Latest / The Lawtino™ / From the Border to City Hall

Transcript

From the Border to City Hall · The Lawtino™

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Latino Podcast, where we amplify the voices of Latino professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders coming together to educate, inspire, and connect across one of the most dynamic binational regions in the world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Bicultural, premium, powerful.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Hey San Gomez, welcome to the latest episode of the La Tino Podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: We are back home in San Diego.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: We just recorded a bunch of episodes in DC.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Probably this will follow those.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then tomorrow or this weekend, we're at a big event celebrando Latinas.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you'll hear a bunch of uh incredible Latinas.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we're blessed today by a very special guest.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get to that, um, this episode is always sponsored by Gomez Trial Attorneys.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Gomez Trial Attorneys is a binational, bicultural, and best in class law firm.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: We are binational with offices both in the United States and Mexico.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: We are bicultural.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: We offer the very highest level of legal excellence of both English and Spanish with cultural sensitivity.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we are best in class.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: We believe that we are the best at what we do.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: We represent plaintiffs and consumers in cases involving personal injury, employment harms, uh, class actions, mass torts, and civil rights violations.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm joined as always by my co-host David Aragin, who uh is a lawyer here at Gomez Trial Attorneys as well, uh managing our cross-border uh or border uh corridor practice.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um he originally was a guest on this podcast when he wasn't at the firm, you know.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, he did so good.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: We brought my board and now he's the co-host.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: So uh David, why don't you introduce?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: We have we're very blessed to have a special guest today.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of course, John, and thank you for that.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, for our guests, generally, I I don't think he wants the job right now, like Omez, you know, it's got me a one.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's got to be a one.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: So just so you know, uh, so we're excited to have uh council member, I will compill.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: It is an honor, a local guy, a border guy like us.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: So we always appreciate when we have body people coming in to the Latino podcast, but we have a lot in common.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: So uh, council member, welcome.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh mainly we want to hear from you, uh, your story, uh, your border story, and the fact that you're a local San Diego.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, good morning, David.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: And John, appreciate you a million.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you said it all starts on the border, and that's absolutely true.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, for me, it starts in uh Calexico out in Imperial Valley.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, that's where my mom and dad were raised.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, both families living partly in Mexicali for a few years and then to the United States side, but they were all born in the United States.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: Three out of four of my grandparents were born in the United States.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and in fact, also a biracial family on that border.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: My grandmother, Joanne Schinefield, born in Los Angeles, a family of Scots-Irish, German uh heritage that was from that living in Chicago and immigrated, uh, emigrated to Los Angeles in the early 1900s.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so my grandfather and grandmother were one of the first biracial couples in Calexico, and that came with its own sort of interesting stories.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: But by the end of 80 years, the person who could make the best menudo was my grandmother Joanne.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: That was crazy.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: She got the recipes out.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she learned from her mother-in-law.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh, you know, it all starts with that, right?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Family.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: It starts with family and what it means uh to be uh Mexican-American on the border.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: And when I was growing up, we would go to Calexico.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up in El Cajón, I was born in Mercy Hospital, right here in San Diego, so was my brother.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so when we could drive an hour and 40 minutes through the hills in East County, down into the valley, we could smell the alfalfa.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: We knew there was farm workers out there.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: I heard stories from my dad and from my uncles, how they were close associates with the United Farm Workers Movement, and how in the 1950s and 60s, my grandparents were some of the only Mexican-American business owners.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: And there was a lot of pressure that came with that, a lot of responsibility came with that, a lot of competition and racism that came from being a leader in your own community.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I heard those stories, I knew there was a legacy that I needed to live up to and to share that story in different ways, but ultimately serve people like my grandparents and my parents did.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now, my dad, he ended up going to Stanford from Calexico High School in the early 70s, uh, lived in the Bay Area, came back home to uh San Diego and went to USD law school, graduated in the 1980s, uh, and helped a lot of Latinos get into USD with scholarships and recruiting.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: And when I was a deputy city attorney, I would show up, I would show up to the court and I'd see judges who would say, Are you Alex's son?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: He helped me get into USD.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: He convinced me to go to law school, actually.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: So we have a legacy of standing up for our community for everyone's benefit.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I live with uh that uh every day in my heart.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what it means to me to be binational, to be Mexican-American, uh, to be a San Diegan, and to know uh the people we are trying to help uh uh succeed in our region.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so you were mentioning uh going to court.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you are a trained lawyer, practice you know, law for a while.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Talk to us about that, you know, your law school and your legal practice.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, my dad being uh immigration attorney for now 46 years, both business and families and everything in between.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I saw what it took to be a successful practitioner of the law, to uh tell the truth, represent your client well, but always be honest with the court.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: That was always the forefront of how he raised me and my brother.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and to hear the stories of people struggling uh to stay in the United States, to succeed in the United States, people who want to invest a million dollars or are escaping uh totalitarianism, coming to the United States.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody wants to live here and live a prosperous life for their children.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so I had that.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so I said, I want to go to law school.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I decided to go to a major law firm after law school, uh, O'Melbany and Myers in downtown LA, one of the oldest firms in California.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: And they just threw me into the ringer and said, let's do white-collar criminal investigations, let's do product liability defense.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: And here's a ton of pro bono you're allowed to do too.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's part of the reason I went there is because they said, we'll match you one for one, unlimited hours on pro bono.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: And you can help any group of people who are impoverished or need your help, no problem.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Just say what you're doing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I got to balance the excellence of representing uh multi-billion dollar multinational companies with helping a woman get her uh VAWA uh order from court.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just I'm lucky that that was my training.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: Eventually came back uh to San Diego, started the city attorney's office, got hired into the criminal division, showing up in court, plea deals, DUI trials, uh things like that.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then ultimately gun violence restraining orders.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: I was put on that team that's been covered in the news quite successfully, uh, and making sure that gun violence was reduced in our community.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I am a trained lawyer, almost 13 years now, and uh I still carry my bar card.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: As a council member, I can't represent anybody, basically.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I can't make money representing anybody, but I keep that bar card just in case I need to keep privilege.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you can still show off, you know, show on with that card, plus go through the corner easier.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: The state bar says that less than 50% of people even get the plus.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: If I feel like it, I get it.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's that's quite a story.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so, you know, at what point did you say, look, you know, I want to, you know, turn to um away from law in the formal sense of the practice so law.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're still obviously applying all the things that you know as a lawyer and believe in as a lawyer to the work you do today.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: But at some point there was a pivot.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: So what caused that and and how did it all start?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I knew that I wanted to be in public service, that or the second baseman of the San Diego Padres.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm a huge Padres fan and I grew up playing baseball.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Did you play at uni?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: I did play at uni, freshman and junior varsity to two years of varsity, uh, not at Harvard, though.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: I was gonna ask an Ellen about that.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not I'm not D1 capable.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but I uh, you know, and that's the funny thing about Latinos, you know, what most people think about the soccer, and I love soccer.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: But in the Imperial Valley, you were playing baseball.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's what they did.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: You hear baseball and football, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I was following in my dad's footsteps, loving baseball so much.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've got him into soccer, but in the end, when I was 13, that was the 2000 election.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm watching on TV the court battle in Florida, and I remember going over to my grandmother's house, my grandmother Joanne, and she had just voted uh for Al Gore.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: And when they initially and mistakenly called Florida uh for Al Gore, she whispers under her breath, Medicare is saved.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank God.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 13 years old, I don't know what that means.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: And but I learned quickly what that meant for her.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I asked my dad, why is politics so important to our family?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: And he explained the 50s and 60s and 70s and the 30s and 40s for my grandparents in Los Angeles.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: And my mom explains what it was like in Mexicali for my other set of grandparents in the 30s and 40s and 50s.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, you know what?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Politics impacts everybody at the largest scale because the law applies to most of the time, everybody.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: And we got to create better laws.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: So when I was 13, I said, I think I want to go into politics.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: My dad said, Okay, being a lawyer is a good way to learn the language of power, the language of law to help people the most.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh when I was young, I said I want to go into politics.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: And everybody about knew this about me in high school.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they teased me about it uh at uni high school.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but ultimately I built up myself in a way to have the skills.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: And when I moved home in 2018, District 7 in San Diego was an open seat.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: I ran, and 40,300 voters later, here I am.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think the pivot was at that early age when my parents explained why politics and law was so important for people who grow up on the border, that they need leaders who focus on that and not only focus on just that, but understand a rising tide lifts all boats.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: So go help and serve everybody.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: So my parents put that spirit of service in me.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Did you consider uh getting a degree, or maybe you did, um, at the um uh Kennedy school while you're there?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: When I was at Harvard for undergrad, I was studying government, I had Kennedy School professors teaching some undergrad classes, I even had classes on the campus, and it's an inspiring place to be where you see world leaders come, get their masters in public administration or public policy, and I'm I'm listening to people who are now prime ministers of their country teach me or sit across the table from me.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's really what it was like, and I was inspired by that.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Ultimately, getting a JD MPP was an extra year, it was extra debt, and I was like, you know what?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't need to get that.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: I had been influenced by those people to serve for the right reasons.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so ultimately, after three years of law school, I said, let's let's come home to California, started in LA, and now I'm happy to be serving the people of San Diego.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for me, that's an incredible move.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, like job being linked in the markets, you being on a big firm too, and then suddenly switching and going into public service, government.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like that's definitely like that, you gotta make the decision, and it's a difficult decision, but it seems like it was the right one for both of you, right?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think I can't speak for you, but I don't think it was a difficult decision.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I went to Union High School, Catholic high school.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Catholic faith is very important to me.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I really uh I anyone who comes into my office, they'll walk in at City Hall, walk into the District 7 office, and they sit down in my conference table and they see portraits of John F.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, just like the portraits my my abuela Guadalupe had in her house.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you have to come to our boardroom after this.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I will in Calexico.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that you know, that's common for a lot of Mexican-American families, right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: And people say, Wow, these are the guys who inspire you, right?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hold on, this is what you see when you walk in.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: What do you see when you walk out?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I have a picture of the Guadalupe as I walk out.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: That reminds me, you're walking out to make decisions now, do the right thing.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it wasn't hard to do.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Was there sacrifice?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Certainly there was.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: But when your moral compass tells you to go in this direction, you never know where it's going to lead you, but you know it will get you to the place you want to go.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm sure you feel the same way, John.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the more I hear you talk, um I was at the uh U.S.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Attorney's Office here, and I had a good friend of mine who graduated from Harvard Law School.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: He did the joint degree with the Kennedy School.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: He left um federal service, went to a local DA, and then went into local politics like you.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um now as a congressman, Sam Licardo.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever heard his name.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Sam Licardo, San Jose.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel like you guys have a lot in common.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's a hardcore, you know, Jesuit kid too.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Which Bellamine, I know, Jesuit inspired.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: I know a good friend of his, and I know exactly what Sam Licardo is all about.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, cool.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that's my next question for you.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I feel like I don't know, I feel like to really I always admire Sam for doing local politics.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would say the same to you.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I admire you for doing local politics because I I really feel like you can affect the lives of the community in like a super direct way.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how come you chose local versus trying to run for Congress or something like that?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in in 2016, when I was working at the law firm in LA, uh I applied to get a job in the Hillary campaign in New York, trying to beat back on Donald Trump.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: We saw this disaster that was coming back then, and I was so grateful to get a job.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: I took a huge pay cut, moved across the country to uh Brooklyn, was in headquarters, was vetted.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Were you married yet?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was not married yet.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't met my wife yet.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I'm vetting people who are trying to donate money uh and or get involved in the campaign and make sure their background aligned with the values of the campaign.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because we knew Donald Trump was taking money and letting anybody in the door.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: We were had better, better values than that.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I was there, that was like the pinnacle, running for president to try to influence the world.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I saw that and that was amazing.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: That those 200 days I was there, I'll never forget it.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but after the campaign, I came home and I was fired up and I was like, we got to go resist the Trump regime that's coming.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: And one of my closest mentors, who's an attorney in in Los Angeles, uh, he says to me, Ro, you're not gonna do much in a basement of the Capitol building.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Go home and serve your community.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's where you're gonna do a lot.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And when Bert Dijksler said that to me, it triggered in my mind a line I heard at uni high school, which was a line from Mother Teresa when she's she's quoted saying this if you want world peace, go home and love your family.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's your locus of control.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's where you can actually bring happiness and peace into the world, and then it reverberates out through your family and your children to your neighbors, your community and outward.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: You don't start up here, you start right here.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so that piece of advice changed my life.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, you know what?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta go home, go surf San Diego.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: I always wanted to come here, but you know, run for Congress, no, run for your city council.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's where you can do a lot, and so that's why I'm I'm so focused on that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, I get to say yes a lot more often than I say no, and uh, and help people with stop signs and fix sidewalks and those things.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Look, you guys, you guys are playing as attorneys.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when those things break, just how badly people can get hurt.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's in the news every day.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: You vindicate your clients and get them what they deserve.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I absolutely respect that.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but if I can fix that sidewalk, they never have to suffer that broken spine or that chipped tooth or whatever, everything from small to big.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that's how I see it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's a public safety issue, it's a humanity issue.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Serving in local government is amazing and it aligns with my values.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm so glad that while I had like that ambition to really be like, let's go fight for something bigger worldwide.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I had a good mentor who said, Hey, look back at home.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that advice.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, plus you know you can be it's like like Goss, right?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Little self-drauma from here for you.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's gonna steal our billboard idea.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: To be very clear, you never abandoned marketing.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so um you you took your currency in 2016?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is that what we said?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: 2020.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: 2020, okay.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so how long is the term?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: So uh each term is four years, and the city charter uh uh has term limits of two terms, so I can only serve as council member for eight years.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so you're six years in, yes, two years to go.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, what do you view now as like the biggest kind of issue that that you guys have to deal with?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: What's the biggest kind of issue, you know, facing San Diego?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: Man, it's or if you could pick three.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're on the border, man.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's it is um it we are an international community right here.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: And when you think about, you know, I love to bring in the Native American tribes because they're a they're a nation before any of us showed up too.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: So you think of it as all the different groups we're working with here.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um everybody is struggling to pay their bills.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: And even families that have two incomes and are good, well-paid lawyers, their child care is for each child is still through the roof.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Their insurance is going up, all everything's going up for everybody.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think of ways in which I, as a city council member, can put in incremental change to bring their bills down.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: A safer community has cheaper insurance, which is more money in your pocket.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's three dominoes down.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: And to explain that to everybody takes time.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: But you know what?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Get that sort of thing done.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Public safety always comes first from a local government perspective.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, when you have the federal government coming in and snatching people off the street, that's not safe.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's bad for the economy, and it hurts, it hurts on a moral level.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: And what can we do to that?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Denounce it, protect people, encourage folks to take care of each other.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, never break the law, but always encourage people to take care of each other.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so having to deal with this federal issue that impacts us on the border far more than I think it impacts people, you know, in the in the middle of the country.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: Not that they're not struggling with paying bills and stuff too, because of tariffs and all of the above, but a lot of them don't have their neighbors uh being uh detained unlawfully in violation of their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, people with documentation not even having it seen.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do we juggle these things?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: I just look at my locus of control.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Public safety always comes first.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Part of that is managing the budget well, and I've had lots of battles at the city council to make sure we manage the budget well.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'd say the third thing is creating good jobs.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's no better way to make life more affordable than to help people get a better job, to improve their wages, to improve their conditions of work.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so policies like that don't take money from one person and give it to another.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's building a person up so they got more money in their pocket that they earn.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that's uh a better and more sustainable way than you know other forms of taxation that I've been against.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: So public safety, create good jobs and just fight for the community.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: People want to see that fight for the community.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: And it's hard to do on a day-to-day basis when you don't have that authority to really, you know, uh, you know, take a person out of federal detention who doesn't deserve to be there, but we need to fight for that too.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so six years in, two years left.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: And isn't our um our current mayor, isn't he, terming out?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, he is terming out after he has the same limitations as the council.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: So he's will he be done when you're done?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, that's right.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Mayor Loria will uh end his second term in 2028.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Have you announced, I don't know if you have or haven't, or taken a formal, you know, step in the direction.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, nothing like that.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing formal.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: We're still thinking it through.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's a it's a big step to take.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: I've certainly been thinking about it.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's no secret.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: The news has reported it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and when people ask me, are you thinking about it?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: I say, absolutely, I'm thinking about it.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: Why wouldn't I be?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: They catch you, they catch you on the B-roll talking about it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were talking earlier about the B-roll.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: We did a little B-roll, and he and uh council members said, How about the C roll when he when he's dealing with the media?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what, yeah, they catch you the C roll.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, when I'm there, I never said that.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: The C roll is field.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: So why wouldn't I want to serve 1.4 million people who's also a figurehead for the entire region of 3.5 plus is instrumental in the cross-border relationship with Dijuana, which we've never, from a local level been able to see take off.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I think I'd bring a better perspective as a person whose family's been in that, have a lot of life lessons, a lot of experience being an attorney for big companies that are trucking uh product over the border, investing billions of dollars in the United States and at Dijuana.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'll say this.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: When I was on a chamber of commerce trip to Washington, DC, they said, which of these events do you want to go to?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I want to go to the embassy of Japan where we're meeting with the deputy commerce uh secretary who's visiting Washington.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: So uh at least that's what his role said on the on the invitation.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I get in there and they give a presentation about Japanese investment.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, So why don't you guys want to invest in San Diego?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: We got great universities, a really good workforce.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, Well, your political situation in Washington makes it A little tricky.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that was in 2023.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they were predicting that.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know what my follow-up was at?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: Have you thought about Tijuana?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Have you thought about Baja?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because guess what?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: We got highly educated, hardworking, smart, and productive people on that side of the border.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: Make it there, put it on a truck, ship it over here, sell it throughout the world.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Don't forget Tijuana, and that improves our lives here too.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, if that's one of the things I think that if I were to run for mayor and I was thinking about it, I think that's a perspective of leadership I'd be able to bring.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: And that's creating good jobs, which is one of those three key components I mentioned just earlier.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it makes sense because a lot of the people that we've been having lately in this podcast are my national leaders.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the reasons why they're being very successful on this side on their either policies or what they're trying to do is the fact that they have that background and they actually understand the borders.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like we deal with without ourselves.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like sometimes I would deal with like a defense attorney saying it's like, you know what?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: Your client keeps going to Tijuana to party.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, no, no, no, no.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: They have family down from here.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to be from Washington when I'm standing up, for example, right?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the unfortunate thing is that San Diego and Tijuana happen to basically be the furthest cities from their capitals, their national capitals.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: And uh Tijuana is now the second biggest city in Mexico, isn't it?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm flabbergasted that we haven't been able to bridge this gap.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, these are the types of things that take multiple presidencies, multiple presidential permits, multiple secretaries of state to visit and get these things going.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I got to give credit to the local leaders, whether it's Caltrans, MTS, those groups, that they want to build up the ability to transport goods, to have people take transit to help our local economy.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: So we got the leaders that are there, but the mayor of San Diego gets to be that figurehead that pulls everyone together and says, let's go do that investment, create those jobs, and make our region more prosperous.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's no group that doesn't want that.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Labor unions want that, chambers of commerce want that, small businesses want those customers, big businesses want the workers and the experts and the well-trained, highly diplomat people on both sides of the border.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: This shouldn't be third fiddle on our priorities.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: It should be one of those top three things that we are focused on every single day.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Man, we have so many guests on here that that say exactly what you're saying.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we had um the leader of the uh uh cross-border business coalition, we had Joaquin.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we had Joaquin on.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: We were just hanging out with him a couple nights ago for the Mexican concept and uh we were just yesterday at Cross Border Express with uh Jorge, who you know has been on the podcast.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I agree.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, with an eye toward that and appreciation of the Cali Baja importance as a single you know economic region um and infrastructure, I think would be a terrific advantage.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I also just think I don't know, like have we you will know better than me, have we had a Latino mayor here before?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Todd Gloria's boy.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh Todd.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: I get the credit for that.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: He always he always says he's the first.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I thought he was like Filipino.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: He said he's always says he's the first Filipino Dutch, Latino.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, he's got Native American gay mayor.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: He puts that together, right?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, Todd.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because he is a he is a uh enlist enrolled member of a native tribe, I think up in the northern part of the continent.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um and but his his uh family of Filipino through the Navy here in San Diego, and I mean, yeah, no, he's got a long history, but uh I would be definitely the first Chicano, first Mexican.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that would be incredible.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: That would be needed, yeah.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah, yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we do have a substantial amount of our population that that's so relate.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So to see someone leading the city, you know, looking like them, talking like them, having the same story as them, I think would be very inspiring to a lot of people that live here, especially after you know what we've been dealing with with um ICE and the terror, you know, throughout our communities.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, I'm hopeful that you continue to ponder that.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if you do go in that direction, you'll have our full support.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, we can, you know, I'm sure we can get others to support you as well.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's funny you say that, that it inspires people.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's that that is one of the biggest things about being a leader in my position, is you know, people are watching and they take their cues from their leaders, which is one of the reasons we're so disappointed with the president, is that we know people are watching that and thinking what he's doing is is appropriate, okay, whatever you want to describe it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, I just think to myself, show people I'm being honest, show people I'm thinking hard about what's in their best interest and listening to them when they tell me, because sometimes I'm on I'm not on the right side of a vote.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: But when I listen to people say, no, please come up with a better solution, you got to adjust.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's part of being in a democracy.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll just say this uh I know that in 30 years, people are not going to remember Raul Campillo, but their community will hopefully be more safe and their family will be more economically prosperous, and their opportunities in life will be better if I do my job as a council member and deliver results in that manner.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not looking at this as sort of a legacy thing.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at this as I'm gonna be around for a long time.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the youngest council member and I'm 38 years old.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: I got two little kids who are two and eight months old.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: And my wife is raising a family right now.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so the city I see is the one they will have their children at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital where my daughter was born.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: My son born at Kaiser San Diego Setma Medical Center.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking that far out and no one's gonna remember me.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's what this podcast will still be on YouTube, but no one's gonna remember me.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: And that's good.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's not that's I'm I'm happy with that because it means that we did the right thing.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think like setting the example for the moment.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: For example, looking at you, uh, I still call you a border guy if you're San Diego, but family from Calexico, speaking with like Javier Gasera, who's like dad is from Tijuana, the mom from Baladara, like it sets the example for like my people from Tijuana.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: I grew up in Tijuana, but a lot of people are born in San Diego.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: So you have like that trip of moving over to San Diego and making a better life.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: Just the fact that you have like leaders like that with those credentials, going to Harvard, going to big schools, that means that it just makes a dream become like more positive, right?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's aspirational.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's true.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um I'll say that it's uh it's funny coming from San Diego because San Diego is also still a very um economically segregated city.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think there's but there's a big middle class, and that's that's great.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but when you when I think about one of my first experiences at Harvard, uh I showed up, and because I grew up in El Cahon, which the San Diego County, I'm a San Diego like anybody else, I have on my door to my dorm, it says Ra will come to you, El Cahon, California.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: And they say, Oh, where is that?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Oh, it's in San Diego County.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of the kids at Harvard would look at me and say, Oh, did you go to the bishop's school?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, I went to Uing High School.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: They'd be like, Oh, okay, I don't know anyone who went there.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is the this is the thing, is that there's places in this world where people are bred to go and have status.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, going to a place like Harvard on day two, I'm realizing it didn't matter what I did in high school.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: It didn't matter what uh accomplishments I had done, or the fact that I was even admitted.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: There's a whole nother strata of people that say, Well, do you have this?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Is your family from that level of society, whatever, whatever?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking to myself, my my dad uh was working in my grandfather's gas station on a JV uh IV sportsman in in Calexico 50 years, and here's where I am.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: And growing that much meant nothing to people who have no sense of what the the rest of the world.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought to myself, I'd never want to be like that.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: I never want to forget where I come from.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I have respect for the accomplishments people have, but I want to see more people accomplish things.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, that's part of the reason I became a teacher after college, then I went to law school, then I did all that pro bono work when I was at the firm, then I came back to City, the city for service.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I know where I was born, I know where I'm from, and I know who we're trying to help.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: We're trying to help everybody, but also inspire those people who haven't seen themselves at places like Harvard.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: They can look at me and say, Well, Raul got there and uh and he came home.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love it.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I I will say that I had never heard of Andover or Exeter until I went to Yale Law School.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: I was meeting these kids and they were talking about, so I had the same experience as you, you know, and I went to um I graduated from Elkhorn Valley High School, you know, in Okahon.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you know, I I'm a firm believer in that you take a kid from almost any circumstance that they have the the the talent and the the grit and the willpower to succeed, they'll rise to the level.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: So when you were at Harvard, you know, um you rose to the level when I got plopped into Yale, having no business being there.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like, you know, after a little while, I rose to the level.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think that's the reality.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many talented, smart kids out there from every corner of our society in the world that could compete at the highest level if they got the chance.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you didn't forget where you came from and not what you represented.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, it's uh, you know, I kind of feel like we both have something in common with Ethan Salas from from the uh Padres right now.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: They bring him up for September.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: He's been rookie, he's been touted as the best, but I know he doesn't he doesn't forget he which side of the border he came from, and he's now playing for the Padres at 20-year-old.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: He did two home runs first catcher in over a hundred years.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: That was just last night, right?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: That was just last night.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: And and and you know, rise to the pressure is is really how I've always seen it.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: And your story says that too.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, I was very lucky that my dad was already a Stanford educated USD trained attorney, that my mom had been working in uh as a as a secretary in the banking industry and and knew customer service and understood understood professional business.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I had very well-educated parents, and so I've not for a second ever overlooked the advantages I had, uh, but I also knew where they came from and never forgot that component of it.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, rise to the pressure is is a good thing in society.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Has there ever been a mayor from uni or now a cathedral?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly don't know.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I don't think so.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm thinking through, I don't think so.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's high time.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel like the school produces such an a footprint on San Diego.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I was at USD, like so many of those kids like, you know, went on to do great things.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them, you know, came across the street to attend school with me.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I feel like it's just such a great, I mean, I don't know why we're talking about high school, but I feel like it's high time, you know.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: My my kid, my 17-year-old, goes to Saints, you know, and so yeah, he he really enjoys that too.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a great sort of background and and foundation for life.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, as we kind of wrap up here, like what is if you're comfortable saying so, what is something you've had to struggle through?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: What was a challenge that you had to push through to get to this point that might inspire others?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'll take the hardest one.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I could bring up budget fights and say, like, oh my gosh, the politics of this and getting funding, all that stuff that voters hear about on the news and they they know it's important, but it's you know, what are they talking about?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: The the hardest thing was um when my brother died uh in 2014 from an opioid overdose.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now that was before fentanyl really became the story.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: It was still oxycodon and things like that.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: So 2010, freak accident breaks his leg, chronic pain.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh years later, you know, he's been prescribed oxycodon, becomes addicted.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'll never forget the day he broke his leg.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh Easter in 2010, it was the day that massive earthquake hit, and uh my dad was in the hospital with him with a broken leg when everything was shaken.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and I was driving back to Vegas later that afternoon um to go back to teach.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um but fast forward, he dies in 2014, 10 days before the bar exam, the day before my mom's birthday.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and so I'm studying for the bar in LA.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: I drive home.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's a horrible thing to be on your own for two and a half hours contemplating what this all means to your life.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but be there for your family.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing else matters more than your family.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and taking care of my parents those days, organizing things, you know, relearning about him.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: Because then when you got to go through his room and see his clothes and his his belongings, his artwork, his his writings, everything, you just learn to re-love a person from a different perspective.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I I miss him because when I was, and here's the last story I'll say why it was so hard, why he inspires me so much.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I remember the first instance of racism in my life.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: First grade.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're sitting down at table at the lunch tables, and I get the last seat on the table before the next kid has to go to the other table.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: And as I sit down, that that kid says, uh, he's like, Why don't you move, you stupid B E A N E R.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Oh my god, he just called me that.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in first grade.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't even know how to take that.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I go home, I'll tell my brother Alex.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Alex, this guy called me this.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Oh, he did.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Next day, I'm walking out of school.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I started to walk up the hill at Vista Grande Elementary and then Rancho San Diego.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'll come home.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: And my brother's walking down.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Middle school doesn't end this early.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: And he walks up and he starts yelling at that kid.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now, poor first grader, right?
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yell at him, buy some good bills.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: But he didn't hit everything, he just yelled at him and said, I'm never gonna mess with my brother ever again.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Don't you ever say that word again.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: If you do it again, there's gonna be consequences.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, oh man.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I never forget that my brother taught me to stand up for people who are being bullied.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: He always did that.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes he made a lot of mistakes in his life, but the thing he never made a mistake about was standing up for people when it was right.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think of that, and the fact that he he died from something that's killing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people a year in the United States.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, pushing through that, taking the bar exam, and then you get to November and you're waiting for the exam.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: That was back when it was three days.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now the kids say, Yeah, it's two days long.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: I remember opening up the email and or the the web portal.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: You put in your ID number and it says, Congratulations, you've passed the California bar exam for the July 14th, these 2014 examination.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I just thought, um, I'm doing this job for the right reasons because Alex taught me the right thing to do.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so I know my parents were proud, I was proud.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, one of the last things we talked about before he died, he said, if you're set up for that bar exam, you're gonna do great.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: He was always encouraging me.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: He always was trying to push me higher.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: So pushing through that, through that test, through the early part of my career, when it's like, what is this thing?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: How could this happen to someone we love when we didn't see it coming?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because he overdosed on oxycodon when he you know were well at that point, he had actually moved on to harder drugs because they took away the prescription and didn't roll him off the prescription in a slow enough manner.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so he turned to other things.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: But man, to think how that affects so many families, it's crazy.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy that we live through this.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and now people take it a lot more seriously.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: The district attorney is doing a great job getting those spentinol deaths to reduce year by year.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I fight for fentanyl opioid selling money to be used in the city in the right ways.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that was the hardest thing my family ever pushed through.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, but I carry it with me every day.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: But I carry the happiness of knowing what he stood for and how he he taught me to be a good person.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that never leaves you.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing share.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for and sorry for your loss.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so um the final thing we ask our our our guests, we get it from uh a podcast called Kraks, which is by this guy Oso Trava.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so he asked um all of his guests at the end, he says, if you could write a message in the sky for everyone to see, you know, forever, you know, what would you write up there for all of us to see?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: What would your words be?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I my how many words do I get?
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: How many characters?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: You're the boss.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I'm torn.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this this feels like me trying to pick my saint name for confirmation.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: I got so many different saints I wanted to pick.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I ultimately picked Peter.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there you go.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Saint Peter.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would you got I was not prepared for this, John.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: I will, I will, you know, the first thing that pops into my mind is just love your family.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Just yesterday, yesterday in my district, uh not far from my home, uh, a man snapped and he shot his wife and his daughters.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I saw that, and then he killed himself.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't imagine the amount of pain that family must have been going through for that to happen.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, an inexplicable example of domestic violence, uh, but you just never know what this is.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, like it's inexplicable.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I just think to myself, love your family and and then be kind to each other.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: I I think you never know what is gonna make a person overcome whatever they're facing or sink deeper into a depression.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I have no idea what that story is, and I'm not gonna play my due.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: But my gut is telling me that you know there's something was going on there, and everybody goes through their trials.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody loves their family, everyone fights with their family, everyone has disagreements, and you think, oh, you're my family, you're supposed to agree with me, or I'm you know, your parent, you should listen to me.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's complicated relationship building, right?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: And families, so love your family, just like Mother Teresa said.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh if I was gonna say um, you know, so if I was gonna say something even more broadly, as like a broader hote, uh, my most inspiring scripture quote uh is from uh Gospel of John, Gospel according to John, uh, chapter one, where he says, A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: I think through that there's always gonna be suffering, pain, tragedy, but there is light in all of that.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I saw that when I was at the vigil last night, and over 200 people showed up at the corner of that home to pray for that family, pray for their neighbors, hold candles together, and listen to the stories of the of the eighth-grade daughter who was dead, and hear the friends tell good stories about her.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's light in the darkness, and we shall we we shall overcome the darkness.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a lot more characters than love your family, but that is my own.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: We'll take it.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's great.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you, uh, council member.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, hopefully we'll see you running for mayor in a couple years.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: If that does happen, of course, we'll support wholeheartedly.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of our listeners will.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: If people want to learn more about you, uh, where can they find you?
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, you just Google San Diego City Council District 7, Raoul Campillo.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: Honestly, we put up everything we do on our webpage.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's got no antiquated webpage, it's the city of San Diego after all, uh, but we we keep it fresh with what we're fighting for.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, social media is an interesting tool because you know, I think it contributes to the distraction of people because it's so quick and you got to try to do that.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: But honestly, uh, I if people want to see in real time, come to a city council meeting on a controversial topic and watch how we make our decisions, and you'll see the way I make my decisions.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: Listen first, listen last, and then let your moral compass lead you in the right direction.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: And whether it's the Balboa Park parking thing, which I was against, the trash fee bait and switch, I was against that bait and switch, uh, you know, getting the mission bait toilets open.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: These are the things that have been the things that's right.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: But it's all out of the, you know, I'm gonna keep fighting because I know a lot of people are like, oh, you should just go along to get along.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, that's not how we create a better community.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, I'm here to fight for the community to have safer, more quality, prosperous lives with better jobs, keep those things focused and do it for both sides of the border while we're at it.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: Love it, man.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for spending time.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: I know that later today you're jumping on a plane to go out to Boston to join your colleagues from uh Harvard Law School, kind of a Latino Hispanic alumni gathering.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: You'll see Judge Campos out there, probably some other people that we know, but say travels to you.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for joining us.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so this will wrap our latest episode of the Latino.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you like us, like us, share us, um, pass us along, make comments.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's been a real privilege getting to know you better, look forward to seeing you do great things in the future, and look forward to our continued uh friendship and collaboration.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: The honor is mine, and I have to end with this.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: I love you, Nadia.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're the best wife and mother I could ever ask for.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, geez, holy cow.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: Good stuff, thank you so much.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: That'll sign off this episode of the Latino Podcast.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: Adios, adios.