Rob: I got this one Drei [laughs], stop me in coach! For one, when I stumbled onto Hector Barajas’ story, it baffled me also. It’s a very common, yet unique story, which makes everything about it a contradiction. It’s unique, but it’s happening all the time. We wanted to bring him in the music video because we wanted to honor his story as a representation of what ‘Excuse my Accent’ is at its core. Then when we met him, and really diving in and hearing his plight, we also realized how hard Hector Barajas works to solve the issues. He got deported. He walked up to the border every day wearing his outfit. Until he finally screamed at Bernie Sanders across the border, until he finally got recognized, and finally became a citizen. Then, after becoming a citizen, he could have easily shut the door behind him, but he decided to make a pledge to himself. He said, “I want to make sure that I fight for anybody who has gone through what I’ve gone through.” Hector’s such a hardworking human being. I could probably call him right now, and he’s probably in Tijuana because he has a bunker out there where he houses and fights for the deported veterans. He helps them get pensions and citizenships. Drei went there and met a lot of them. Hector really dedicated his life to sacrifice his own happiness, to be honest.
Another reason why we felt it was so important and compelling because, one, it didn’t make sense. How can you fight for a country and not be recognized? That’s one of the most disheartening parts of the story. If you aren’t a citizen, you can be deported. Yet, they will honor you when you die as a veteran. That means they can literally be deported because they aren’t citizens, after fighting for the war with whatever trauma they carry is a veteran, which is normal, and be placed on the other side of the border. Yet, when they die in Mexico, [the U.S.] will allow them back only in a coffin. That’s mind boggling. Very angering, to be honest.
We interviewed with Hector recently on our platform, excusemyaccent.co, and the concept of deported veterans is not secluded to the Latin community. It includes a wide range of culture, like Kevin Martinez is black from Belize. There’s also deported Russians, Germans and Asians. We’ve heard so many complex stories from a variety of veterans who are now fighting for their citizenship, and in a lot of ways, fighting for their lives. If they get deported back to Korea, they pretty much got a mark on their head. So, it’s very complex and honestly, an easy fix situation that isn’t recognized enough. We really show that this very, unique story exemplifies ‘Excuse my Accent.’ In our documentary, that we’re going to be releasing soon, Drei went down to speak with some of the deported veterans on the other side. Want to hop on that Drei?
Drei: So, I was going back to Tijuana to meet Hector, while he was there at the bunker with the deported veterans. On my way there, I asked “did you want me to bring anything from the states?”, and they’re like “bring us some In-N-Out Burger.” I went to San Diego to go to the In-N-Out Burger and brought a bunch of burgers. When I came to Tijuana, they all came to eat and that’s how we talked. When you hear about this subject in the states, some people think if they got deported, they could figure out a way to come back. When you actually hear these veterans talk about their stories, it’s different.
There was this 72-year old gentleman there. Basically, he was in the military for many years and was driving in a car when something happened. Some people got arrested and he was involved in it. He got deported since he had a green card at the time. There was a felony assigned to him and now he cannot see his family. He has grand-kids and everybody lives here in Los Angeles. He had a regular job for over thirty years, finished with the military, and now he cannot even go back. So dramatic talking to them when you listen to these kinds of stories. People that fought for the United States are now outside the country and can’t come back. There were so many of them. So, I don’t remember all their names because, but it was very emotional talking to them and learning about their situations. That guy’s name is Mauricio. He fought in combat missions with the United States. He was in the front lines, and now he’s been deported for over fifteen years in Tijuana. It is very sad, and it’s not just in Mexico. There are deported veterans all over the world.
Rob: Yeah, there literally isn’t a moment where one person shows his knife wounds and talks about how many kills, how much trauma and PTSD he has from fighting these wars. I went with Hector to go meet Bernie Sanders. Bernie was attentively listening to the issue and looking to find a way to solve it. That was amazing. Yet, the thing that was disturbing, on my side of things was like, how do you guys not know about this? How is this new? As we’re starting to develop conversations again on immigration, which always will be in America, it still baffles me how this is not something that very much should be solved and reconciled. It’s not a big issue from the right side of things or from the left of side things. It should be a very bipartisan thought process that we should honor our veterans, no matter where they come from. They fought for the freedom that we’re all trying and working our hardest to enjoy, you know? So, I think that’s another thing that’s so angering about this situation. How come you just found out about this? How did I just find out about this? Yeah, it’s crazy.