is that Irish? Yeah. Okay. So you wrote it. You, you wrote it with someone as it were. But um, you know, you have, Who is a great writer? A great writer. But a great writer is only as good as the stories that Danny's bringing in. I've got to say that that's like, when I gave this to the two chapters to Maeve, my kids mom, that's who I was with the longest. And she read it, she's the one that said, it's like talking to you. So that's what, because people have been telling me to write a book for years. And I don't use what I'm prolific. I don't know what that means, but they would always like change stuff. And Donald just caught the essence. No, it's really, it's beautifully written. And the first half, I mean, my heart kept catching in my throat because you describe a legacy in your family that had a lot of beauty and a lot of richness and a lot of incredible personalities. And also, as you said, a lot of pain and you, you know, you, I don't want to say you were victimized as a child because I know you don't like that word, but things happened to you before you were 11 years old that set you on a course, you know, that many don't come back from and that many in your family did not come back from. And, um, you know, I'm not going to ask you to sort of like recount like, this is a book that people should read. Um, and also the, the, the pain, you know, what you, what you reap, you know, what you reap in tragedy, you sow, uh, you know, joy from.

And there is a redemptive aspect to both your life

and your story, but for people who don't know

what, let's say the first 25 years of your life were like,

can you just kind of walk us through?

The first 25 years of my life were full of secrets, full of shame, full of violence, full of crime, full of drugs. I mean, that was just, I had an uncle that turned me on to grass. And I was eight, gave me a fix a heroin when I was 12. And uh, and it's funny because when I talk to like psychiatrists, well that was abuse. I thought I was sharing. I mean, you know, he was sharing his, because you know, especially if an older sibling in your family is smoking weed, you know, he's not turning the younger siblings on to be mean or vicious. He is doing what he does and he didn't do it viciously. It was like, I was there. Hey, let's get him loaded. And that's what happens. You know, and people don't, you know, I could never, it was funny.

I remember when my uncle tried to make amends to me, right? Before he died, try to make amends. I said, shut up, man. If you wouldn't have turned me on the grass on the prog bin and a Republican somewhere, you know, like, you know, read the paper telling my kids to shut up. I don't know, you know, but I don't know what would have happened, but everything that happened to me

happened the way it was supposed to get me to where I, and I realized that like when I go to a high school and I step onto a stage, it gets quiet. No matter what high school, because they want to hear what I have to say because they know I've been where they've been It's it's you know you can be a therapist a psychiatrist or Anything and and you have to get kids attention and it's impossible because they don't have any You know and then you have to keep it and it's impossible because of number one, they don't have any. Now, your time in your teens, I mean, not even your teens, your tweens, your tweens and your teens, when you talk about violence, and I really, what Jonathan and I do here is we're not looking to bring out, you know, the most soundbitey crazy partisan one story. But what I will say is, you learned, you were conditioned as a child to use rage and to use violence to survive. And that was true before you even set foot in your first prison or your first jail. Absolutely. I don't know, Uncle Guberto was a boxer who was what you call a puncher. He's a guy that could hit you and knock you out. You just heavy-handed. And so he taught me immediately. And he said, if somebody starts talking, you might as well because you're going to find anyway. Or if people are talking back and forth, let's stop it. I'll talk about your mother, because that's the end result. That's OK. Now we're here. I talk about you now. And that's what he taught me how to do. And then we would stop all that and just punch first. And Gilbert in particular, I mean, that name is throughout this book. Like that and like my heart just like, oh, but Gilbert in particular, you know, you had a lot of his lessons. Like, I'm gonna ask you this question. What when you first are put in jail in your life, what are you, like what is going on in Danny's head? Like how do I mean to say like how did it feel? But like what I know that you had to like go into survival mode, but like you talk about how a lot of your shame turn to rage. So what is that like and how old were you the first time you went in? Oh God, I don't put 12, 12, 13, 15. Oh yeah, sorry, I'm remembering your book. Yes, but it's kind of like I had a mentor, I had a teacher who had already been here. I feel sorry for kids that all of a sudden just end up in juvenile hall and don't understand it. That guy giving you a dirty look, you got to give him the finger before he looks too long,

you know, to let him know, hey, I'm nobody to mess with. And if you get in a fight, try to bite somebody immediately so that they know, wait a minute, this guy don't wanna fight, he was the eat me, you know? It's like, so the, the, because people are, people aren't afraid of tough guys, tough guys just slap them, just like a bitch, you know, but crazy people,

you really don't wanna mess with. And so somebody's friend of bite you, you know, it's like you remember that. You have bad dreams about it really. And so that's what he said, if somebody's too big, just grab him, bite him or suck him in and you learn how to go like most people argue and then they then they get angry and then they fight. Correct. Well, if you just go from right now to rage, people aren't expecting that way. What happened to the argument and the angry, you know what I mean? And that's and that shock value is intimidation, correct? Exactly. But the whole concept of fighting is intimidation. You know, if I can ask you, please, man, please look, I don't want to hurt you. It's like, wait a minute, what is this guy saying? You know, if you have one hand in your pocket and you're saying, please come on, I don't want to hurt you. Whether you have something in your pocket or not doesn't matter, the thought is like, uh, what's he got in his pocket? You know, so, and I had so many secrets and so much rage. You know, I watched my mom have an affair for years and I, my dad threatened to kill me if I ever, you know what I mean? So it's like, wait a minute, I'm caught here. You know, so I had to lie and say, no, I didn't ever see it, you know, to my dad. And that and you talk about that later in the book, you kind of were the holder of, There were many, many secrets and were as sick as our secrets,

but you were the holder of this one.

You said the whole thing right there.

We were sick as our secrets.

Yeah.

And you know what, when I wrote that book, unbelief, I didn't know, and Maeve was the one that said, oh, this is great. Yeah, this is great. Sounds like, oh, I got in trouble, but what about your mom?

What about your dad?

What do you mean?

What about my mom?

That's her story.

Why do you think you've been divorced four times?

You know, why do you think you couldn't trust me

to go to the store? What about your mom? What about your dad? What do you mean what about my mom? That's her story. Why do you think you've been divorced four times?

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