Changing Roads Podcast
Changing Roads Podcast unveils the profound essence of travel, exploring not just the destinations, but the personal transformations within. We unravel the various themes, aspects and narratives of travel that define us, shape us, and lead us to the heart of our own stories.
Changing Roads Podcast
Borderless: The Interlacing of Cutures Through Human Connection
Ever wondered what might happen if you wiped the map clean of its dividing lines? Grab a seat and a cold beer, because that's exactly where Alan Martel and I are taking you in our latest heartwarming exchange. We're toasting to the rich cultural tapestry of food, language, tradition, love, family and friendships that build bridges between worlds. This episode isn't just a conversation; it's a celebration of the human spirit, undeterred by the lines that separate us on paper. Join us as we embrace the power of human connection, leaving you with a sense of unity that stretches far beyond the horizon.
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Welcome Wanderers, dreamers and Fellow Seekers of the Open Road. This is Changing Roads, a sanctuary for explorers of the world and the self. We live our lives navigating a very complicated world, a planet that is illuminated by love but at the same time darkened by evil, and so we find ourselves trapped and entangled in a spider web of quote on quote, borders lines drawn on maps that attempt to separate one thing from another. But what if, just for a moment, we dared to step beyond those imaginary lines and embrace the concept that the tiny blue dot we share is in fact borderless? Borders are strictly illusions. This is not a theory. They exist only on maps and in our minds, imposed by history, politics and the limitations of human understanding. We build brick and metal monuments to these illusionary borders which, as history has taught us all, eventually crumble with time or at some point torn down with our bare hands. At our core, we are boundless beings capable of transcending these man-made divisions through love, friendship, family and shared cultures. If we take a big step back and look inward as much as we do outward, we see that stereotypes and preconceived notions wither away in the face of authentic human culture and connection. With this mindset, we have the opportunity to dismantle prejudices and build bridges of empathy. Despite our differences, we are all connected by the simple fact of our existence. This is not a theory. So let me be very clear and let's leave politics, current events and opinions completely out of this. They are irrelevant to this narrative. Let's challenge the nature of borders. Let's embrace the idea that, despite the physical separations, we are all citizens of a shared planet. It is time to redefine our perspective, to dissolve the lines that divide us and to recognize that at the core of humanity, the story is, and always has been, borderless.
Speaker 1:Hi, welcome to Changing Roads. I am your host, brad, joined here by my co-host, ranger, my Laurel Travel Companion and service dog. This is going to be a really cool episode, as you probably read in the title, which is borderless. I'm sure that you already know, going into this, that this is going to have something to do with borders, and I want, right up front, to tell you what this episode is not going to be. It is not going to be political, it is not going to have to do with current events. If we touch on history. It's going to be very light, but we are not here to talk about border issues or border problems or anyone's opinions. We are here today to celebrate what transcends beyond borders, that makes us true human beings, that connects us in humanity. So we're going to explore the melting pot of the world.
Speaker 1:My guest today is an old family friend who I've recently had the opportunity to reconnect with, and he is from Tijuana and he holds dual citizenship between Mexico and America. He grew up in Tijuana and I grew up in Texas, which is also on the Mexican border, and there's a lot of well, there's more than a lot of Mexican influence in Texas. Texas is a melting pot of that, and so is San Diego. It's a good case study. It's something that we share. It's going to make it easy for us to address what we want to talk about today. But we're also going to go over the world, because I've never been to Mexico, I have been in other countries, so I do know what it's like to cross borders into different countries and explore different cultures. So remember, this is non political, non opinionated, and there will be no discussion about current events, because in this case it does not matter, not what we're here to do. So, that being said, I would like to introduce you to my good friend, alan Martel. How are you doing, alan?
Speaker 2:I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah. So today, Alan and I decided that we were going to crack a beer together. It's been a hot day in Texas and cold beer can't hurt. And what are you over there drinking?
Speaker 2:Some good old Lone Star yeah that's about as Texas American as it gets pretty much.
Speaker 1:And I'm over here drinking Modelo Señor. So, cheers, my friend Cheers. That is what this episode is about. Is these two beers.
Speaker 2:So, oh man, this beer totally reminds me of my Tecate right there. My Tecate beer is right now having the Red Star. So, even though it actually tastes similar to the red Tecate because they got red and also the light one and I tried the Lone Star light one Literally it tastes almost like it is my beer.
Speaker 1:It's American version of Tecate the Texas, because you cannot drink it outside of.
Speaker 2:Texas right? Oh yeah yeah, so it is the Texas beer. This is my beer, cool.
Speaker 1:Now there's a Mexican sitting over there drinking Texas American beer, and I'm a white American drinking.
Speaker 2:Modelo and we just cheers.
Speaker 1:And that's going to set the tone for all of this. Well, alan, it's very nice to have you here. It's an absolute pleasure, and would you like to give our listeners some background on yourself and where you came from, why you're here?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Just to have a little correction on what you mentioned before I was born in San Diego by racing D Juan, so it's a little bit backwards. I was yeah, so that's how I got pretty much my dual citizenship. I was born but raised in Mexico by my Mexican parents from Tijuana, but definitely grew up in the 80s until I turned 18 and left Tijuana to get to know the American culture and for college, of course.
Speaker 1:Yep Born in America, went straight to Tijuana.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you were raised your whole life in Tijuana.
Speaker 2:Until I turned 18.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before you came here, and that's a good starting place because, you were born into this culture and you know this culture intimately, which is why you have the beautiful voice that you have, I'm assuming, Not just that.
Speaker 2:Honestly, one of those things that I started to learn English is, lucky enough that Tijuana, we have the KPBS channel and then during the KPBS channel, they had also Fox, and I grew up watching Power Rangers, barney, mr Rogers everything in English and the anime cartoons. I definitely watched them in Spanish because they're honestly better translated Honestly especially a shout out to my Dragon Ball C fans. Right there, cowboy bebop.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and so, honestly, first time I started learning English was elementary, at a private school called Anglespanol and Blingue. That's particularly where I started learning English. And watching TV using closed captions it is something I still do today. Watching Netflix, I use English subtitles because new words, you know how to spell them immediately and if you don't know where it is, look it up in the middle on your phone.
Speaker 1:How old were you when you started? You were young.
Speaker 2:I was in Mr Rogers oh elementary, I would say, yeah, whatever elementary age it is. Yeah, third grade of elementary, I remember, because I was living with my grandma back then and my mom is a single parent and she was working all day, but luckily my grandma took care of me with Ty and let me watch a lot of television and was able to learn a lot of the English from there. Honestly, really impiculier, honestly right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's not required in Mexico, right?
Speaker 2:What Watch TV and?
Speaker 1:To learn English. Yeah, it's not required to watch TV, to learn.
Speaker 2:English. It is kind of like a basic requirement. I think that's the proper way to say it, because I do have a lot of friends that have broken English. But there was always something about me that I knew I need to get my English straight and really take it seriously, even though I started taking it seriously until I went to college and then didn't realize how bad my spelling was honestly, how it was really bad until I was just. You know, you got to do a lot of essays. How do you know what essays were?
Speaker 1:I know what essays are.
Speaker 2:Your definition of essay is different than my definition of essay Essay. You need my essay. There was no chapitide just came out recently, so I totally was like going back to the ground and took the shame and starting really getting into. Holy crap. I really don't know English quite well and there was a lot of that Tried to cut off still some of those, but either way. But yeah, Tijuana, the biggest border in the world, man.
Speaker 1:Actually I had that written down. It's the most traveled border in the entire world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I meant by that. You're right. Yeah, it is the biggest one. I literally lived three blocks away from the border, so I was recently not too far along. Before I moved here to Texas, I was literally living in Tijuana, three blocks away from the border, luckily found like a $250 rent for a room the master room, luckily walked to the border. Be in line for, depending on the day, one hour, three hours up to freaking five hours. It's incredible. I'm talking about walking right by car, wise. There's people being on the beginning line by 2 am in the morning or 4 am in the morning so they can get into work either 8 or 9 am in the morning. It's crazy. It has grown so exponentially.
Speaker 2:Tijuana, and there's a whole side of Tijuana. I have no idea how it looks like and it's just, I don't know. They just heard something about move to Tijuana and you'll probably cross the border. It's not that easy. They find out the cruel reality of it. Nope, that's not how it is. Luckily, my mom was pretty smart enough in the 1980s 1986, to decide to make my father to have me in San Diego, and so Chula Vista to be precisely Scripps Hospital, and I thank her for that because I wouldn't be able to have the facilities.
Speaker 1:I have now. Yeah, totally, and going back to language, that is something that has helped you come and work in America as much as it would help someone who's American want to go work or even visit Mexico. Language can serve as a barrier as much as it can open up the world to you if you know how to converse with other people, absolutely, even Mexicans.
Speaker 2:it becomes a barrier to not know English. And Tijuana because there's so many call centers as well. So most of their staff they're from ex-convicts because they have the perfect English. I'm not saying they're all from San Diego, they're all from all over. The place can be all over the states, mainly probably LA, because they have that accent, the LA accent and such.
Speaker 1:You have a very unique accent and I've learned that it's Tijuana. It's different than accents that I'm used to here in the United States. It's very clear. Yeah, you agree with that Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And actually people think I'm French enough because of how it looked like, because of the accent I have, because it's not either Mexican or American. So it's kind of like a weird thing because I grew up in both cultures at the same time and so I think I just got messed up in the middle.
Speaker 1:Right there you guys did beat the crap out of the French at one point.
Speaker 2:That's Cinco de Mayo, by the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, language is a crazy thing, man. And my experience with language well, first of all, when I was in high school here in Texas, Spanish is required. It's a required course because our cultures make so intimately. And I took Spanish one, two years in a row because I was just very bad at Spanish.
Speaker 2:Don't mind me. I also took it because I just wanted the credit lazy credit in my college, honestly.
Speaker 1:And to this day I'm still learning. I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I have the ability now to kind of follow conversations and understand the basics of what is being said and I know enough Spanish to get my what I'm trying to say across people, and you don't really need to know that much Donde está el baño and donde está la cerveza.
Speaker 2:That's what I imagined.
Speaker 1:No, that's exactly what I was going to go to. But when I was in Germany, when I got to the airport and actually walked past customs into Germany, it was overwhelming. German was a German, all the signs were German, all the, everything, Everyone was speaking German and I freaked out and I was like I don't know how I'm going to be able to navigate this country. And I was with my dad and then all of a sudden he just started speaking German and I didn't know that he knew German and I was like thank God, and the only German that I learned, which got me through Germany personally, was thank you and you're welcome.
Speaker 1:And I knew I know that one, I knew how to say beer, which is really nice because Beer, like they knew when I needed a beer. But the other thing I learned was and dois es nie so gut, which is my German is not very good. When I said that to them they were like, okay, like American that doesn't know how to speak German, and I knew how to handle it and help me.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's yeah. Now you can wear all these shirts with a bunch of icons you can just point out to the bathroom shirt, drink, bar, whatever.
Speaker 1:Please, thank you, give me a beer, and I don't speak German very well.
Speaker 2:That got me through.
Speaker 1:But yeah, language is like I said, it's a barrier as much as it can open the world to you, and the more you learn, the more the world opens to you, and the less you learn, the more of a struggle you're going to have interacting with people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also marrying is just one thing I definitely got to. I just jumped in into the I don't want to sound different, but a white culture I guess, sure, sure, okay. So I just jumped in and started like literally living the. I was the Mexican token in a certain way and then let me be in the group. I started hanging out with them and started to be him, like them, but still couldn't serve in my values as well, but that is the fastest way that got me to get into the mentality and to the way of speaking and to a way to get loose, loose and also be able to open up that world. Like you were saying, because I still have many friends great English. They decided to stay in Tijuana and work in San Diego, because that is something very Because the biggest travel border in the world is because of that recent most of it, because of that wind, dollars spend pesos.
Speaker 2:So, that is a huge thing in Tijuana, which makes obvious sense, probably in other borders as well. But San Diego is the advantage that there is right next to Tijuana, which is a metropolitan city now, which is the most expensive city of now, if I'm not mistaken. Probably, yeah, it has surpassed San Francisco, whatever, like the market value. It just went up so high even on the graphic, even higher than New York and such. So it doesn't. And also Americans they're also moving in to Tijuana and Rosarito, which is a town not so far away from Tijuana. It's the following town after Tijuana going south down the Baja. So now, like expats down there, it's a huge expat community and I'm not stopping there.
Speaker 2:It goes down all the way to Ensenada and I was talking to you about this town called Loretto, which is also expanding. I highly suggest, if you're interested in retiring into a place down in Mexico. Loretto is a non-contaminated location because beautiful beaches. It's an old town the Spanish founded the location back then but still it's considering a lot of the culture. So that's why it's very attractive for expats right now and still like maintenance and market value, and so and I would take it all the way to Los Cabos there's so many stops in the way, in the middle. But Los Cabos now is so Americanized that's what everybody tells me Los Cabos just became so Americanized and they just overcovered what's the word I'm looking for. They just it doesn't look Mexican anymore in a certain way.
Speaker 1:Sure, and so does Houston, and actually, that's a good lead-in because I kind of had the same experience where you said marriage right Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And after, when I was doing hurricane relief work for Hurricane Katrina, I met this lovely Mexican girl there and she didn't speak a word of English and I didn't speak a word of Spanish and we hung out with each other to the point of we were kind of dating, to where she asked if I wanted to go back to Houston with her, which is where she's from, which is where her whole family is from.
Speaker 1:So I was like, okay let's get this shot and I went over there and we went to Houston, which is an American Texas town, and we were able to communicate by the words emor, besos, kisses and mira, which is C. So if we were trying to say something, she would say Meeta, meeta, and she would point, and she would you know what I mean? Yeah, point at something, yeah, and if she was trying to talk about, she'd just say Meeta. And I learned that and I would do the same thing.
Speaker 2:I said Meeta See Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And we were able to really connect on that level and, not knowing any of each other's language, we were able to connect and communicate through the eyes. There was no Google.
Speaker 2:Translate back then.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Okay, you made a little bit too complicated for yourself.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No, google Translate. No, google Translate. Okay, so we're talking way back.
Speaker 1:Okay, a little bit, but this it also she took me to her neighborhood in Houston their area and I got to dive into their culture in a very intimate way. And they took me in and she took me to Quincelleras and she took me to barbecues to hang out and meet her family and the food that they made.
Speaker 2:And how many were they? A lot, probably right. Yeah, yeah, right and.
Speaker 1:I thought I knew what Mexican food was until I Until grandma got introduced into your life, right?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah, until a wella.
Speaker 1:And it was a really neat experience and it ended up not working out for many reasons, but it was a very special experience in my life and that's a good lead-in from language to the blending of cultures.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Right.
Speaker 1:And now we're experiencing different cultures. You've done that and I had that opportunity and it opened my mind to the world. So, and that's growing up in Texas, which has a major Mexican influence.
Speaker 2:That I didn't know actually. Yeah, Houston was a heavily. Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Growing up here Texas is a really cool place because that's why he came back. Yeah, we're on the border as well, and we have our American culture but, there's a major Spanish, hispanic, mexican influence here, absolutely, and it's a melting pot and it's a really neat thing to grow up in that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely and a lot of people don't have that opportunity to grow up in a place where those cultures mix so well and, like you said, growing up in Tijuana and then San Diego, and how American cultures blend right there on the border and it became borderless, that's what it was, absolutely, absolutely, and that was, and I didn't realize until, like just a couple of years earlier, honestly, that I thought it was very common to, or I didn't know it was in this comment.
Speaker 2:But my family, though, don't listen to Mexican music like the Banda or whatever that style. They literally grew up with 60s, 70s, 80s. I'm a big influence in the 80s how my dad took care of me when my mom had to, whatever In 1986, 87, 88, whatever. The way that my dad would take care of me is get the crib out of my room, put it in front of the TV and put it in TV and that was the way he would take care of me and while he was doing stuff in the house or whatever. But I was always listening to music and that's the 80s music influence Heavily. 80s music comes to influence to me and I still go to 80s clubs because of that. I'm a big fan of it.
Speaker 2:I love that and I thought that was normal for all of Tijuana or all over Mexico, until I got to meet people from the South passing out past Sonora, like going all the way to Mexico City. You want to call it? No comment at all, not at all Right. So Tijuana is the corner of Mexico and it's a whole measure. Neither from there or you're not even from that. You're not even from Mexico. You're not even from the States that would be called a melting pot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and.
Speaker 1:Texas is a melting pot in a lot of ways too. So our other countries in the world, new York City is a melting pot. You go up to the Canadian-American border and we can get Poutine, which is rent tries covered in gravy. That's their food up there. All these borders, or quote-on-quote borders, they disappear in a way because they share these different music, this different food and at the end of the day, they all blend. And going back to music, like you said, as an American I was born on 90s music as well, but living in Texas, I was exposed to Mexican music in a big way, just from my environment, and I have a different appreciation for it because I grew up in it. And do you know who Snow the product is? Nope, she's one of my favorite rappers.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:And she's from San Diego and she raps in Mexican and in English and sometimes in the same songs, combines them and she's my favorite rapper and I get it and I think that being immersed, having that influence on my culture in Texas, really changed the way that I've used music in general, that melting pot I was immersed in.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, absolutely Like right now. I just went to this awesome festival in Austin. It's pretty much the kickoff of festival season. I don't know how long they've been going, but I think it's recent. It's called Besame Mucho. They started in LA and now they did like their first festival outside of California, which is here also, which is a great town to do it and literally less than 24 hours they released tickets. 50,000 tickets got sold out Immediately.
Speaker 2:The lineup is just amazing because you've got your four genres, your banda, your classic, classic kind of oldies like bandha music or whatever you want to call it rock and pop. So you have four stages with the best of the best going after another. And I realized, damn, like honestly, this is awesome. First of all, seeing it, so many people actually flew in for this festival alone. 10 years ago I used to live in Austin and I didn't get to see or meet a lot of Hispanic or Latino like me personally. Also, I was hanging out with a lot of white guys, I guess, but maybe I didn't get out of the comfort zone, I guess, but I didn't get to see any like Hispanic or reggaeton, whatever places. But it's amazing how big the Hispanic culture it is here and it's just something that is not going to go away. You know it's going to be. It's becoming. The Spanish is the second language most talked in United States and, honestly, it might be even become the number one one day.
Speaker 1:I will point out that the festival he went at was to this that was the Circuit of America's F1 race track, which is an international international race car venue, and it's where I saw Rolling Stones. So there you go, like it's this.
Speaker 2:there's another example or even when the F1 comes. I saw the first year it got the track got like premier. I guess it was amazing seeing people coming and getting out of the airport with the flags from Australia, england, germany. It was powerful people just coming out to see Formula One.
Speaker 2:From all over the world and that was the first time ever like really got my attention to Formula One and obviously I just became a fan after that. But it's just one of those things is incredible. It becomes borderless how certain nature's just becomes just borderless for all cultures.
Speaker 1:Racing brings the world together into a melting pot of culture, Absolutely Same with soccer or football as they call it out. We have our own different version of football, but outside of the United States, soccer is football and it brings all of these countries from around the world together in an event.
Speaker 2:And it's those little things yeah like right now, fifa is coming up, which is not going to be only in one country. It's going to be in Mexico, united States and Canada, if I'm not mistaken Right. So we obviously, and there's going to be a game in Dallas. So I'm taking it to Dallas, by the way, so we're going to Dallas to see a soccer game because, hell yeah, it's definitely way fun when it's like a FIFA game is totally a different ball game, and so it's the first time there we're going to do something like that, because also, it becomes very expensive for the country. But there's a great concept also right now dividing up between three, three countries. It's going to be a whole mesh about. You can actually see how much popular it is soccer, then American football or any other sport in the world honestly.
Speaker 2:True, Right. So soccer is like the number one sport in the world. So not saying I'm a huge fan, but it is when I you know, if it's FIFA, I'm totally down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, even when I was in Germany, you would walk around and you would see bars that are literally they promote that they're FIFA bars and you would know that if you go into that bar that it's a melting of cultures. It's not just a German bar. If you go to a FIFA bar, there's flags from all the countries in the world in there and it's amazing, that's the culture, the community. Even in Germany they're like no, this is a, this is an international bar. And because what we share is soccer, yeah, and it's really neat, that's fucking borderless man, absolutely, and there's one of those things that is going to become more.
Speaker 2:I would say it's going to become, because the internet just make it made it more efficient for cultures to interact with, and now we're translating, now with chat, gpt. Now there's no, literally no excuse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will say that the first things that will not the first things, actually the most modern things that began making things borderless are the internet and global economy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you can't. And tourism, you cannot deny the fact that these think they the internet cables that go under the Atlantic Ocean, yeah, like that connect America and into all of Europe, that they transcend borders right, absolutely. And that is I don't know. There's an author called Thomas Friedman that wrote a book called the Flattening of the World, and that's what it is, and it's about these things, like the internet and global economy, and that have ended up connecting our world in a way that has never been done in all of history.
Speaker 2:In case it's a flat earth or earth. He's not a flat earth. Flat earth is a metaphor.
Speaker 1:I know, I don't know maybe he is a flat earth. That's the true meaning of flat earth.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so all the flat earthers out there read Thomas Friedman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's actually. It's a fun. We were talking about American sports or international sports and, funny enough, that's how I'm going to go into the topic of culinary and food.
Speaker 2:Oh man, one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:It's a direct correlation because we talked about this earlier. Man, we're going to get to tacos and Tex-Mex and stuff. Oh, absolutely. But I would like and we talked about this earlier, but I'm going to talk about the- hot dog, oh yeah, I like that. So the hot dog has become an icon of American culture. Right, and it came out of baseball and it's the hot dog at an American baseball game became an icon. But the history and a lot of the history of the hot dog is unknown. At the beginning it's very mysterious.
Speaker 1:But, we do know that they came over from Germany originally, we think as a first I probably Americans call it worst, worst Sausage right and from America. The hot dog has spread to almost every country in the world and every country has their own idea of what a hot dog is and version of it and it's. I learned this in travel, just because I travel so much, and most people don't know what I saw with my own eyes. So you can go to Vancouver and their street food is an Asian hot dog and it's a hot dog covered in seaweed and that's Vancouver's thing is the. They're called Jappadogs and that's their main street food.
Speaker 2:It's Canadian.
Speaker 1:I've been fan of seaweed, so I'll put seaweed on it and you go to Germany and they have Currywurst, which is Korean ketchup mixed with oh it, mixed together and cooked on a hot dog and slathered in it, and then this is my favorite, because this is where you and I are sitting, like I got my American hot dog. We should be, we should have been eating this.
Speaker 2:No, they will probably be here smacking.
Speaker 1:You have the Sonoran hot dog, sonoran I know and if you go to the border, especially the southern border of America and Mexico, you find the Sonoran hot dog.
Speaker 2:Which is my favorite hot dog in the world.
Speaker 1:Do you like to tell people what a Sonoran hot dog is?
Speaker 2:Oh man, no, you go ahead, because I know some of it because of my friend used to sell Sonoran hot dogs in Tijuana, but they entirely I'm unfortunately didn't get to try it, but I know you know more of it.
Speaker 1:I'll make you warm sometime. It's a hot dog slathered in Mexican food and ingredients, but the most delicious thing you'll ever eat. Yeah, they'll probably put a sauce into it and whatever the hot dog is the one thing maybe the biggest thing that has transcended all borders and spread across the world into every single culture.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's amazing yeah.
Speaker 1:Something as simple as a hot dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah the first thing you think about like a taco. You don't think about a different country except, just immediately, mexico, right, yep. And so, like Tijuana, it does have one of the best tacos like in, honestly, in the world. There's a docu series, even on Netflix. You can probably go right now and see it as the number one tacos, and some of them, most of them, they're in Tijuana, but there's also obviously some other states who believe they have the best tacos. Yeah, it's a war now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I will say that I've had Alan's tacos and he's made them and they're, oh my God, they're the most delicious taco. And I thought I knew tacos because I'm from Texas and we got Austin tacos and San Antonio has their own tacos. San Diego tacos are not Austin tacos and there's this war going on in America.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Who makes the best taco? Absolutely Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2:Honestly, like I said, I went to Austin just a couple of days ago and I went to a couple like taco places that you refer me to, and that's one of those things I like, keeping an open mind, and I do, honestly, the tacos from Austin, not all of them, but most of them, I'm a really big fan of that. I really do want to find differential into ingredients, because you get tired about the carne asada, the bada al pastor, what is it? What I cannot think about? The rest, oh, but my first like also cabeza tongue, a lengua, which is tongue, cow's tongue, and ojo cachete, whatever, which is like the pigs, old head, whatever.
Speaker 1:Those are my honestly my favorite, which you cannot get in Texas unless you know exactly where in Austin I've never seen it Like you have to go to the right places, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because I always like to keep open mind on ingredients. Because for me, what pisses me off from person especially American who orders pizza and always orders pepperoni pizza or cheese pizza that pisses me off so much? It's just like how boring are you? Honestly, get out of your car, get the meat lovers at least, but put like some veggies in there or whatever. Or put an egg. I saw, like in Portland, they put an egg on it to put in the oven. Dude, it comes out nice and if you go to fast food restaurants around the world.
Speaker 1:If you go to a McDonald's in Canada, on their menu they have poutine and they have literally French fries covered with gravy. You won't find that on any other menu because it's special to Canada. I went to Austria and there was a Burger King at the train station in Austria. There was a Burger King which is about as American as you can get for fast food and they had their own Austrian burgers. I remember sitting there and I was trying to order a special like my American burger.
Speaker 1:I want to double meat, double cheese. Really, the only reason I got it was because my dad knew German, and even he struggled trying to communicate what I wanted. I got a very American Burger King burger, but then you look at the menu and you're like I should have tried an Austrian Burger King burger. That's it, dude. This is the mixing of food across the world and cultures, and even Texas, like you mentioned. This is Tex-Mex. There's a whole culinary thing that is Tex-Mex.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I can't bring in Austin, because that's one of the main reasons Move back to Austin. I mean move back to Texas. I'm not in Austin yet, but I moved back to Texas because of Austin and because the cross-culturalism and ingredients in people. The other day I was walking up past a food truck and said kimchi, tacos Hell yes, two of the things I freaking love. Kimchi, I only ate it on almost anything. I put on pizza the other day Hell yes, I love crisscrossing ingredients and tacos, I'll take that anytime.
Speaker 1:I love it. Alan Salmi put brisket on Italian pizza the other day. Absolutely. Why not? Why not All these world ingredients? Don't be scared to mix them together, because that's what makes our world rich.
Speaker 2:Yes, honestly. That's why I dare to say Santa does have better tacos in Austin than in Tijuana, because Tijuana is practically almost all the same. Like I said, adobada, sada and carnitas, whatever. Yes, sometimes they have it in their own sauce and such. I totally get it, but it's still in the same spectrum. They don't even put cheese cotija or whatever. That was new for me. I mean, just actually, I was like what is that Cotija? First of all, what is the cotija? I didn't know what cotija was. That's a funny thing, even though it's a Mexican green.
Speaker 2:It's not really a frequent thing In Tijuana we don't put crema. It's not too often, except you do like floutas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they put the crema. We were at the grocery store the other day and I was buying crema and to me I bought cotija and I was buying crema because I thought I was buying like true.
Speaker 2:Mexican ingredients and I grabbed the sour cream.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was trying, he wouldn't grab the sour cream and like real normal sour cream. And he came back and he was crema.
Speaker 2:And I was like. I thought I was going to make you a traditional Mexican dish and he's not even know what this is? Yeah, they've never seen the product before. Probably if you go to a fish taco store like Tipo Encena, whatever, they do have the crema. I didn't realize it was that the crema they put to the fish tacos. I didn't realize that was it, you know, because you were doing totally something different. So they didn't cross into my mind. What was it? It was like oh, crema.
Speaker 2:I was making turupas, there we go, that's what it was.
Speaker 1:It was like I'm going to impress.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and would you like the chorizo I had here, the Mexican one, it was baller, definitely. You did it really in a way, describe it how you, how you start off like.
Speaker 1:It was refried beans that I added extra fat to, and then ground beef with taco seasoning and then chorizo and you used the skillet to actually avocado and cheese. I put the tijra on there, Absolutely, and tomatoes and avocado and then crema on top and I thought that I was like man this is this is straight Mexican food and I'm going to impress the crap at.
Speaker 2:Alan you did because, honestly, this is like a dirty little secret. I mean, like I'm not a fan of beans. He told me that, yeah, I'm not a fan of beans whatsoever, and it has to be a very peculiar way which is called frijoles puercos. Frijoles puercos, which I don't know how to translate that I guess like pig, pig style, I guess. I don't know. But frijoles puercos is the only way that, like an old friend used to do it and that's the only way I could have it. But the way you did it, boom, like totally. I'll take it. I'll try, always try, but I will never like do frijoles on my own, because I just know.
Speaker 1:I'm not interested. If you want to have a truly international meal, come to my house and have Alan's tacos for breakfast.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:We'll have Sonora and hot dogs for lunch, and then you can have my American churrupas.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, that should be a good dinner, it's self and some modellos. Modellos. Yeah, some dozeki and some long star beer, and we'll have the light one too as well. That's the mixing cultures right there. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Cheers my friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, food, it's just another one of those examples of how of what you can't prevent, things like food and music and your culture from borders are our lines drawn on a map, absolutely, you know what I mean by human beings and sometimes you put structures up that designate that border, that prevent human movement, physical movement across them. But I mean truly, underneath that border is the physical planet that we share and above it is the same air we've been breathing since the beginning of time and you can't prevent human beings from connecting, no matter how much you try. I'm gonna go into this a little later. Okay, this is when we're gonna talk about. Love Is when we're gonna talk. I'm gonna talk about the Berlin Wall, the Texas American border and the fence that I have in my backyard that separates my backyard from my neighbor's backyard and our two dogs.
Speaker 1:So that's when we're gonna address love and friendship, when we get to that.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, yeah, right Right Did I peek my listeners' interests.
Speaker 1:Now they're gonna stick around to find out. But yeah, another thing I wanted to talk to you about was traditions.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Because traditions transcend borders as well and we adopt transition or traditions as much as other people adopt our traditions right, absolutely absolutely so.
Speaker 2:Die Muertos, that's a big one.
Speaker 1:Die de los muertos.
Speaker 2:Die de los muertos, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't even celebrate Halloween. I go trick or treating with my kids.
Speaker 2:To me it's a kid holiday. Yeah, for a bit too old for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But Die de los muertos is the honoring of our dead, and to me that connects more to me as a human being, than our American Halloween, which has its own roots from a different country.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I celebrate Die de los muertos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and which is like any listener can have the opportunity to go to Oaxaca and make sure you're making reservations way before, because Oaxaca, first of all, is like the most traditional way. Well, I used to have the movie Coco. Probably a lot of listeners have watched. Saw the Pixar movie.
Speaker 1:Coco. It's one of my favorite movies, absolutely. My daughters too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they actually send scouts over there and stay there for a year or two, maybe three, so they make sure they get all the actual facts of the culture. That's why it was so like. Pretty much they make a story around precisely of what the culture goes to, and so it is whenever you see them. For example, I forgot the name's kid, whatever, but he goes to almost a big you know the movie. He goes to the white guitar and you see everybody in the cemetery with the Bella Son and everyone's honoring them with food, pan, pan de muerto, whatever. It is like that magical, that's what I mean. That was a no Pixar, imaginary thing. That's actually truly magical. They have Desphile, the parade. It's just phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Hassan, it is a truly one of those wonders that you need to go to Oaxaca for sure, it's one of my favorite movies, and that's another thing is that we need to be exposing each other to all of our different cultures so that we understand them better. Right, and Pixar is actually doing a good job with that. I know it with Moana and Coco, and there's all these different-.
Speaker 2:Cars just kidding. Yeah, they went to Texas for that.
Speaker 1:That's how you learn about Formula One racing.
Speaker 2:NASCAR racing, that was something like that.
Speaker 1:Learning that how important it is to share each other's cultures with each other rather than separate them, and it's making our world a more and more rich place, absolutely, and the more we let those cultures blend, the better our world is gonna be, I believe.
Speaker 2:And that's why I completely saw again Rering, since I grew up in Tijuana and also came back after college after so many years. Eight, 10 years went forward, Not just college. Just after my college I went for working in a state in Florida for a couple of years and then moved to Austin. I actually lived the Austin Live. I was like you know what I need? To go back home to actually see family after 10 years. So I went back when I turned 28 because I left on 18 years old, went back when I turned 28.
Speaker 2:That's when Borderless became more in my mindset, because culinary it just became my generation that stay there Like they don't cross, they just they're from Tijuana or their first generation in Tijuana or whatever they developed. The culinary industry is one of the most what's the word I'm looking for? Oh man, the culinary in Tijuana is one of the most prosperous there is also in Northern Mexico. I'm not familiar with a lot of the Southern so I'm not gonna compare the whole country. But also draft beer became so popular, like I said, like the breweries, the draft beer of local breweries which shout out to Ramon and Ivan, Two of my friends. I actually grew up there. They actually work out two great breweries One is, oh my God, Featherlands, and the second one is Insurgente, Insurgente, that's where it is and they have won a wars. So now Baja, talking about like the beer wise, culinary wise, culture wise, and still is such weird city because, again, it is not Mexico or United States, it's this own weird mesh of clusterfuck.
Speaker 1:It is a hybrid culture.
Speaker 2:And on top of that, wine country became a wine country. We go a little bit south and it's by like Paso Rosarito and Ensenada. You're gonna find one of the best wineries in the Baja, because now, remember when the wildfires happened in Napa Valley happened like more many years ago. I think it happened twice. So I believe it happened twice Don't call me on that, but I know for sure it happened once and so a lot of the tourism from there started going to this wine valley which is called Bayadet Guadalupe, which is my mom's one of favorite locations to go over the summer, and as many people they have weddings. They have weddings between vineyards pretty much not literally, but you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Restaurants and French people actually moved here. They started their vineyards. Americans moved here, started their own vineyards as well, and so it's just incredible how it started with LHC. Lhc is a wine which is one of the first wine, if not the first winery, to start in Bayadet Guadalupe. And then they just started buying a bunch of land, because you have consistent sun and the earth, the sand, whatever, it's perfect for the grapes to grow, and I don't know that one procedure, but either way, I know how to taste it and drink it, and I freaking love it. So Bayadet Guadalupe if you haven't heard of it for sure, google it and make sure to fellow travelers to make a trip to Tijuana and then drive down, maybe to Rosario, for some fish tacos or in Bayadet Guadalupe, and then go to Ensenada Ensenada, past the Bayadet Guadalupe, that's when you get your real fish tacos, tostadas, the legit seafood that you can get straight out of the ocean in less than 12 hours. They just caught it that morning and you're probably eating it by lunch or by day or whatever you have.
Speaker 1:That is my favorite thing about world travel is trying other cultures, food or multicultural foods, and a lot of people are scared to do it. They're comfortable in their own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm scared with Indian food. I love it, but I'm scared about that query for sure. I'm like is it one of those things?
Speaker 1:But I will try anything once. Yeah me too. My daughters will. I raised my daughters. My oldest will try anything once.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, and if she?
Speaker 1:hates it, then I'll never give it to her again. Exactly, if my 11-year-old is brave enough to try anything once, then you should, because you might find that you just found one of the best things that you've ever had in your life.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I have even a personal experience from that. I was like I don't know six, eight Maybe I was with grandma and she just had a half a guacate right next to my soup, or whatever. I was like what is that A guacate? I don't like it in Spanish, right, I don't like it. I was like why don't you like it? Because it's green? Because I hated the color green I was young, obviously, and then I finally tried it and I really dislike people who just go see it and they smell it like ah, just try it. Like, just try it.
Speaker 1:The only reason that I went to a Burger King in Austria was because it was the only restaurant they had at the train station.
Speaker 2:Anything, that's all. Wow, there was nothing else, just Burger King, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know that's amazing. We are sharing these cultures in a beautiful way. The world is a healthier and more well-rounded and rich place because we allow our cultures to mix and because we're open to other cultures and their food, their music, their traditions and our ease and ability to travel. As our world has that's what I'm looking for evolved and grown, we have more opportunities to do these things.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think that the more this world grows and evolves, the easier it's going to be to appreciate the rest of this world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like your viewpoint, Because you had trouble more than I have, that's for sure. I haven't crossed the big pond yet that has. It is definitely one of my goals in life and so seeing your viewpoint points on many conversations we've had before is just, honestly, I really has made you with such a big heart. Yeah, I'm being real with you right now. I believe it has made you a great human being, a big heart and very empathic. See, I get it still a couple words wrong that I just can't pronounce.
Speaker 1:I can't. I had to learn how to spell or pronounce Tijuana. It's Tijuana, tijuana.
Speaker 2:There you go, tijuana.
Speaker 1:It's not Tijuana, yeah, I know it Tijuana Absolutely. And so it's not Manchaka, it's Manchak.
Speaker 2:That's true, that's true. No, it's not Warshire, it's where I just get it Worstashire, worstashire.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's true. It's not beer, it's beer.
Speaker 2:And beer, beer. There you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:That is funny, it's true, man. I've never been to Mexico.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you did mention about that, which, yeah, it is quite something that you need to go to at least Puerto Vallarta or Cancun. You need to be between the pyramids, man. You got to go to Cancun, man, at least.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that the closest I've ever been to Mexico was in Big Bend National Park here in Texas, and I went right down to the Rio Grande. And this is going to lead in very well to the last thing I want to talk about.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:Was. I was standing on the Rio Grande next to a national park ranger and right across the Rio Grande is a very tiny town and I heard a man singing Mexican music on his guitar.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:And I asked the park ranger about it and she said that this man has been sitting over there for years, every day, playing music, because for us, and that love to share his culture with us every single day. And that absolutely blew my mind. And that is that's human connection, right there, right, right, straight across the border, which is he was asking for money and I think I was doing it for love.
Speaker 1:No, he was on the other side and he was just. You could hear it in the distance. Wow, yeah, and he was playing it for us.
Speaker 2:Okay, it was across the border. Okay, I didn't get that Okay.
Speaker 1:You couldn't even see him, you just in the distance you heard this beautiful music on a guitar coming across.
Speaker 2:That is my point.
Speaker 1:That's actually very Actually yeah absolutely, which leads me straight into the last thing I want to talk about. The biggest thing that transcends a border is love and friendship. Absolutely Right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And can I continue with something that you mentioned? There's part of the border, because you literally get to see the border all throughout Tijuana and literally on the corner of the country of Mexico which is Tijuana, and literally on the corner, you get to play as the Tijuana and play as the Tijuana. It has the steel bars. This wall has been there before even Trump was elected. It already existed years before and it goes all the way to the ocean right and so it has Between the bars. It has meshes, some sort of mesh, but steel mesh right Like they're thick so you can only touch between like the tips of your pinky, right. So there's one time, only one time.
Speaker 1:I was gonna ask you about this. Yeah, you know where I'm going, I guess. Yeah, I just connected right there.
Speaker 2:So one time of the year. They haven't done it since COVID, but if I'm not mistaken. But they have, like families that cross, probably cross illegally or whatever, or they've been there for multiple years by grandma or other family, uncles, whatever. They're on the other side in Tijuana. So they open on the American side to the public to be able to see talk yeah.
Speaker 2:Get to see, like their nephews, grandma, get to see the nephews, the daughters or whatever, and the only way they can touch is touching with their pinkies, like through this match of steel, and it's pretty hard work and they have a big steel door and they open it in that time of year and they're able to hug for a minute or so. And that's where it becomes very emotional for everybody around and such, because it just They've been separate for so many years. And you're saying people travel from mostly not just San Diego, I'm talking about from LA or other parts of the States to get to see their family. Remember, I haven't seen that. Yeah, they talked over the phone, whatever. Seen in person, there's nothing like that. Yeah, you can face them all you want, you can talk over the phone all you want, but seeing them in person and touching them and hugging them, that's when actually becomes really powerful.
Speaker 1:Now all of my listeners are going to know when. I said we were going to come back to those three examples of borders. Absolutely, that was one of them.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was going to go there, but you already went there.
Speaker 1:Good translation. And that hug. Can you imagine that you?
Speaker 2:see on the pictures.
Speaker 1:Google them.
Speaker 2:Google them. Play as a Tijuana I don't know one time, I don't know how to find out. Honestly, play as a Tijuana. Play as a Tijuana One time, border door opening or something like that. There's YouTube videos, even Highly. Suggest you watch them.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to bring up the Berlin Wall as well which is the wall that separated East and West Berlin. And families were trapped on either side of the wall, absolutely. No matter what the politics were, you had family over here and you had family over here that weren't able to see each other Absolutely. And if you go to, they tore the Berlin Wall down. And if you go to Thanks to Pink Floyd.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you go to the Berlin Wall now, there's a memorial and it's the remnants of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. There is a sculpture of two human beings on their knees in hugging in the biggest embrace, and that's that is it. Yeah, like once that wall fell, for the first time in a long time, these families ran straight into each other's arms and held each other, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's what I've seen over there. It's heartbreaking at the same time and heartwarming, so it's pretty heavy. Yep, it can become really heavy because I never realized how lucky I would guess, how lucky I am, how lucky to have a family. I have to the culture that we grew up with. We're lucky that none of us got involved with any illicit stuff whatsoever Nobody smokes it just I didn't realize that. How lucky, how awesome my family and the culture that I grew up with. And so in being in this town that was so fed with American culture because I, like I said, I felt like an American until I actually moved to America Holy shit, like they actually see me like that, yeah, so I had you have to move, maneuver, transform, change, change the way you behave, you talk and such, and that's been my adventure, honestly, now that I'm seeing it, we take that for granted.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes as people that live in a country, in other countries, that have the ability to go hug their family every day, and I think that maybe we don't think about it, Maybe that there are places where we're not able to hug and love on each other. And when that physical border goes down, the first thing that people do is go hug their families. Mm-hmm, and that's what I mean, when the biggest thing that you can never kill someone, you can never prevent someone from love or friendship or family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's universal man.
Speaker 1:There's something you can not completely, stop, absolutely, and that's the most important thing in the world. Nothing else matters. Absolutely Not politics, not global economy, nothing. Friends, family, love, that's what makes us human beings and you cannot, as much as you try, put up a barrier. You cannot put up a border that will prevent that.
Speaker 2:Amen to that. Cheers for that. There you go, cheers, man.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, I'm gonna talk it off and there's one more wall that I said I would talk about. Okay, one more border, let's hear it. This is my backyard that separates my house from my neighbor's house. And this is Ranger's experience with this.
Speaker 2:This is his friendship, it is your Ranger's experience.
Speaker 1:So I got Ranger in my backyard and my neighbors on the other side of the fence have a little Chihuahua and when they're both in the backyard their favorite thing to do Ranger and this little Chihuahua will go to that fence. There's a tiny little hole underneath the fence and they will touch noses and their tails are wagging. They're absolutely they're friends.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's his friend, that's their dog's friend. It's really a beautiful thing to see Ranger go over and be with that dog and his life lights up.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 1:One day I'm going to go knock on their door and I'm going to say, let's let our dogs play with each other.
Speaker 2:We're going to tear down that wall figuratively, not literally.
Speaker 1:They'd be pretty mad if I ripped down the wooden fence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, at the end of the day, love, friendship, family and Ranger and that dog over there.
Speaker 2:Man, this has been a really fun topic. Honestly, absolutely, and I'm glad you have me, because this is something like I didn't got to see. A few things about myself and where I'm come from.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:Being a first generation and only child of, and the first born of my family to actually be fully integrated legally and in the United States. I didn't jump the board or nothing like that, but when you see it now, it's just, it's becoming really be able to empathize with that. It's just very, when you see it, god damn. I thought it wasn't a bad spot, but, man, I'm nothing, it's nothing. A lot of people have it a lot worse.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, we're pretty lucky man. Yeah, as long as they have. You and I both have passports. Yeah, most of the world doesn't have passports. Absolutely, we're lucky.
Speaker 2:As long as I have a roof and some food on the table.
Speaker 1:And friends and friends.
Speaker 2:I think like, definitely, we're like in the, on the best side of God and as long as that means he's taking care of you. But you get to see it sometimes in the streets and Dikwana, like obviously, like I'm going to go a little bit on the dark side because Dikwana is also known for the red light district and also, you know, kids trafficking or whatever. I'm just going, you can edit this or whatever you want to, but it's real. You guys saw it on this movie recently from Angel Productions.
Speaker 2:Can't hide from it Absolutely, and it's one of those things, like it's, there's always a good side and there's always a bad side. But don't ignore the bad side, because if you ignore it, who else is going to who to actually like, who else is going to Look like? They're going to ignore it. They follow along because it is more common than what we think, and that is something like. It's pretty terrifying to see that.
Speaker 1:That is a major, majorly important point that as much as love, friendship and family transcends borders, so does hate and so does evil.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's our job to fight for the love and fight against the hate, absolutely. That's what's going to make our world good?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's what's going to make borders fall? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Because I could have been easily being involved into. If I look for it, I will find it quick, I'm pretty sure. But I never had the tendency or never had the necessity. I had the necessity for personal, like stuff or money, whatever, but I never looked for that option to get involved with dealing anything illegal substance or do something horrific and trafficking or whatever thing. God, no, not at all. It's not in my soul, it's not in my persona, it's not something like I wouldn't even think of. But that is the thing. It's one of those things that you got to that made me so pure and lucky on being with a group being original my family, from Tijuana, which there are not many whatsoever. Because, honestly, if you go to the corner you ask where you're from, like probably one or two people are going to and most out of 25 and maybe 30, they're going to say they're from Tijuana, but almost practically they're all from the South. Yep, yeah, absolutely. It's huge now. It's huge, huge. I don't even know half of it now.
Speaker 1:That's nailed it, man. I think you and I nailed this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, alan, like I said, I hope we captured it and I hope our listeners now know what we mean by borderless. That's what this episode is titled, and I hope that this opens people's eyes to the world, and what truly connects us is love, and those borders are there because of hate and evilness. Yeah, and we need to fight for love.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Fight against hate and evil.
Speaker 2:That's the only. Thing.
Speaker 1:Make your own version of a hot dog and share it with your neighbor. Yeah, absolutely yeah, that's a good way. And tell your neighbor to make their own version of a hot dog. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And trade. Oh, that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah, man Alan, thank you so much for being on with us.
Speaker 1:I think this has been a great episode and I really appreciate you, and the last thing that I have to say is, the only border between us right now is a small desk, and after this episode, I'm going to give this Mexican the biggest hug that he's ever gotten in his life. Hell yeah, the danger is going to hug him too. Exactly my man. All right, buddy. Thanks again, man. I hope we gave you something to take away with you, because that's what this podcast is about.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, it's not about the bullshit, it's not about politics, it's not about what's going on in the world right now. We want to expand our connection and our love for each other. The world is big, but it is also flat. We are one, the world is one and we need to go back to our old selves and our ancient culture and we're all human beings at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me and adios amigos, I'll see you next time. Love you, man. Bye.
Speaker 1:Say bye Ranger, all right guys, bye, bye. We'll have to connect, understand, share that.