Being Jewish with Jonah Platt

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Consuelo: [00:00:00] You walk in and you know that your calling next to you doesn't think that you should exist.

Daniel: The gay Latino who works on guns and abortion, not a progressive,

Jonah: do you guys have any ideas of how to solve that issue broadly within the Democratic Party?

Alma: In my eyes, a Jew is a Jew.

Jonah: Welcome back everybody. I missed you and I hope you had a fantastic holiday, as many of us just celebrated Passover.

This next part should sound familiar if I told you my guest today is a school board president, Arizona State representative, and only the second Latina Jewish legislator ever elected in American politics. Diana, that would be enough. And if I told you my second guest is also an Arizona State representative since she was 25, has a license plate that says Zionist and was the first Latina Jewish legislator ever elected in American politics dinu, that would be enough.

And [00:01:00] if I told you my third guest co-founded the Arizona House, L-G-B-T-Q Caucus survived a mass shooting where he helped save Congresswoman Gabby Gifford's life. And is currently running for Congress himself in Arizona's seventh district, Dinu. That too would be enough. But here's the kicker. They're all siblings.

Please welcome the trio from another Theo, Consuelo, Alma and Daniel Hernandez. Welcome you guys. Finally. Thank you. Finally. We did it.

Consuelo: We did it. Thank you for inviting us.

Jonah: Yeah, of course. Okay, so Alma, you were the first. Hernandez that I met, uh, through social media where you are quite loud and proud about all of your various identities, which is exactly what we need.

You make it look easy, is it?

Alma: No, it's not easy. Uh, I would be lying if I said it was. I think at the end of the day there are, there are times where I love what I do and I, I would. Do really nothing differently when it comes to speaking out and being vocal [00:02:00] for the community, but sometimes it's tough. My brother actually moved in as my roommate.

Uh, part of the reason is because of a lot of the hate that I was getting. I got doxed, um, had to meet with the FBI in Tucson. Oh, wow. A lot of that. So, no, it's definitely not easy. It's uh, really. Changed my life. I think I would say. I mean, I've been involved, I've been involved in this since we were in high school.

Mm-hmm. So it's nothing new. Like, it's just always been a part of our life. I wanna

Daniel: lower rent because of the unsafe living conditions.

Alma: Yeah. We're gonna give him a discount there. But it, after October 7th, I think it really, it really changed, um, the rhetoric. Uh, you mentioned, you know, I have my Zionist license plate that I've had by the way, for like four years.

I actually just recently switched it. I had to change it. Not because I wanted to, but for my safety. Yeah. Um, you know, I had someone try to run me off the freeway. Um, people were calling in my license plate, uh, to the police. They tried saying that there I was a drunk driver. There were a lot of [00:03:00] accusations and things that were going on, but again, I had that license plate for four years prior and never had any problems.

Right. Wow. So, yeah, it's been tough. The struggle's real.

Jonah: Sorry. It sucks. Yeah. Shouldn't be. Yeah. But it sucks. Consuelo, as, as Alma mentioned, you and I first met doing an Israel policy forum cohort. You and Alma both converted to Judaism in 2015. After learning you had a Jewish grandfather. I'd love to hear the story about that.

How did you guys learn that information and, and how did it snowball from there?

Consuelo: So we started learning about our story. Pretty late in life. I think we were 14 late at

Daniel: the grand old age of like 20,

Consuelo: no, in high school. In high school. My brother got us involved in politics at 14 and 15 and after the shooting, people wanted to know who my brother was and then they started digging up our family's background.

And then somehow my mom didn't tell us a lot about our family history, and I'm not [00:04:00] really sure why, but when. People dug up our history. That's when we started learning about ourselves and our family background in Mexico. Because someone else presented you with

Jonah: information,

Consuelo: correct? Yes, and I was already in a Jewish Latino teen coalition in high school, so I was meeting other Jewish Latinos.

And Jewish students in high school from all across our city, and I had never met other Jewish Latinos because we grew up in a predominantly Latino and African American community where most people were either, you know, Baptist, Catholic, but we weren't really exposed to a lot of Jewish people. And, but I was already lobbying members of Congress.

Through that program you were participating just as Latina? Yeah, as Latina, until I realized that I actually had some background. We then, we started going to SA Bonds through apac, so it kind of just snowballed from there. [00:05:00] I made the decision to. Go through the process. We were already members of our congregation for about, was it seven years or something?

Alma: I did mine before you Yeah, she did way

Consuelo: before. Yeah, way before I just hit the what? You converted before her. Oh yeah. Yes.

Jonah: Oh, long time. Okay.

Consuelo: Yes. But I just hit the age where I thought, okay, I need to get my life together and I wanna have a family, and I want to be able to have a family that has. Values that they can learn from me.

Right. And my mom, she didn't really grow up with a lot of her Jewish family. They were in another city, but she knew about it. And, but they had to convert to Catholicism. They, why did they

Jonah: have to convert to Catholicism?

Consuelo: Because it wast accepted to be Jewish. Right. And the area, I think it was Chihuahua right on that

Alma: can,

Consuelo: can, yeah.

So some their names are like Libra, which is liberated. So. So we started learning about a lot of that history and [00:06:00] I made the decision because I wanted to have like a foundation in my life. I was already, mm-hmm. I felt like I was already living a very Jewish life at a very young age. I just didn't really know it.

Jonah: What was resonating for you about Judaism and Jewishness without you even knowing that you had a Jewish link?

Consuelo: I was meeting other Jewish Latinos and Latinas, and they were just like me and. I felt like they shared a lot of the same values as Latinos. We value family. Mm-hmm. And we value our elders taking care of each other.

We joke around that like. Our grandparents were environmentalists, and we didn't realize until we were older. And in the Jewish culture, we, you know, celebrate the environment. And there's so many different aspects to Jewish life that I felt like I grew up with. I just didn't really know it.

Jonah: Dan, I'm gonna ask you a question in a second.

Alma. I just want to, we heard why [00:07:00] Consuelo converted, but you did it before her. What led you down that path?

Alma: I just always felt more connected to. Jewish community, Jewish life than I did to anything else. And quite frankly, we didn't grow up like religious at all. Like we didn't go to church every weekend.

Like that was not a thing. I didn't learn anything from it. Right, right. Like, I didn't have a, an actual connection. Like I didn't really know. Mm-hmm. I truly did. I, I. Even now, I still don't really understand, quite frankly. Right. But that's just because we didn't grow up that way. And I think when my sister mentioned that she decided later on in life that she wanted to do it for herself, and when she has a family, I feel that that was my mentality, but when I was much younger.

Mm-hmm. So. I start, we met Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, um, after the shooting happened, she was actually, um, Gabby Gifford's, uh, rabbi as well. And we just really hit it off and we became good friends. I decided, I'm like, this is what I want to do. After knowing my mom's family, like some of the history like that they converted to Catholicism to be able to fit in [00:08:00] and.

They didn't really have an opportunity to live like a vibrant Jewish life. Yeah. And that to me, just like truly, I was like, that sucks, right? Like, that's terrible. Uh, so I decided to take it upon myself. I, um, started going when I was like almost 16, um, with Rabbi Stephanie Erin to services. I would show up every week, um, started learning to Hebrew only.

She did

Daniel: that Now. Right.

Alma: I'm on the board, so it's just so life is busy. Busy, but anyhow, you're busy. Yeah. Um, started going to classes. Obviously the journey, everyone ta has their own path. I, I believe that it's something that people, you're not forced to do, right? Like this is something you decide to do and it's honestly not easy.

It's difficult. Um, it's a huge commitment, I will say. Mm-hmm. And when I went to my parents, my mom's, my mom was obviously very emotion. She still is very emotional about it. Like she. We've talked about it and she just thinks it's a really nice thing for us to, that we did, that we decided to do. That's, so she's always trying to force Daniel, but that's a whole different story.

We'll let him talk about it. Uh, but my father told me, if you're going to do [00:09:00] this, you're going to finish. So here I was 16, not really, you know, understanding the commitment I was about to make, uh, but I ended up doing my conversion. I had my Hebrew naming ceremony as I'm sure now that you have babies, you know, how exciting those can be.

Um, and for me it was really important to honor my mom's family. So for my Hebrew name, we decided to go, my mother's grandmother's name was Mercedes and we used the M for Malca and then we added a special touch because we're just special I guess. Um, ADA was her mother's name, which means liberated, right.

So Malca ada, which is cool. Queen of Liberation in my opinion. So it's just been a big part of my life and it's made me very happy. Um, in fact, our father was buried within our Jewish cemetery. And um, that to us was, sorry, I'm gonna get emotional. That's okay. Don't

Jonah: need to be sorry.

Alma: We did everything as a family together.

Sorry. It's

Jonah: okay.

Alma: Um, and my father knew how important this part of my life was and my sister as [00:10:00] well, and we celebrated all the holidays, we did everything together, and my father was so happy to be involved and just be there. Beautiful. Like there were times where he would go to services, he would just tell me to pick him up, sorry.

He would tell me to just pick him up and he would go and sit with me, you know, for Shabbat services, the day of his funeral, there were a lot of rabbis that were there.

Daniel: Wow. And I think we had six rabbis in my dad's funeral. We, we brought everyone together's amazing from

Alma: tabba to the reform to like conservative, like we had everyone there.

I think

Consuelo: a rabbi said she's never been to a funeral with that many rabbi, with that many rabbis that are not from the same C. He wasn't

Alma: Jewish

Consuelo: and he wasn't even Jewish. He wasn't even Jewish.

Alma: But I think that goes to show like how committed we have been as a family to support each other.

Jonah: That's beautiful.

And

Alma: the fact that even though he wasn't Jewish. He still felt like he was a part of the community. Right. Right. Like he went to everything. In fact, our parents donated our synagogue, hadn't had new prayer books for like 30 years. It was 30 years. We haven't had new prayer books. Sure. And our [00:11:00] parents decided to donate those about four years ago.

In honor of my mom's family.

Jonah: That's the model of how you would dream. Parents would embrace and support their children. It's really special, Daniel. I hear your mom is trying to force you to convert where you sit with all this. I mean, you've been watching their journeys. I'm sure you have your own journey with everything.

It's fun being the

Daniel: token. Go in the token Gay, uh, I just became the chair of a wider bridge, which is an organization. You're the chair now? I'm the chair. So Whiter Bridge. We are an organization that's working on. Bringing the L-G-B-T-Q community in the US and Israel together, combating anti sem, uh, anti-Semitism, and really making sure that we are presenting what it means to be queer and a Zionist.

And I say that as somebody who is not officially a Jew, but I might as well be because the amount of anti-Semitic hate that I get, you know, for me. Talking about why I haven't, I joke that even if I were to convert, I'd [00:12:00] probably be a secular Jew anyways, but I already do so much that most people already assume that I'm a Jew.

And I always have to say, I'm not George Santos. I'm not claiming to be something that I'm not. Um. But you know, whether it's cooking for Passover, my sister Alma loves to invite people for dinner but doesn't cook. Everyone's invited. So then I, that's a good, that's a good tag team. So then I end up, I clean cooking a 16 pound brisket and a six course meal for people for peoc, and then I'm like having to explain to them what everything is.

Um, so for me, I think what has been important is really looking at. What's been going on in our community, both in the L-G-B-T-Q community because, you know, as a very openly and loud out gay man who was in elected office, I've seen the hatred that the L-G-B-T-Q community gets. Mm-hmm. So for me, my relationship with the Jewish community started earlier than I think either one of my sisters, because it's started when I was in third grade.

Um, when I was in third grade, one of our teachers who [00:13:00] Alma actually got to work with, do you wanna say her name?

Alma: Theresa Aloff.

Daniel: Theresa.

Alma: She's, she's a Holocaust survivor and one of, she taught all three of us actually. Yes.

Daniel: Wow. But in third grade, um, around the liberation of Auschwitz. Um, she wanted to take a moment to honor and to talk about it, but when you're talking to third graders about the Holocaust, it's a heavy subject.

It's difficult.

Alma: Yeah.

Daniel: But when other kids laughed about people being from a place called Hungary, um. It really stuck with me what she was saying, which is when I talked about my family, I have two sisters. My mom is one of 13 kids. Um, my dad was one of five. Um, for US family, a small family gathering is like 80 people because that's how many first cousins we think we have.

We're not actually sure

Jonah: blessings, uh,

Daniel: a lot of family. But when Ms. Dogo would talk about her family, it was her mom, her dad, and her. And that really stuck with me. The idea that you could have an entire. Group go after another group, and that there was so much hatred that they would try and not [00:14:00] only make their lives harder, but literally kill each other.

Alma: Yeah.

Daniel: Fourth, going into fifth grade, I gravitated towards every book I could get my hands on in the public library in Pima County, which is where we grew up on the Holocaust. And the second World War. And then that eventually led me to this idea of a new country, the state of Israel. So I started, I think, becoming a Zionist in fifth grade.

Wow. Because I was learning about how people hated each other and killed each other during the Holocaust. It's not a great book, but at 10 years old, reading the medical experiments at Auschwitz, not a super appropriate book. Do not recommend. Do not recommend. But it was something that. Was really foundational for me as I was learning English, so learned English, read these books about the Holocaust and how awful that was and how awful antisemitism was.

Then got a little older and when I was 16 and 17, wanted to do something else and I started working on my very first campaign, the campaign for Hillary Rodham Clinton, which he ran for president the first time in 2007. Um, this is while you were in high school still? This is while I'm [00:15:00] in high school and I was actually sitting in a classroom that was like an American government class.

And I'm looking around the room and I'm seeing 40 ish older white men looking back at me and it was pictures of the president. Um, and I'm sitting in a class that's mostly girls. Latino basically. 'cause it was like 95% Latino class. And I asked the teacher just one day, when have we ever had a woman president or a person of color?

And he said, well, women are too emotional to be president. And I never see a person of color becoming president anytime soon. So here's a room full of Latino kids, mostly girls and us being told by the person who's our teacher, who's supposed to encourage us, you women. Too emotional to be president. And for those of you that are the boys, you're the wrong color.

Wow. And I didn't like that answer. Um, so I went online and a few weeks later, um, actually got an email from somebody when I signed up on Hillary Clinton's website, didn't know anything about politics. And I just went online and I signed up to volunteer. And the people [00:16:00] that reached out to me were these older Jewish women who called themselves the Ententes for Hillary.

Um, so it went from. Third grade, having this first exposure to the Holocaust and antisemitism to now here I am getting my first taste in politics, and who are the people that I'm becoming close with? Older Jewish ladies, many of whom are the children of Holocaust survivors or Holocaust survivors themselves.

I'm seeing discrimination as a Latino. I'm seeing discrimination as a person who's L-G-B-T-Q. I need to make sure that I'm not doing things that are making it harder for my Jewish friends. Um, so how do we stand in solidarity? How do we come together? Because we're all having these challenges, we're all having these fights.

So when going back to your original question, why haven't I converted? You know, maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't know. Um, I think for me, especially after our dad's passing, um, it makes you reevaluate things because. There are a lot of things that you think will always be there, can always get around to it.

Whether it's talking to our mom's aunt who lives [00:17:00] just a couple miles away from here and being like, shit, we should have, we should call. We should have just called her and been like, Hey, let's get together. But I think for me it's important that as I'm figuring out what my next steps are, um, really being centered on the importance of family.

Yeah. And so much of our family's values has become, for them the Judaism, but for me, the Zionism and making sure that we're doing everything we can to support and to stand back and fight against antisemitism because it's so rampant. We see the attacks on the L-G-B-T-Q community. We see the attacks on immigrants, so we're all in this fight together.

We may all just be wearing different hats when we're showing up to the marches. I

Jonah: think, Daniel, your story is gonna really touch a lot of people because of how organically you came to. Love and support Jewish people and Israel in a time where I know so many people in my audience are like, everybody hates us.

And there's like no one standing with us who isn't Jewish and, and hearing your story like there are Daniel Hernandez's, and [00:18:00]

Daniel: here's the funny thing, when they were both. Well, mostly Alma, 'cause Alma did it a little younger. Looking at the conversion process, I'm like, I have three rabbis you can talk to.

This one's not gonna call you back because you're not habad, because you're not originally Jewish. This one will ask you if you're marrying a Jew and then this one you'll fall in love with because Stephanie Aaron is the best rabbi on the planet. Shout out to Stephanie Aaron. Stephanie Aaron. That's rabbi on the planet.

Alma: But I will say I, I will say that I have a lot of, uh, love and respect, uh, for. For the Orthodox community as well. You know, my boyfriend goes to Habad and I go with him every week to his rabbi's house, right? Like, it's just a part of life and a part of what I do. And if you, and if you go and see the, the bills that I've run over the years, whether it's been in honor of the rabbi or whether it's been like.

Holocaust, mandatory Holocaust education. You know, I try my best because in my eyes, a Jew is a Jew.

Daniel: They hate you all the same. Yeah. According to your friends online, you know, it's exactly right. Yeah.

Alma: I, I don't see a difference in my opinion. Mm-hmm. And I think one of the, [00:19:00] the things that I've learned after October 7th is that putting aside, regardless of what, what level of observance of observance you're in, it doesn't matter at the end of the day.

You are seen by others who don't know you or your story as a Jew, and if you cannot recognize that and be respectful to our other fellow Jews, regardless of opinion, that's a problem, right? We have enough hate from the outside world. We do not need to continue that hate within.

Consuelo: Certainly believe that on this show.

To piggyback off of what Alma said, as a young, youngish elected Jewish Latina official, how old are you? 32,

Daniel: very

Consuelo: young. I feel old. I feel really old though. What a young person thing to say. But we experience racism at every point and there's different layers, right? So we're not only Latinas, we're Jewish Latinas and we are very proud and own it.

But [00:20:00] I never really understood what it was like to experience antisemitism. Until, this was about 10 years ago, I was, um, a student at the University of Arizona and I was already going to Halal and I was hadn't converted yet. I mean, this is how. How much it was part of our life already. I just wasn't ready to make anything official.

There was one of the students, we were in a circle and he was afraid to be seen, and I never understood that and that really stuck with me. And he didn't wanna wear his kippah because he said that growing up people used to spit on him, and I was just shocked because when we grew up, like we were taught, if someone don't fight back, unless you're in real danger, then you do something about it you like and then you win and then you win.

My dad used to tell us, but like he always told us like. Stand up for yourself. Always be proud. Show up who you are. To me, I [00:21:00] just couldn't understand how some of the people that I was part of this group with at Halal were afraid to be seen. And it just, it was such a shocker to me. And now being a Jewish Latina, very proud Jewish Latina, I, I sometimes forget to wear my sword of David, but.

I feel it with our own colleagues, right on both sides of the eye. And I think that's a misconception in politics that like. Um, antisemitism only is only growing on the left. Right. It's also on the right.

Alma: I, I run a lot of the Jewish Pro is Israel related bills since I got there. I'm in my last term now going on my seven years.

I feel very old and, you know, getting ready to retire from the house. Wow. But at the end of the day, I run these bills because I think it's important to do it whether people like them or not, that I am elected. I'm in ev. I have my right to be able to run the bills that I want and I've run a law. We got mandatory Holocaust [00:22:00] education done in Arizona.

Mm-hmm. Definition, the got the IRA definition, the, for those that don't know the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition very long, but could be controversial depending on who you ask as well. We got that done a few years ago. Bd, anti BDS Bills, so that. We opened up a train office

Daniel: legislators to Israel for the first time ever.

Alma: We started a commission on the review of antisemitism in higher education. The governor is going to, um, officially, she just appointed the members to this commission. We, me and my sister worked really hard and we're able to secure $7 million in the budget. Last year in a deficit, um, for the creation and establishment of the first Holocaust Museum for Holocaust Education Center in Phoenix.

Wow. Which is one of the largest cities, and we didn't have one, so we worked really hard on that. So this year. Um, the bill that my sister's talking about is my encampment, bill Encampments will be, um, taken down on university and college campuses

Consuelo: if they're not authorized. If they're not authorized.

Mm-hmm. Um,

Alma: but [00:23:00] that's been our, our little battle that we're in right now, at the moment.

Jonah: And you said a, a Republican Jewish member? Yes. Shot it down. Yeah.

Alma: Voted against it. Um, for, for reasons that really did not make any sense to me. Um, but he is a part of the, he is a part of the Freedom Caucus and in the house there's four of us.

Mm-hmm. One in the Senate. Five of us out of the 90 members total. Like we're not, it's not a lot. Right. If you think about it, if you put it into perspective, we should be supporting each other when it comes to bills that protect our community.

Jonah: In what ways would you guys say you're feeling anti-Jewish attitudes, uh, politically, from your colleagues on, on, on the right and the left?

Consuelo: I wanna laugh because I feel like on my side of the aisle. Uh, they were trolling me.

Alma: Oh, yeah, for sure.

Consuelo: My, my Democratic caucus sat me next to probably one of the most outspoken, uh, pro-Palestinian activists.

Alma: anti-Israel,

Consuelo: anti, sorry, anti-Israel. Um, [00:24:00] she has a kafi on her, in her seat.

Jonah: Mm-hmm.

Consuelo: And, and a Palestinian flag.

A Palestinian flag. Yeah, that's who I'm sitting next to.

Jonah: That's fun.

Consuelo: That's lots of fun.

Jonah: So that doesn't exactly feel supportive?

Consuelo: No. Oh my goodness. No. You walk in and you know that your colleague next to you doesn't think that you should exist. I and will go online and say she's not antisemitic for voting against.

Bills that support Jewish students, I feel like everyone should feel safe wherever they are. Sure. So it's just a very different environment.

Jonah: And where do you guys feel it coming from? The Right,

Alma: so again, it goes back to the idea like far left of our caucus. Far right. Of their caucus. Yeah. They always meet in the middle.

I always say the the, the crazies always unite it's horses. And Daniel tells me not to call him crazies, but at the end of the day, it is very easy to hate Jews. Like you could blame the Jews literally for everything like the weather or the whatever, and. I've noticed on the [00:25:00] right side, they don't say like, oh, we're anti, you know, the Jewish community, you're anti-Israel.

But the things that they say and do definitely line up and they meet in the middle with the far left of our party.

Daniel: And I would just say. Now being retired from the Arizona State legislature, what I'm seeing, and this is one of the things that I'm really proud of, is, um, the fight against antisemitism within the L-G-B-T-Q community.

So I'm the chair of a wider bridge, right? And one of the things that we started after October 7th was queer against antisemitism because what we saw was this really funny and kind of odd thing where a lot of folks who were in the L-G-B-T-Q community. We were really aligning themselves against Israel.

Yeah. And it wasn't even. Supporting Palestine as much as it was being anti-Israel. And I think that's the thing that at first was disappointing. And then I said, we have to fight back and we have to make sure that we are not letting people get away with the idea that you can use coded language. Because I think what we saw a lot of on the left at least, [00:26:00] um, was this idea, well.

I'm not an anti-Semite, I'm just an anti-Zionist. Right. So by me saying I'm an anti-Zionist, I'm gonna say all these really awful things. But then if I say I'm not a anti-Semite, but I'm just an anti-Zionist, they can get away with things. Right. And I think calling it out for what it is, which is anti-Zionism, is anti-Semitism.

Mm-hmm. Um, is important. But in the L-G-B-T-Q community especially, I spent so much time, I. Honestly at this point have lost count of how many times I've been to Israel, um, which is a privilege. Wow. And I think it's an honor and it's something that is really important to me because I get to go and I don't just go on these trips because it's a lot of fun to go to Tel Aviv Pride, but I go because it's so important to build those relationships because we have a lot of shared struggles in the L-G-B-T-Q community.

You know, Israel and the US are not perfect. By any means? No. No. Country is, no country is, but when we hold one country and when we say Israel has to be held up to this pedestal and then when they don't meet it, they're automatically all bad [00:27:00] and they shouldn't exist. Right. When Donald Trump was president the first time, I didn't stop supporting the United States of America.

Right. Just because I disagree with. Know the party or the policies of a government doesn't mean that I think that that country should no longer exist. And I think of course, that's one of the problems that we see, and that's where, right now, I think on the left, my biggest fight, because they're holding up the fort amongst the legislators and the elected officials, we actually took, what was it, 17 legislators last year to Israel on a solidarity mission.

By bipartisan? Yeah, it was bipartisan. Cool. We were worried that we would lose the Democrats because. You know, a lot of heat came on them. The governor at one point even spoke out and said that it was irresponsible to take a trip during the middle of the legislative session. Despite all that, we had 17, it was an even split, eight Democrats, eight Republicans, and then we had a statewide elected.

I. So they're holding down the fort with the electeds and you know, being strong champions for everybody in this community. So my role now as I'm somebody who's out of office is [00:28:00] making sure that we are taking the fight to folks. We're not responding. Yeah. We are going out there, we're being aggressive.

We're being the voices for those who are coming to us. 'cause we're holding queers against antisemite events all over the country. And the number one thing we're hearing is I'm afraid to be both Jewish. TQ. Yeah. I'm afraid to be a Zionist because I don't think we should discriminate against anybody and somebody who's L-G-B-T-Q.

And when people are coming to us and saying, I'm fearful to be who I am, and they're in the L-G-B-T-Q community, it gives, it breaks my heart because we've fought for so many years to come to where we are to now have these safe spaces that are excluding anybody because of. Your support for Israel or because you're Jewish?

Yeah, because I joked earlier that I got a lot of antisemitism. I do. And I'm not even a Jew. Right. And that's the thing that, because I've been outspoken that we shouldn't allow Antisemites to go behind this cover of saying it's anti-Zionism, therefore it's [00:29:00] okay to say that your money grubbing or you know, all of these things, which are just these tropes.

So I think that's where, while they're holding up the fight amongst the electeds, I'm doing everything I can and working really hard right now. On the left to make sure that we are creating safe spaces that are truly safe for everybody.

Jonah: Two questions. I have a follow up for you and follow up for you guys.

Um, for that Israel trip, did you see an impact

Alma: during that time? After October 7th? We went, it was like two months after October 7th. It was still very fresh. It still is, right? We're almost two years and I, I still cry every time I. Hear the stories of, of those that are still being held captive, right?

Mm-hmm. It, it breaks my heart and it, it's still so recent for a lot of us, and I feel that it's still a very emotional time for Jews in general. Um, an

Jonah: ongoing trauma I didn't stop

Alma: for, for sure. And one thing I noticed was when we went on the trip, we took, we even took individuals who perhaps didn't have the best perception of Israel.

Yeah. And its policies, right? We, we wanted to,

Jonah: that's how our hope would go.

Alma: We wanted them to go. I [00:30:00] said, you know, I really would love for you guys to join us and ask all the questions you may have. Like, we didn't script it by any means of, we restricted it to only people that agreed with no. In fact, we met the speaker of the Knesset.

And then we met with the opposition. Like we met with everybody. We met with the Palestinian, um, reporter, journalist. Journalist who lived in the West Main, like we believe me. We exposed people even, quite frankly, to some ideas that I didn't even agree with, but we thought it was important, right? Yeah. I wanted them to be able to hear this and asked the questions, and they did.

And I will tell you that when we came back from that trip. The rhetoric and the very easy, going on Twitter and saying whatever you wanted just to go along on the bandwagon was not as as bad as we were expecting it to be, to be honest. We came back and things were a little more calm than we expected.

Consuelo: So funny enough, Alma and I split the calls.

Like I decide, I'm gonna call the [00:31:00] furthest to the left. In our caucus, you'll call the Republicans and some of the people in the middle. Um, and we didn't push any, the three of us, we, our goal was for them to learn by asking and doing versus us telling them how to think. And one of the perfect examples was there's a Native American representative.

And in her eighties. In her eighties, and she was faster than any of us walking around towards the end of the trip on her own, we would have debriefs before dinner. And on her own, she was, she was telling all of us, sharing with us how emotional she was, that she didn't understand that the Jewish people also faced the same struggles that she did.

Her and her people did. And I was just like. That is exactly why like bringing people that have never been to Israel is important because she connected the dots on her own. Yeah. And [00:32:00] she was like she said, as an indigenous woman, as an indigenous woman, we are fighting for land that was taken away from us.

We're coming back to our ancestor lands. Exiled. Exiled. And she said, and. The Jewish people are, are experiencing the same struggles. Yeah. And I was like, wow. It was, and we didn't say anything. And we had a, another colleague who initially was so uncomfortable with going with us that he asked us like, I don't wanna be in pictures.

All of these things. And we're like, okay, that's fine. We're not, you do whatever feels comfortable for you. And then approached us after the, um, the trip and said like, I get it now. And I'm like, wow. Isn't

Daniel: the same one that asked about if it was true that they were

Consuelo: Oh, yeah. He, he did ask, he

Alma: asked questions that he, we told him about, this isn't filtered, so ask whatever your heart desires, whatever.

And we were at dinner and he asked, um, he asked one of the members, right. Of the [00:33:00] Knesset. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Are you committing genocide? Mm-hmm. And I think most of the people in the room like kind of like, huh? Like everyone was like really? Like, are you really gased If you, did he come

Jonah: out hot with it or was just like a curiosity?

No, he's just curiosity. He

Alma: legitimately, I'm glad he asked that. Yeah. Yeah. Legitimately, I think he did it. Although I didn't agree with the question. Mind you, if I had control over what people were asking, that would not be one of the questions, but, well, I think

Jonah: it's better to address it head on. Right?

Daniel: Perfect. Yeah. But I think actually we wanted, his framing was. I keep hearing and I keep reading. Yeah, right. This is what's going on. So is

Alma: this what's going on? This what's going on? He meant it, he didn't mean it in a bad way. I think that's

Jonah: a fair question, but when you're

Alma: in a group of you're, you're in Israel when you're literally in the, in thees.

But that was a moment of, of learning for not just him and all the other members of. The response that I thought, the response by the speaker, the speaker of the essa, his response was very simple, but then of course there was more to it, but he said if we wanted to commit genocide, [00:34:00] we would've already killed every single one.

Yeah. And I think that was so profound. And he even thought about it. And when we were walking in the old city, he, he spent a lot of time on his own. He didn't wanna, we were letting him be. And I remember we were walking when we left that meeting, he said, you know it, it makes a lot of sense now. That to me was enough to say, you know what, he may not agree with us on everything, but I know for a fact that when we come back, he will not be signing on to blanket statements accusing us.

Right. Of being horrible people. 'cause that's what was going on. Like that first week was rough. We had to fight for our Democratic caucus leadership team. On October 7th, as we're watching everything unfold on tv, right? Yeah. We're on the phone crying, calling them, saying We need to release a statement now.

We waited until the following day, until they worked the language. And then there was also a point where they sent the statement to another [00:35:00] member in our caucus who didn't agree with us on our issues. Who was Palestinian. Yeah. To make sure that she was okay with the statement we were. Mind you, this is before.

Daniel: Not an Israeli soldier was right in contact before the, before the response they were married, literal was for any response. Maybe we need to run this by to make sure she's okay with it. 'cause it just has the potential for contention because it has to do with Israel, right? And it has to do with Jews. And

Alma: then they made it about, you know, about Palestinians and, and Israeli.

I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We either release. Something, calling out what's going on now or we don't release anything at and supporting the Jewish people and supporting the Jewish community. So I think that's one of

Jonah: the, the biggest pitfalls people have fallen into of, of it should have been easy for everybody to say, oh yeah, slaughtering families and kidnapping people shouldn't have taken 24

Daniel: hours.

The mayor of the city that we live in, pretty simple took a month to say anything. So, and this is just a, a thing where. On the left, on the Democratic side, I work on guns, gays, and abortion. [00:36:00] I was the state director for every town for gun safety. After the shooting in Tucson, I ran the national Latino Outreach Program at Planned Parenthood, started the L-G-B-T-Q Caucus, and yet because I support Israel and because I have said anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, well, you're not a real progressive.

The gay Latino who works on guns and abortion. Not a progressive. Every Republican thinks that I am like the antichrist because I wanna your communist take away their guns and give people free abortions. And yet on the Democratic side, I have people that are like, well, because you support this, you are automatically exempt.

Everything else you've ever done in your career and in your life invalidated because of this.

Jonah: Do you guys have any ideas of how to. Solve that issue broadly within the Democratic Party that, that it's so difficult and taboo to be a progressive who also supports, you know, the only demi democracy in the Middle East.

Alma: I get so many messages online of students asking, and people in the community that are active democratic party activists who are like, [00:37:00] what do we do? Right? And my number one word of advice for them is do not like, do not leave. And then they look at me and they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, just because.

Someone doesn't want you there. Mm-hmm. Does not mean that you give them that win and leave because that is what they want. Mm-hmm. And we've been told for, I mean, I can't, if I got a dollar for every time we were told like, you are sure you wanna stay in the Democratic party, uh, I'd be like, super wealthy right now because I get it.

I just got it like two days ago. Someone's like, are you sure you don't wanna like leave the party? No, I don't. Yeah. Why? Because those are my values. That's who I am. These are the things I believe in. These are the things we've been fighting for, literally. Since we were 14 years old, right? Like that's when I, he dragged me into politics.

You can either blame him or think him, I don't know. But when I was 14, and we care about L-G-B-T-Q, right? We care about all the things that Democrats care about. I refuse to let them win by saying, you know what? I'm offended by what they said. [00:38:00] Yes, of course I'm offended. And of course I will call them out.

But leaving does nothing. Right. I follow a lot of, a lot of influencers who, who have been very vocal about how dare any Jew be a Democrat. Well, I'm sorry. How dare you ever even say that? Yeah. Like, just because I, I, I have a disagreement with a person on, like Daniel just said, you don't fit the box and they want you out of it.

Doesn't mean you get up and go. We've never won anything by doing that.

Jonah: Yeah. When I had a Congressman Richie Torres on the show, and he had a, a very similar sentiment of like, if we leave, we're just handing over the party to agrees the, the, yeah. Our enemies. Am I using that phrase? Okay. I'm

Consuelo: sorry, but you know.

Yeah. And I think extremists. Extremists, yeah. And I think to follow up something that I always tell. All of our Jewish friends who are eager to get involved but are sometimes too afraid to show up is literally just show up. I don't care if it's a city council meeting, school board meeting, we are [00:39:00] being hit with resolutions, anti-Israel resolutions at every level of government.

And I, I told them, I, if you work at a university, run for the leadership there, we need to have a seat at the table. We need someone to be able to say what you're doing is wrong.

Daniel: One of the things that I was really excited about when I first got elected was starting the L-G-B-T-Q Caucus. And what that meant was having a seat at the table, making sure that we showed up even in places where we weren't welcome.

Mm-hmm. And I think that's the thing that. If you are somebody who's upset and angry, then show up. Um, one of the things that I had in my office, the entire, uh, six years that I was in the State House, was a poster. It's a pink triangle, and it said silence equals death. It was something that was used. The pink triangle was used in the Holocaust to mm-hmm.

Identify gay men. Um, silence equals death was adopted by Act Up the. Group of AIDS activists who are fighting against the Reagan administration. But I think whether it's, you know, you fighting [00:40:00] against your literal life and death, whether you're in a concentration camp, whether you're, you know, trying to figure out how we can get the government to do something on aids.

Silence is not acceptable in any way, shape, or form. And I think far too often there are very loud voices, but they're a minority. Yeah. And we let them talk over us. Mm-hmm. And I joke with my sisters that just 'cause you're louder doesn't mean you win. Right. Um, and sometimes it means being uncomfortable.

It, it means saying, if I'm not there, then no one is. Everybody's gonna say, well, everybody agrees with us. 'cause nobody was there to disagree. Right. And the other thing is when we look at our party, we're the big tent. We're gonna have disagreements, we're gonna have fights. But when we look at where our core values are, it's about making sure that women have equal rights, that the L-G-B-T-Q community is protected, that we're giving people what they need to be successful and to thrive.

Mm-hmm. So when we're talking about this issue, if we're the big tent, then we're gonna have to accept that there are just always gonna be people who disagree with us. And if we toss out the baby with the bath [00:41:00] water and say APOs on their houses, because there's this. If you look at the squad in Congress, it is a small group and it's getting smaller, and yet everybody thinks, oh, well, the squad is taking over Congress.

Nancy Pelosi said it best. They have their four votes and their four votes only. But if we give them more attention and if we keep buying into this idea. A lot of it is a paper tiger. And yes, they may have a lot of notoriety, they may have a lot of press, but if you look at the day-to-day what's going on with the Democratic party, there are a lot more people that are closer to Richie Torres than to Cory Bush.

And I think that's the thing that our party is not one that is uniformly anti-Zionist or uniformly anti-Jewish. I would argue that there are more Jewish Democrats than there are Jewish Republicans. 'cause every, you know, poll and every study has found that. But if we just let these folks kind of ram. Raw at us and kick us outta the party, then we're gonna not be there.

We're not gonna be a part of the conversation, and then they will have a party that doesn't include us, and we will no longer be the big tent that includes all voices.

Jonah: Consuela. I [00:42:00] wanna go back to something you mentioned, you know, just show up, come to the meeting, come to the town hall. I think one of the barriers for a lot of people is they think, what am I gonna do there?

You know, I'm just gonna be, I'm gonna sit there, everybody's shouting. They might not even get to the thing. I'm gonna stay home. Like, what do you say to that person?

Consuelo: I understand what that feels like. I, I started showing up to school board meetings for fun when I was in high school.

Jonah: Oh yeah. That's what a lot of high schoolers do.

Yeah. Yeah. Like

Consuelo: very normal high school student, and I had no power. We came from a background where my dad was a construction worker. My mom gave up her career to take care of us, so I had no political power. I just knew that there was something that was going on that I didn't like, and I kept showing up, and then I realized that you make people uncomfortable when you show up to places that you are either asking questions or you, you, you don't belong.

Mm-hmm. I think that at the end of the day, especially with. Today's politics. People [00:43:00] want us to get exhausted. They want us to get to a point where we're so done with both parties that we just, it's a strategy. Yeah, it is a strategy.

Jonah: Flood the zone. Flood the zone. Correct.

Consuelo: Yeah. There's just so much going on, like, how can I, how, what do I do?

You just choose something that you care about. If it's education, go to school, board meetings. If it's legislative, I just wanna point out all of the work that. Daniel and Alma did together that Alma mentioned Holocaust, mandating Holocaust education. All of that was done in a span of six years. So you can do so much, you just have to figure out what you wanna do.

But I. Uh, politics is all relationships, right? You can't show up. What I would say is don't show up and yell at people. Mm-hmm. Show up and introduce yourself. Meet with them. That doesn't mean that the elected officials are going to, you know, take your request, but people notice when you show up. I do because there's such few people who show up anywhere.

Mm-hmm. [00:44:00] I'm on a school board and in the state legislature. Yeah. I recognize people who show up because it's the same people. But guess what? The laws that are being created, the policies that are we're passing in our schools are because of the same people who are showing up and. And voicing what they wanna see.

Daniel: So it really does make an impact. It

Consuelo: makes an impact.

Daniel: Not only is silence equals death, which is what the poster said behind me, right? Silence is also complicity. Right? So if you're not showing up and you think that something is wrong and you don't say anything, then your elected officials are gonna say, well, I only heard from the people that came to yell at us.

Mm-hmm. Right? So the other people must be fine with what we're proposing. Yep. And I think that's the thing that people lose sight of, that it's not enough to just say. We're gonna show up when you know things are bad. We also need to show up so that people know who you are, have those relationships, because so much of what we've been able to do in a red state with a very conservative legislature is because we've built relationships [00:45:00] and these two are the most effective lawmakers and over 60 years as Democrats, not because Consuelo and Alma come in with a ton of power, it's because they have.

Spent the time getting to know their colleagues, build the relationships, but they're speaking out and they're not being silent when a lot of other people just choose. Oh, it's a lot of work. I don't wanna stick out. I don't want to be, you know, noisy. I'm just gonna sit here quietly. Mm.

Alma: And can I say one thing?

Of course this is for you. Of course this is to you. Yeah. Um, I remember when you started this show, I legitimately sent you a message. I was scrolling through Instagram. It's been a really rough freaking year. I think like we can all agree and. I'm sitting and I like heard, I, I saw the like intro video that you did.

Yeah. Of like, this is like a little s you know, it was like a little trailer for this show. Yeah. And I literally cried and I thought about it. I was like, why am I crying? Like, first of all, I was very, I've been very emotional this year, but I cried and I was like, holy shit. Like, excuse me. But I'm like, people are, that have positions where you have followers.

You obviously are very known in the [00:46:00] community. People go to people like you to see what they're saying. Right. And when there are people in positions that you have like influencers that are not saying anything, there is so much silence in your world of things. Yeah. And seeing that you're actually proud and like very vocal about it.

Clearly you have a show about it now. Right. But that you are actually using your platform in a positive way. I was like, it was, I was just really proud of you because Thank you. We don't see that. I just wanna say thank you for doing this because honestly it's, we need more of it. Yeah. And I feel that when Jews are silent, like that is why like.

We get so much of the hate. Just a little side note, I certainly

Jonah: couldn't agree with you more. All right. Let's shift gears a little bit. I, I wanna understand you've sort of touched on it a little bit, like how, how influential is Daniel in the way that your lives have gone?

Consuelo: He ruined our lives. He, our lives, we started crying, so he was the reason why we're [00:47:00] here.

He got us involved and. I bribed them with pizza.

Jonah: You bribed. You mentioned what they were like when they were like 13. You got 14 and started. Okay. So what was that that you, the first thing you brought them into? He bribed us with

Alma: pizza. Literally. Yeah. It was to go do

Jonah: what? Like knock on doors, volunteer, knock on doors, knock on doors,

Daniel: call voters, host events.

Consuelo: He always empowered us to go, go do your own thing. Go if you wanna do something, do it. And he didn't also make it easy for us. And I think that people just assume that. There's like some sort of handbook that Daniel gave us because we're plotting to take over or something and I'm like, if people only knew when we were 15, I withholding when we were 15 and there was no GPS on our phones, Daniel, when we first started, he would drop us off in a neighborhood and he is like, figure it out.

Like I'll be back and I'm like 15. So we just had to just. Figure

Alma: it out.

Consuelo: Figure it out.

Alma: And Daniel didn't recruit us to run for office. Like, let's just make, I told him not to run. Yeah. He just, he [00:48:00] discouraged us, but we always have supported each other. And I don't think the whole political us being involved would've really happened if Daniel hadn't dragged us along with him.

Right. So. We've, he's always been the one to like teach us that. It's not about like what we're doing now, but what comes after us. He's always taught us like, okay, yes, you're doing great things, but what are you doing to bring someone else like with you? Right? So we started this like internship program where we mentor high school kids from our community.

We pay them paid internships so that they can have the opportunity that we had we're the perfect example. You bring one of the family members. And likely the rest will follow. Right? Yeah. And that's the thing we've seen over the years. We've had

Daniel: generations of interns. We've, yeah,

Alma: we have Oh, that's cool.

Like honestly from Daniel's first school board, and now we have like their cousins who are 13 years old and 14 years old. Yeah.

Daniel: Somali refugees that are Muslim who are knocking on doors for these two. And

Alma: mind you, when we went to, um, this last recent election where [00:49:00] we went to an event downtown and I was being protested at this event.

They found out that I was there. I was actually, the police had to take me, escort me out of the building. Whoa. Through the kitchen of the restaurant because I was not safe to be in the area. Um, they were protesting me and I'm walking around with these, what was it, six or seven black kids who are Muslim, hijabi, wearing,

Consuelo: yeah.

Alma: Who are with us, and they're looking at us saying, we don't understand why these people hate you guys so much. They're like, we don't, and people yelling at them, why are you with them? Come with us. You're, you're with us. Right? And they're so confused because they're like, we've known your family. Like my brother was your intern, right?

Mm-hmm. They're calling us Ra So they were calling us racist mind to you.

Consuelo: White, white women we're calling shouting, uh, Alma mostly that she was racist. That we were racist to brown women who have m. Very visibly Muslim [00:50:00] interns, interns. And one of our interns told us, she turned and looked at us and said, why are these white women yelling at me?

And I'm just like, oh, we dunno. We'll let you know the answer to their question. They co-opted this movement because they feel like they're doing something right. It's, it's the white guilt thing. Yeah.

Alma: It's the white guilt that that just goes back to like Daniel, he's always like, have you found your replacement?

Like we just talked about this. Do I know who's going to run for my seat that I can support? Uh, not yet. I'm working on it, so if anyone watching wants to run, let me know. And you live in my area. Hey,

Jonah: you heard it here

Alma: at the, at the end of the day, he's always saying, okay. What comes next?

Jonah: I'm gonna ask one more question, then we're gonna get to the lightning round and wrap things up.

You showed up originally for pizza, and you're talking about how difficult this work is and how important this work is. Can you pinpoint what it is that motivates you to keep. You know, going through this slog every day. Is it,

Alma: it's the people that don't want me there keep motivating me. I'm serious. Yeah.

I mean, I don't have to be doing this job. I could go [00:51:00] make money. I, I have two ma, I'm a, I'm a faculty member at Arizona State Uni. I've been a professor there for a few years. I have, we have a side business like I do a lot. I don't have to be in this position. I do it because I feel it's the right thing to do and when people don't want me there, it just encourages me to.

Wanna continue the work that I'm doing. So that's, leave it at that.

Jonah: Great.

Consuelo: For me, it's being able to be in a position where I can, where I can, even being in the minority where I can actually make change. We're in a Trump presidency. My sister and I have had the most wins that Democrats have had in the last 60 years.

So knowing that, yes, I'm not gonna get everything that I want, but if I can. Help uplift other people who look like me and who normally don't get a voice and a seat at the table. That's, that's what's kept me going is I, we live in our districts that we were born in. Right? We grew up in, I could live wherever.

I, I mean, not wherever I want, maybe not la but I can, [00:52:00] I can mo, I can live in a different place, but. My parents always taught us is the value was you go, go get an education, but never forget about where you came from. You come back and you help someone else. I.

Daniel: And I think for me, it really goes down to a lesson that I learned when I was like three from my grandmother, who I don't think my sisters got a chance to hear from her as much as I did because she started having a lot of health challenges.

She had a stroke, but when I was really young, she would always say, which in Spanish means putting in your grain of sand. This idea that no matter how big, how rich, how fat, how skinny, how poor, didn't matter who you were. You had a responsibility to put in your little grain of sand to try and make things better.

And I think this was a value that she taught us when I was younger and has always been something that's been a foundational belief that whether it's, you know, bringing them to knock on some doors to hopefully elect the right candidate or whether it's repealing no [00:53:00] promo homo in 2019. Anything that I'm doing, I'm doing it because I wanna make a contribution and that every piece and every contribution is valuable because a lot of times I think we don't recognize the importance of the little things and the things that our interns do.

Yes. It may not be as flashier or as exciting as, you know, Alma passing a bill or Consado passing more bills than you know any other Democrats have in 60 years. But they as a 17, 18-year-old are making an impact and trying to change their community for the better. Something that you

Jonah: guys share in common with a lot of the guests on this show is that strong family foundation and like a really beautiful set of values that, that have guided you guys through your lives.

So it's, it's lovely to hear. All right, let's wrap things up. We're gonna do a little lightning round. We'll just, uh, we'll go boom, boom, boom. Every time I ask, we'll just go, answer, answer, answer. Oh no. Keep it short.

Consuelo: Oh, no, no. These are short questions. Favorite Jewish holiday? Hanukkah. Why? [00:54:00] With so much darkness in the world, it, it brings a little light into it.

Beautiful perm, because it's a gay's holiday. What makes

Daniel: it the gays holiday? You get to dress up.

Alma: I would say the same as my sister. It's a really, it just, I think it. Shows resilience, right? Like, oh yeah, hey, there is not a lot that was left. And they kept the light going on for those days. Right? So that's always, yeah.

Jonah: Love that challah. Rip or slice? Slice, rip, rip. We don't get a lot of slicers on this show. Just doing your own thing. What is the Jewish Latino food combo? I never knew I needed jalapeno jelly brisket. Oh, we try

Alma: to add a me. I at least try to add a Mexican touch to a lot of the food that I have that, especially if it's Jewish food.

'cause sometimes it's a little bland. Sure. Tell anyone I said that. Vodkas with

Daniel: jalapenos. Yes. Very good. Oh, those rock jalapenos and Chipotle fresh jalapenos. Not the pickled crab

Alma: and chipotle sour cream. We've had a little bit of everything. Chip sour cream. Yeah. No, it's uh, yeah, it's a thing.

Jonah: Love it.

Delicious. Of you three, who's the funniest. [00:55:00] Who thinks they're the funniest? Who's actually the funniest? Who? Uh, both,

Consuelo: I think Daniel's funny. Yeah. Daniel's

Alma: funny. I think gon has really dry humor and sometimes I can't, if she's kidding. Or being serious and I'm scared.

Jonah: I I like a dry

Daniel: humor. Yeah. Who is the best communicator?

Humor, I would say that I end up being, he's a facilitator.

Alma: He's a facilitator.

Daniel: And the facilitator because when you have two very strong a. Opinionated young elected officials who are women, who are Jewish and who are Latina. There are a lot of thoughts and opinions and they sometimes argue with each other, and I have to be the neutral Switzerland.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Last one here.

Jonah: Um, I want to, I want you to each offer some words of encouragement, uh, Consuela, if you could offer some to Jewish students today. Daniel to L-G-B-T-Q, Jews and Alma to Jews who are fearful for standing up and being loud. Some words of encouragement.

Consuelo: We see you, we hear you, and we value what you

Daniel: have to say.

Please show up. I think there are so many [00:56:00] things that I would like to say to folks. Um, but the biggest one is, um, don't let anyone push you out.

Alma: We have to stand up for each other regardless of what is happening in the world. We have, we must show up for each other and stand up for each other, and. Rather than tearing, tearing each other apart every time we get the opportunity.

Uh, just really embracing one another and making sure that we're, we're there because believe me, it's a lonely world out there. And if we all start turning on each other, we're going to just, you know. Be completely alone in the world. And, uh, I would just encourage everyone to be a little more, a little more caring about others,

Jonah: a little more caring.

You heard it here, folks. Hernandez, thank you so much for being here with me. Thank you. This was really awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

Gracia. Ano Hernandez for Varde, the Arizona solo. Sign.[00:57:00]

A,

you know the drill, spread the show. Click the subscribe button on your podcast app and YouTube, even if you're watching on JBS. We really need those numbers. So thank you. So happy to be back. Love you all. Catch you back here on the next Episo fantastico. They're being Jewish with me, Jonah Platt.