The Policing Of Latino Identity with Aida Rodriguez *TEASER*

[00:00:00]Celebrity in America is toxic. This war is about the halves and the have nots.

[00:00:06]And they have fooled you into thinking that because you you're white that is better for you.

[00:00:31]Ida Rodriguez is a stand-up comedian, an actor, the host of the podcast Say What You Mean, and My Friend. In this conversation, we talk about everything from the intricacies of Latino identity [music] to the stand-up comedy world and what it's like to be a woman in comedy, as well as her very famous slogans. My favorite of which is chomp on a dick.

[00:00:52]Yeah. Ida Rodriguez, welcome.

[00:00:55]>> Thank you. Welcome to Hot Button.

[00:00:57]>> Let's go.

[00:00:58]>> Let's go. Uh you and I, we usually do this not in front of cameras.

[00:01:03]>> Absolutely. We do. And maybe if cameras were around, we'd be in constant trouble.

[00:01:10]>> Exactly. [laughter] Yes. Yes. But I just want to say I was recently on one of your shows that you did for Netflix is a joke festival here in LA >> and just the kind of people you bring together >> um >> is incredible. You have created a community >> online but mostly in person >> that >> um I think reflects who you are as a person as a and as a comedian. Thank you.

[00:01:37]>> And that is to me, if I can just say, I think you are definitionally a righteous babe.

[00:01:42]>> Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.

[00:01:45][laughter] >> Like both and equal parts, but like wherever you are, you're not holding back or bringing just a portion of yourself, and that's what I so love and admire about you.

[00:01:57]>> Um, >> ditto.

[00:01:59]>> Oh, thank you. Uh, you're a stand-up comic, obviously. Uh, I want to an actor. I want to talk about future projects but more about how IDA was created. Uh were you always this righteous? Were you always socially minded, social justice minded or did that develop through your life experiences?

[00:02:20]>> I have always wanted to fight on the side of right like when I I just remember being a little kid and seeing my uncles being harassed by the cops in our neighborhood. Um, also just my grandmother always caring about every single person in the neighborhood, even the ones who didn't live in houses and homes.

[00:02:42]>> Um, she would go out and she would cook and then Louie would get fed that slept on the corner.

[00:02:49]>> It's just I mean I believe that some of it is nature, but a lot of it is nurture. like I was just raised about around people who cared about all the people in our in our village and it didn't matter. Nobody was more important than anybody else. We all had to survive together. So I think it's always been I've always been one of those kids, >> you know. I remember um debating Tipper Gore about censorship as a a child.

[00:03:19]>> Wait, [laughter] what? You have to tell me this story. uh she came to uh Miami.

[00:03:24]they were censoring uh Two Life Crew >> and um and I I just jumped in on the I was like I want in on this and I'm I was I I I got on the microphone and I was like you know it's interesting and and I don't remember exactly what it was but I was like we have so many things happening here in our community and the biggest thing you came here for was to censor a rapper's explicit lyrics and I was like what's wrong with you?

[00:03:55]I've always had this sense of justice and that it belongs to everybody, not just >> me. Like I've always felt like I've always been a collaborator, you know, and which is one of the things I struggle with in my career cuz I'm like where's the village, you know? Like I envy Seth Rogan and his crew and I envy Adam Sandler and his crew and I envy that they have crews. I'm like where's our crew? Where's my crew? And so it's always been something that matters to me is about the lyric. It ain't no fun if the homies can't have none. It's like >> it's >> problematic in different ways.

[00:04:31]>> Well, but but for me, I've appropriated it cuz it's like fun is relative. And to me, it's like fun is housing, you know, health insurance, shelter, you know, like >> watering boyfriends. No, I'm kidding.

[00:04:46][laughter] >> No. And what's interesting about that is growing up in Miami, um, and I feel like this is maybe unique to you or unique to the fact that I know you grew up pretty poor. Yeah. You know, like cuz a lot of immigrants in their experience isn't the let's the rising tide lifts all boats.

[00:05:04]Let's help everyone out. It's, you know, look out for me and mine. We're going to get as much money as possible. You know, this is the American way is to kind of act like, you know, the the the oppressive and the ruling class.

[00:05:17]Exactly. Um, and so I also want to ask you about like growing up in Miami, what that was like. Um, you know, I know there's there's a lot of Cuban immigrants who are conservative. I know there's a lot of racism there. Um, and then you've got the tipper Gore. I mean, Al Gore famously lost, you know, and they lost an alien home >> in Florida, [laughter] but of course, you know, that was because of, you know, Jeb and uh, the Supreme Court. But anyway, give me your sense of like growing up then in Miami.

[00:05:47]>> You know, it's interesting. Funny that you would call Cubans immigrants cuz you know, I don't know, famous words uh Andy Garcia when they remade uh Father of the Bride, I am not an immigrant. I am an exile. [laughter] And I'm like, go ask the uh the author of Project 2025 that.

[00:06:05]Go debate that with him. Um I think it's interesting. Uh yeah, growing up in Miami, which is some place I, you know, I don't live there. I I don't want to go back. It was something I was never conscious of until there was this uh big um massive influx of the refugees that came and then you would see the other Cubans other them and say, "Those are not us. We are the Guousanos. We came before. We are workingass people. We didn't we came on airplanes. The the great greatest gift of colon of colonization has just been that it keeps on giving and that the people who are oppressed start taking on the behaviors of the oppressor and doing it to the people that look like them. And it's really interesting to watch cuz it's it's so corny. It's like, you know, people that came on those boats uh seeking refuge that were hungry and sure there were criminals there, but we outnumber we we we got criminals on lock in America. The whole idea that they're coming in from we're importing them is some BS. Our government is ran by criminals. [laughter] You know, the whole idea that they are being imported from these countries that are black and brown is such a is such foolishness. Those were human beings that ris risked their lives, came on these boats, came here asking for help.

[00:07:36]The problem that I have is that once you get the help and you start assuming, you know, positions and then you get positions of power, then you start turning and saying, "Well, the Haitians shouldn't be able to come or right, >> you know, and it's it's so ugly." And I saw so much of that in Miami and it was really gross being Puerto Rican, >> you know, hearing things about Puerto Ricans that I had never heard before.

[00:07:59]were like, "We're all lazy, we're all on welfare, we're all poor, we're all ghetto." And I was like, "Yeah, I didn't know any of this until you told me. But >> thank you.

[00:08:08]>> Thanks for the heads up. Uh I mean, we live in the same building and you know, we >> I can hear you.

[00:08:14]>> You know, doing the same stuff, but you're better than me because you have, you know, pure Castellian blood."

[00:08:20][laughter] So, it was corny.

[00:08:22]>> Absolutely. I mean, I feel like that's something that you don't shy away from is talking about like the diversity of Latinad, you know, and all different Latinos. You can't put them all in one box. There is no one Latino vote. Um there is racism, classism, sexism within it. Um >> colorism >> and colorism. And I feel h how is that received? Because I know you also um are looked to to speak on behalf of the Latino community. um is that you know so you have to kind of move with care as you defend from these outside t attacks from you know the likes of Trump ICE you know white supremacy but then also internally >> your own people >> your own people >> so I I retired from speaking on behalf of the the community because I can't speak on behalf of the community I mean we're the one ethnic group that contains all the races right And we have uh we have issues where you know Cuba's issue is asylum, Puerto Rico's has immigration and they're still treated as you know secondass citizens and then you go to Central and South America and the deal the the reality of immigration and nobody wants to take on the issue because there's no collective body and that's why we don't have nice things. We don't have power because we have no collective body. If the people who have uh citizenship cared about the people with immigration and the people that have immigration issues cared about the blackouts in Puerto Rico or right now where we're struggling because we don't have water. Um and you know if if Cubans, you know, humanized the the other people around them. Uh, and I and when I say these groups of people, I'm not speaking about everybody because you have to you have to make sure you say that cuz then they'll come and I'm not but I'm not talking about you. So if I'm talking about you then you know who you are.

[00:10:22]>> We have uh this issue even within the the groups, you know, the people in Puerto Rico like the right now this is happening. The Puerto Ricans have a had a parade in New York because it's the yearly New York Rican parade. the Puerto Ricans on the island are saying, "Hey, you guys are celebrating us. Everybody wants to be Puerto Rican, but we're struggling." But then you have the argument from the ones that are in that are on the state side saying, "You guys take no no moment, no issue, and telling us that we're not real Puerto Ricans because we don't speak Spanish and we don't live over there. Why does this become our emergency now?" So, there's the there's this arguing and, you know, there's validity on both sides. There's validity um you know, it happens with Mexico. It happens with you're a gringo.

[00:11:06]You're not a real Mexican, but when you have a hurricane or an earthquake, you want us to mobilize for you, right? So, how do we start to heal these wounds, right? Cuz even when I say this, somebody will only hear >> what I said because it it speaks directly to their own issue and they're not listening to the conversation. And the conversation is that we need to have a meeting [laughter] >> and we need to have a meeting. We need to have a meeting and we need to figure out how we're going to start breaking down these issues brick by brick and figuring out how we're going to find some sense of solidarity cuz if not we will continue to be in a fight with everybody else and each other.

[00:11:46]>> There is, you know, I think like a lot of like white liberals or just like white people, mainstream media, they're like, "How could Latinos have voted for Trump? Like how could they?" And I think it's the same thing that it always is, which is like because Latinos are people >> just like everybody else who voted for Trump and like a lot of them, you know, it doesn't matter like people thought they were sold a, you know, package of lies.

[00:12:12]>> Um, >> religion, >> religion too could be to could be one thing. Are you hearing different things out of maybe people you still know in Miami, Florida, wherever about like, you know, hey, that so- and so voted for Trump and now they're having a lot of doubts because the CubanAmerican community is no longer insulated. You're seeing horrible detentions of Cubans. I think even a nursing mother of like a small infant was um detained and deported. uh the you know the inhumity extends to all people >> and they're being deported to other parts of the world not not you know not even going back home to Cuba you know what I will say is this a couple of things I think it's very interesting that there was a hyperfocus on the Latino vote >> um and I do think that that is a function of uh colonization colonialism imperialism if you have the two biggest minority groups fighting against each in America, then you don't have to worry about a collective body that can actually make something happen because they didn't focus on the Asian vote and Asian people voted for Donald Trump.

[00:13:22]They didn't focus on Indians, you know, and and I know that uh Indians and the Indian vote and the Asian vote are uh you know, I I I understand geography, but when I'm talking about groups of people, >> you didn't hear anybody talking about you heard the Latino vote over and over again, and it caused a riff with the black American community and the Latino community. And it's interesting because within the Latino community, you have black people and you have uh uh brown people and it was this hyperfocus. And this is not to excuse what anybody has done, right? So, everybody has their uh American civic duty to vote and right to vote however they'd like. I just thought it was interesting that the press continuously kept pressing and pressing and pressing and then when you go to social media, you see the fights, right?

[00:14:10]You see, yeah, they're anti-lack.

[00:14:11]They're this. Anti-blackness is something that exists globally. It is a result of colonization and it is something that we suffer just like we suffer patriarchy. These are things that have been handed down from generation to generation that some of us have internalized and believed because we are educated by the people who oppress us.

[00:14:33]So we are constantly being told that women and people of color, black people are secondass citizens. It is not something that it is exclusive to the Latino community. Yeah. And it it was really interesting to see that play out.

[00:14:46]>> Trump increased his margins minimally, but the overwhelming majority of black Americans, Latino Americans, all voted for Kla Harris in the last election.

[00:14:56]Meanwhile, white women stay voting for Trump in overwhelming numbers. You know, are a larger majority. And if it's like, well, we we give them a pass. Right.

[00:15:06]>> Right. Well, you know, the thing is that that's what is expected of them, but it feels like a betrayal specifically with people of color who are not black because they've all benefited from the civil rights, you know, the civil rights uh uh act and and all of a sudden it's been like now you you know, you want to ride shotgun with the people who are harming the communities.

[00:15:31]>> But then, you know, then there's so much to explore. Like if you listen to Spanish language news, it's very heavily rooted in MAGA. It's very heavily rooted in religion. And then people are driven by fear and religion. And they don't know what's happening. And I think that's why we we don't we keep focusing on civics and we need to focus on education because we got to go into our communities and we have to help our elders. We have to help our youth. We have to educate our own people cuz they're not going to do it. That's the only way we'll have any power in this country. So, you know, and for the people who are now feeling the reckoning, you know, welcome, you know, welcome to your own party that you created that you, you know, I'm not going to sit here and pounce on them because I honestly don't have time to do that. [laughter] You know, really, like I can't, I don't have to. We don't It's in, we're in a state of emergency right now. What we need to be worried about is what we're going to get some semblance of order so that we can have some peace because what happens is that white people don't have peace right now cuz they can't buy eggs, they can't buy food, they can't travel, they can't do anything because now they're starting to feel what a lot of our communities have been experiencing for a very long time, right? So now they're like, "Oh, we need peace. Peace is not something that we, you know, we don't enjoy on a regular basis. Like I have my friend who's a my white girlfriend who's like traveling all over the world and she's like, "Hi, do you want to go to such and such?" And every place she goes, I got to look up to see how they feel about me.

[00:17:09]>> Totally. Totally.

[00:17:10]>> You know, and I'm not even the darkest person, but when I went to Holland, they were I went to a a little town, a Tobin, and everybody was like, "Where are you from?" And I'm like, "How do y'all know I'm not from here?" here and they're like cuz you one of the only the darkest people in the town and I was like I never rang a bell.

[00:17:27]>> Yeah. I never thought about that. They were like yeah there's some people from Surinom here but pretty much everybody's white and so it's it's the reality of pe being a person of color, a black person in this country is a to be in a constant state of rage and trauma and anxiety because you got to worry about stuff that white people don't have to worry about in addition to everything else.

[00:17:48]You can't buy eggs, but you don't want to get pulled over by the wrong cop. You don't want to be in the wrong town. You know, I'm in Richmond, Virginia doing standup and somebody's like, "Hey, be careful if that's a sundown town."

[00:17:58]Somebody yel this is yelling it out from the audience, you know? And I'm like, "Oh, wow." Crowd work. [laughter] >> Thanks for the heads up.

[00:18:05]>> What's a sundown town again? That like after sundown, people of color need to like >> are in danger basically. And so >> I thought it was just like where Joe Biden had visited or like old people.

[00:18:15]hilarious sun downtown.

[00:18:18]>> No, >> a lot of olds.

[00:18:20]>> A lot of trauma, a lot of murders, a lot of killings, a lot of beatings, a lot of mistreatment, a lot of law enforcement participating in it. So, it's just, you know, now that everybody else is like, I can't buy food. I can't I can't buy a plane ticket. You know, somebody just told me a plane ticket to London is $6,000 right now.

[00:18:39]>> What?

[00:18:40]>> Yeah. Uh, and so they're they're now you're understanding what everybody else has been saying, but you didn't want to listen because you wanted to be associated with these people who wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire with your dumbass, you know. So >> that's a classic idism that we we we shove away. Also, I think it is what is it? Gobble a dick or gobble a whole dick. There was >> eat a whole dick.

[00:19:04]>> Eat a whole dick.

[00:19:05]>> Eat a whole dick. Wouldn't spit on you.

[00:19:07]>> Chomp on a dick. Actually, >> chomp. Thank you. remembering your own stuff. Chomp. Do we have Chomp on a dig on uh merch yet?

[00:19:14]>> No, but that's a good idea >> cuz I would buy it. Before we leave, you know, like talking about like Latin American identity and all this, I do want to talk about Puerto Rico a little bit more. As you said, treated like secondass citizens. I mean, very >> yeah, >> very literally. Um, you know, uh, a territory of the United States. Can vote in primaries but not in a general election. can be recruited uh you know to the military >> can't sell their own products, can't sell their own sugar, >> is now being invaded by all these like crypto bros and money like from Jake Paul and whatnot um and then of course in times of need like Hurricane Maria um were hung out to dry, left without power, Donald Trump throwing um rolls of um you know paper towels at them. We just heard this week actually that Trump floated swapping Puerto Rico for Greenland.

[00:20:09]>> Okay.

[00:20:10]>> Because he's like, "Why do we have Puerto Rico?"

[00:20:12]>> Um, >> in response to that, I feel like there is we have we have to talk about Bad Bunny and how much he triggers the right. They had a whole second Super Bowl party and halftime show.

[00:20:26]>> Yeah. instead of bad. But what I'm trying to say is like there is also a beautiful narrative of Puerto Rico being painted through culture and music and resistance. What do you think this is doing? Like national identity wise.

[00:20:39]>> How do you think Puerto Rico is shifting?

[00:20:41]>> Well, first of all, there's awareness.

[00:20:43]You know, there wasn't this much talk about Puerto Rico prearia, right? It took a hurricane for people to know that we were there, right? Um, and I do say we because I take on Puerto Rico not just as an identity, um, my mother's birthplace, my grandmother's birthplace, my homeland. Their woes are my woes. I'm not one of the people who's like, "Let me wear my Puerto Rican flag." I'm like, "Let's rec colonize our island. let's go buy our own property, you know, let's let's find white people to lie for us and say we have to because they don't respond to us uh to buy property. The real estate agents will not respond to you if you don't have an American name.

[00:21:25]Uh you know, so we I'm I'm I'm like I'm in I'm inactive. I just don't live online because I believe that the revolution will not be televised per my people. Abi suos like we it can't you can't you can't put everything online because when you put it online now you have uh the ops are now aware of everything you're doing and I know it's possible because when the boycotts were happening during the civil rights movement they didn't have Twitter and they didn't have the internet and people knew not to show up at the bus stop. So there there is validity to community, right? Which is why they keep coming for it.

[00:22:03]>> I'm putting >> I get my likes in person. Absolutely.

[00:22:06]Another slogan of IDAS.

[00:22:08]>> Yeah. I don't I don't care about the internet like that. It's not real. And I've learned to I've learn I've always known that it wasn't real because the per the internet has been the place where a lot of people have gone to to get a personality. You know, it's like I I'm a I'm a a climate person and all I care about is a cl I care about a bunch of [ __ ] I'm multiaceted. I don't I don't just focus on one thing. But I just when you understand that you're people are content creators, that's just content for them and you're writing with them thinking these people are really activists. No, they are content creators. They are there every day sending you videos and sending you and and thank God cuz a lot of them create awareness but they are not activists.

[00:22:51]The activists don't have 5 million followers. You know all these celebrities that have a lot of money cuz I don't have a lot of money. I'm very clear about it. My visibility does not equal revenue, right? I if I had a lot of money, you would know it because people would be fed, you know, see things would when when I participated in fundraising for Puerto Rico during the hurricanes, I um I part I helped raise money to put a roof over somebody's house and when that lady sent us the pictures, they were without a roof for a whole year, you know? Like we sent these Amazon packages where they had supplies for 6 months. Like that's really the stuff I don't need to put that on Instagram because I don't need to get patted on my back for doing what I believe I'm supposed to be doing, right?

[00:23:37]But it's it sometimes you got to say it because people are like, "Well, what are you doing?" What I'm not doing is talking [ __ ] on the internet all the time is really trying to figure out I would rather use my platform to shine the light on the actual people who are activists, the ones who are fighting not just to feed people or you know or people that are but the ones who are actively working on policy to try to change policy for the for the you know the benefit of the community. And so when it comes to Puerto Rico, which is a very very tight topic because you you get this, you know, you got these these Tik Tockers over there saying you're not a real Puerto Rican if you if you don't speak Spanish. And I'm like, that is not what being Puerto Rican is. Being Puerto Rican, that is what white people told you being Puerto Rican is because if that was the case, you are white and you're a descendant of Spain. You not a real Puerto Rican by that definition. Or you might be Puerto Rican, but you're not Boriqua because you are not a descendant of the Thyenos or the Arowoks like I am. I look more like a Puerto Rican than you do. How could you tell me with your white self because you have an accent and you can you speak the, you know, whatever you think is the the the the regional dialect of where you're from. It's foolishness. That's what they told us to do. And if we engage in this foolishness going back and forth about what real Puerto Ring >> Yeah. Nothing gets done.

[00:24:59]>> Nothing gets done. cuz now I'm upset and I'm like, "You know what? That's your hurricane cuz I'm not Puerto [laughter] Rican." And then you're like, "Well, then don't come to our island." And now that island is infected by all these white people coming there trying to kill our cookies, telling us not to speak Spanish. Uh, you know, and then the Puerto Ricans enabling them, you know, like it's a it's a mess. I mean, what's interesting is that there's a mirror of that, which is Cuba.

[00:25:25]>> Absolutely.

[00:25:25]>> Which I know you have a personal connection to as well. Yeah. which is not look it's divided in so many other ways but they are united very much against this insane brutality being waged against them visav this um you know sanction um broader blockade but specifically the oil blockade and the fuel blockade um they're suffering these blackouts and effectively Trump and Marco Rubio are like well any day now we're going to turn this island into to a Puerto Rico where we divide and conquer where the elites have all the money and they sell that out to the uh the white folks or the rich folks from the US and abroad.

[00:26:07]Um what is your connection to Cuba and and some of your thoughts on what's happening now?

[00:26:12]>> So my stepfather's Cuban um and uh my my cousins, you know, I have those are my family. Those are the people that we we think about. I don't talk to them. My sister is more in touch with them like that. But when when it's time to send money, to send food, I'm I'm always an active participant in that. Uh but you know, the the romanticizing of Cuba, which a lot of people do in the political realm about how, you know, they stick it to the United States, all the I that there's a romanticizing of it, that people, you know, are really uninformed about the suffering and the struggling of that island. And because they don't have the freedom and the access to tell the world, which they have at some at some points, what they're going through there, this idea that they're living this amazing life is a lie. And [clears throat] people need to stop doing that. Yeah.

[00:27:07]>> You know, and that's a problem when you say these people, these Marco Rubios and all these people that are descendants of the people that are from the Canary Islands and Spain who are colonizers that have come there and they have they have this idea. There are a lot of black people in Cuba, a lot of uh indigenous people in Cuba. This idea that they're better and that this is good enough for them, this suffering is good enough for them is is BS. And I think people need to stop. You need to you really need to talk to the people instead of um you know listening to the internet and listening to the media. The media if the media is illinforming us on X, Y, and Z, I don't understand why you don't think they're ill informing us on A, B, and C.

[00:27:53]Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just this whole idea. The people are suffering and it is not okay. They are not eating and it is really bad. And and what pisses me off is that people call on their doctors when when when it's when it crisis co they were out there really you know we have to separate the people from the government.

[00:28:14]>> Yes absolutely >> because the people are suffering there and it's not okay.

[00:28:18]>> You're a working comic. You are a touring working standup comic. You are hilarious you in person as we as we say.

[00:28:26]Um what is it like to be a touring working comic? What's the life like?

[00:28:32]>> Oh, so comedy has always been um s terrifying for women.