On Prosperity: Marco González
By Sergio C. Muñoz at Intelatin, LLC. Featuring Chef Ramiro Arvizu and Ana Valdez.
This article was originally published on Caló in June 2024
This interview was produced by Sergio C. Muñoz at Intelatin, LLC. It is distributed by Caló. Special thanks to Wil Dog of Ozomatli and to PBS Studios (KLCS) for their pilot feature on our effort. AMA: smunoz(at)intelatin(dot)com
Marco González
Author’s Note: Marco is the 20th of the Series and I am now fluent enough in Other People’s Prosperity to understand that some people focus on their homes, and others on specific places, but in Marco’s case, I made him focus on the most poignant part of our interview: An experience that he had living as a ten-year-old child in México.
The contradictions began when he said to me that he believed he would have more opportunities as an adult in California rather than in Colima. But then it juxtaposed with the fondness by which he remembered his carefree time in Colima in comparison to the pressures he feels as an entrepreneur in LA.
Marco, an independent publicist working inside and outside the entertainment industry as the owner of Mago PR, was born in the United States and split his youth in an oftentimes dramatic fashion between Los Angeles and Tecomán, Colima, México. He identifies as a gay American-born Mexican.
Sergio: Please describe your childhood home?
I had a home in Los Angeles and then another one in Colima. The one in Tecomán, Colima brings me fond memories. My step-dad built this house with my mom from the ground up. In Mexico, you own the land and you build it brick by brick. It was a modest, small home, building it hodge podge little by little. It was an unpaved dirt road which later got cobblestones. I arrived there in 1979. It was a three bedroom home with five of us, mom, dad and two sisters. They called me Tony at this time because of my middle name “Antonio.” My father was a farmer and he grew limes, avocados and coconuts and he worked to grow and sell those fruits. In the summer, we would help him with la pisca. My mom was a hustler. She would sell milk recien ordeñada, she had a corner store, she would make camote and platanos enmielados, all types of antojitos. She would sell that in the evening to make extra money. Even still, I would classify us as low-income at this time.
Sergio: Where are you economically in relation to others in Tecomán?
We did a reverse migration. We left LA in 1979 and it took one year for my mom to get all of our stuff in Tecomán. Half of our stuff was gone. Toys, furniture, all sorts of things. We had a stereo and rollerskates and bikes. The house had a corridor that ran around the house to make a loop. We would clear the space and we created a roller derby. It was a beautiful memory that I have with my sister, Verónica. We had disco vinyls and the kids from the neighborhood would watch us rollerskating around the loop. They called us Los Riquillos de Rosa. So, we didnt feel poor and even though she struggled and hustled and sold cow milk to make ends meet. We felt so much joy to be able to rollerskate around our home. At the age of ten, I felt fine.
Sergio: Do you have an immigration story to the United States?
My sister Lucy had a bad case of discrimination in Canoga Park and she didn’t want to stay in Los Angeles so that’s why we all went back to Mexico. Since I was born in LA, I was coming back and forth to where I was born to visit with my sisters that lived in the USA. In 1984, I came back for the Summer Olympics and my older sister Lydia told me that as an American citizen, I had no future in Mexico. She told my mom that she would be my legal guardian and I was 14 years old. She was in her late 20s at the time and she took on a lot of responsibility. The women in my family were very selfless and loving to me. My mom understood and she wanted a better life for her children so even for a woman who did not finish elementary and so she didn’t fight it. At the time, the majority of my peers in Colima were becoming agricultural engineers and I did not want to be an engineer. Corruption was at its peak. Nepotism was something that I could not aspire to. There were no jobs in Colima because there was an over-abundance of agricultural engineers and I did not want to be a farmer. I didn’t think I had access to capital or access to education so it was easy for me to stay in LA.
Sergio: What does your home look like present-day?
I live in a cul de sac in North Hollywood in a nice blue collar neighborhood. They call this a midcentury modern tract house. I purchased it in 1998. Three bedrooms, two car garage. It is grey with red accents. I live with my partner and a golden doodle named Duffy in this house. The market was perfect and I was at a crossroads. The asking price was $155K. I had just applied for grad school and the house presented itself and I had to choose one or the other. I was approved for a first time homeowner’s FHA mortgage and a Fannie Mae student loan the same year. I ended up buying the house and by the time that I was ready to graduate with a master’s degree, I refinanced the house and paid off the master’s at USC. I have friends that went through the same program at USC, and they only recently paid off their loans. My house has literally been a cash cow for me. I kept on learning from friends on how to use the equity in the house to help myself economically. I’m in a mortgage with a 2.4% interest rate. It makes a huge difference.
Sergio: Do you think the next generation can do exactly what you did?
You have to learn the difference between an appreciating asset and a depreciating asset. Passive income. How do I make my money compound? You cannot spend your money on shit that is worthless. I invested in art and real estate. I understand the power of how these assets appreciate.
Sergio: You also invested in your business, Mago PR, who taught you to do that?
Colleagues that have been doing it longer than I have. I surround myself with smart people who are willing to mentor me.
Sergio: Who is better off, ten-year-old Tony or Marco today?
Ten-year-old Tony didn’t worry about a thing. He was carefree.
Sergio: What Marco says is inspiring to me because there is a wonderful contradiction between the life he loved in Colima as a Mexican on a lime farm in relation to the success he has had in Los Angeles as a homeowner and a business owner with a Master’s degree as an American.
This made me reflect immediately on an interview I did years ago for AltaMed Health Organization. They published it as “In Their Own Words II - Latino Contributions to the World of Fine Cuisine.” I was asked by Joel Lara at AltaMed to meet the chefs of La Casita Mexicana in the city of Bell. Chef Jaime Martín del Campo and Chef Ramiro Arvizu told me their story and I was impacted about how both of them told me their memories of being in México. For Ramiro, his grandmother’s kitchen in Tecolotlán was the pivotal place where his love of food was borne.
“People from town would come by to eat enchiladas and antojitos at our house. My grandmother was known as doña Chuy and I loved to get soaked in the aromas of her kitchen. I would awake to the smell of tortillas and mesquite in the oven. On my birthday, she would always make me Pepián rojo. It was my favorite dish. Still is.”
I went back to Chef Ramiro at La Casita Mexicana and we shared a dish of Pepián together. I asked him again whether he had ever considered comparing the prosperity spectrum between being in the province of México as a child with limited means to being a world renowned chef in Los Angeles with abundance. He equated the two. Here is what he told me: