Latest / National Immigration Law Center Freedom to Thrive Podcast / Ep. #201 Comedy is Resistance (ft. Cristela Alonzo)

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Ep. #201 Comedy is Resistance (ft. Cristela Alonzo) · National Immigration Law Center Freedom to Thrive Podcast

0:00
Familia, welcome back to the second season of NILC's Freedom to Thrive podcast.
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Resistance, Justice, and Resilience, where we're going to have beautiful conversations
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with beautiful folks talking about how to survive, thrive, and fight back in these times.
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Because these are some wild times and me
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i'm your host and companion with
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these conversations my name is hector flores agitator
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advocate culture worker and co-founder
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of las cafeteras the cutest band out
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of isla but don't tell los lobos they get
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jealous so familia uh today
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we're talking about comedy as resistance comedy
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has been a form of resistance and it's
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kind of been a saving grace like comedy and humor has
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been wonderful to me in these times so i'm
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so excited that our first guest for
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our inaugural show for season two is a writer comedian advocate all around badass
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and she's on the heels of a third netflix special we're gonna have grisela lonzo
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join us in a little bit so i'm so excited to bring her onto the show but before
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that like Like everybody knows,
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this is the National Immigration Law Center's podcast, Freedom to Thrive.
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So I want to bring on the jefa, la luchadora, la compañera right here.
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President of NILC, Kika Matos.
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Kika, hola compañera, hola, como estas?
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Can I add la chingona there too? Oh, girl, you know, I'm going to do it with
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an X, a little chingona with an X, okay?
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Kika, I'm going to ask you a loaded question, okay? Yeah, go for it.
1:44
Oh, first of all, welcome as our host of the Webby award-winning podcast hosted
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by the one and only Hector Flores.
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Compañera, it's good to have you. I have not seen you in a while because we've
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all been very busy. You know, there's a saying.
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Stars only shine in the dark. And in these dark times, it could be scary, and they are.
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But I also think about it like that's actually when we shine.
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That's actually when we get to see each other. You know what I mean?
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The folks out there doing the work, you know, that's when you actually get to the stars.
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And I see you, compañera. I see your organization. I see the work that all of
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us and all the allies are doing. We can see each other in these times.
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So, you know, for me, my question is one, how are you? How are you doing right now?
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I am filled with rage and energy and a sense of indignation.
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And I wake up every morning with fire in my belly, engaging in the fight.
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And so as all things, you know, and I also am, I am counting my blessings and
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my privilege every single day.
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And I'm channeling my blessings and my privilege to La Lucha because if there
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ever was a moment when everybody needs to step up and fight, it's now.
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Our democracy is dying every day and the only thing that's going to save us is we the people.
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You know, I remember I think Muhammad Ali had the shortest speech ever at a commencement.
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He gets up on the podium and he says, me, we.
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He steps down. And that's kind of how I feel right now. You know,
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it's not about me, it's about we. We.
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You know, before we bring on Cristela, I want to ask you about your work as
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well, because I want folks to know about NILC and the wonderful work you're doing.
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Can you share a little bit about what NILC is doing right now to fight back in these times?
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Yeah, if it was one thing that I would describe us as right now is an organization
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that is having the fight and we will never bend at the knee.
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We are, we are in the fight until we win. animal.
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And so we are using every tool that we can at our disposal. And we're one of
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those organizations that is doing everything we can to be effective.
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And so what does that mean specifically? I'll give you a few examples.
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And then I'm going to stop talking because everybody's here to listen to Christelle and not to me.
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So since January, we've been doing a ton of Know Your Rights materials.
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Why? Because we want to make sure that immigrant communities know what they
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need to do to protect themselves and to challenge this administration.
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Because everybody in this country, whether or not you have status,
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has constitutional rights.
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And so our materials are in multiple languages. Go to our website and we have
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things like how to protect yourself if you're in a rally.
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If you have loved ones also who have been detained, how do you find them in
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this terrible maze where they make it really difficult for people to find their
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loved ones? every piece of information you could possibly need,
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At this moment, we have tried to turn into Know Your Rights materials,
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which means that what you're looking at should be in a language that you understand
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and should be really easy for you to absorb.
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We're not trying to sound like smart lawyers. We're trying to make sure that
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people have access to materials and they can absorb them. So we've done a ton
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of Know Your Rights materials.
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We're telling stories and we're capturing the footage, the atrocities that ICE is committing.
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Why? Because everybody looking at this footage should be ashamed.
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Right. And that's also a way that we can sue this administration and show the
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horrible, unconstitutional, violent things that ICE is doing.
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And America should be ashamed. I don't care what you look like or where you're from.
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And then where we work, you know, it's the National Immigration Law Center.
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So I'm a lawyer and I work with a bunch of lawyers. We have sued this administration
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on a bunch of different occasions.
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So those 600 Guatemalan kids that this administration tried to kidnap and send
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away on a long weekend at two o'clock in the morning, we sued and we stopped that.
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And we got a judge to say, you're not going to deport these children now and
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in the future. The registry, this terrible thing that this administration tried
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to do to force immigrants to register, we sued there as well.
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And then we stood up. We are trying to protect the rights of immigrant children
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to be able to go to school.
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Why? Because in all of these different states now, there's an effort to repeal
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a Supreme Court law that allows undocumented children to go to public schools.
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And so we've stepped up to have that fight. We're part of the We Are Home campaign
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to support dreamers as well, right?
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People who have protection from deportation. And then the final thing I would
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say is we stood up on an initiative called the Defending Democracy Initiative
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that has us really at the intersection of protecting immigrants and protecting our democracy.
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And so you're going to see us filing a bunch of different lawsuits in the coming weeks.
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And all of those are at the intersection of
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making sure that we continue to wrap our arms are on
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immigrants and we sue the hell out of this administration and
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at the same time we support a democracy
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that is dying slowly but dying
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every single day so that's what we've been up to and compañera i'm so happy
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that people like you are in the fight you know and they're suing the hell out
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of these folks thank you that's all i gotta say right now let me say actor thank
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for feeding the soul of the movement with your beautiful music and cristela
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thank you for making us laugh.
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And I think that's a great way to bring in our compañera right now.
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So from the valley of the Rio Grande.
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Where breakfast tacos run like water. You know what I mean?
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I want to bring on a wonderful, wonderful ally, advocate, comedian, writer.
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Can I have a big round of applause, everybody, for my home girl from Texas,
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Cristela Alonso, everybody. What the fuck?
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Oh, my God. I'm going to clap for myself, too, or not.
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You know what I mean? Hey, that's why I think this is where a DJ works.
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You know what I mean? Hey, DJ. Bam, man.
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But Grisela, it's so good to have you out here, compañera. You have been wild.
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You've been on a press tour. You just released your third comedy special on Netflix.
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I saw you on the Howard Stern show. I saw you on the Daily Show.
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And I'm like, dude, compañera, get it.
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Get it. Because the world needs to know your name and the work you're doing.
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You know what I mean? But before getting here, I don't know if everybody knows
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a little bit about your background.
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So one is you grew up in the valley.
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You grew up on the border. Yes. And one thing I want you to share is like,
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what's for you? What do people not understand about?
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Well, what is the difference about growing up on the border?
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What's something people don't understand?
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And then how did that shape you? Just sort of your approach to life and comedy growing up in El Valle?
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I'm going to be real honest. you know what I learned about growing up in the
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border is that in the border, I was allowed to have a personality and be an individual.
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And by that, I mean that everybody that I grew up with, we were all Mexican,
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you know, because we were in a border town.
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I didn't, you know, in school, we had like one white student at school, you know what I mean?
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And we all knew her, right? And it was predominantly Mexican.
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And I say that I was allowed to have a personality.
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Because there you realize that we were all people.
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It wasn't until I moved from my border town that I realized that people label
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you and tell you, oh, you're a Mexican, you're a minority, you're a this.
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And I had never heard the term minority until I left my hometown.
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Because there I was just Cristela.
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But when I moved away, I was the Mexican. it. I was the Latina because I was the rare one.
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So growing up in the border town taught me a couple of things.
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It was the fact that I was allowed in my hometown to like sci-fi,
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to like comic books, to like all the nerdy stuff.
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And then when I left, I realized that I was going to be a representative of
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my culture to everybody.
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And the people that weren't familiar with my culture, they thought that if I
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liked something, everyone in my culture liked that thing.
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And so for me, growing up in the border town, I realized that when you grew
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up in a border town like mine,
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we didn't judge people crossing the border.
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It was a way of life. You know, there's kids that live in Mexico that come to
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school to the United States and then go back home at the end of the day.
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You know, it's a commute, you know, and we never said, well, what are they doing?
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And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because we all knew that we had to work together.
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You know, it's like the way that the country existed, that exists.
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We have made ourselves dependent on immigrants to work in this country to contribute to the economy.
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And for me, it was just this really weird thing that when I left,
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I realized, oh, everybody doesn't get that in harmony, we all actually get what we want, you know?
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And that's what was really weird, especially when I moved to Hollywood.
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It was worse when I got to Hollywood because I was a comic. I was a stand-up
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comic. I started out in Dallas.
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And in Dallas, I was just a comic. I was one of the only women doing it.
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I was one of the only Latinos doing it.
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And then when I moved to LA, I wanted to do club sets. And the managers at some
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of the clubs back then were like, well, you're Latina. You got to go do the Latino shows.
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You can't perform at the clubs. You got to go do the Latino shows.
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And I'm like, well, where are these Latino shows? I've never even heard of these Latino shows.
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They're like bars, restaurants you got to
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go do that and i had to go do that and
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i was just like man the way that someone
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that was born in the united states gets treated because of what they look like
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you know you're like oh damn that makes a difference it's important to actually
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like that's one of the reasons i i became so active and vocal because i'm like
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wait you you can't make me an experiment for everybody.
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You can't make me do something. That's what I've learned in my entire life from
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going from a border town to Los Angeles.
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Dude, you just blew my mind right now. You literally, and you know,
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it's so crazy because my dad's from a border town.
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Yeah. So my dad's from San Luis, Rio Colorado.
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Oh, okay. So right under, so Juma, Arizona, the border, San Luis. Yeah.
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And so that little town is where my dad's from. And my dad would be like, oh, the border?
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Yeah, literally a line in the dirt. Like we would cross every day.
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We go to work, no issue, right? Like the way he talked about it was just this
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like, yeah, I was there. Nobody really cared about it.
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And it would go back and forth. Right. So he never saw himself as different. And I do.
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It's so dope the way you describe that. Like, yeah, when everybody see themselves
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as the same, you're not there trying to identify who's less than. Yeah.
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You know what I mean? Or better than or superior in that sense.
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What's even funnier to me, what's interesting is that like when I was growing
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up, you didn't even need a passport to go to Mexico.
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So it was so understood that it was such a way of life.
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You needed to show birth certificate and stuff, but then the passport thing
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didn't really come into play until I became a preteen teenager,
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and then everything changed.
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But before that, when I was a kid, all they would do is that they would ask
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you, like, are you an American citizen? If you were a kid that didn't have an
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ID, they would ask you, what's your favorite subject at school?
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Just to get you interested, right? What's the name of your school?
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Because you want to know that you're not really, like, that you're not taking
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somebody's identity, right? So it's like, you have to get quizzed.
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What's your favorite teacher's name? What's your teacher? What does your teacher
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look like? They had all these questions.
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But as a kid, you're like, why aren't they asking me all these questions, right?
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But it was because there was no need for passports back then that they were
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just like, okay, come on in.
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You know, it's like, you say that you're this, this is what it is.
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And then all of a sudden when the passports were needed, everybody became this
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very pious group that's like.
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Immigrants no it just became this heightened thing and which i always thought
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was so ridiculous because growing up in the border town we didn't have that
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growing up yeah you know so crazy so,
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when in fourth grade i went to a new school and i remember i was speaking spanish
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and my friend tells me hey stop speaking spanish if you speak spanish you're
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gonna go with all the dumb kids and he poured into this bungalow and i was just
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like yo i don't want to do that yeah and literally.
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From that day on, stop speaking Spanish.
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Like I didn't want to speak Spanish no more. I didn't like, I did. I was just ashamed.
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And what I've later found out that was the ESL. That was the ESL classroom. Right.
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And that's the way it was viewed. That's the way it was talked about.
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And you have a young kid like me and there's like thousands of kids like me
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who grew up ashamed to speak the language or have their food.
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But you say like, Oh, when you go up in a border town, everybody's
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the same and there's no like differentiation like you
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were allowed to you were allowed to like enjoy a variety of
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different things i think that's that's so dope and that's
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fascinating right i i saw an interview with i don't know if you know the rapper
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killer mike yeah yeah oh yeah i know yeah i i saw i saw an interview with killer
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mike and he's talked about going when he in school he went to like harry he
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went to like all black you know elementary school and like they were named after black leaders.
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And, you know, in elementary school and middle school. So by the time I went to high school,
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Right. He felt he was already like a proud black man.
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Right. Like he felt proud of his culture, his people, his history.
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So when he interacted with others.
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Right. That came with a different perspective. He was like he was schooled enough to check it,
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educate folks, bring people into the conversations like that would have never
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happened if my community around me didn't support my history,
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education, you know, and my elevation of myself as a as a young black man.
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And I always think that's so fascinating, right?
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Because that's what happens to a lot of us is like, we speak Spanish and it's
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like, oh, no, that's a second class language.
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Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. And, you know, and look, thinking about it,
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too, it's like where I grew up, it's like we also, I had my friend in college,
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my best friend in college was this black guy named Byron. Rest in peace.
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And he's the one that actually taught me about culture.
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Because the same thing growing up in the border town, we were all the same.
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We really we had a love and respect
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for the culture but we didn't know a
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lot we never really thought about the culture as a
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whole meaning that like in school
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we were taught american history which
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really predominantly meant old white white
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history right so it was like no one else
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contributed anything to anyone you know whatever it was
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just you know the pilgrims came and god thank
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god they came they helped the natives right grow the
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corn and everything you know everything in history is just like man it really
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is it's avatar right white savior right coming in and everything so when i was
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in college my friend who was black asked me about my culture and it was the
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first time that i realized that.
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The way that I was raised with the culture, it was, it was the culture that
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I knew was all Mexican because my mom was from Mexico.
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But I didn't have a sense of Latinos in American history, in American society.
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And that's something that I had to learn.
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And it's funny because growing up, one of my favorite shows,
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I used to love watching A Different World, right?
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It was after The Cosby Show. It was a spinoff of The Cosby Show with Lisa Bonet, but it was an HBCU.
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It was Black college where you saw the students be so in love with being at
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that school, and they celebrated everything. And I was like, what is that?
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What is that vibe? You know, because it was something that seemed so foreign
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to me because they were able to actually learn about their ancestors who came before them.
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And going back to what you were saying, we live in a place where a lot of people
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see that the language that you speak isn't good enough to be spoken.
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So there is something that we constantly fight where it's an uphill battle,
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right? We're going uphill trying to,
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find our place in this country, which we shouldn't be, we should be allowed
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to create whatever, we should be able to carve out everything that we want in
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this country and make ourselves what we want to be.
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But we actually, we constantly have to be told by certain people that your language
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isn't good enough, your cultures, your country of origin is the problem.
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You know, it's like people think that Mexicans and Guatemalans are the same thing.
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People think, it's a lot of, it's a lot of defending yourself.
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And when you defend yourself, how can you thrive?
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And here's the thing. When it's done well, when systematic racism is done so
20:00
well, they don't even have to do it anymore. We do it to ourselves.
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100%. 100%. Right? Like, so like a young person like me no longer wants to speak Spanish.
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My name is Hector. I want to change my name. I don't want to be called Hector
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anymore. You know what I mean? Like I literally, I don't want to listen to Spanish music.
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I only want to listen. And I then my community around, I also judge other people.
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Yes. Right. Then I started doing to them. Right. What, what I feel is being done to me.
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And, you know, here's the thing too. Here's what I always tell people,
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you know, with the whole bad bunny thing, you know, bad bunny at the Superbowl.
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It's kind of wild. Cause everybody's like, we want an American,
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you know? And it's like, all right.
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Know your history. And then, too, they're like, we want an American language, like English.
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I'm like, bro, look at it. Yes. I'll give you this.
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Spanish is from Spain. I'll give you that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Right? Yeah. Wait till they find out where English is from. Exactly. You know what I mean?
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Exactly. I keep saying, the thing about the bad buddy thing I keep saying,
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are the critics racist or stupid?
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If you got to pick one, what are you?
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Wait till you're stupid. racist that you don't want someone
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that his is his skin color performing at the super
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bowl or is it stupid that you don't know that
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puerto rico is part of the united states pick one
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because it doesn't make any sense right yeah yeah yeah these are wild times
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but you know that's the thing they want they bank on to the first thing they
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do is trying to strip any kind of education from you.
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And that is why, you know, with Geek, I was saying like the know your rights, right? That's step one.
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Knowing information is the most powerful tool that we can have.
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And by that, I mean, and even now, after, you know, now that LA,
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Chicago, and now Portland are being undersea with like ice, what I have seen is an evolution.
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I was actually just ice raids, we were guinea pigs for the ice raids,
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right? We didn't know what was happening.
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We were the guinea pigs. And you had, you know.
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You had the propaganda where like the media shows, like the pictures of the
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Latinos with like looking angry with the Mexican flag and like,
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this is what's happening in LA.
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You're just like, you know, and we saw each other at the SEIU rally,
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you know, it was like, yeah.
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You remember the rally, like you go down there thinking, man,
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downtown, I hope I'm safe.
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And it was beautiful. It was beautiful. But I tell people, those rallies,
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like the rallies that we went to, that we go to, you need permits to have them.
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This is how organized these rallies are.
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You need permits to set up the lights that they had and everything.
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But on TV, they make it seem like people just show up angry and stuff. No, it's not that.
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After LA you have Chicago and now
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Chicago you start seeing a little people being really salty
23:09
in a good way where you're just like yes knowing
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your rights I actually will say that now we're at a
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point where the immigrants have to know their rights but also
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the citizens trying to protect the immigrants meaning
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that we need to have know your rights for the immigrants and
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know your rights as a citizen can you record what are you
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doing what can you ask what like because ICE is
23:31
trying to say no you can't do this like the people
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that didn't want to wear masks during covid now are all like ninjas right like
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you know it's just like like pick a side right don't be right but now with la
23:45
and chicago now we see portland now we see a latino guy in an inflatable frog suit.
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Amazing and that is amazing the evolution of
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that happens once people know what we're up
24:00
against and notice that once they realize what they're up against they choose
24:06
comedy and they choose to be trivial they try they choose to mock and trivialize
24:13
the movement because comedy is a way that you show people how ridiculous,
24:20
the circumstances are and that is why it's important to lean into the joy and
24:25
comedy of it Because they want you sad.
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They want you to cry because crying, sad, yelling, anger, that makes a great
24:35
propaganda tool for that side.
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That's that's that. That's I want to put that on a T-shirt.
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I want to put that on a damn T-shirt. OK, we'll go 50 50 60 40.
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Well hey i mean i just i saw
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this incredible you know a little soundbite the other day was john stewart at
24:56
the kennedy center where he's talked about you know in a fascist government
25:01
they're going to come after the writers they're going to have to come out they're
25:04
educated they could and they're coming after the comedians right not just the
25:08
activists why why are they coming out I have to comedians.
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Because all of those people, especially the comedians, they actually,
25:17
you know, it's something that I like to do in my standup is that,
25:20
you know, you can talk about serious things, but you do it in a funny way so
25:24
that people don't know that they're being talked to.
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That's one thing that and i learned that years ago when
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i started doing events like for campaigns movements
25:32
propositions whatever it was you know it was this thing where i went to these
25:37
events and i realized that the politicians were boring people to death nobody
25:42
wants to hear statistics nobody wants to hear like nobody wants a powerpoint
25:47
presentation on anything you know it's like it's one of the reasons why like.
25:52
You know, in junior high, before the internet existed, I had a side hustle.
25:57
And this is like, I'm 46, right? So like, we had no internet.
26:02
I used to have a side hustle of writing down the lyrics to hard songs.
26:08
And I would sell copies of the lyrics to people because everybody wanted to
26:12
know the lyrics to these songs, right? Give me an example.
26:15
Give me an example. I was Informer. Was like one of my biggest money makers.
26:20
Like, I would record. I would record the music videos on my VCR and I would just sit there and stop.
26:27
And I'm like, informer, you know, see daddy me snow me unto,
26:32
you know, like I'm writing it. Right.
26:35
Now it's copy for five bucks and the student would buy it, you know. And why do I say this?
26:43
Because what people want are to be entertained.
26:46
These kids were using their allowance money
26:50
to have me give them lyrics to songs
26:53
because they knew that the things that make them
26:56
feel better is a priority and that is something that that you know through music
27:02
look during the first term of donald trump the the album that got me through
27:07
was a tribe called quest thank you for your service we got it from here it that
27:12
was a that That was an album of resistance.
27:15
That was something, I mean, they make fun of him. They call him out.
27:19
It's something that made you feel like you weren't alone.
27:23
And that's what comedians do. And that's what musicians do.
27:27
That's what the artists do. Because you're not trying to do it when you're trying
27:32
to do something, when you're trying to make art.
27:36
And I struggle to call myself an artist or what I do is art because I am very hard on myself.
27:47
And I actually, I love art so much that I hold it on such a high regard that,
27:54
you know, it's like for me to call something art, it's next level for me.
27:58
I can't describe it, you know, but it is this thing.
28:02
When you're making good art, it should be about what you're feeling,
28:06
your existence, you know, your plight, your emotion, who you are at that moment.
28:13
You're not trying to create something thinking, I think millions of people will like this.
28:18
You know The truth is is
28:21
that Good work will always be
28:24
Found by your tribe Whoever those people
28:27
are They will come seeking you You don't
28:30
go seeking them And the ones that find you They get it and they're In it and
28:37
sometimes they Just want to show they want Something that shows them That they're
28:42
not alone And if you can make People feel good by doing that.
28:49
That's really important. Yeah. You know, because it's so good.
28:54
I'm, you know, just I'm also just really inspired by just comedians.
28:59
The art of laughter, the art of comedy.
29:03
Right. The precision of timing. And this is also in the music world as a musician,
29:08
too. Right. Like you develop a set list.
29:11
Right. You read the room, you read the space and how people want.
29:14
But like I love because I get when I hear like when I hear racist shit,
29:19
like I go from zero to 100. Right. Like I get so mad.
29:24
But comedians take that and like they'll they'll they'll turn it into a joke.
29:28
Yes. Right. Right away. And you call that wit. Right. Like someone's witty.
29:32
Yeah. Right. They're not they're not that we're not led by our emotions and
29:36
therefore led led in that way.
29:38
But actually, oh, yeah, this is this is fuel for another perspective.
29:42
You know so i and you know so then i started doing some
29:45
stuff in between shows i'd be like you know i'd finish a song that's
29:49
for immigrant rights i go you know what i know why ice
29:51
is out here because it's illegal to look this good you know
29:54
what i mean so i like i'll throw in a joke yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because
29:58
that word that they take that word and they make it so scary yes and so i'm
30:03
like how do i you how do i take this scary word and make it something funny
30:07
right And that's something that I learned from comedians, that I learned from you.
30:13
And now, for me, I want to transition to like, you are now on your third comic
30:19
special. You just dropped it on Netflix, Upper Classy.
30:23
And one is like, I didn't expect...
30:27
I expected to laugh and I did not expect to have so many emotions. And you got me.
30:34
You got me through your vulnerability, through your rawness,
30:40
through insecurity, and through showing people your life. Right?
30:45
You made me feel not alone.
30:47
Like that's what you did. You know? And I got so emotional, man.
30:53
And it was beautiful. It was beautiful.
30:55
And then the next day I saw my mom, she's like, mijo, I need you to see something.
31:00
There's this girl, there's this girl on Netflix. I'm like, what's her name?
31:06
I don't even know, but she's so funny. You would like her.
31:10
You would like her, mijo. She's like, you would be friends. I go,
31:15
you saw the whole thing? She's like, I saw it, mijo.
31:17
And I was like, yeah, man, you're like reaching,
31:21
you're like, it's so intergenerational and like it's
31:24
so dope how you feeling how you feeling about
31:27
this trilogy now right from lower classy middle classy
31:30
now you're third how is this trilogy feeling you know for
31:33
me i want people i want
31:37
people to know that the trilogy started 10 years ago because when i had my tv
31:45
show i had a sitcom that ran for a year it was 22 episodes and the number one
31:52
of the number one notes that I would get from studios and networks is.
31:56
We need more ascension. They need to ascend, right?
32:01
And they give you that, but they don't explain what they mean by that,
32:05
right? So it's basically like, we said the word, now you take it however you mean, right?
32:09
And the way that I understood it was that even from the moment I pitched the
32:13
show, I would get notes that they thought my family was too poor.
32:17
They wanted my family to have more money.
32:20
And my point was that you needed to show the journey from nothing to something
32:26
to make people feel like they could do it too.
32:31
And to understand that part of coming up is the success.
32:38
It's not just success at the top, it's the movement of it.
32:42
The journey. And I would get so frustrated because of this ascension note that
32:47
I would get that I started thinking,
32:49
if I did a trilogy of specials that showed my ascension from beginning to end,
32:55
not knowing where it would be,
32:57
I think it would be interesting to show people where I would be at certain points
33:03
to show how I've evolved throughout the years, hoping that it would work.
33:09
And the first one was an introduction about who I was for people that didn't
33:14
know and really talking about how I grew up with an immigrant mother,
33:18
you know, and really talking about like.
33:22
The last joke of the special is about my mom, how she was on her deathbed,
33:27
and we realized that we didn't talk—in my family, we don't talk about feelings, right?
33:32
It's like we can tell each other that we love each other and stuff,
33:35
but we don't have those moments where we tell each other how much we mean to each other, right?
33:40
And my mom was on her deathbed, and I'm like, this is my chance.
33:44
I'm going to do it, and I do all of this, and I tell her everything, and then she didn't die.
33:52
And then she lived for another year and she just made fun of
33:55
me for telling her how much i loved her right and
33:58
it's like she just used it against me right and she's
34:01
like i want a burger and so you can't have a burger she's like well
34:05
i thought you loved me and i don't know what i mean like right true story came
34:10
from a very sad moment in my life right but you tell the story it took me 16
34:15
years for me to be able to write that to tell that story you know like maybe
34:21
16 years let's say I don't know. 13.
34:24
So, you know, it's like this thing where it comes in truth.
34:27
I talk about my mother, hoping that other people might understand that if they
34:32
have that mother that is like that or that family that doesn't talk about it,
34:37
you know, maybe you should talk about it. Right.
34:39
But the first special was about me coming up and me trying to figure out life.
34:44
The second special was about me having more money.
34:49
And there's this weird idea that if you have money, you're just buying expensive stuff all the time.
34:56
But what people don't understand that if you grew up in the poverty,
34:59
below the poverty line like I did, when you come into money,
35:03
you are playing catch up from all of your life.
35:07
So now I have this money and now I have to, now I, now I have to go to the doctor
35:13
and find out that I'm diabetic because I didn't have money to go to the doctor.
35:17
So, you know, and that's one of the things that kills our community,
35:21
not having access, not having money.
35:23
We're just like, oh, well, you know, we're just, we just have a bad knee.
35:28
We just have a bad something and you deal with it. And you're like, no, no, no, no, no.
35:31
That's not how it works. So like the second one was about getting my idea of
35:35
money and being able to take care of myself and how taking care of yourself is considered a luxury.
35:44
Bullshit that it's considered a luxury. And the third one.
35:47
Well, hold on. Before you go to the third one, I just want to say,
35:50
so as a musician, as an artist, you don't get health care.
35:54
You don't have a nine to five. You don't have four K. So I go to a dentist in Tijuana.
36:01
So because I had a root canal and it was like almost $4,000 I went to Tijuana
36:08
and they're like I would do it for like $700 you know what I mean?
36:12
I remember your joke in the second in your second special you say you want to
36:17
know how much money I made?
36:18
I make new teeth money the teeth are so expensive I'm just going to have I'm
36:25
going to be in the coffin like that smiling so people can see it.
36:31
Dude, when you said that joke, I was like, to everybody who don't have money
36:36
to go to the dentist, you know what I'm saying? My dad never went to the dentist.
36:41
Never. And like, that joke...
36:45
Was so dope right like it just kind of rippled effects
36:48
and like it's almost if you know you know yeah you
36:51
know what i mean if you know you know and if not forever like
36:54
like for me it's like i'm not trying to do the jokes about
36:57
like what's up with airline food you know it's like i know
37:00
so many people that have never been on a plane yeah those
37:04
are the people i'm talking to you know what i mean and it's
37:07
like do i worry about being mainstream no
37:10
who cares about that like you
37:13
don't worry about trying to placate to everyone again you
37:16
have to be specific to me i think that being
37:19
specific actually makes you universal the more
37:23
specific you are the more you connect with people um
37:26
there are a lot of people you know i did a joke that i cut in
37:29
the special and the third one and it
37:32
was about let me talk about the third one really quick
37:35
yeah right i realized that i
37:38
had this now it's upper classy now
37:40
I'm like you know it's like now I've had
37:44
money for a couple more years
37:47
and what does that mean and to me I realized that it was knowing that you're
37:55
not about survival anymore what does it mean when you don't feel like you have
38:01
to survive like you're no longer in survival mode.
38:05
And that's when I realized, and, you know, I learned this from my therapist,
38:09
it's we do not think of rest as something that's important to us.
38:18
We think that we have to constantly work hard and always work because of the survival mode.
38:27
We think that we always have to work, work, work.
38:31
But then you have those occasions where you get really sick and you keep trying
38:36
to work through that sickness and your body finally gives out and says,
38:41
bitch, you're sick, right?
38:43
And you're done, right? And I remember this one time I had a really bad flu
38:47
and I was home and I was trying to clean, right? Because I'm home.
38:51
You know, I couldn't go out anywhere. I'm like, but I'm home, so I'm going to clean.
38:54
My therapist was like, but you're sick. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm home,
38:58
you know? And she was like, your body is telling you that you have to rest.
39:03
And that seemed like such a luxury to me that I was like, oh, my God. Right.
39:08
Like the rest of it is so weird. But the third one in the past 10 years,
39:13
I have shot these specials with Trump as the backdrop.
39:17
Right. The first special I shot in August 2016.
39:21
After the first taping, I shot two specials. They were like I got notes saying,
39:25
do you want to get do you want to get rid of the Trump jokes that you did?
39:28
Because he's not going to win.
39:30
And I was like, no, it's important to keep him because it's a snapshot of where we are in this country.
39:35
You cannot erase what is happening. It happened, you know?
39:41
And second one, I was going to record around my birthday.
39:47
My birthday's January 6th. It was that year.
39:52
Like that? That. Damn. Dude, my birthday's January 6th. I was going to record
39:57
it on my birthday, like...
40:00
Right? So I had to wait. I moved it to a month in February because of January 6th.
40:08
And the third one I shot on June 14th, which is no King's Day.
40:13
It was the day that he threw himself that Chuck E. Cheese military parade.
40:18
He's like, dude, this guy, right?
40:23
My friend Paige who directed the special, she's, you
40:26
know she's one of my dearest friends and you know she's she's
40:29
very political she has a fantastic like documentary called
40:33
outstanding and it covers comics lgbtqia members of stand-up comedy and the
40:40
evolution of the community and comedy and we were talking about and she's like
40:44
well you know you're doing that on no king's day so you have to say something
40:48
and i was like yeah Because if I don't, who is?
40:53
Because you can't assume that others are going to do your job for you.
40:56
If you want to say something, you say something. You can't wait for somebody else to do it, right?
41:01
So I was like, I got to do it. I don't think that I'm doing it because I think
41:04
that I, you know, I'm like, I'm the voice of people.
41:08
I'm like, no, I'm saying something because I want to say it, right?
41:12
And I had this idea of taking out the Sadape flag.
41:16
You know, at the end of the special and I Googled my mom, which my mom loved
41:22
by the way, like, she's like, you got it. She's like, go all the way to the end.
41:29
It was like, I Googled set up a flag and I found a bunch of them,
41:34
but they were all, they were all like corporate businesses that were just mass
41:39
producing everything, you know, whatever, or if it was foreign made or whatever.
41:44
And I found the shop Sin Titulo and from Chicago, Latina owned.
41:48
And I found this flag and they were saying that their mom sews it.
41:52
And I was like, Latina? Mother. Say less. Like, I was like, give me nine.
42:00
I'll take all of them. Yeah. But I hit them up on Instagram and I'm like,
42:05
hey, I got to like, like, like, I'm going to take pictures with this flag.
42:09
I didn't tell them that I was going to use it in the special.
42:11
So, Casey got edited out because you never know. You know what I mean?
42:16
So, can you overnight this for me? Da-da-da, whatever, you know.
42:21
And, yeah, like they sent it to my brothers in McAllen and they brought it up
42:27
to Dallas where I shot it.
42:29
And I took it out and I was like, you know, here's my thing.
42:33
I knew that the special would be a turnoff to a lot of people. Hmm.
42:41
But here's the thing, though, is that I'm used to it.
42:45
Being a Latina, I have been used to my entire life being disregarded by people for what I am.
42:55
And being disregarded feels really bad.
43:00
But unfortunately, you get used to it. And when I realized that people were
43:06
going to, there were going to be some people that would never give me my special
43:10
the time of day, there's a moment when you realize like,
43:14
fuck it, let's say all of it.
43:17
Why not? It's not for them. It's for them.
43:22
And I would rather Talk to them Than again It's like on Instagram It's on social
43:29
media When I say something And somebody's like Why are you talking about politics?
43:37
You're a comedian And I always tell them.
43:41
Anyone is allowed to talk about politics. During campaigns, when they want our
43:46
votes, they want everyone's vote.
43:49
Everyone has the right to have an opinion about politics.
43:54
People that cannot vote that are here undocumented, they have a right to be
43:59
critical of politics because they're part of the country.
44:02
People in other countries, they have the right to be political because this
44:06
country affects other countries. So don't tell me that politicians are the only
44:12
ones that can talk about politics.
44:13
This is our country. And that's something that we forget.
44:17
Right. It's kind of like in Hollywood. There's people that don't want to anger
44:21
their agents, don't want to anger their managers. I'm like, they work for you.
44:25
These people work for you. You don't work for them. We elected them.
44:30
They work for us. So it's one thing that I'm like, you know,
44:34
when people say you should stick to telling jokes, I'm like,
44:37
well, you know, they don't follow me. You think I care?
44:42
Girl, I see on Instagram. Who are you to tell somebody what they can and can't talk about?
44:47
I'd be like, haven't you seen lower classy? Yeah.
44:51
Did you not see middle classy? Do you not follow her on Instagram?
44:54
Like, bro, what are you talking about? Like, you picked the wrong time to,
44:59
like, get angry. What are you talking about?
45:02
But it is, it's one of those things where, like, we live in a time where...
45:11
I don't know. And I don't want to generalize, but I'm going to generalize. Yeah.
45:15
A lot of people in the community, it's almost like they need to hear people
45:22
talk to be given permission to be active.
45:25
Because a lot of the community, a lot of the families come with,
45:30
don't speak unless you're spoken to, always behave, da-da-da-da-da.
45:35
And it's like, and if you don't get told that you have permission to fight and
45:41
be active, some people don't know that they have that power.
45:44
Years ago, I was in a minivan with
45:47
Dolores Huerta, right? And we do voter outreach. We're in like Florida.
45:51
And we're driving around like middle of the night.
45:54
We're going from a farm to another farm, talking to migrant farm workers,
46:01
their families, trying to get people interested in campaigns and whatever.
46:06
And I asked Dolores, like, you
46:09
know, what do you think is one of the best lessons that you've learned?
46:15
One of the best things you've learned in all of the work that you've done?
46:18
And she says, one of the best feelings I have is when I see people come into their power.
46:27
And you actually get told, hey, you're powerful and you can make a change.
46:32
And you see them go off and do that. And you realize that they needed to be
46:38
told that they had power.
46:41
That is one of the best lessons I've learned. What I want to know from you is
46:46
doing those five special, doing those five fundraisers, how was that for you?
46:52
What was your takeaway from that? And what was the organization you did it with?
46:57
So, you know, so it was the Immigrant Defenders Law Center and I, I didn't know what to do.
47:04
And I actually threw it out on an Instagram live or something like that.
47:08
It was actually, no, I was really upset and I made a post and I put it on my
47:12
stories and I just said, what if I just put some shows together,
47:16
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
47:16
And I had some friends, some dear friends that were like, you should do higher
47:20
ticket fundraiser, you know, because you, You know people that have money and blah, blah, blah.
47:26
And I was like, no, because those people, there's like people that will buy
47:32
the tickets, but they don't have the same impact as if you actually go to the
47:38
community and you charge $30 a ticket.
47:42
And to me, I actually, we raised $49,000 from like the shows.
47:49
All, you know, it was all free. I had a couple other comics on the shows and
47:54
I paid them out of my pocket because I wanted them to have something.
47:59
But, you know, it was like the tickets were 30 bucks and all of the money went to the organization.
48:07
But I actually was doing it as an experiment to empower people to try to teach them about voting.
48:15
So it was this thing where the
48:17
constant complaint is, well, I'm just one person. What does one vote do?
48:21
Right? Well, let me show you that in these shows, your $30 combined with other
48:28
people's money collectively came up with a lump sum of money that we gave away to people.
48:33
That is the power of voting That is the power of
48:36
all of this So you know it's I did
48:39
it though because The vibe of the shows The worst thing is happening in our
48:45
backdrop And the shows were full of joy And the people felt that it was okay
48:51
To feel joy in that time And that's what I want people to remember That in this time Yeah,
49:00
If you're tired, step away because we cannot have exhausted people.
49:06
Exhaustion does not give us good results. You go, you refuel,
49:12
you recharge, step away from the news.
49:16
The news will always be there. If you need that break, you go and rest because
49:21
that's how important you are to the fight. We need you rested.
49:25
We need you to not be so down on yourself. You need to feel like there's hope because there's hope.
49:33
The moment you feel like there's no chance, the moment you feel hopelessness,
49:39
step away and recharge because we need you well.
49:44
Like I said at the beginning, the biggest form of resistance is laughing and
49:50
smiling because when people hate you, people don't like you,
49:54
that is one thing they don't want to see. They don't want to see you happy.
49:59
The best revenge is being happy despite everything.
50:03
Because in the end, good will win. It might take a while, but like you said
50:09
before at the top of the podcast, Hector, we've been here before.
50:13
There are a lot of us that have been here before. A lot of people,
50:16
a lot of young people, this is new to them, but a lot of people have been around
50:20
it for decades and we're not going anywhere. We haven't gone anywhere.
50:24
And in fact, Pretty soon in a couple of years, we're going to be the big majority in this country.
50:30
So whether you like it or not, we coming.
50:33
Compañera, before, like everything, things must come to an end.
50:38
I know we could talk for another two hours. I mean, for real.
50:41
And then we would, and I would enjoy every minute of it.
50:45
But I want you to tell folks what's coming up. Where can they find you? Yeah.
50:51
You know, you can find me on social media. I'm really active on like Instagram
50:57
is just like my Achilles heel. I don't know why.
51:00
But like CristalAlonzo.com, I'm already putting some dates together for 2026.
51:05
I'll start going on the road in January. I'll announce the tickets next month
51:09
going on sale. As of now, I think I'm hitting minimum 20 cities from like January
51:16
to April and I'm not done.
51:18
And this is the time to check out my special upper classy, middle classy,
51:23
lower classy before I come out with the next hour next year.
51:26
And I hope to see you there.
51:28
And when you come to the show, I want you to have a good time because that is how we beat everyone.
51:35
That's right. Yo, congratulations, compañera, on all your success.
51:41
There's a saying that Filipinos say, they would say out there when they organize
51:45
with Mexicanos and the farm workers, they would say, isang baksak, right?
51:49
And in Tagalog, that means one rise, one fall.
51:52
You come for one, you come for all.
51:55
Because when one of us comes up, that's good for everybody.
51:58
When we see you rise, compañera, and we see you succeed, and you are an artist, one of the best to do it.
52:06
And I thank you. And I'm so appreciative of you and your work and just knowing you in this time.
52:11
Gracias, compañera. Much love. Gracias, Héctor. Órale.
52:15
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call a great conversation.
52:19
Cristela, Alonso, gracias, compañera, for bringing your wisdom,
52:25
your comedy, your joy with us.
52:27
I mean, that's actually my biggest takeaway from our conversation is the power
52:31
of laughter and joy in these times.
52:35
Because the folks out there, all the attacks on working class communities,
52:39
right, on immigrants, they want us to feel hopeless. But when we get together
52:44
and we giggle and we laugh and build community, that is the antidote.
52:49
That is how we fight back, right? That is one of the ways we fight back.
52:53
So thank you so much, Grisela, for bringing that to us.
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My name is Hector Flores. Thank you so much for listening to the first episode
53:01
of our new season on the Freedom to Thrive podcast, Resistance, Justice, Resilience.
53:07
If you want to know more about NILC and their amazing work, you can find them
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at nilc.org. That's N-I-L-C dot org.
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And make sure to subscribe to this podcast, the Freedom to Thrive podcast.
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You can find us on all major podcasting platforms.