"Suave" Returns: Maria Hinojosa and Suave on Freedom, Breakdown & Redemption After 31 Years in Prison

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Democracy Now!

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4.8 • 5.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave returns for its second season, we continue our conversation with journalist Maria Hinojosa and David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, the subject of the series. Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison at age 17, but got an unexpected second chance when he was paroled in 2017 following a Supreme Court ruling that found sentences like his unconstitutional. The first season of the podcast followed Gonzalez’s case, his decadeslong friendship with Hinojosa and his eventual release from prison. The second season looks at his struggle to reintegrate into society.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman.
0:08.1	We're joined now for part two of our conversation with David Luis Suave Gonzalez,
0:13.4	the subject and co-executive producer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave,
0:20.2	which starts season two this week.
0:23.2	And journalist Mariana Hosa, co-executive producer of Suave, founder of Futuro Media, host of Latino USA.
0:31.0	Suave also has a new book.
0:33.8	It's Just Out, From Prison to the Pulitzer Prizes.
0:38.2	I want to go back to the podcast, season two.
0:42.9	This is another clip.
0:48.0	I just feel sometimes that being free is not what everybody think it is.
0:57.6	It's really not.
0:59.6	And it's not really, everybody hype it up.
1:04.2	Like, you're free, you could do whatever you want to do.
1:07.7	All your pains and misery are gone.
1:11.0	That's bullshit, man.
1:12.3	My miseries and pains are just starting.
1:16.8	Like, seriously, I never had this much misery and pain in my life when I was in prison.
1:24.2	I didn't.
1:26.3	I was shut out from the world. You know,
1:29.1	you cold.
1:31.1	Shut everything down.
1:35.3	And out here, you can't do that
	...

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