Latest / Dos Amigos / Amanda Pacheco: Wilmer’s Better Half is here!

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Amanda Pacheco: Wilmer’s Better Half is here! · Dos Amigos

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello everyone. I'm Wilmer Valderrama.
0:06
Speaker 2: I'm Freddie Rodriguez and this is the docent MINGOS podcast.
0:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a very special episode today. I don't
0:13
Speaker 3: even know where to begin. Our guest is someone that
0:16
Speaker 3: I've known for a long time. We've trusted each other
0:19
Speaker 3: with our lives. Shared of milkshake, Yeah we have, we
0:25
Speaker 3: have her milshik definitely got this boy to the yard.
0:28
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, any of you there.
0:31
Speaker 3: Guys are watching or listening to that AMOS podcast, Thank
0:34
Speaker 3: you so much. This is a very special episode, a
0:36
Speaker 3: very exciting one for us because he's getting it, He's
0:39
Speaker 3: getting a little personal, a little deeper dive. We normally
0:42
Speaker 3: never do this where you know, neither you or I
0:45
Speaker 3: never really do this, but foreign territory if you want
0:49
Speaker 3: to introduce who I guess this.
0:51
Speaker 2: Our guest is a model, a dive master, a mother
0:58
Speaker 2: of two, and the partner to me and Mono.
1:04
Speaker 4: Me Amigo, amandap a trick.
1:09
Speaker 3: Yay yay yay yy yn Uh honey, Hi, welcome to
1:16
Speaker 3: the podcast.
1:18
Speaker 1: How does it feel?
1:20
Speaker 5: I mean I could literally count on like two fingers
1:23
Speaker 5: how many times I've talked into a microphone.
1:25
Speaker 6: So uh.
1:27
Speaker 7: Supernatural.
1:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, look, we were gonna make it super easy
1:31
Speaker 3: because obviously this is this is the this, this is
1:35
Speaker 3: supposed to be interrogation, and we never have you know,
1:40
Speaker 3: it's agos, but today you're the third Ama.
1:42
Speaker 1: You're so so very excited.
1:45
Speaker 3: So we you know, Leo, our producer, Leo clam I
1:49
Speaker 3: had this idea that you know, we've gone the whole
1:52
Speaker 3: season talking to some amazing friends of ours who you know,
1:55
Speaker 3: have played different roles in our lives, and you know,
1:58
Speaker 3: it all came full circle too, you know, the two
2:00
Speaker 3: people in our lives that are made made a major,
2:03
Speaker 3: a major contribution, if not in life, life enhancing an
2:08
Speaker 3: altern moment as we revolutionize ourselves as actually not just
2:12
Speaker 3: grown ups but real men.
2:14
Speaker 1: You know.
2:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So so we thought that having an episode
2:18
Speaker 3: where we just paid tribute to the women that makes
2:21
Speaker 3: us a hole in the women that makes us better,
2:23
Speaker 3: I thought, you know, would be a really cool idea.
2:25
Speaker 3: We have a little bit of a game for those
2:27
Speaker 3: of you who are expecting what this episode is going
2:29
Speaker 3: to be, and we're not going to play against each
2:32
Speaker 3: other a little bit and and Freddie's going to run
2:35
Speaker 3: that game. But before that, it would be my pleasure
2:39
Speaker 3: for you all to meet who Amanda Projecto is.
2:42
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, yes, indeed, Amanda. Where are you originally from?
2:47
Speaker 7: So?
2:47
Speaker 5: I was born in San Diego, and I grew up
2:51
Speaker 5: in a small town near Sacramento called Rockland, California.
2:54
Speaker 1: Rockland.
2:56
Speaker 5: I lived there for most of my life until I
3:01
Speaker 5: moved around as I got older and have lived all over. Yeah,
3:07
Speaker 5: mostly in northern California, southern California, but I jumped around,
3:10
Speaker 5: lived in Hawaii for a little bit, lived in the
3:13
Speaker 5: Philippines for a little bit.
3:15
Speaker 2: Why did you move Why did you live there when
3:17
Speaker 2: you were a child? Why were you moving so much?
3:19
Speaker 5: Well, this was not when I was a child, so
3:21
Speaker 5: this was like old like as I got older, so
3:23
Speaker 5: like just you know, growing up and took some time
3:27
Speaker 5: off of college and like just jumped around a little
3:29
Speaker 5: bit just to explore and have fun and live my life.
3:33
Speaker 1: And why there?
3:34
Speaker 4: Why did you choose to go to the Philippines and Hawaii?
3:37
Speaker 5: So Hawaii, I mean for obvious reasons. I mean, he
3:40
Speaker 5: doesn't want to live in Hawaii. That was a magical
3:42
Speaker 5: time when I went to the Philippines. I went there
3:46
Speaker 5: for a scuba diving trip actually, and I went there
3:51
Speaker 5: for I went there for one week for on a
3:54
Speaker 5: liver board, So I basically like went on a dive trip.
3:56
Speaker 7: You go on a dive boat for a week.
3:59
Speaker 5: You live on the boat and you just hop around
4:00
Speaker 5: different islands and you go on a bunch of different dives.
4:04
Speaker 5: While I was there, I remember like I was on
4:06
Speaker 5: my phone and I'm like looking through my maps and
4:08
Speaker 5: I'm looking at all of the places that I was
4:10
Speaker 5: so close to, and I was like, I want to
4:12
Speaker 5: explore this place so much more so as everybody was
4:16
Speaker 5: like packing their bags up and they're like, oh, got
4:18
Speaker 5: to get back to work on Monday, I was like, do.
4:21
Speaker 7: I really need to get back to work on Monday?
4:24
Speaker 5: So I ended up saying goodbye to everybody that was
4:28
Speaker 5: flying home back to the States, and I ended up
4:32
Speaker 5: staying in Manila.
4:33
Speaker 1: And by yourself.
4:35
Speaker 5: By myself, and I ended up staying there for six months. Wow,
4:41
Speaker 5: just traveling solo. Completely different culture in the Philippines. Like
4:46
Speaker 5: I ended up like meeting a family out there. They
4:49
Speaker 5: like took me in and I ended up living there.
4:52
Speaker 5: I honestly never wanted to come home, but yeah, eventually
4:57
Speaker 5: I ended up coming home, But it was it was
4:59
Speaker 5: a magical time I went to Hong Kong. While I
5:03
Speaker 5: was there, I went to Bali. Where else did I go?
5:08
Speaker 5: I mean a ton of different islands. The Philippines has
5:11
Speaker 5: over like seven thousand islands, so I hopped around all
5:13
Speaker 5: kinds of different islands, just diving and yeah.
5:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to ask, what was the thing
5:19
Speaker 3: about the culture that kind of captivated you so much,
5:22
Speaker 3: that decided that made you anchor yourself there and wanted
5:25
Speaker 3: to summerse yourself more in it.
5:27
Speaker 5: I mean, just the hospitality of just the people there.
5:31
Speaker 5: It was just like, I don't know, I felt so
5:33
Speaker 5: safe there. I just felt like, I mean I was,
5:37
Speaker 5: I was by myself, you know, so traveling alone was
5:40
Speaker 5: terrifying for my dad. When I told him that I
5:43
Speaker 5: was staying there, He's like, what do you mean, Like
5:45
Speaker 5: why are you doing? What are you doing? You know,
5:48
Speaker 5: this was two thousand and seventeen.
5:52
Speaker 2: I think I'm only asking because you said your dad
5:55
Speaker 2: was I'm a dad, so I could imagine the child
5:58
Speaker 2: at a certain age.
5:59
Speaker 4: Says I want to stay in the Philippines for six months.
6:01
Speaker 7: Yeah.
6:02
Speaker 5: I mean, it doesn't matter like what age your kid is, like,
6:04
Speaker 5: you're always going to be like what as a parent,
6:07
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. But but yeah, my dad
6:11
Speaker 5: was absolutely terrified, like he blames all of his gray
6:14
Speaker 5: hairs on me. Not a specific time of my life,
6:17
Speaker 5: but but yeah, I just I don't know, it felt
6:21
Speaker 5: it felt like another home to me, and I don't know,
6:23
Speaker 5: I can't wait to take you back there sometimes.
6:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
6:25
Speaker 3: So then when you started exploring the Philippines and you're like, oh,
6:29
Speaker 3: I think I'm gonna stay here forever. Why was the
6:30
Speaker 3: one thing that you're like, I got to go back
6:32
Speaker 3: home at some point?
6:33
Speaker 5: Mostly like my family and my friends were like can
6:36
Speaker 5: you come home?
6:37
Speaker 3: Yeah? Also your relationship with your dad, because you and
6:39
Speaker 3: your dad are like, yeah.
6:40
Speaker 7: I'm so close with my family.
6:42
Speaker 5: And that's the reason why, like I had lived so close,
6:45
Speaker 5: like I never like went too far from home because
6:48
Speaker 5: I just always wanted to be close to my family.
6:50
Speaker 5: So probably that, Yeah, But you know, you go on vacation,
6:54
Speaker 5: you're like, oh, I can't wait to come back here sometime,
6:57
Speaker 5: and then you realize like, well, I'm already here, Like
6:59
Speaker 5: why so like if you don't have to go home,
7:01
Speaker 5: like you never know when you're.
7:03
Speaker 7: Actually going to go back to that place.
7:04
Speaker 5: And for me, that's why I sometimes don't go home
7:08
Speaker 5: because I know that when you get back home, life
7:11
Speaker 5: gets crazy and then it's hard to get back to
7:13
Speaker 5: those places. So if I'm somewhere, I'm like, I'm just
7:16
Speaker 5: gonna stay if I can.
7:18
Speaker 4: And did you have the same experience in WHI same thing.
7:22
Speaker 5: I went there for my twenty second birthday, my twenty
7:27
Speaker 5: first birthday, and I told my mom I'm not coming
7:32
Speaker 5: home and she was like, hell you are, Like I
7:37
Speaker 5: was with my mom. We were actually we went for
7:39
Speaker 5: my birthday trip and she was like you're coming home
7:42
Speaker 5: with me, like you're getting on that plane. And I
7:44
Speaker 5: was like no, Well I ended up going home on
7:47
Speaker 5: the plane with my mom.
7:48
Speaker 7: But I did go back like immediately after. And then
7:52
Speaker 7: I ended up staying there for about a year.
7:54
Speaker 1: A year. Yeah, did you stay with the family.
7:57
Speaker 7: No, No, not on that trip.
8:00
Speaker 5: I stayed there for let's see, I say there for
8:04
Speaker 5: a year. Actually it was like under a year. I
8:06
Speaker 5: got Island fever pretty quick because I was like exploring.
8:10
Speaker 3: Every single friend that we have that has either moved
8:13
Speaker 3: to Hawaii or moved there to do a job. Eventually,
8:17
Speaker 3: at some point, there's like a zoming in that happens
8:20
Speaker 3: that you're like, oh, okay, the most beautiful place in
8:24
Speaker 3: the world. How many times am I going to go
8:26
Speaker 3: to this beach? And like you know what I mean,
8:28
Speaker 3: like get repetitive, it gets then you get this this
8:31
Speaker 3: era where like, oh man, I you know, it's like
8:33
Speaker 3: the same day over and over and over again.
8:35
Speaker 1: You know.
8:37
Speaker 3: You know our brother Jay her Natty, you know, he
8:41
Speaker 3: had a tough one though, because he was leading the
8:43
Speaker 3: show and he was in Hawaii and he was basically
8:46
Speaker 3: in every single scene. So he was like so exhausted
8:49
Speaker 3: he couldn't even enjoy the place.
8:51
Speaker 1: You know.
8:52
Speaker 3: He would go like surfing and occasionally and stuff, but
8:54
Speaker 3: like at the end of the day, you're there to
8:56
Speaker 3: do this job. But as it is a unique kind
8:58
Speaker 3: of experience to go there, So then you explore how
9:02
Speaker 3: did you dive there?
9:03
Speaker 1: Too?
9:04
Speaker 5: At that time, I wasn't diving, so no, I was
9:06
Speaker 5: doing a lot of snorkeling, and a lot of friends
9:08
Speaker 5: that I had made there were like, don't get in
9:11
Speaker 5: the ocean because it's funny how a lot of like
9:14
Speaker 5: the natives are like very aware of how dangerous the
9:17
Speaker 5: ocean is. So I'm going there and I'm like, oh,
9:19
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna get in the water and I'm gonna
9:21
Speaker 5: swim forever. But they know how dangerous it is and
9:27
Speaker 5: the things that can happen in the ocean. So they
9:29
Speaker 5: were like, you need to be safe and not just
9:31
Speaker 5: like go out there and thinking that you know how
9:33
Speaker 5: to swim.
9:35
Speaker 2: But what made those waters different or more dangerous than what?
9:39
Speaker 2: Because you were obviously accustomed to a certain type of
9:42
Speaker 2: water that you felt comfortable enough to just go swim.
9:45
Speaker 4: What was different that made theirs dangerous?
9:50
Speaker 7: I mean, I think just like bigger waves and you know,
9:53
Speaker 7: like just.
9:54
Speaker 1: Unpredictable of waters.
9:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, I mean it's also like it's very deep waters,
10:00
Speaker 3: so you're talking about some of the biggest animals.
10:02
Speaker 1: In the water.
10:03
Speaker 5: Or to a was added, I'm honestly way more terrified
10:07
Speaker 5: of sharks here than anywhere else.
10:10
Speaker 3: So I guess you don't look like food anywhere else
10:12
Speaker 3: in the world except for California.
10:14
Speaker 6: Yeah.
10:24
Speaker 3: And then so then you came back to the United States, right,
10:28
Speaker 3: And then where did you go to school?
10:30
Speaker 1: At that point? You had gone to school before that.
10:34
Speaker 7: Let me think, So then I came back and what
10:40
Speaker 7: did I do?
10:41
Speaker 1: What did I do?
10:43
Speaker 5: I went to community college for like ever and then
10:46
Speaker 5: I moved to San Diego. I was going to go
10:48
Speaker 5: to school out there, and I was studying at the
10:51
Speaker 5: time environmental studies, and I was supposed to start school
10:58
Speaker 5: out there. The same week that I was supposed to
11:00
Speaker 5: go to school, that's when I got a call that
11:03
Speaker 5: my mom was sick, and so I moved back home
11:08
Speaker 5: and then never went back to school.
11:13
Speaker 3: You you had when we first met, we had such
11:18
Speaker 3: an incredible inside of conversation about the moments in life
11:23
Speaker 3: that teaches you the purpose, right, I guess, and that
11:26
Speaker 3: maybe a little more specific the times we were recognizing
11:30
Speaker 3: that we both have certain patterns in our lives, you know,
11:33
Speaker 3: whether it was in relationships, whether it was in you know,
11:37
Speaker 3: in the way we live life, whether it was in professions,
11:40
Speaker 3: you know, how we looked at the world and uh
11:43
Speaker 3: we community with the world, and some of our differences
11:46
Speaker 3: made it even more exciting to explore in different ways,
11:51
Speaker 3: you know. So one of the things that really captivated
11:54
Speaker 3: me was, you know, your story with you and your mom,
11:57
Speaker 3: you know, which is one of the most you know,
11:59
Speaker 3: sober moments that any son or daughter can experience, or
12:03
Speaker 3: your mother, and you've been very spoken about this and
12:05
Speaker 3: You've played a lot of tribute.
12:06
Speaker 1: To your mother. Every year.
12:08
Speaker 3: Every year we have a tradition where the whole family
12:12
Speaker 3: I was invited I think a year in so to
12:15
Speaker 3: go to go to this kind of you know, ceremonial,
12:20
Speaker 3: you know time where they go to San Diego and
12:23
Speaker 3: they pay respects to the mother, you know, and there's
12:26
Speaker 3: a place where she was set to rest. And so
12:29
Speaker 3: every year we come and we bring flowers, and every
12:32
Speaker 3: year we've come and introduced our new you know, we
12:35
Speaker 3: introduced Nakano and this year we introduced wolf and they
12:39
Speaker 3: have a beautiful tradition of always remembering, you know, your mother.
12:45
Speaker 3: And what I loved about, you know, the story of
12:49
Speaker 3: your mother is that at first it feels, oh, what
12:54
Speaker 3: a selfless act when I get out of college and
12:57
Speaker 3: you know, and you take care of your mother in
13:00
Speaker 3: the time that she was she was ill. But it's
13:04
Speaker 3: kind of why we do for family, you know, and
13:06
Speaker 3: it's a universal kind of primal calling. He says, Okay,
13:11
Speaker 3: I gotta drop everything out to be here, and I
13:12
Speaker 3: got to experience every minute. And you have been a
13:18
Speaker 3: strong advocate. And if you went at you to mind
13:20
Speaker 3: talking a little bit about your mom's journey and what
13:24
Speaker 3: made you're such an advocate for for cancer.
13:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, so my mom was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer.
13:33
Speaker 5: She it wasn't something that you know, it was anything
13:37
Speaker 5: we thought she needed to worry about, Like, it wasn't
13:41
Speaker 5: something that like was in our family, So it wasn't
13:45
Speaker 5: something that she was like on the lookout for. It's
13:48
Speaker 5: also a cancer that really has no like symptoms, no signs.
13:54
Speaker 5: They're like very subtle. All of the signs are like
13:57
Speaker 5: what you would feel if you were just like on
14:00
Speaker 5: your period, So like nothing like crazy out of the
14:04
Speaker 5: ordinary until it gets very serious, and then that's when
14:07
Speaker 5: you realize like, oh, something's wrong. At that point, it's
14:11
Speaker 5: already at such an advanced stage that it's really hard
14:15
Speaker 5: to you know.
14:16
Speaker 3: So you get the news and you embark in the
14:19
Speaker 3: journey of you know, staying by your mother's side throughout
14:22
Speaker 3: the process. And in one of some of the conversations
14:24
Speaker 3: that we had, you know, she had shaved her head
14:28
Speaker 3: with her mom and and it was just like to me,
14:32
Speaker 3: it was the most Uh, it was like the ultimate
14:35
Speaker 3: sign of you know, I'm going to stand by my
14:37
Speaker 3: mother's side and and all that, and I respected that
14:40
Speaker 3: so much. My family is very close to and no
14:43
Speaker 3: matter whether our you know, my family is either a
14:47
Speaker 3: Spanish telenovela, you know, like a a Colombian telenovela, or
14:51
Speaker 3: it's like a very joyous Christmas, you know. And but
14:55
Speaker 3: above it all, it's something weird to happen in the family.
14:58
Speaker 3: We we show up. I mean, I know that you
15:00
Speaker 3: have a very similar relationship with your family. You know,
15:04
Speaker 3: something you know, either in success or in failure and
15:07
Speaker 3: all that you guys kind of gather around and celebrate that.
15:09
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, we do, we do. My mom is suffering
15:12
Speaker 2: from something very similar now. She has a cancer and
15:16
Speaker 2: her pancreas and uh and so you know, we've we've
15:20
Speaker 2: also gathered in the way that you have and have
15:23
Speaker 2: been supportive.
15:25
Speaker 4: And it's her third third bout with cancer.
15:27
Speaker 2: You know, she had breast cancer in ninety eight, and
15:29
Speaker 2: it came back after my dad passed a couple of
15:31
Speaker 2: years ago, and then and then and then the third time.
15:35
Speaker 2: So so I you know, I I sympathize with you
15:39
Speaker 2: and and and very aware of what what you must
15:42
Speaker 2: have went through. But but he was saying that that
15:45
Speaker 2: that the journey has been also you bringing awareness to
15:49
Speaker 2: to that, how has that awareness, what's what's been what's
15:53
Speaker 2: that journey been like for you? Just shining a light
15:56
Speaker 2: on it.
15:58
Speaker 5: I think the biggest thing is just talking about it,
16:02
Speaker 5: because there really is no preventative measures as far as
16:07
Speaker 5: overing cancer goes, So it's really just talking about it.
16:12
Speaker 5: And like there's the one test that's like kind of
16:16
Speaker 5: preventative is the Brucket one and two like gene mutation tests,
16:22
Speaker 5: so people can test for that. If they're positive for that,
16:26
Speaker 5: then you know that they kind of know whether or not,
16:31
Speaker 5: like that's something that could increase their chances of getting
16:35
Speaker 5: either breast or of airing cancer. I actually had a
16:38
Speaker 5: friend who tested positive for it because I think her
16:43
Speaker 5: mom tested positive for it. So she's like, oh, now
16:46
Speaker 5: that I know that it's something that's in my family,
16:48
Speaker 5: I'm going to.
16:49
Speaker 7: Test for it.
16:50
Speaker 5: She tested positive, and she thought she was doing her
16:55
Speaker 5: you know, routine checks for it to make sure that
16:57
Speaker 5: she wasn't, which is like either to do that test
17:02
Speaker 5: or like a vaginal ultrasound. Other than that, there's not
17:05
Speaker 5: a whole lot of like other tests that you can
17:07
Speaker 5: do preventatively. So she decided to get a surgery done
17:13
Speaker 5: to a hysterectomine and found out that when she woke
17:17
Speaker 5: up from surgery she ended up having over in cancer
17:21
Speaker 5: and she had no idea and there was no way
17:23
Speaker 5: of them telling until they actually removed her ovaries. So yeah,
17:30
Speaker 5: it's a really scary cancer to have because of that reason,
17:35
Speaker 5: and just by talking about it, because it's not something
17:38
Speaker 5: that's super obvious.
17:39
Speaker 1: Finding community too.
17:40
Speaker 3: But I was very taken by your passionate about prevention
17:45
Speaker 3: because you know, that's something in the Latino families. It's
17:49
Speaker 3: such a hard thing to push her families to just
17:52
Speaker 3: go to the doctor and just like just check it out.
17:55
Speaker 1: I know you don't feel anything. I know you feel.
17:57
Speaker 3: Perfect, but like let's go and check it out. And
18:00
Speaker 3: you had a really strong opinion about, you know, the
18:05
Speaker 3: prevention conversation versus what's allowed and when it comes to
18:11
Speaker 3: testing and the when is allowed for you to be tested?
18:15
Speaker 3: Do you mind talking a little bit about that, Like
18:17
Speaker 3: all those parameters that basically tell doctors telling you know,
18:20
Speaker 3: I'd come back in like ten years to come back.
18:22
Speaker 5: And yeah, it's tough because they have these these age
18:26
Speaker 5: you know, where they think that this is when you
18:29
Speaker 5: should go and get these tests done, like whether you're
18:31
Speaker 5: forty five or fifty. So I have to really advocate
18:36
Speaker 5: for myself on these tests, and you know, they are
18:39
Speaker 5: starting to realize like, oh, you know, women are getting
18:42
Speaker 5: diagnosed a lot younger. So when you're pushing for these
18:45
Speaker 5: things or starting to realize like okay, you know, being
18:48
Speaker 5: a little bit more understanding about it. But when I
18:51
Speaker 5: first started asking for these tests, it was it was
18:54
Speaker 5: really hard because they're like, oh, it's not you're healthy,
18:56
Speaker 5: you don't have to worry about it right now.
18:58
Speaker 7: And I was like, no, I do need to worry
19:00
Speaker 7: about it.
19:01
Speaker 4: How old were you when you were asking for it?
19:03
Speaker 5: So when my mom got diagnosed, I was twenty two, Yeah,
19:07
Speaker 5: twenty two, twenty three, and so yeah, around that age
19:12
Speaker 5: is when I wanted to figure out like where my
19:15
Speaker 5: like blood markers were at, where I like my starting
19:18
Speaker 5: points were.
19:20
Speaker 1: And what would they tell you when you would ask
19:21
Speaker 1: for it.
19:22
Speaker 5: They would just tell me, well, because I have a
19:25
Speaker 5: history of it, Like they were like okay. But at
19:27
Speaker 5: the same time, you know, I had a history of
19:30
Speaker 5: like my grandfather died of colon cancer, and so when
19:34
Speaker 5: my mom was sick, I was all messed up, like
19:36
Speaker 5: I had all kinds like my body was not okay,
19:40
Speaker 5: and so internally.
19:42
Speaker 1: You were stressed, very stressed.
19:44
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so then I started asking for a khnoscopy
19:47
Speaker 5: because I was like, maybe I'm not okay, like maybe
19:49
Speaker 5: something's wrong because of how my body was managing the stress.
19:55
Speaker 5: And so when I asked for a Kolenosophy and there
19:58
Speaker 5: was reasons why, they were like no, like and even
20:04
Speaker 5: I fought for it, and then finally when they gave
20:07
Speaker 5: it to me, they still like gave me really hard time.
20:09
Speaker 5: While I was there, they were just like, why are
20:10
Speaker 5: you here. You're the youngest person here. You don't need this, Like,
20:14
Speaker 5: no one here your age is getting this done. And
20:16
Speaker 5: so and like I had to get some things removed
20:20
Speaker 5: and it's something that I have to.
20:23
Speaker 3: Do, Like yeah, of course, and I'm so by the way,
20:26
Speaker 3: thank you profoundly for being so open and vulnerable to
20:30
Speaker 3: talk about these things, because you know, most of our generation,
20:35
Speaker 3: a specific our age group, you know, we're entering a
20:37
Speaker 3: zone where like we should have been tapping into this
20:41
Speaker 3: thing way earlier, like we should have been, you know,
20:44
Speaker 3: just aware of where it could go, so you could
20:47
Speaker 3: really be aware. You know, calling cancer is the most
20:50
Speaker 3: preventable all you have to do is just check it out.
20:53
Speaker 3: Like it's literally the most preventable uh. And why it
20:57
Speaker 3: is because you can do you know, this test and
21:01
Speaker 3: they can really understand and they can help remove the
21:03
Speaker 3: potential certain things in real time.
21:05
Speaker 1: Right.
21:06
Speaker 3: So so so that's when so when that happens. It's
21:08
Speaker 3: just I felt in a lot of my conversations and
21:12
Speaker 3: a lot of my advocacy for calling cancer, I've I've
21:16
Speaker 3: realized that it's sometimes culturally where you know, that is
21:20
Speaker 3: almost like not at the conversation which you have right
21:23
Speaker 3: you know, and as Latinos like definitely this weird taboo
21:26
Speaker 3: about this thing that people don't even want to you know,
21:28
Speaker 3: even have a conversation about. But I really hope that
21:31
Speaker 3: these conversations kind of humanize is that no one this
21:34
Speaker 3: this stuff doesn't discriminate absolutely anyone doesn't target a specific group.
21:38
Speaker 1: It targets every single one of us.
21:40
Speaker 3: And the fact that you're able to talk about it
21:42
Speaker 3: and be that open about it is it's it's really
21:45
Speaker 3: incredible because we need these conversations to happen at the
21:48
Speaker 3: most unlikely places so people can actually be come across
21:54
Speaker 3: with information that hopefully inspires them to say you know what, dude,
21:56
Speaker 3: Like tomorrow, I'm going to make that call. Like I
21:58
Speaker 3: hope anyone who's listening this conversation where now it goes shit, man,
22:02
Speaker 3: like okay, cool, let me just do it. I mean,
22:05
Speaker 3: these people are doing it and they feel young and
22:07
Speaker 3: healthy or whatever, like maybe I should just check it
22:09
Speaker 3: out too.
22:09
Speaker 2: But even her point of view about ovarian cancer, because
22:12
Speaker 2: you had a really interesting point. You said that unlike
22:16
Speaker 2: other cancers, there's no real Yeah, there's no real symptoms,
22:20
Speaker 2: there's no real detection. Right, there's there's a sort of
22:24
Speaker 2: age in place in which the doctors suggest that you
22:29
Speaker 2: go and get tested before anything, right, Like what age
22:33
Speaker 2: would the doctor say is average that a woman should
22:36
Speaker 2: go get tested for a varying cancer?
22:38
Speaker 5: I feel like most of these are like in your forty,
22:42
Speaker 5: like fifty, even.
22:45
Speaker 7: Fifty is like starting point.
22:47
Speaker 5: But even then, like if you if you don't have
22:49
Speaker 5: like any like signs or whatever, then they're like, oh,
22:52
Speaker 5: you know, you should be fine unless there's something that
22:55
Speaker 5: you feel is not fine.
22:56
Speaker 7: You know.
22:56
Speaker 2: But but then but by that time, you said, then
22:59
Speaker 2: it's too late.
23:00
Speaker 3: If you do have a you could have had something
23:02
Speaker 3: at thirty fifteen years later.
23:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think that was like my mom's biggest work, like,
23:08
Speaker 5: like she always wanted to know is this something that
23:11
Speaker 5: I had for a really long time and I didn't
23:13
Speaker 5: know about it and I could have known about it?
23:15
Speaker 5: Or is it something that like I just woke up
23:17
Speaker 5: with and it's like, yeah, so we'll never know.
23:21
Speaker 1: How was her mother?
23:23
Speaker 7: She was forty five four?
23:29
Speaker 4: And did she find out a forty five she found out?
23:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then they gave her six months to a
23:35
Speaker 5: year in one year, like almost to the day of
23:39
Speaker 5: her diagnosis.
23:41
Speaker 4: Did your mom have a history of it before she
23:43
Speaker 4: got it?
23:44
Speaker 7: Not that we know of, Okay, Yeah.
23:46
Speaker 4: So that's tough, right for like women like your mom.
23:49
Speaker 7: Who is just like a fluke.
23:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just like you know, so should that
23:53
Speaker 2: be something would you suggest for all women?
23:56
Speaker 4: Like at twenty five.
24:00
Speaker 7: I think that you should be like it should be
24:01
Speaker 7: getting checked out.
24:03
Speaker 3: Right, right, you know, it's it's it's a it's an
24:07
Speaker 3: ever evergreen conversation, right, I mean, I think it's like
24:11
Speaker 3: the best solution is to just get on it. I mean,
24:15
Speaker 3: like and then and and we obviously now as a
24:17
Speaker 3: guarantee a solution, you know, but if you don't talk
24:20
Speaker 3: about maybe your mom didn't have any history of over
24:23
Speaker 3: in cancer before her, and now you do. Right, So
24:27
Speaker 3: now she has it, and now Amanda now has you know, history,
24:33
Speaker 3: a very near history of her mother having it. Which
24:36
Speaker 3: it's a great indicator to say, like just stay ahead
24:39
Speaker 3: of it, you know. But but I again like this
24:43
Speaker 3: is also a great call and a great you know,
24:46
Speaker 3: serendipitous you know, moment of this conversation to basically tell
24:50
Speaker 3: everyone who's listening or watching that you got to advocate
24:55
Speaker 3: for younger prevention. You know, you got to advocate to get
24:58
Speaker 3: ahead of it in early to tension, right. And uh,
25:02
Speaker 3: and I think the the idea is also to to
25:05
Speaker 3: pass the urgency of health to our children. So then
25:09
Speaker 3: they change it up for our culture, right, because it
25:11
Speaker 3: has to spread and evolve into our cultures. You know,
25:15
Speaker 3: truth that prevention is something that culturally we should also
25:18
Speaker 3: be part of our truth as Latinos and and any
25:21
Speaker 3: other you know minorities and ethnic backgrounds that that you
25:27
Speaker 3: know that also embraced that like I'll take a back seat,
25:29
Speaker 3: I'll go there when it hurts, I'll drink and talk
25:31
Speaker 3: to pass the problem.
25:32
Speaker 5: If you let go because you're feeling something's not right,
25:34
Speaker 5: then it's scary. But if you go and you're like, oh,
25:36
Speaker 5: I feel fine, nothing's going to be wrong, then it's
25:38
Speaker 5: a little.
25:39
Speaker 1: Easier, easier, easier.
25:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well pivoting from that, you know, and again
25:53
Speaker 3: very grateful that you went there with us.
25:55
Speaker 1: The the idea.
25:58
Speaker 3: That this was one of the moments like this is
26:01
Speaker 3: the woman that was carrying herself with so much truth,
26:04
Speaker 3: so much reality, and so much foresight was one of
26:09
Speaker 3: the first things that I was like, she's really interesting.
26:12
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm going to know her.
26:14
Speaker 3: And when we first met, uh, it was this ongoing
26:18
Speaker 3: conversation of the things that we actually wanted in life, which.
26:22
Speaker 4: Was where how did you first to meet?
26:24
Speaker 1: Well, we had a mutual friend. We both have like
26:27
Speaker 1: interesting perspectives from where she's this, she has a different perspective.
26:32
Speaker 3: Absolutely the shorter version and I said, the cliffhanger because
26:38
Speaker 3: we might use this one for social is that I
26:40
Speaker 3: really fell in love with your dad first. You know,
26:44
Speaker 3: this is the clip that Leo wanted for social media.
26:49
Speaker 4: And your dad's a cool guy.
26:51
Speaker 3: Oh, he's a cool He's he's my second dad too,
26:55
Speaker 3: you know, he's just he's awesome and he's an incredible
26:58
Speaker 3: friend to my dad.
27:01
Speaker 1: He's just a great truck driver.
27:03
Speaker 7: He is a retired truck driver, thank god. Finally.
27:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, tell us a little bit about that history too,
27:08
Speaker 3: because that was something that your last.
27:10
Speaker 1: Name is Pacheco.
27:11
Speaker 4: So your dad, what's his ethnic background?
27:13
Speaker 7: My dad is Mexican.
27:14
Speaker 5: Mexican, and yeah, he was a truck driver for all
27:19
Speaker 5: of his life and recently retired this year.
27:21
Speaker 4: So he finally did it.
27:24
Speaker 1: Grew up on that truck. I met your dad.
27:27
Speaker 4: He was talking about retiring, but he actually did it.
27:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you talked to him about
27:34
Speaker 3: it like four years ago, you know.
27:37
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I finally like kicked him.
27:38
Speaker 1: Hard enough and he did it. That's it done.
27:42
Speaker 3: So we met to a mutual friend and and I kind.
27:46
Speaker 4: Of like we we we.
27:49
Speaker 3: I kind of was in this like I was like, oh,
27:52
Speaker 3: should I say hi?
27:53
Speaker 1: Should I not?
27:54
Speaker 3: You know, like it was this serendipitous feeling that I
27:56
Speaker 3: felt like I needed to connect with her. And as
28:00
Speaker 3: soon as we connected, it was, you know, she was
28:02
Speaker 3: she had plans to move to Miami because she wanted
28:05
Speaker 3: to do model in Miami. One more of her adventures
28:07
Speaker 3: where it's gonna lead her to Miami.
28:10
Speaker 1: Irid living in San Diego when you when you.
28:12
Speaker 7: Met, she had moved to maybe a month ago.
28:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was a quick intersection before she jumped
28:20
Speaker 3: on another flight go to Miami. But either way, she
28:25
Speaker 3: was wondering about Miami and all the stuff, and obviously
28:27
Speaker 3: I'm from Miami, so I was giving her advice on
28:29
Speaker 3: where to do, where to live, and you know, like
28:31
Speaker 3: the things to expect about Miami and all that, because
28:33
Speaker 3: you know she was gonna go to Miami, you know.
28:35
Speaker 3: And in one afternoon we decided to meet for for
28:38
Speaker 3: coffee and we met at zinc in uh or sincue.
28:44
Speaker 1: Zinc or sinkue zinc at no No.
28:50
Speaker 3: This was in in La so we in West Hollywood,
28:52
Speaker 3: across from the Pacific Design Center, and we just had
28:55
Speaker 3: like a three hour conversation about everything that you know,
29:00
Speaker 3: that about our lives and all that, and I just
29:03
Speaker 3: knew that I was going to know this person. And
29:05
Speaker 3: then we walked over to join the Juice and we
29:08
Speaker 3: had another coffee there, and then I was getting picked
29:10
Speaker 3: up because I was going to Operational Smile in a
29:12
Speaker 3: Park City with my friend Jennifer Sake and was there
29:17
Speaker 3: an amazing organization by the way we could just bring
29:19
Speaker 3: his mouth to the planet, which is incredible. But the
29:22
Speaker 3: point is I was leaving and as I was leaving
29:25
Speaker 3: our coffee, we had talked about everything, you know, and
29:28
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm going to know this person.
29:30
Speaker 1: And as soon as a guy in the.
29:32
Speaker 3: Car and I drove it to her car, you know,
29:36
Speaker 3: and as soon as I took off, I was like,
29:38
Speaker 3: I think this is going to be my friend.
29:40
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to have a new friend, you know.
29:43
Speaker 3: And we kind of send each other a few messages
29:46
Speaker 3: and then she was like, Hey, what are you doing
29:48
Speaker 3: Monday when you get in?
29:49
Speaker 1: And I was like, this hang out again.
29:50
Speaker 3: So we we met a second time and then we
29:53
Speaker 3: were just you know, talking and talked more and had
29:55
Speaker 3: the great time. And was that when we went to
29:57
Speaker 3: the movies or when did we go to the movies after?
30:00
Speaker 7: Yeah, we went to the movies, like right after that.
30:02
Speaker 1: On the second time.
30:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, so second date movies.
30:05
Speaker 3: So we went to see the movies and there to
30:08
Speaker 3: the movie. Yeah, okay, so we're gonna go to the
30:11
Speaker 3: movies and my friend Toda was going to meet us
30:15
Speaker 3: there and all stuff, and dude, it was the opening
30:17
Speaker 3: nine for Dumble and We're gonna go watch Dumble And
30:21
Speaker 3: as Tim Burton dumb And as we walk in to
30:25
Speaker 3: the movie theater, my mom and my two sisters coincidentally
30:32
Speaker 3: show up to the same movie.
30:34
Speaker 1: This was not planned at all.
30:36
Speaker 7: I still don't believe that it was.
30:38
Speaker 1: It was not planet all, but it was the opening night.
30:40
Speaker 1: It was like the showing before dinner, right, So, like I.
30:43
Speaker 3: Knew that my sisters were gonna go to a movie
30:46
Speaker 3: at some point, and of course it was gonna be
30:48
Speaker 3: in this night. And we woke up and I'm like
30:52
Speaker 3: a man, meet my mom and my sisters. So of
31:00
Speaker 3: course Cinderella and my sisters are like, you know, two sisters,
31:05
Speaker 3: and like she you know, and you know, obviously they're
31:08
Speaker 3: so sweet, they're funny. They were like totally fine. But
31:11
Speaker 3: but of course for her it's like what the will
31:13
Speaker 3: just happened. I'm meeting his best friend, he's best friends,
31:15
Speaker 3: you know, girlfriend, and then you know, my wife and
31:19
Speaker 3: you know, my mother of his child, and then also
31:24
Speaker 3: my mom and my two sisters.
31:25
Speaker 1: So she like was thrown in the deep end on
31:28
Speaker 1: the second.
31:29
Speaker 4: I mean, that's a big that's a big deal.
31:30
Speaker 1: But yeah, but but it was.
31:32
Speaker 3: It was beautiful because you know, we went to the
31:34
Speaker 3: movie and we didn't we didn't have you know, she
31:36
Speaker 3: didn't have to talk to them, So so that was good.
31:39
Speaker 3: The craziest part for me was when we went to
31:43
Speaker 3: dinner right after and and uh, we're sitting there and
31:50
Speaker 3: my friend had, my friend had, you know, brought his daughter,
31:54
Speaker 3: like his daughter, and they're sitting there and you know,
31:59
Speaker 3: she finds out that Amanda is it is a dive master,
32:03
Speaker 3: and she starts asking questions about the ocean. And Amanda
32:06
Speaker 3: spend the entire dinner talking to this young girl about
32:11
Speaker 3: the ocean, about what she's seeing, about the places she's
32:15
Speaker 3: gone and when she's discovered on the ocean. And I'm
32:18
Speaker 3: watching her talk to this young girl and having the
32:21
Speaker 3: patients and the and being so passionate or tell her
32:24
Speaker 3: about the ocean and the nature and all the stuff
32:26
Speaker 3: that she loves as an ocean lover herself. And I
32:29
Speaker 3: literally said to myself, she's the mother and my children.
32:33
Speaker 1: Mm On the second day.
32:34
Speaker 3: The second day, I just know she was going to
32:36
Speaker 3: be an incredible mother. The way you took the time
32:39
Speaker 3: to talk to her, I was like, she has half
32:43
Speaker 3: that patience with our annoying as kids, and it's gonna
32:45
Speaker 3: be pret thankfully. Uh Nacana is just as an adventure
32:51
Speaker 3: freakings as her mother.
32:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty good.
32:54
Speaker 3: But let's hold that right there, and we're gonna say
32:58
Speaker 3: this is part one and stay tuned for part two
33:01
Speaker 3: of my conversation with my Jimmy Turi and I think
33:06
Speaker 3: next we're gonna play a little game too.
33:07
Speaker 1: A little game.
33:08
Speaker 4: Stay tuned.
33:14
Speaker 2: Dose Amigos is a production from WV Sound and iHeartMedia's
33:18
Speaker 2: Michael through That podcast Network, hosted by Me, Freddie Rodriguez,
33:22
Speaker 2: and Wilmer Valdorama.
33:23
Speaker 3: Those Amigos is produced by Aaron Burlson and Sophie Spencer Zabos.
33:27
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Wilmri Valdorama, Freddie Rodriguez, Aaron Burlson,
33:32
Speaker 2: and Leo Klem at WV Sound.
33:35
Speaker 3: This episode was shot and edited it by Ryan Posts
33:37
Speaker 3: and mixed by Sean Tracy and features original music by
33:40
Speaker 3: Madison Devenport and Halo Boy.
33:42
Speaker 2: Our cover art photography is by David Avalos and designed
33:45
Speaker 2: by Deny Holt.
33:46
Speaker 3: Claw And thank you for being at Third Amigo today.
33:49
Speaker 3: I appreciate you guys always listening to those Amigos.
33:52
Speaker 2: More podcasts from my Heart, visit the R Heart Radio app,
33:55
Speaker 2: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
33:58
Speaker 2: so you next week