Locked In with Ian Bick - Surviving Extortion: My Escape from Salvadoran Gangs | Gerson Alfaro

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Experience the harrowing journey of a family trapped in the clutches of Salvadoran gang extortion and their courageous escape to freedom. This gripping narrative details the threats, intimidation, and relentless pressure they faced, as well as the ingenious and daring plan that led them to safety. Discover the resilience, bravery, and unity that propelled them through a life-threatening ordeal. This powerful story sheds light on the harsh realities of gang violence and extortion while celebrating the indomitable spirit of a family determined to survive and reclaim their lives. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Gerson Alfaro: https://www.instagram.com/gersonalfa._/ https://www.youtube.com/@bostonchatterbox-podcast Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:38 - Police officers in El Salvador 00:07:19 - Gangs in El Salvador and their Extortion Methods 00:10:49 - The Fear Inside Him 00:14:13 - The Dangers of Living in a Dangerous Country 00:17:25 - Intimidation 00:20:46 - The sacrifice of three lives for mine 00:27:32 - Crossing the Border and Seeking Refuge 00:30:46 - My Hero's Work Ethic 00:34:06 - Learning English as a First Grader 00:37:20 - Starting a Podcast Journey 00:40:38 - The Power of Storytelling 00:43:46 - The Power of Consistency and Growth 00:47:03 - Personal Growth and Studio Evolution 00:50:17 - From TikToks to Success 00:53:29 - Description of Podcast and Links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and all birds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side,

turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. The Four Seasons is back for season two, starring Tina Faye, Will Forte, Coleman Domingo, Marco Calvani, Carrie Kenny Silver, and Erica Henningson. After a difficult year, your favorite group of friends continues their tradition of vacationing together now with a baby in tow. From the Jersey Shore to upstate New York and Italy, their getaways are sure to take unexpected turns where comedy ensues. Watch the four seasons May 28th only on Netflix. People started noticing that, you know, that we had money.

There's so many gangs around there. And what gangs do over there for money is extortion. So what they do is they go to like little businesses or even literally people's homes, go into people's homes and tell them, hey, I need this much money every month or you know, like literally like that. It sounds like hard to believe. But hey, I need this much money or, you know, you're not going to be here anymore. It's completely just ridiculous.

So small businesses were literally paying to stay alive. And a lot of families that were well off, like my family back over there, we had like a big target on our heads just because they could extort us for hundreds of dollars when they could extort regular citizens over there probably for like 20 bucks a month, you know. Gerson, welcome to Lockton. I love your name. It's definitely a unique name. Yeah.

I've gotten that a lot, actually, yeah. But in El Salvador, actually, my name is kind of common if you don't, like, it's hard to believe, but it is. What does it mean? Does it have a meaning? I think it was, like, one of, like, Noah's, like, grandsons or something like that from the Bible. My dad just really liked it. And at first, I always hated my name, but then I just kind of, like, I hated it because of how I say it in English. But in Spanish, my name is Herzong.

And in Spanish, my name sounds like way better than it does in English. Because like white folk, they usually be like, Gerson, Gerson. And I'm like, oh, that sounds ugly. Like with an H? No, no, no, like Gerson. Did I say it okay? No, yeah, yeah. It's supposed to say fast, like Gerson.

It's Herson. But in the white people way of saying it's Gerson, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, but you'd rather hearsome. Heres. I'm not good with the rolling the R's. No, no, no, it's cool. I was just saying.

Oh, that's awesome. We haven't really started yet, right? Oh, yeah, we're recording now, but anything that we don't want in it, we can cut. Yeah, yeah, probably like that beginning part, but, yeah. So. You're from El Salvador. I was originally born there, but I came here from a really young age, you know. So I probably, no, I definitely speak better English than Spanish, you know.

I'm definitely fluent in Spanish, but, Reading and writing it, not the best, you know. It's hard to read it and write it compared to speaking it. Yeah, of course. But English, like, when I first arrived to the country, it was a little hard, difficult for me to pick it up. But, like, when you're young, I feel like you pick stuff up so fast. So I didn't even notice when I learned English. Like, it just kind of happened, you know?

All my classmates were speaking English. I just kind of picked it up. Because I came here when I was, like, five years old. My mom and dad actually I try to help them out with their English Like when I was younger like I would translate for them and stuff like that So yeah Do you have any memories from Al Salvador

When you were really young or not really? Yeah, I definitely have some memories when I was young and stuff like that And I hear a lot from my parents and stuff like that And my siblings I have an older sister she's three years older than me I have a younger brother he's two years younger than me so

when when I was like maybe fourish my dad he came to America because he was a police officer back in El Salvador and in El Salvador police officers are like

it's a most dangerous job you could have you know gang members in El Salvador they would like kidnapped police officers, like they would watch them. So in El Salvador, police officers,

they wear masks because you don't want nobody knowing your identity because police officers they get like kidnapped and the gang members do like satanic rituals with them and like kill them

and slaughter them or mutilate their bodies and stuff like that. Like probably like one of the worst deaths you can imagine. Like that's why no one wanted to be a police officer in El Salvador

because the gang members ran the country back then. I'm not sure how familiar you are with El Salvador, but we have a new president now, and he locked, like, everybody up. Like, anybody with tattoos that resemble, like, any affiliation with gangs, like, you get locked up. And a lot of human rights activists are actually heading over there and saying, hey, this is against the law or da-da-da-da, you're violating their human rights. But before, El Salvador was actually considered the most dangerous country in the world, including countries that were at war, you know, that's how bad it got. Weren't there a lot of corrupt police, too, that they were talking about recently?

Oh, yeah, of course, yeah. But I'm pretty sure they're doing some sort of, like, audits and stuff like that to see who was, like, receiving money from different gangs and stuff like that. It's definitely, it was a complicated situation, but El Salvador is becoming, like, a tourist stop now because it's just so safe now. before there used to be like a curfew. Once the sun goes down, you shouldn't be outside.

And if you are outside, it's just dangerous, you know? I can't believe your dad was a police officer there. That's incredible. Yeah, that's why his parents started pressuring my father to go to the United States because they're like, hey, the job you've chosen is just not safe for you, you know? So then he decided, well, he didn't really have a choice.

Like his dad was really pushing him, egging him on to. hey, you should go to America and, you know, seek a better future for you and your kids. So he went to America, like maybe two years before we came. He came here alone. And he was working, sending us money and stuff like that. We had a nice house over there. Compared to the other people, we were doing really, really good because we had American money, you know. When the jobs over there probably paid like $5 a day, you know, our father was, me, my father was sending me money and stuff.

I got sending money to my mom. And people started noticing that, you know, that we had money, you know. So then there's so many gangs around there. And what gangs do over there for money is extortion. So what they do is they go to like little businesses or even literally people's homes, go into people's homes and tell them, hey, I need this much money every month. or you're dead, you know, like literally like that. It sounds like hard to believe, but hey, I need this much money or, you know,

you're not going to be here anymore. It's completely just ridiculous. So small businesses were literally paying to stay alive. And a lot of families that were well off, like my family back over there, we had like a big target on our heads just because, they could extort us for hundreds of dollars when they could extort regular citizens over there probably for like 20 bucks a month, you know. What gangs are these? What types of individuals?

The one that extorted my family, at least, I can't say like which one it is just because I'm not sure there's just so many. But the gangs that run El Salvador are MS-13 and Barrio di Cioch, which is kind of like their opposition. You know, I'm not 100% sure. No, MS-13s are one of the most violent gangs in the country. I mean, we read about them in Long Island and in prison, they're pretty violent too. And they're recruited very young, the gang members. And there's even women incorporated, too. You want to know something interesting about those gangs in El Salvador?

To join a gang in El Salvador, the first requirement they ask you to do to show your loyalty is killed one of your loved ones. So young kids, maybe 13, the gangs hang around their schools and start recruiting kids that look like, you know, big or whatever, or kids that look like their parents aren't around them too much. They go up to them, they're like, hey,

you need to join our gang. You have a week to think about it. If not, we're going to kill you, you know? And then kids that do choose to join, I mean, it's not really a choice. It's either you die or, like, you join the gang, you know? They make you sure. show your loyalty that if you have a brother they're like kill your brother to show your loyalty to

the gang to us so that's how messed up the people that are in the gangs over there are you know it's not like here in america where like you could just start claiming stuff you know over there like you got to like shit you got to like kill a family member like a mom or a dad or a brother to join the gang you know and these kids are actually doing that over there yeah i mean they were you know yeah different time period this is what like 15 years ago uh yeah uh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah, definitely around 15, 16 years ago around that. Do you think it still happens now out there? In Osabado, no.

Like I was saying, the president completely just changed everything over there. But back to that, you would be forced to kill, like, a family member. And once you did that, right, you showed your loyalty to the gang, and then you probably get, like, beat into the gang, right? And they'll give you spots. you're like, hey, go collect the money from this section of, from these people or from these businesses. And then all that money went up to like the higher-ups and the gangs and stuff like that.

So like at least my family, you know, since we had money that was coming in from America because my dad was here in the U.S., we were a big target. And I remember, I mean, my dad told me once, he's just like, he got a call once. and then from a gang member or a gang leader actually and then he's just like I'm watching your wife and kids at the park right now

you know how easy it would be for me to kill one of them and calling my dad and my dad is just like I'm not giving you money this and that da da da da and then the gang member is because my dad thinks he was bluffing you know

and the guy is just like your wife is wearing a purple dress your daughter's wearing a red dress call them. My dad calls my mom. And my mom is, my dad's just like, oh, hey, what are you guys up to? My mom is just like, oh, I'm just taking the kids to the park, you know, da-da-da-da. My dad's just like, what are you wearing? My mom is just like, oh, a purple dress, this and that, you know. And my dad just like, oh, okay, be safe. And then my dad, he calls the gang leader back. And he's just like, how much you need, you know, I'll send it right now. And my dad, you know, he used to, he would tell me stories of like, like, he would cry at night.

You know, just like the fear inside of him of like his family's over there. I can't do nothing to protect them, you know. So to me, like my dad is my hero, brother. Like I have never met a man like so willing and so like a man that loves their family as much as my dad did. You know, my dad, he used to work like 90 hours a week. He would work two full-time jobs, you know, to send money back to us and cover his cost of living here. and pay the gang members and stuff like that. And they would ask for a lot of money, hundreds of dollars, you know?

Now, was it typical for them to prey upon regular families that didn't own a business? Or was it just because you guys showed that you had money? Dude, they would prey on everybody. That's why the economy was struggling so much, because how are you going to grow a business and how are you going to provide for your family? The poverty rate over there was just like through the roof. Like, it wouldn't be common to see little kids picking food out the trash can to eat. Kids, like, you could see their ribs and stuff, you know?

It's just super common over there. And like I was saying, they were asking my dad for money, and my dad ended up sending it to them. And then gradually they just kept asking for more and more and more, you know? And my dad was over here working his ass off, you know, trying to get that, you know, send money to us, send money to the gang leaders to literally, for our lives, dude. What was he doing for work your dad after in the United States?

He was working like in the kitchen. He was working like literally like slave jobs, you know, like. He gave up law enforcement completely. I mean, he came here, right? So he was a police officer over there. He had all the requirements, but he didn't fit the requirements here. You know, he just had to get to work. He didn't have time to go study or nothing.

He didn't even know the language. You know, he was just here working, trying to find whatever job. took him, trying to make as much money as possible. And it started getting dangerous because they kept asking for more money. And my dad was struggling more and more to come up with it. And so he was struggling to come up with the money because they kept asking for more. So we moved to my grandmother's house for a little period of time because we were scared for our lives, you know? And I remember this one time, like, just to put into perspective for you, how,

poor the country was. Like, I remember this one time my mom rushed us into our bedroom and we were all hiding there and she started barricading the door in because someone had broken into our home. Somebody had broken into our house. We were scared. What about they want to hurt us? What about this and that?

And then we heard them leave after. And guess what they took? A fucking blender. They came into our house, broke through our door just to steal a blender. That's how poor the country was. Wow. Like a blender was like a high, like, luxury like commodity you know but like I was saying we moved to my grandmother's house just because

it just wasn't safe for us to be living there anymore and then when we were at my mother my grandmother's house my dad was sending some money so we could start like arranging our stuff to try to come to the United States right but to get into the United States legally it would be a whole lot of waiting and paperwork and this and that and if we didn't get out of that situation like ASAP, like, our lives were in danger, you know, especially because they don't play around over there. It's like, if you're lucky, they give you a warning, you know? Now, couldn't all the small business owners and family stand up against these gangs,

or are they just way more gang members than there are civilians? Dude, it's like, it's like standing up to, like, the Taliban, you know? Like, you just can't. Like, you're just regular, like, regular people. standing up to people that are just literally no other word to describe them but like lunatics. But there are, that's a great point about the Taliban that we do see these movies, you know, where the communities come together and stand up against the Taliban. Do you get, did you guys see that at all?

No, no. People were like scared to leave their homes. It was literally terrorism, dude. And how does a country come to that point? Because it wasn't always like that. It wasn't like it was born evil in that. How does that even stem and come from? Well, I don't know 100%

It's history But it definitely started from a civil war that we had Where it was like the government versus like the rebels and stuff like that Because the government, the people inside the government We're always stealing our resources and stuff like that And then they would pay the military To protect them and stuff like that And then rebels want to take back their country

And the government didn't want them to take back their country And then gangs started forming to protect People's little towns and stuff like that So, like, people will, like, gather together, create, like, gangs for the protection of their town. But after all that ended, those gangs just got gradually bigger and bigger and bigger. And then the only way to make money was through extorting people because they're lazy ass, they didn't want to go work, you know? Were you guys witnessing anyone that didn't pay? What happened to them?

I remember this one time we were coming from my grandmother's house. And we were on the bus. And then police officers stopped the bus. And they made us all get out. And then we get out. And there's just a giant crowd of people, right? We start walking to that crowd. And then on the floor, there's just someone just laying there dead, blood all over the floor.

You know? And then my mom is covering my eyes and covering my sister's eyes and trying to get us out away from that situation. And we just waited for the police officers to search the bus for anybody, whoever they were looking for, I don't know. Then we, it was just like super scary. Just from my young age, like I remember seeing that, you know, like somebody dead on the floor. Like, the thing is they don't really use guns. It's just mostly like mailes.

So it's like super graphic, you know? Like machetes. Yeah, brother, like axes. I'm talking like kitchen knives, everything. Well, what would happen if you guys called the police after you get extorted? The police is scared of the gangs, dude. Like, it's that bad. Like, it was ran by the gangs, you know?

like police officers, it's not like here in America, police officers, we're also scared for their lives, you know. And, but like I was saying, but when we were like coming here, I mean, we went to my grandmother's house because it was too dangerous, and we were planning on coming here. So we talked to a, they call them like a coyote, somebody that's going to, like, smuggle you into the country.

Like we saw on Johnny's channel. Exactly. So somebody like that, we talked to somebody like that. My dad paid them a bunch of money, this and that, and then they were going to smuggle us into the United States, right? So we go with that guy. We go to the school and tell the school, hey, we need to pull all our paperwork out. We're pulling the kids out of school because we were planning on leaving to the United States, right?

And we talked to the vice principal, the principal, my teacher. We tell them that we're leaving because we were in danger, this and that. They understand. and to, you know, we were just getting our paperwork ready with the schools and stuff like that, getting our birth certificates and stuff like that, so we could take all that to the United States. And then we, I'm going to skip forward a little bit.

We make it all the way to the United States, right? And then we get like, we see on the news, and we hear from, like, people in our town that the gang members, they, like, we were, like, golden geese to them, you know, pooping literally golden eggs to them, you know? And they murdered my kindergarten teacher, the vice principal of the school I was attending,

and the principal of that school. Because they went to the school trying to see, hey, where did this guys transfer to, you know? Where are they going, you know, trying to get information about, because we just disappeared one day. I'm telling you, we just disappeared one day. We went to my grandma's house, and then we started getting ready to get like smuggled into the United States, right?

So we just disappeared one day. The gang members are trying to figure out where we went, you know, asking people this and that, threatening people, hey, I know you have connections with these people. Where did they go? So they went into the school and after school hours started interrogating like the faculty that was there. And at the time it was like my kindergarten teacher, the vice principal, and then the principal. So the gang members, when they got there, the three of them were there, right? They started asking information about us, saying, hey, where did these guys take off to?

And then they had no information to give, this and that. So they murdered them. Like, I wish I could find, like, the news article, but, like, they were found in the ditch just completely mutilated. Like, so that's why now I know I'm, like, young. and stuff like that. Like, I want to be something in my life just because, like, three people gave up theirs for me to be here today, you know what I'm trying to say?

And, like, I've literally cried about this, you know, like I've thought about it a lot, you know? Because those people were hurt because me, my brother, and my sister, you know, took off. And, yeah. How did you find out about their deaths? Who was the one that told you? It was just the talk of the town, you know.

It was the talk of the town. And some people called my mom, like people from our town. Once we did get to America, they're saying, hey, you know, they killed these people because of you. They were looking for you guys. And that definitely was like a hard pill to swallow because you're like, damn, you know. How did your parents feel about it? Distraught. Like, they feel so bad for the families of those people because at least my kindergarten.

and teacher, she had a daughter, and then, like, she didn't have a dad. So her daughter, like, God knows what happened to her. You know, her mom is dead. Do you think that you guys would have wound up the same way if you didn't leave El Salvador? Bro, I'm not supposed to be here today. Like, seriously, if it wasn't for Jesus Christ, I wouldn't be here today. Like, seriously. Like, I am forever grateful for my life.

And that's why every day, like, I want to just grind, you know? want to go to work, come home, you know, like educate myself with books or try to build my own podcast and stuff like that. Like, I'm like, hey, I'm not going to sit around and do nothing with my life, knowing that three people couldn't enjoy theirs for me to be alive today, you know? Would they have just killed kids like that? A hundred percent, dude. Like if they found you guys and your parents weren't paying, they would have killed you guys.

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Well, how to it out of my mind they would have killed us? And then the crazy thing is like my grandmother, she went to go check on her house after like we made it to America, right? She went to go check up on our house. And remember how I told you they were mutilated? They left one of their hearts in our home. Wow.

And my grandmother found it there. So what happened to your grandmother? She stayed? Yeah. But she lived like somewhere else, like the different part of the country. But if they put the heart over there, then they still found her. No, no, like she went to go visit the home, you know. Okay, okay, got it.

She didn't live there. She went to visit your home. Yeah, yeah. She was like, kind of like maintaining it a little bit and stuff like that. Because it was a huge property because over there, like, properties are not as expensive as over here. So you could literally own like a whole street, you know, for like 30K. Do you guys still own it now?

Yeah, my mom and dad actually own a bunch of properties over there in El Salvador. And then now that the, like, tourist areas. are going up and stuff like that because all the gang members are locked up now. Like the property values, I think, like, literally risen like 30%, you know. And you have that same original house that you... Yeah, I mean, it's literally getting consumed by the trees around it, but yeah, the land, I guess. Have you guys gone back there since? We didn't really have a reason to go back, but, like, I definitely want to go back in the near future.

But, like, back to, like, I was saying how we were illegally. coming here. We were illegally coming here. We took a literally we went to Mexico first, right, with our original coyote and then he connected us with a different coyote, right? And then that coyote was going to bring us from Mexico to like Texas and then somebody else in Texas was going to take us here, this and that until we make it to Boston. But it's like a two month trip, you know, like. Oh, it takes two months? Dude, yeah. And how dangerous is it just cost? Extremely like, like, I would say like 25% of the people that try to cross here illegally die. And what are some of the dangers during a crossing?

Well, deserts, sometimes clean water. Other people around you, because other people would try to get a lick off of you, you know, try to rob you and stuff like that. Because most people would travel with all, like, their possessions, you know? So there would be, like, points where people would try to rob you and stuff like that. But if I started getting into that, like, it would, be like a whole different podcast too you know but uh we started we made it all the way to like

almost texas right like border town sort of thing and my mom couldn't walk no more like she was just like we had been walking for days drinking little water eating literally mayonnaise sandwiches mayonnaise just mayonnaise mayonnaise mayonnaise and just bread because that's all we had left because it was a long trip you know and um my mom couldn't walk no more and imagine my mom was coming here illegally with three kids I was like five or six my sister was nine my brother was four imagine how hard that would be walking with children all the way to the United States from Al Salvador which is like near like the Caribbean almost you know like so my mom couldn't walk no more like her feet literally she just couldn't like she was walking

for days we were walking for days we were all scratched up from like the trees and branches hitting us in our face and stuff like that so my mom Mom is just like, I'm going up. Like, we're giving up. Like, the thing is, if we go back to El Salvador after disappearing, we're dead. You know, we're dead. If we touched, like, Foil in El Salvador, we were dead. 100%, you know, especially if the gang members knew who tried to escape.

Like, we were dead. Like, there was no, either we make it to the United States or we're dead. And there's no vehicles that's just walking when you're crossing the border? There is vehicles, but for, like, short periods of time. especially from like El Salvador we went to Guatemala and then from Guatemala to like Mexico we took like

giant buses and stuff like that all the way over there but it was still super long you know but when you get to like the point where you're almost to the United States it's just walking for days because like you can't go in through car because you're going in there illegally you know so my mom couldn't walk no more and then we got caught

by Border Patrol Oh, Border Patrol caught you guys I mean, we couldn't walk no more, you know? On the Mexican side or the U.S. side? I'm not 100% sure, but like, probably in the middle, you know. So we got caught by them, right? And then we explained to them our situation. Like, they had translators and stuff like that.

And at the time, they weren't having a border crisis. So we started explaining them to our situation. And they've seen us like literally with my mom, three kids and a mother, you know, bruised, beating up from like the treacherous roads and stuff like that. You know, probably a little bit dehydrated, probably starving at the time. And, you know, we were Christian and we were good people, you know. We were just, just wanted to live, you know. We started explaining to them our situation. and they just gave us, like, court dates, and they allowed us to enter the country.

Now, does that happen every time that they allow you to, like, how does that actually work at the border? Are they arresting people? Are they just giving court dates? Are they physically removing you? Or are they letting you pass freely? At least back then, you get to port it back. Like, they grab you, and then they put you, like, in a facility, and then from that facility, they start, like, shipping you out back to your country and stuff like that.

And the thing is, like, they're so careless. Let's say you're from El Salvador, they might deport you back to Mexico. Because they don't give a shit, you know. But you guys didn't get deported. No, because it was three little kids and a mother, you know. And we were explaining to the translator or a situation. My mom was literally bawling her eyes out, talking to the people telling her, hey, if we go back to our country, we're going to die, you know.

So isn't it like looking for Safe Haven or something? There's some type of... Yeah, like almost like refugee status, I think. Yeah. I'm not too sure about the legality of it because my mom and dad are the ones that like went through that process. You know, we were kids, stuff like that. They went through all that process, you know, for us to enter the country or whatever. But they expedited it for us and stuff like that.

Like, I promise you, like the people that, the people at that border, they were like super nice to us. And we got lucky. And I promise you it's probably because my mom is a praying woman. And if it wasn't because of that, they probably would have deported us back to our country and we would have been dead, you know. But we were met with nice people. That doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes border patrols are also corrupt, you know.

They might be like, hey, how much you have on you? You know, I could turn a blind eye. And aren't they working with some of the coyotes, the border patrol? I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, like getting bags of cash and taking payoffs. bribes. I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised just because each person's paying like 10 grand at the time, like 20, I mean 2008, 2009, they're probably paying like $10,000 to get crossed, you know? Do you know how much of your parents paid to get you guys across? Oh, I mean,

the more people you have that you kind of could bundle them together, you know, so I wouldn't be surprised that my dad probably paid like 30 grand. And he was able to save that much up working at this restaurant. I mean, he was working like 90 hours a week. Like he was literally, I remember his schedule when we first arrived to the country like I wouldn't see him like ever would I would never see him He would come home for like two hours He would go to sleep get right back on his feet go back to work seven days a week Like I promise you like that man is my hero bro like that That work ethic like I have never seen someone else like him

Well he had to save his family and when you when you're up against a clock and then the pressure like that You know that was probably his will to live no literally dude and And then my dad would tell me sad stories of him, like, he would just cry because he would miss us so much because we didn't see him for like two years. And then I would call him and I'd be like, hey, you don't love me. You left me here. Da-da-da-da. You know, and my dad would say that he was bawling his eyes out because it wasn't really his choice, you know. He had to come here.

You know, he was a police officer. His life was in danger. And it definitely helped. Like, we were living a great life over there before, like, all that extortion stuff was happening, you know. We had a nice house. We had a couple maids and stuff like that. Because maids, all you got to pay them is like, what, like $3 a day? Like, it just made sense.

What would it happen if the gangs also found out that he was a police officer? I feel like, I mean, since he wasn't there anymore, it didn't really matter, you know? But once we were here, right, my dad, this one time he was on Facebook. And then he got in touch with one. of his friends from the academy, like wife, one of his friends from the academy's wife. And then she was explaining to him how his friend from the academy went missing. Apparently he went to the bar with another cop, right? And then that same cop turned him into the gangs, like turned him into, like he got him all drunk, my dad's friend.

Like at a bar, he got him all drunk, messed up. And then he's just like, oh, I'll take you home. I'll take you home. and he brought him to a place where the gangs literally did like a satanic ritual on him and killed him and then his family was over here

worried about him he's like he went missing two weeks ago and my dad was just reading that on Facebook because he had his friend's wife on Facebook and then my dad was really upset because that was one of like his close friends from the academy

and like it's just it's a completely different feeling when like a grown man is missing you know It's just like, damn, like, well, what could be happening? They're like, how does a grown man go missing, you know? Like, and then they ended up finding his body somewhere just, like, just dad. Wow. Where do you guys live when you came back over here?

Well, I was actually, Summerville, Massachusetts. So you guys went straight from crossing the border to Massachusetts? Yeah. Why Massachusetts? Why did your dad take that? My dad lived here. He had family members here. So obviously, he's just going to come to.

the country and have nobody, you know? So he came to the country and he went to Boston because that's where he had a couple brothers, sisters and stuff like that that could help him get on his feet when he arrives and stuff like that. So, yeah, I guess. Could you speak any English when you got here? No, brother, no. Yeah, how hard was that to acclimate and learn to speak English at such a young age?

When did you finally learn English too? Probably around like five, no. Whenever you're a first grader, I guess. Okay. Yeah, it took me a while to get used to speaking English. But I'm telling you, like, one day all of a sudden, I just knew it. Because when you're a little kid, you're like a sponge. Like, you just absorb anything around you, you know.

Now, in Al Salvador, like, in the U.S., we're teaching multi-languages. Were you guys teaching multilingual out there, too? No, yeah, they were. I actually took, like, an English class. That's so interesting. Yeah, they were teaching us English over there. But it wasn't the best, you know. Do you think it's kind of like how hard it is for kids over here to learn Spanish?

Like the vocabulary and the grammar, is it like that over there? I don't know where I heard this from, but apparently English is one of like the hardest languages just because they have so many words for the same things. But for me, I picked up English pretty quick. And I'm happy that I didn't stay over there because I like think in English. And some people that come here and they're like a little older, they think in Spanish. and then translate it into English. You know what I'm trying to say?

Yeah, I always wish I could like learn another language, like be bilingual. I took Spanish, made it up to like Spanish 4, but I hated like the grammar aspect. I can understand like kitchen Spanish because I worked in kitchens. And you kind of read the body language a little bit of how someone's speaking. But I can't write it. I can't really speak it that well. I'm not fluent, but I could listen to it and understand slightly. I honestly love the Spanish language.

I feel like in Spanish. Like, Spanish is one of the most romantic languages and stuff like that, in my opinion. But English is obviously the superior language, like worldwide, you know. It's used for, like, business and stuff like that. And people from all countries strive to learn English, you know. Now, did your family ever get their visas or their citizenship? How did that work? And how long did it take?

I know we were going through a process for, like, a while. like we had like court dates and stuff like that that my mom and dad had to get lawyers and go to that but I think it was fairly quick just because of our situation yeah so they were able to get citizenship yeah yeah okay

uh uh residentship citizenship isn't that what it's called or I don't know how what the terminology is uh I don't know did they have to take like a test or something or they just have a visa uh the thing is like I wasn't really a part of that

process too much. It just kind of just happened, you know? Okay. Like my mom and dad kind of took care of that with the lawyers and like we finally kind of got the chance to be kids for a while, you know, like, but going through those stuff like when I was younger and I would see like the stress in my mom's face and I would like hear like the fear of my dad's voice when he would just call me over the phone. Like I just feel like people like gained their, you know, when you're a little kid, you kind of just get your, what's the word I'm looking for? I guess it just made me mature faster as a kid. Growing up.

Yeah. And what's your relationship like with your parents now? What do they do? What do they think about how you were raised in the United States and how you turned out? Honestly, they love what I'm doing. You know, I go to work every day. I'm just literally just focused on work

and trying to build a better future. and they see that I'm like a penny pincher and they love it because they're like hey this guy he appreciates every dollar that hits his bank account you know which I do and I don't see much of that anymore I see kids like

with designer shoes and stuff like that but don't own a car you know a lot of it's fake out there like with social media and stuff like that you can everything's rented that people with the fancy cars and whatnot they're renting stuff it's not in their name and they're showing

off and it and it gives people kind of the wrong idea. No, it definitely does. But at least coming here to your studio, just kind of confirm to me that I want to keep doing my podcast more. But you know, it's kind of hard to get interviews when you have no subscribers. Remember, we all started there. I started with zero subscribers. And I've learned that there's a power in your story, you know?

And we as individuals have stories and I use that to help build my platform. So you, you have a story that you can use to help build your platform up. Hopefully I could probably get better at telling it just because, like, today I was like super nervous just because I'm like, I don't know how this guy's going to be. How about how the studio is going to be? How did I turn out? What about there's like 10 people behind them while you're recording or something like that? And I'm over here getting stage fright. But you seem to be a really nice guy and the studio is lovely, you know.

Like this is definitely inspirational for me because I would love to get into the podcast. podcast scene. And I edit my own podcast and stuff like that. It's just me and my friend, you know, just kind of having fun, talking about our week and stuff like that. And I'm over here practicing my editing. I just got a new computer. Like, I would do everything on my phone.

I finally got a computer. That's how I started it. I used to do it all on my phone and my iPad. I started the same way. The thing is with podcast, dude. Like the clips are too long that it's just so hard to export from one phone to another phone and then it was just super difficult dude that's the grind man that's the hustle that everyone starts at to make it in it you know no one just good the people that like go out and buy a

$5,000 laptop and download premiere and do all this right off the gate they they don't experience like that that building stage of just hustling and grinding with the podcast building it our podcast is called Boston chatterbox and our first episode uh you could just see how bad was you know like we would have like iPhone audio echo all over the room and um it was just shaky and um and my editing was super bad like you would see like jump cuts and stuff do you guys um use uh iPhones to film it on or yeah still because um I'm like I don't want to keep spending more money into this until like it's necessary you know no nothing wrong with that I see a lot of guys film on iPhones because they're they're nice to film on yeah and they shoot in 4K now and

stuff like that. And I just love this podcasting stuff. Like, I feel like if you don't have a platform, whatever you have to say doesn't matter. You ever thought of it like that? I guess. I mean, but I mean, the thing with my show is I invite people on that don't have a platform to share their story. And I think those stories matter.

So it's, I think maybe people with platforms have more influence. But I think more and more we're seeing people that don't have a platform go out to share their stories. and they get platforms because of that too because there's that power and storytelling and sharing it. It's so powerful and people underestimate that. But there's definitely platforms

that won't take you unless you have a certain amount of like... I was in the same position. They wouldn't touch my story, so fuck them. I went and built my own. So how did you get with Johnny Mitchell? We just connected on... I shot him an email.

Really? I shot him a cold email when I was starting. I said, hey, bro, I'll fly you out. I'd like for you to come on my podcast. He's like, yeah, Sure. And we pick them up in New York City and we take him like two hours to the middle of nowhere to our old studio in Hyde Park, New York.

And he's stuck in the car with me for four hours. And he's super tall. So he's like crad to the front. And we ended up hitting it off. He had a great time. He respected the hustle. And I started running his social media. I do his TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and I help him make clips.

And we've been, you know, friends ever since. We've known each other for a year now. we've been working together. And he's been on my show twice. I've been on his show once. He's been to the studio. Really good guy. And he gets it, you know.

How big was he when you shot him that email? He had... Quarter million? No, he had, I think, 500,000. Oh, wow. He had just, when I first linked with him, he had just done Andrew Schulz's podcast. Oh, wow.

That had just came out. So he was about 500,000, so now he's double that. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.

Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.

See full terms at mintmobile.com. So you were expecting an email back, where are you? You got to shoot your shot always, you know? That's why, like, I try to respond to as many DMs as possible for this show and be interactive and email people like, I'm my brother now that email is a guest back, just so we make sure we hit it. everyone and we have like 300 people on a waiting list coming on the show. I think, did you fill out a form to call me? No, I did. I actually shot you IG DM first.

Okay. And then I'm like, this guy's probably not going to respond. So then I just texted a quick little paragraph. And then you responded kind of quick. And I'm like, oh, now I think I might have to go. Oh, you weren't going to come? No, yeah, because I'm like, he's probably not going to respond, whatever. But if he does, you know, maybe I could get some exposure to what I'm trying to get done on my

podcast. Because there's so many people that don't respond. That's why it's so important to respond, because you don't want to discourage people and everyone's important. And you never know if, if, like, you get a hit with, like, one of those stories, you know, could be a little bit more than what you were expecting. Oh, exactly. I think the coolest thing that I do is that these are stories that no one's heard before. So, like, what I've found in this business is if you take someone's story that's been on everyone's platform, it doesn't do as well as the stories where say like yours, you've never told the story before in a public setting. I'm the first to break the story like a news reporter and it does extremely well.

It's so interesting how that works. People want new stuff. They don't, and that goes to show that the tide and social media is changing that people are getting tired of the same influencers. Like you watch some of these influencers or podcasters that just talk about themselves. Yeah. And it's the same thing every episode. That's why it needs to be interview-based.

I always tell people getting into it, it's so hard to carry a podcast on your own or with a co-host. If you're out there interviewing people, you'll always have new content. You know, very rarely is it about like just me and my life. I don't really talk about that. I focus on the other person's story. Yeah, I definitely notice that when I watch your podcast, I just see mostly the other person just talking most of the time. And then you kind of just chime in. And lead them the right direction to finish your story, you know.

Yeah, and to what you were saying earlier about your first. episode, dude, mine was horrible. It was like the weirdest camera angles. I had a sheet of paper with questions. I was just firing off questions the person would answer and I was supposed to like banter back instead. I would just ask the next question. It was so scripted. Now I can, you know, free ball it. My brother just types up some notes and I go off of that and I sit and it's more organic. It's conversational. But I look at that first episode and I hated the set. I thought it was the best thing when it first came out, but looking back on it, you grow so much. So you just got to keep pushing it and keep putting out episodes.

But it kind of gets to your first episode, how many views do you think it got? The first one, it took like four or five days to get a thousand views. Wow. It was a slow grind. And now, like, I view my success as like, okay, now. Was it an interview? Yeah, it was an interview. That's probably why.

Now I could put an episode up, and it does 10,000. like 48 hours or 24 hours. And that was just, you know, a year and a half ago when I put up my first one. But it's, I say the biggest thing is consistency. If you are consistent and you keep doing it, you keep trying to refine your tools every time you're going to win in the long run. Yeah, like I was saying, like coming here, just definitely like an eye-opener just because I'm like, like, this guy is making a living off of what he's doing.

And like, I love, I love doing podcasts. I just want to get better at it. Like, I promised you a year ago I probably was even worse at speaking than I am now. But practicing with my podcast, my vocabulary, like, expanded a little bit. And I'm learning so much, like, through editing and angles and stuff like that. Like, my first podcast, like, I think you could just, like, see my double chin the whole time. Like, it was one of those downward angles going up. It was just terrible.

Yeah. Yeah. And... You learn as you go. And seeing myself on video, like, it motivated me to, like, lose weight. Because I was pushing, like, 270, brother. Oh, wow. Yeah, bro.

And right now I'm, like, I'm, like, at a 200. And right now I'm working on, like, a weight loss course because a lot of people are just coming up to me because they seem, like, how big I was. There was no other way to describe it. I was fucking humongous, bro. Yeah. Dude, it's constantly changing an evolution, you know, and I've been there, too, with the weight. Because when I went into prison, I was, like, 270. Yeah, dude.

I was big 280, almost. I was big. I was a big guy. Now I keep about like 185, 190. But back to camera angles, like, I've changed this studio that I moved into September. We've changed it like 50 times. Like, I'm always just changing things. You change the lighting.

You change the cameras. Now I got it to where I like it. Before that camera was over there, there were different curtains, different lighting angles. This carpet's pretty new. So you learn as you go. You know, not every thing has to be perfect. So many times, like, I'll sit with clients that are starting a podcast and they want everything perfect on their first step. Yeah.

That they just overthink it. And it doesn't come out that way. You grow into it. Our job here at our studio is, you know, we help make it look good, but you're going to grow as an interviewer over time. And you'll evolve and you'll get more comfortable. Like, look, your demeanor coming in is way more than it is after an hour of sitting with me and talking to me because you're comfortable now. So you get comfortable as you go. Yeah, I kind of walked in here and I was kind of shitting myself.

I'm like, oh, like, what about if, like, I start just choking? Well, you didn't choke, so you nailed it. Well, like, about the weight thing, like, dude, I got so big that, like, I just didn't want to get up from my bed anymore. You know, like, I started getting lazy. I wasn't productive. And then I started playing basketball. I started dieting a little bit. And, like, I'm seeing results, and people are seeing results in me, too.

And it's giving me more energy to do the things that I love, like podcasting and giving me more energy to work more hours, you know. Because you always got to have that job to back you up, you know, and then chase your dream. And then hopefully your dream surpasses the income of like your day job. Because I think I've heard that you were working out Whole Foods for a while, right? Yeah, almost four years, man. Four years? Yeah. And I quit like a few months too early because I could have, I would have been a better financial position had I stuck with it.

But looking back on it now, I made the right choice at the right time. And, you know, now I'm grateful to be doing what I'm doing and to make money off of it. Because I think you release two or three episodes a week, something like that. Yeah, I started at one. Then I went to two and now we do three. And we do three episodes. And I have a client list. I do editing and filming and whatnot.

And we're just growing and expanding. See, mine, people get scared of the three episodes a week. but mine are so easy to edit because I don't interrupt the guest and I just let the guest talk and it's very simple set and it's just me and you we don't have a third camera angle we don't have a bunch of people talking over very rarely is there ever an edit that I actually have to make there's not like I don't edit out someone's mistake I like it raw and organic

unless someone names something and they're like oh cut that name no I definitely get it well like I was saying Dude, like I'm gonna get home and I'm probably gonna throw a few quarters at some equipment You know like seeing seeing this like I definitely need some soundproofing because of my my setup right now is so ghetto Where like it's a my extra room in my apartment right so sometimes I got to like shift it back Into a guest room when I have family over and then I got to put everything back up you know just for somebody else to be like hey can I come visit you this weekend now I got to throw everything back into the closet and then get the bed out and stuff

like that. Yeah, well, if you ever need any advice or help, you know, I'll give you my number so we could connect. And remember, I started in my car making TikToks. That's where I started. I didn't have a studio. I didn't have anything. I just made TikToks on my iPhone. And that built me my first, you know, 200,000 followers, just that iPhone. Yeah, I've been trying to get into the clips, because I see that clips are easier to get exposure for your long-form content. Clips are everything. Yeah, I see a lot of people investing into clips in bigger, like, influencers paying, like, people to do their clips for them, you know? So they don't have to waste their time because now they're making enough money where the clips are going to pay for themselves. Yeah, I used to make all my own clips.

I still do my TikToks, but now we're doing, like, these high-definition short forms with the B-roll and the fancy video and stuff that we're outsourcing for to bring some to the show. So you do Johnny's clips still? Yeah, we do Johnny's clips. You do? Yeah, oh, I was. And now Matt, who you're talking with earlier, he's full time over here now. Oh, wow. Yeah, so he's doing the clips.

And I've been teaching him. So the workload is kind of like, I edit podcasts, and he does the clips. And we both run people's socials. We're dividing the workload. The thing that I love about this, like right now you're at a quarter million subscribers, but you don't know where you're going to be next year. You never know. Last year, I hit 100,000 in July. July 1st, I hit 100,000. So it's, it's incredible, man. And the thing is, like, the growth kind of compounds, right? So then it's kind of harder to hit that first K, but then they just keep flowing.

Absolutely. Well, thank you, man, for coming out here today. It was an incredible conversation. You have an incredibly powerful story. And hopefully your family enjoys watching it and seeing how you did. Yeah, we're definitely doing better. Like I was saying, we all. My brother actually graduated high school like two days ago. So my mom is super excited just because we're like the first people in our family to graduate high school. My sister graduated high school. I graduated. My brother just graduated. My sister's going to graduate from college soon.

Like we're doing things that have never been done in our bloodline, you know? That's so cool. My mom is a small business owner now. She owns a salon. She does what she loves. It's like a five-minute walk from our home because she doesn't know how to drive. And then I just started thinking, and I'm like, damn, this is how great God is, you know? And that's why, like, I'm forever thankful to, like, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

because I'm not supposed to be here today, brother, and just, like, no other way around it. I'm just forever grateful for what I have and for little I've accomplished so far. But my name is Gerson Alfaro, and, you know, one day I hope that means something, you know? Absolutely. And we'll have the description to your podcast and whatever other. links you'd like in that description for people to check out. Well, I had a great time. Thank you for having me, brother.

See, it wasn't so bad after all. Yeah.