Voces Oral History Center Interview with Richard Villa Jr.

1339_Villa_Richard

Fri, 8/7 12:16PM • 1:25:47

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

United States; Trump Administration; Latinx Community; Arizona; Phoenix, Arizona; Pandemic; Social Distancing; Financial Impact; Coronavirus; Quarantine--Pastimes; Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); News Coverage--COVID-19 (Disease); Public Health Measures; Healthcare System; Pandemic--Job Transition; Remote Working--COVID-19 (Disease); Education--Online-Learning; Education--Distance Learning Applications; Mental Health; Zoom; Stimulus Check; Protest; George Floyd

LOC SUBJECT HEADINGS

Hispanics (United States); Mexicans--Arizona; Black Americans; Colored people (United States); Spanish-speaking people (United States); Mexicans--Arizona--Phoenix--Economic conditions; Mexicans--Arizona--Social conditions; COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease)--Safety measures; COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention; Quarantine--Social aspects; Quarantine--United States; Social Interaction--United States; Social interactions--Technological innovations--United States; Coronavirus infections--Diagnosis; Black lives matter movement--United States; Police brutality; Higher education; Minorities in higher education; College students--Education; Lawyer; Legal profession; Attorney

-- Vincent Peña 00:00

Hello, today is July 30, 2020. My name is Vincent Peña, and I'm interviewing Richard Villa for the Voces Oral History Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Please know, Mr. Villa, that this interview will be placed at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin. If there is anything you do not wish to answer or talk about, I will honor your wishes. Also, if there is something you want to talk about, please bring it up and we will talk about it. Because we are not conducting this interview in person, I need to record you consenting. So, I'll ask you a series of five questions. Please say "yes, I agree" or "no, I do not agree" after each one. There are two questions we need to make sure you agree to before we go on. Voces wishes to archive your interview, along with any other photographs and other documentation at the Benson Library at UT Austin. We will retain copyright of the interview and any other materials you donate to Voces. Do you give Voces consent to archive your interview and your materials at the Benson Library?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 00:57

I do, yes. Thank you.

-- Vincent Peña 01:00

Do you grant Voces copyright over the interview in any material you provide?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 01:05

Yes, I do.

-- Vincent Peña 01:08

Do you agree to allow us to post this interview on the internet where it may be viewed by people around the world?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 01:14

I do, yes.

-- Vincent Peña 01:16

We have many questions in a pre-interview form that we have already filled out. We use that information from the pre-interview form to help in research. The entire form is kept in a Voces server. Before we send it to the Benson, we would have stripped out any contact information for yourself or family members. So that will not be part of your public file.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 01:34

Understood.

-- Vincent Peña 01:35

Your file will only be accessible at the Benson Library. Do you wish for us to share the rest of your interview in your public file available to researchers at the Benson?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 01:42

Yes, I do. Yes.

-- Vincent Peña 01:45

On occasion, Voces receives requests from journalists who wish to contact our interview subjects. We only deal with legitimate news outlets. Do you give consent for us to share your phone numbers or your email with journalists?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 01:56

Yes, I do.

-- Vincent Peña 01:59

Okay, thank you. Cool. So, we'll go ahead and get started now. So, first question, would you kind of just first tell me a little bit about yourself, you know where you're from, family, that kind of thing.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 02:13

Sure. Certainly. Yeah. So, I was I was born and raised here in Phoenix, Arizona, born in the Valley. I'm the oldest of two siblings. I have two younger sisters. I take pride in my family. I go five generations back actually here in Arizona. So, my family settled and was established here, primarily in Tolleson, Arizona, before 1912, before Arizona was a state so they truly deal did help build the roads, the buildings, they helped build the city and state so it's something I'm really proud of. You know, I've been involved in giving back to the community for really, as long as I can remember, it's kind of just been a staple with how I was raised going to a private Catholic school in St. Vincent de Paul in Maryvale, or in Phoenix. A big part of that was going to different dining halls to serve meals to the homeless, or being involved in the community by giving back through the church, which has, you know, just stuck with me all through high school and into my adult years where I've continued to do work with various organizations and giving back primarily to the unsheltered community. I find that's a big part of my heart. As an individual, you know, I really take pride in my city and my family. As far as outside of giving back and the activism that I've been involved with myself. I love music I, I really love the outdoors. I mean, the valley is great when it comes to the trails and the mountains. So, I definitely do a lot of that. Yeah, spending time with my friends, you know, but I would say right now, my passion and primary focus is how I've been giving back to the community, on activism and really just trying to get through this pandemic, you know, healthy for me and my loved ones. So, I guess that's a little start.

-- Vincent Peña 04:35

Yeah, absolutely. That's great. So, to kind of bounce off with the last thing you were talking about there, how did you first learn about the COVID-19 pandemic?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 04:47

Sure.

-- Vincent Peña 04:48

What was your initial reaction to that information?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 04:52

Well, so I'm an individual who is going to take some information, take it at face value and then go start doing research from other sources to try to find the best, you know, real, what's really happening, you know, try to sift through it. So, I mean, naturally, I'm seeing things on the news. Social media is blowing up. This really, I would say, end of December into January, February is kind of where it started making a little noise. And my ears perked up, I would say right at the turn of the year, as something to keep an eye on. Because I'm not one to dismiss any type of any type of news, really, I want to address it. And then this it really started getting bad, you know, in China, and I had, I had personal connections where an individual I worked with, whose wife was from Wuhan -- family's from Wuhan -- so he had taken a family trip normally. Normal family trip. All of the COVID-19 pandemic breakout really serves to happen in Wuhan and he's now locked down. He's locked down. What is it? Sorry about that. Um, can you hear me Vince? Vince?

-- Vincent Peña 06:14

Yes, I can.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 06:16

Okay, can you still see me?

-- Vincent Peña 06:18

Mhm.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 06:19

Oh, I don't know a phone call is coming through. I'm sorry about that. Let me again just. I'm having a technical difficulty. So just to reiterate, a close colleague of mine was his wife and family are from one Wuhan. He's American. He's from from the States and it's a family trip. This is pre huge COVID-19 global pandemic. It was sort of happening, but so we're talking early February, mid-January, three-week trip turned into, you know, two and a half months, because it erupted. He was locked down and couldn't leave, they were not allowed to come back to the United States. And they're US citizens. So, this is pre lockdown status for us here in the States. We had not, you know, established any type of mandates to wear masks to quarantine or social distance. This is early. And for me to get wind of that this early, I knew that this was something serious. And it only progressed and got even more serious from there and a lot of it really impacted me in a personal sense with my family as well. Unfortunately, so I know it's done a lot of damage and it's something I took seriously from the get-go.

-- Vincent Peña 08:05

Yeah, that's interesting, especially given that you had someone that, you know, a lot of the reaction from people, even from a lot of Americans who took it seriously who are taking it seriously, you know, didn't think it was a big deal until we started locking down, right, but they still was too far away. Even all the stuff was happening in Italy and in South Korea, and in Hong Kong and China. They still didn't -- It wasn't real until you know, it came here. But so, for you to say those you have a very kind of secondhand experience of how real it was. It's interesting, especially early on, you know, if it was like a holiday trip they took because it was already blown up over there, but we just weren't, you know, in typical American fashion weren't bothered by it until it started, it showed up on our doorstep.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 08:48

Right. Exactly. I mean, for us to be getting phone calls or text from our friend from our buddy, like, oh my goodness, he's trapped in China. He's like, "I can't come home. Well they won't they're quarantining us they won't let me our family leave." It's terrifying. And this is, before everything happened here. It was definitely eye-opening to say the least.

-- Vincent Peña 09:15

Yeah, understandable. Okay, so then how has it and since it, you know, it, it really got serious here since, you know, we shut down in Arizona, or in Texas, across the country, really? How has it impacted you? So, we'll have a couple questions about this. But first, do you know anyone other than-- who I guess anyone who has caught has gotten COVID or has been infected or has even passed away from COVID?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 09:44

You know, unfortunately, I do. A few members of my family contracted COVID-19 and were severely ill, one of them being my cousin, who is in fairly good health in her early 30s. Good health young, right? You think it's fine and it really did some damage on her. Luckily, she was not hospitalized, however she was bedridden, and it was severe. It wasn't like just catching the common cold or even pneumonia for that sense. You know, you get pneumonia, you get sick and you feel really bad. This was that times ten, you know, so nonetheless, even now, going on three months later, she is still feeling the effects of it. So that story is -- no one thankfully, and my heart goes out to those who have lost individuals -- I have not known anyone who has passed away directly from COVID-19. However, COVID-19 has impacted me in that sense because of the passing of my father and of my grandmother during this pandemic.

-- Vincent Peña 11:03

Would you just talk about, you know a little bit about how that has impacted you? I mean, obviously, the the losses are overwhelming enough by itself, but how did COVID specifically make you know, even holding services or doing any of that more difficult?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 11:21

Certainly, certainly I want to elaborate on that. No, not at all. That's why I'm here to share. I just wanted to make sure that that sank in as far as you know, losing an individual and then having COVID-19 impact, you know, the whole process itself and that's really what it came down to because my father passed away on February 15. And after that, we then began starting to get progressively get into lockdowns and mandates and so forth. And that impacted our services because we were not -- he did pass away relatively suddenly, you know, he was ill. However, it did happen suddenly. And I took it upon myself, again with a lot of support from my family, but primarily, I took it upon myself to have to set the arrangements and get everything in order, in addition to navigating the environment of this pandemic, where we couldn't have more than 10 people in his viewing. I come from a Hispanic family that has, what, hundreds of you know, relatives, I've got a very large family. And so, to have to tell some individuals, you know, you I'm sorry, but you can't come see your uncle. You know, you can't come see your cousin, or whatever else, you know, I'm sorry. You know, and in addition to that, what really pains me and hurts me is that my father wanted me to spread his ashes over the ocean and do it in a place in California that we hold dear. And I wasn't able to do that because of the COVID-19 and the pandemic and the lockdowns that took place. So, I buried him here in Phoenix, Arizona with his family. And that really hurt, but it was the right thing to do. Because as that was happening, his mother, my grandmother, who raised me from birth as well, mind you, I see her as my mom as well, she told me, "I know you want to honor your father and spread his ashes into the ocean and let him be free set his spirit free, but I'm gonna die." Everything is going-- She mentioned COVID-19 this pandemic and as an 80-year-old woman, she said, "I'm going to pass away, I'm going to die before I know my son is laid to rest in peace. So we have to bury him here." So that's what we did. We buried him here in Holy Cross Cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona. Holy Cross cemetery, where his father's buried where a lot of my family's buried and following that service, which again, was hindered because of this pandemic. She passed away on Mother's Day. She passed away on Mother's Day, in the heat of all of this, as my family was trying to come visit her when she got moved into hospice care. See trying to see her and navigate, you know, trying to self, self-quarantine and practice social distancing and be clean and use sanitizer and be cognizant of who you're around because who would want to be responsible for passing COVID-19 through my grandmother and potentially killing her because of that. She had other illnesses and that's why she passed away. But when she did, unfortunately, again, the services weren't necessarily what we had imagined them to be or hoped they would be, you know, I mean, how can you when you lose someone on the way, how can you ideally say, ah things went great. Things you don't want to do. Of course not that but at the end of the day, when you're there with your loved ones, and you're sharing moments that are going to stick with you for the rest of your life in your heart, and you're wearing a mask and your covered, and you can't hug each other as tight, or you at least think twice. It's unfortunate. But the severity of it-- I really don't think individuals understand the gravity of this situation and how it's impacted our world and our future, because this is simply the tip of the iceberg. We can hope for a best-case scenario, but if this just started, and this is how it's impacted me, not just like somebody I knew or something I heard about, but me directly-- It's not something to take lightly. And, you know, fortunately, I've been able to sit and think and reflect and take care of my own mental peace. And I have a very, very good support system, and family and community here in Phoenix and in the valley that take care of me that I owe so much gratitude towards for the support I've received. You know, but that is how this pandemic has affected me so far.

-- Vincent Peña 17:12

I'm sorry to hear, you know, how difficult that was, especially, you know, having to, you know, not even COVID, like you said, not even COVID-related, but just having to experience two deaths, in that short of a time span would be unimaginable, but having to do it, like you said, you know, especially coming from a big Hispanic, Latino family and not being able to, to mourn in the way that we traditionally do, right. I mean, like you said, with your grandma -- with my grandma, I think 300 people showed up to our house at some point, you know what I mean? And I could not imagine not like telling how who did who was like, you know--

-- Richard Villa Jr.

How do you choose?

-- Vincent Peña

--Having to decide who gets to see them and who doesn't get to see them like that's, that's awful, man. And so--

-- Richard Villa Jr.

On the real.

-- Vincent Peña

Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that that that, that that was the case. But you I think you hit on a good point there or a compelling point about the fact that if this can be the impact for one individual person for you, you know, and it's directly related to COVID just a byproduct of what the situation has brought upon us. I think that kind of speaks to the severity of what we're dealing with, right? Because the thing is, is there's people have lost like-- this is not going to be something that's just gonna go away. You know, I mean, a lot of people are going to it's going to become the norm for a lot of people.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 18:37

Certainly, I mean, you walk out of the home, you grab your wallet, your keys, your mask, your phone, you get what I'm saying? It's like, it's the pat down. It's you know phone, wallet, keys mask. That's not going to go away. I mean, even if it does, as easy as magically this is going to disappear like we forgot. This is the future that we live in now.

-- Vincent Peña 19:05

Yeah, no seriously though, that's that's a good point too, because I think that kind of you know, that's one of the next points I want I did want to talk about a guest is how, you know, in addition to the way it's impacted your family, how has COVID would you say just impacted your daily life? Like, what does your day look like? Now that that is different from what it was pre-pandemic, right? When you already mentioned the phone, keys, wallet, was like the those are the three things everyone does. Now is phone, keys, wallet, facemask. Right, so in what ways has it impacted your day-to-day life? And would you describe kind of what that looks like?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 19:42

Sure, certainly. So, with that, I mean, I've always been sort of a clean freak and germaphobe right. I love you know, I'm always washing my hands. I'm always, you know, very hygienic. I'm cognizant of that, but I never necessarily was so adamant about like hand sanitizer or the surfaces that you touch and interact with or even when you look at the amount of germs that can be passed along from a handshake, or a hug or whatever it may be, kiss on the cheek. These different social cues that are typically a norm or a sign of endearment or affection are now thought of twice, you know, and I say that has impacted my daily life in the fact that I'm an individual who will, you know, I'm going to give my full attention and be there and listen, and, you know, the way I show affection is through sometimes physical touch or a handshake, or a hug or fist bump, and being aware of that, you know, I can't just go shaking hands with strangers on the streets all the time. You know, it's, it's unfortunate because we're all humans and we all want a sense of community. And it comes down to being aware, you know, being in a room with someone, even that you are close with or that you love or that you're a family member with, or a stranger. You know, hey, I have my mask on. You know, it's like, we're gonna sit here in an area and talk, yet I don't want to have all of these fumes coming back and forth. If you look at the way that germs are spread and the vapors that come off, I mean this,I've never had to think about this in my life. So this is this and I think about this on the daily now, you know, carrying hand sanitizer, not necessarily shaking hands when I should or, you know, just being cognizant and not only that, but still navigating those same social cues to still let someone know that you're there with them. When they can't see you smiling. They can't see your smile. You know, they can't. It sort of removes the human connection aspect of things. So you've got to be cognizant and come up with ways to still be able to speak your truth and be yourself. So, it's, it's, it's affected my daily life. And, and just really being more aware of my actions and germs and also taking note of who is sort of reckless in the zones, you know, know if I see you have no mask, you know, at restaurant, no social distancing. It's sort of like an identifier of are you not necessarily aware or thinking about the gravity of this situation? So I would say it's put a lot of mental stress, too. There's a lot of mental stress on me. But in my daily life, it's like you're always thinking about the risk of not only COVID, because I may be healthy, I may be in good standing, but I don't want it on my conscience to pass this illness on to my niece or nephew who may have a bad immune system or an older family member or a stranger even. So, these are daily thoughts that are now a part of what happens that never were before. So, I mean, that's just a taste of it, I guess. You know.

-- Vincent Peña 23:32

You know, I really appreciate that that aspect you talk about, even the, you know, the human connection part, right, like I'm very much the same way, you know, the physical touch is something that's important to me and my family you know, a lot of hugging a lot of kissing a lot of just even like something like a handshake. I was raised to shake hands whenever I met someone, right? Especially the first time and that's, that's just a small example of how it's up and leaving the smile thing right like you can't see like I smile at the cash register and when I go to the, you know, to the grocery store, and they, they, I don't know if they're smiling back, you know, you can't you can't you can't non-verbally ease the situation anymore by by flashing a smile or even like with your facial expressions. So, yeah, I guess as simple as that it's definitely been up-ended, right. But you brought up a good point too about, you know, not wanting to get your family members sick. Which kind of brings me right to the question about who have you been interacting with throughout this pandemic? Right. So, since it's I think Arizona shut down around the same time Texas did, around mid-March, the second-third week of March, I believe, believes Oh, boots on everything shut down. So has there been I know people have, you know, started like quarantine communities or groups. You know, I've had my brother, he him his his neighbors, they decided to have like a quarantine clan where only the six of them could talk and interact with the 6, with each other. They couldn't go anywhere, they couldn't, you know, they had to coordinate everything. Yeah. As an example of what that looks like right? So, I guess what has your as your interactions, where have you limited who you talk to you and who you see and does that include?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 25:10

Certainly.

-- Vincent Peña 25:11

And so, go and just describe that for me for a little bit.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 25:14

Definitely. I think that's a very good point to make because yeah, that's something I have done and put into place. Which is interesting because, like, I've had to consciously choose to not go see you know, my n- my nieces and nephews or, you know, my goddaughter because her mother is pregnant with their third child. And to even think about if I were to, you know, compromise her health in her pregnancy, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. So as much as I love my goddaughter, you know, my cousin, my nephew, I want to be there to also watch her as she goes through this pregnancy. I know I'm making the right choice by not putting her at risk, because I love her that much. And I applied that same thought process to maybe other individuals in my family who aren't necessarily in the best health. You know, I go out of my way to make sure I'm giving them a phone call or trying to do a FaceTime, you know, utilizing the tools and technology that we have to still have that same human connection. Whereas then also, my friends and family who are maybe in better health, or that we've had previous determined conversations about are you going out and partying with a bunch of people and strangers, you know, or are you practicing social distancing? Are you are you aware? Have you been tested for COVID-19? Because a lot of individuals have been. And then deciding, okay, cool. I know what you know what I'm doing. We know we've minimized exposure as much as we can. We're good to hang out. And then keeping it in that. I know we're going to talk about it more down the road. But with myself personally, I am heavily involved in the activist community here in the valley, which does expose me to large crowds of individuals that I don't normally interact with on a daily, close basis, simply because we are all together as a community and an open space to peacefully and lawfully assemble to speak for what we believe in. That is important. And it can be construed as not following, you know, pandemic or social distancing guidelines. It's about finding that balance, because although I've had those pre-determined conversations about, you know, quarantine plans, you know, and having a group that I chill with, because we've had that pre-determined conversation, but then there's also the activist community that I am out in the streets with. Granted I'm masked up. You know masked-- I have gloves. I'm as clean and aware as I can be while I'm there, but I would say that's how I'm applying the mindset to gathering with other individuals right now. Yeah.

-- Vincent Peña 28:23

Absolutely. That, that makes a lot of sense. Especially because, you know, like you said, we'll get into more of the details a little later about, you know, how it's impacted your activism more specifically. But that's interesting kind of how you have that, you've had to navigate both of those, you know, the the weighing of how important is this issue that I believe I stand for versus, you know, how much am I trying to stay safe during the middle of pandemic, which has been the, I think the biggest issue with a lot of these, whether or not people decide to participate in these social justice protests. But before we get to the point.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 29:02

And that's a good point.

-- Vincent Peña 28:23

I'm sorry.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 29:05

Oh, I just wanted to mention yeah, I made that decision. I'm willing to die for what I believe in, for my people and my culture and for standing against being oppressed. So, if that was, you know, COVID-19 aside, but don't get me wrong. That is a huge decision. And it's a conscious one that I've made, but I do know the severity of it. Yeah.

-- Vincent Peña 29:29

Okay, and so actually, I think we're just gonna maybe just stick on that topic for a little bit. We can come back to each other healthcare, education, those kinds of things afterwards, I think because we're kind of on a roll here. But so you mentioned that you you know, you're part of, you're an activist and a big part of the community out there and in terms of activism, so would you describe a little bit about what kind of activism you engaged in, what kind of causes, both currently and in the past, and what I guess what your activism looks like. So whether that's protesting, you know, signing petitions, fundraising, speaking, like, whatever, whatever your activism looks like, would you to kind of just describe that and the things that you've--

-- Richard Villa Jr. 30:18

Certainly yeah, you name it. I mean, I really like to delve myself into utilizing my skills and doing what I can for the community, not only in one facet or avenue. So, to start with, you know, when it comes to like I said the streets and not social dist-- gathering together peacefully in an assembly, right, large groups of people. That has been a part of my activism and that goes back to here in Arizona, all the way back to SB1070. You know, when it comes to activism and getting out there to make our voices heard for SB1070. Also, the Red for Ed movement in our education system here in the valley, going out and taking to the streets and marching for what we believe in. And then, of course, with what's happened with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Dion Johnson, here in the valley, specifically, a lot of the activism that I'm doing right now, I would say, I have to say that this year in 2020, is when I really began to get involved into the activist community of being a voice trying to push the movement forward through peacefully assembling in the streets, to make sure that our voices are heard and that we are seen for what we're standing for. So that's a big part of it, you know, marching, peaceful demonstrations. But not only that, a big piece of it is giving back to our community in these times, primarily to, you know, people of color people from disadvantaged or disenfranchised backgrounds, and giving back to the community through donations of you know, food, water, clothing, finding shelter resources. Here in the valley specifically, there is an area in downtown central Phoenix, that is basically two large parking lots designated for the unsheltered community to set up tents. And it's all fenced and, and it, it unfortunately, it's a camp. It's unfortunate and what we do is we walk and we pass out supplies, we talk, you know, we make sure that they understand "Hey, you are still human. You are our community. We are here." And it's not something that we are seeing from you know, officials here in the valley I'm not going to get necessarily into that. I will stick with our, you know, our our slogans and what we do so, not only are we peacefully demonstrating in the streets to find justice for those who deserve it, but we're trying to give back to our unsheltered community. That's something that we do. Actually, there's organizations that it's, it's happening every day, every day in the valley organizations are giving back to the community and I'm a part of that, you know, maybe two, three times a week. We're out walking the streets, passing out backpacks, waters, you name it, you know, personal feminine hygiene products. Even yeah, you name it. So that's a piece of it. But that alludes to then how do we push for more resources to go towards not only the unsheltered community, but what about those who need mental health care resources or other healthcare resources? So, we are looking at, we sign petitions, we call our local representatives, we set up specific times to just blast phones. You know say "All right, everybody time to call this number today." Everybody's gonna leave a voicemail. Everybody's going to write an email, everybody's gonna make sure that that representative knows this is important and you need to look at it. In addition to that comes the legislative aspect when we've got teams that are focused on running for city council, running for office. What can we put on paper that is going to establish a system that puts our community at the focus and so it really comes down to compiling all of these facets of -- all of that is activism. And there's not one right way to do it, it's your way is the right way to do it. Because we all as individuals have our own skills, talents, abilities, and whatever facet that you may provide with is what you're going to go with. If it's a few things, do it. If it's one, do it. If you maybe just post some stuff on social media, but you're really in it and you're researching and you're trying to educate people through your platform, and you've never stepped foot out into the streets to march and protest and raise your fist and let them know you're mad, but you're educating people in your way, you are an activist. You are still a part of the process. So, I can say personally, everything I've just described is something that I make a focus in my daily life and my weekly life like I plan out, you know, how am I going to impact something today? Whether it's passing out to the unsheltered community, whether it's writing another email to a representative, making a phone call, setting up an establishing a meeting to game plan to strategize how we're going to take the streets for our next event, peacefully, or excuse me, non-violently. So that's how I've been involved. And not only that, but trying to get other individuals that I love or care about friends, family, strangers, involved in the movement, in the cause, to take a second look and think about what are you doing in your daily life to bring about change for the better, because I truly believe that my generation and the ones that are continuing to grow and come up are at a point where you are making the choice to either make a change or to be complacent with all of the knowledge, resources, the support that is available to us across the globe. Now, granted, there's a lot of disadvantaged people in areas. So if you do have some sort of advantage if you are not using that to some capacity-- that's not good. So that's the way that, that's the way I approach approach my activism, is that if I can do it, I will. And if I choose not to, I've got to take a second thought on why.

-- Vincent Peña 37:42

Absolutely, yeah.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 37:43

That's all I got. I know it was a lot. I kind of just ranted a little bit.

-- Vincent Peña 37:46

That was all great because you know, you're kind of echoing like, I believe Toni Morrison when she says your, your -- is it Tony Morrison or Maya Angelou? -- I don't know but she's basically-

-- Richard Villa Jr. 37:57

I believe it's Maya Angelou. I believe it's Maya.

-- Vincent Peña 37:59

Um you know, If you have freedom, your responsibility is to ensure that someone else also has freedom. So like you said, if you are able to give back you should, that's what you should use your resources to, is to give back and I liked how you talked about, you know, the various ways that activism, the various ways forms that activism takes, right, you know, it's not just going out in the middle of the street, protesting and we can be calling it can be educating people on social media. And you know, with this pandemic, we've seen a lot of people, especially because of concerns about the actual, with the virus and the pandemic, surely taking that role, right. And so, but for you, it sounds like you kind of kept up. So you were describing kind of what your activism look like before COVID as well as your activism during. But so did, did COVID give you any pause or change the way you thought about your activism. So like the you know, you were involved in activism going back to, you know, immigration laws in the early 2010s to you know, teacher strikes a couple years ago, too. So how did COVID specifically impact the way you think about activism and actually engage in it?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 39:10

Fair enough, that's a great question. And I think that it alludes to really a catapult of me getting even more involved. I think that because of this pandemic, it has actually allowed us to progress and accelerate this movement. And personally, my activism, even more so, in an odd way. And I'd like to elaborate on that because if it weren't for the pandemic, we wouldn't be all wearing masks. When I'm out at a peaceful demonstration, you know, I'm concerned for my safety for those who have opposing views, or for a militarized police force to identify me and target unlawfully in a sense. So not only that, yeah, had the pandemic and COVID has helped you know kept people in their houses, but it's also it's made a whole another group of individuals be like, dang, you know, our what's happening in our world. It's how a lot of people open their eyes not only to what's happening with the pandemic, but what's happening in our economy and our justice system and our education system, our health care system. It's shed a lot of light on the establishments that are in place, that some need to be abolished, some need to be, you know, reestablished. But I would say that when I was early on, I mean into high school but in graduate -- as soon as I turned 18, I was a very large part of pushing voter registration at my college when I first attended. I would help get our youth registered to vote. You know, this was a big part of what I did, and then going into immigration law, like I said, and education, but I would say that it wasn't at the same level because of the pandemic. I believe it's raised that bar and it's allowed me to be like, Alright, this is my focus, activism, making sure that we oppose anything that is oppressing our people. I think, as crazy as it sounds, that the pandemic has actually helped do that.

-- Vincent Peña 41:43

Yeah, no, I think I tend to agree with you there. Especially, you know, I've had other previous talks about the you know, the way pandemic has impacted activism. Some people were, you know, and even with Black Lives Matter in, you know, at the at the advent of the of the movement, Black Lives Matter movement around the killings of you know, Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, people were able to essentially avoid, right? They could they could act like it wasn't going on, there was many things happening. There was things that were distracting. Whereas the pandemic has able to see everyone's, everyone's at home, everyone can see what's happening.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 42:19

Everyone's at home. Everyone's seeing it. Yeah. Yeah.

-- Vincent Peña 42:22

So like yeah, it's not a surprise to me that you have described it as a way it's amplified your activism actually, like it's increased it and we can see in cities across the country that you know, the act of their response to this has been so much more widespread than even the act of any recent, any movement like in recent memory. So it's been kind of yeah, I think a catalyst for, for more activism rather than a deterrent for I think, for most people, right. And even then, you see, you see, a lot of the activists, especially people protesting, actually adopting many of the, the safety features that people recommend, you know, there's more people wearing masks at protests in there than there have been in other contexts.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 43:08

The irony of that. How funny is that. It's it's wild.

-- Vincent Peña 43:12

Um, yeah. So that's, that's all, that's all great. That's really um, yeah, there's a lot there. So I guess, you know, how do you think COVID is going to continue to impact activism? I guess, it's kind of like a multi-part question. One, do you think, how long do you think this this, I guess, movement, current activism that's been happening since the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matters since it started with the pandemic -- How do you think that's going to continue? And also, how do you like, how do you think it's going to continue to be impacted by by COVID? Do you think it eventually is, you know, going to die down or people when when things start getting back to normal, do you think it's going to affect, you know, the, I guess the urgency or the, the participation that you see, I guess so without, you know, answering the question for you, how do you see that happening as we move along here?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 44:14

I think that's a great question and something that needs to be addressed as well. Because in my mind, you know, this is this is not going anywhere. You know, this movement, this cause, this purpose is not going to stop COVID-19 are not until justice is found and the system is abolished, and we have in place legislation and systems that are going to help give back to our communities in the ways that we see fit. I'm not going to get into specific numbers and into the specifics of that I'm going to speak generally simply because this is national. This is global. So this isn't something that has an end date. This isn't something that is, oh six months from now we're going to be in the clear. It'll all be past us, you know. Everybody, you know, even we still don't have justice for George Floyd or Breanna Taylor, you know, and so it's not about having a timetable on it. It's about understanding that this is a marathon and not a sprint. This is societal. How long did it take for us to get to this place? Number one. So it's not like looking at it like there's some sort of end goal. It's about continually building on the foundations that we are establishing. Now as for how COVID-19 plays a factor in that building of a new foundation that we can thrive and prosper on, I believe that COVID-19 can effect that in that sense, if we continue to see numbers rise if we continue to see deaths rise even more so, granted it's severe right now, this can turn it can turn bad, turn real bad. But as I had mentioned before activism takes many forms. Activism takes many forms. So it is not just about being in the streets and taking them. It's about writing laws, it's about educating yourself. So that's still going to go, still gonna happen, COVID-19 or not. Now I can hope that we'd have some sort of better understanding on how to fight the illness, prevent the illness. I don't necessarily know if a vaccine is the best thing. I'm not into pharmacology. That's not my expertise. I'm not going to try to act like it is. I don't know if a vaccine is the best thing. Whatever the case may be. I know that maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe longer, but we have extremely intelligent scientists and medical professionals that can apply their knowledge to finding a way to combat this. So, I know they got that on, they got that on their back, you know, they got that side. What I've got to focus on is continuing to push the movement for justice for us as a people and to set a solid foundation. That being said, there is no end date for this. We're going to continue to build, COVID or not. So that's, that's where I stand. Yeah.

-- Vincent Peña 47:41

Absolutely. I totally understand that. Especially because like you said, injustice doesn't just stop. There, it obviously and stop for Coronavirus, and it doesn't, it's not going to stop whenever this this ends. because like you said, I think both of them are going to do well. injustice has never ceased to exist, but the coronavirus eventually, you know, find a cure or we might, you know, figure out how to live with it. But yeah, I think I agree with you about the--

-- Richard Villa Jr. 48:09

This is our future. Yeah. This is our future and it's just how you navigate that future because, you know, there's a lot of fish to fry and there were a lot of big fish in the sea.

-- Vincent Peña 48:21

Absolutely.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 48:22

You could just cut that part. That's good. Just kidding.

-- Vincent Peña 48:28

So, I guess I'm kind of curious too, then how, as though, you know, as a Latino, Hispanic man, how has, you know, your identity factored into your activism and I guess also, how has it-- How, yeah, how is you know, the Latino community -- Part of the reason for this project, as I've explained is that they've been the most disproportionately affected, group -- demographic group -- by the Coronavirus, both in terms of health impact and economic impact and You know, many other ways really. So, I guess how does your, you know, personal identity impact the way you respond to this and even the way that, you know, the the current like political situation right with us -- we have an administration that has routinely demonized, you know, the Latino community before the election, even, you know, with immigrant families with the, what's happening at the border with the children and you know, just immigration in general so, and the rhetoric that that is often espoused to justify some of these actions so I guess without further-- how is your identity impacted that and what does that what role does that play in your--

-- Richard Villa Jr. 49:45

Sure. My activism, I think that identity is very important. It's very important to me, self-image and my identity and being a person of color, being a Hispanic, Latino male in America. Being Brown. The way that that impacts my activism is that I take it with-- I am a voice and a representation of those that came before me. You know, my family was oppressed. My family told me, and my father specifically -- my father directly told me stories of him being beaten in school by teachers for speaking Spanish. In high school, he was picked up out of his desk by his throat by his teacher for speaking Spanish, mind you he spoke perfect English. He was an intelligent man. He's bilingual. But because he spoke Spanish that was a no go. That sort of oppression is deep-rooted, and it's happened hundreds of years. My last name is a Villa. My name is Richard Villa Jr. Francisco Villa. Pancho Villa. This is my identity. I think about my legacy, I think about my descendants. And I think about how I can bring that to the table. Because it's not about me. It's not about, you know, who I am. It's more of a representation of my culture. And with what's happening right now, I know a huge part of this activism movement is Black lives matter, because they most certainly do. And I'll say it again, Black Lives Matter. And I'll tell you, the way that I approach this with my identity is that I want to be a conduit and a voice and a unifying voice to that Black community so that we can come together as a Black and brown community and unite to build a foundation. That is going to stop the oppression that we've received for years. And that also includes other minorities of Asian descent, you know, those who are white allies who may have faced some sort of adversity in life. You know, I'm not going to discriminate based on race, gender, ethnicity, religious background, none of that. But as far as me personally, my identity brings that I'm a brown man in America. I'm trying to unite with the other minorities of America, so that we can build a foundation together. I look back at Wachovia revolutionary, I think about that every time I look at my last name, because I'm a Villa as well. And that's how my identity plays into this activism.

-- Vincent Peña 52:56

That's a great response. I think it speaks to, like you said, both you know your past what your what your name represents and who it's, you know, your ancestors in a way and also, you know what, what your legacy will be and who is who it's going to impact, you know, people who come after you, especially other Latino, brown bodies, because if it's happening with your dad, as it happened with my father, it's gonna happen with their parents, it's gonna keep happening. And so, you know-

-- Richard Villa Jr. 53:24

My dad and my family didn't teach me, they didn't teach me Spanish child. They didn't teach me Spanish as a child, because of that. I've had to consciously go out and try as hard as I can to become fluent in Spanish to hold conversations because I do not want to lose my language. You know, my family's language, my culture's language. So that I think about, "Yeah, what about my nieces and nephews? What about my children, their children? How are we going to continue to pass down our language when a system was trying to take it away and has been trying to take it away for hundreds of years." So that's what I think about, yeah, because you personally as well have yeah, you can speak to those same instances with your father with other family members, other brown people who have been oppressed. So if we don't take this step now and set this foundation, the ones after us are going to be saying that same thing that we said about our dads and grandpas, so I'm with you. I'm with you on that.

-- Vincent Peña 54:34

And no you make a good point two about the Spanish I you know, personally my-- we were not we were not taught Spanish by you know, my grandmother and my our parents so mostly from our you know, elder family members, because of, you know, in their experience, they, they they stood out, right? Their accents outed them in with regardless of the you know, the other family members who are lighter-skinned, who can pass as white, but when they spoke, you know, they were discriminated against because it was clear Spanish was their first language. And so, there was a concerted effort on the parts of multiple generations to, you know, to speak English, right? To be American. And that results in the, you know, like you said, the loss of a language, of a culture, of an identity at some point, right? Which I think is you know, at the heart of what a lot of these, these things are, especially this within the Latino community. So, anyways, yeah, that was I think that was very poignant point there, you know, about the loss of identity and culture, but all right, well, so, I think for now, that that's, uh, on the activism front you, you've answered all my questions. So, I think we can kind of move on to the other parts of you know, the way COVID has impacted you. And I think a lot too and a lot of them go hand in hand, so it's not necessarily not pivoting all that much, but one thing I was curious about was the way COVID has impacted your your work or your employment. And so, would you describe -- I know you're an activist, but you know, most people don't get paid for their activism. --So, would you talk about what you do for your--

-- Richard Villa Jr. 56:17

My day job?

-- Vincent Peña 56:18

Yeah. And how how that has been impacted whether you've, you know, seen your work hours cut, or have you received a pay cut or if you were furloughed, if any of those things have happened. So just talk about how work for you has changed during the pandemic.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 56:33

Sure, yeah. Great. That's fair. I mean, that's big. It's impacted so many individuals. And me personally, I have been a licensed investment broker with my Series 7 and 63 licenses for a pretty well renowned investment company, firm, managing retirement accounts, brokerage accounts and investment accounts, and so I primarily come from a background of finance, and investments, primarily focused on mutual funds, individual stocks as well, but, you know, anything finance related. So I've, for the past four and a half years, I've been with this company, and I've actually taken a step back for a second here. So simply because of my activism, I'm actually making a transition into this new new career that I'm moving towards to support myself to allow me to continue the activism that I'm doing, and I'm gonna do it anyway. But what I'm saying is that my day job as an investment broker really helped set the foundation to allow me to take the steps I'm taking now because as the pandemic hit being that it was a lot b- It is a very large corporate entity. They provided a lot of support for their employees working from home. All computers, devices, all items were provided to go work from home. So, nobody was furloughed or laid off. It was definitely a huge, huge stressful transition. A lot of compiling of departments and a lot of evaluation on what's effective, what's not, costs, you name it, cost benefit analysis. I mean, so definitely a lot of transitions, but I can say, thankfully, I'm blessed in the fact that I haven't necessarily been financially impacted by this, because I've been in that realm for a while to focus on having that foundation, so that it hasn't rocked me yet, anyway. And I hope it doesn't. But yeah, so complete work-from-home environment. I never thought I would have missed the office like I did. But it was really, I mean, I miss interacting with my coworkers and my buddies and it's a good time. But it was interesting, you know, zoom meetings, you know, Microsoft Teams like, definitely a different transition, sure. But you know, I had great healthcare. You know, I, it, this really opened my eyes to understand that having a solid health care insurance plan is, it's huge. It's detrimental, especially if you have a family. Now I don't have a wife or children. It's myself. But if you had a family and you're concerned about your health insurance plans, that's a big deal. So luckily, you know, I was covered in that sense. I have been covered in that sense, but it also makes me realize the health care system and the insurance company system that's in place, is-- it's unreal, the way that they treat individuals. I mean, that's a whole nother conversation. But I can, you know, I'm sticking with my work and how that's impacted things, I was lucky enough to still have my job, work completely from home, I still have my health care and my benefits. I am finally at a point where I can move away from having an established nine-to-five position and focus primarily on building my business myself and my activism. But that was because of having a solid foundation as an investment broker for the past few years. So, I'm thankful for that.

-- Vincent Peña 1:00:46

Yeah, that's I'm glad to hear it, you know, that you haven't been too negatively impacted by the, you know, the pandemic in terms of job loss or, you know, any of the negative consequences that a lot of people have suffered. So I guess my next question would be how has as your daily day to day job, you know, changed other than the transition online, which I know is like you mentioned is pretty was pretty stressful and difficult in some ways. But did your job, your actual job change? Or were you just doing the same things from, from home?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:01:21

Great question, I would say, doing the same thing from home. So primarily in my role, I would field phone calls from high net worth clients with questions about their investments, albeit to make trades, withdraw, manage their money, answer questions about the economy and what's happening in the markets. All that stayed the same. Nothing has changed. You know, I would just, I would, I would just like if I was in my office, I'm taking calls the same way except now I'm in my home office and, now granted, you know, having all the right security connections, networks, VPN-type stuff was all that, but primarily the job stayed exactly the same, except except for the fact that and the environment that we've been in as far as pandemic, that has greatly impacted the type of interactions and phone calls that I've fielded from clients concerned about their money, about their investments, and about their, really their well-being, because, you know, if you, if you are a retiree, you're retired, you're seeing this economy, you're seeing this pandemic, you have no income, aside from what your investments are and their performance. Having those types of conversations in this environment, I would say has altered my job function comparatively to two years ago, three years ago. I'm having different types of conversations about the markets and the economy with these investors that I'm having right now in a global pandemic. So that's has changed the role in that sense. But aside from that, you know.

-- Vincent Peña 1:03:09

For sure okay, so I think I've had answered all the questions but so then you haven't really been negatively impacted, right? Economically you'd say kind of things that kind of stayed the same for you or for the most part.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:03:23

Um you know, I would say-- you know in considering things, I also have a very strong family support system as well. I come from a pretty low, lower-income you know, background, humble beginnings, you know, humble beginnings. But my family has worked very hard to get where they are now. That's alive. And pre-pandemic you know, a major focus of mine has always been having a solid financial background, a solid financial foundation to stand on and having that in place initially, has helped me weather this storm. Granted, don't get me wrong, I've had to shell out a lot more than I would have liked to or have liked to, because of navigating to the environment we're in, but I haven't lost any paychecks is what I'm saying. And I don't take that lightly. I'm not trying to brag. I'm not trying to, none of that, because I know that there's individuals out there who are not, you know, but I do think that we can have better social systems in place to give back to those who are unemployed and who are not, you know, receiving any type of paycheck. You know, we can get into the nitty gritty when it comes to, you know, socialist systems on what stimulus checks have provided. But if you look into the day-to-day lives of how people live and function, 1200 dollars is not going to cut it. So I don't take it lightly when it comes to finances. I will say that years ago I think the long time, making the decision to have a solid financial foundation is the only reason I've been able to weather this storm. Because it's not it's not easy and a lot of people haven't been able to and I'm barely able to myself but I'm okay I'm good. At least for now, so--

-- Vincent Peña 1:05:25

Yeah you know that's good to hear and-- yeah you know it's like you said you're in a, you know, a good spot comparatively to a lot of other people who have, you know, a lot of people can't work from home they can't you know, they-

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:05:42

I'm certainly not wealthy, let me make that clear. I'm not I'm not making anything over six figures none of that I mean, don't get me wrong. The only reason I've been alright is because of the you know, I know where every penny is going. I'm nickel-and-diming. Yeah, I'm nickel-and-diming over here but you're right. Yeah.

-- Vincent Peña 1:05:59

Well cool. So, I just there's that brings me to a question. You said that you know, you've been able to, you've been able to maintain your health care, or at least your health care through work, your health insurance, I should say. So has your health care I guess, has COVID raised any concerns or questions about your health care, in terms of access to it or just, you know, general worries or anxieties about getting sick?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:06:26

Sure.

-- Vincent Peña 1:06:27

How- how has it impacted your access to health care? And if you have had any doctor's appointments or anything like that, have they been, you know, postponed or moved? So what's up? What's all that look like regarding your health care?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:06:41

Good question. Yeah, so with that, um, I haven't had to use the healthcare. Yeah. Thankfully, I haven't gone to the hospital or gotten sick or going to urgent care or-- I've stayed away from hospitals. So, I haven't had any interaction, you know, well aside from when my my grandmother was passing away, that's when I went into hospital, but I haven't seen a doctor. I haven't had any other elements that have required me to do so. I have most certainly been cognizant of, you know, I read, you know, cover to cover, my health benefit plan and the insurance involved and co-pays and deductibles. All of that is a huge concern, because the system that's in place is extremely difficult to navigate. I mean, even for myself, and I really put a conscious, conscious effort into reading and trying to learn things. If you know, you're somebody who may be a little challenged or not as inclined to do so, it's a -- it's hard to navigate that whole system. Especially if you have children that you're trying to have covered under a health care plan. You know, I think about HSAs, a health savings account, and how that can impact your care and availability to resources and to money available to pay for your healthcare. So, thankfully, I haven't been to any hospitals. I've haven't had to go to the doctor, haven't had to pay any deductibles or co-pays. Knock on wood. I don't want to, you know, I'm gonna stay healthy. You know, but I am cognizant though, like, I'm trying to see if prices are gonna rise in any sense, you know, premiums, insurance premiums. I want to learn and understand that if you do contract COVID-19, get past it and you're fine, is that going to be some sort of pre-determined condition? How does that affect your health care premiums? Oh, you've had COVID-19 once, your healthcare premium is now higher. You've got to think about and consider this because the insurance companies, they are. So that's the kind of stuff that I think about. And I'm just thankful that I haven't had to have that type of interaction or experience with a hospital with illness yet. Knock on wood, then. So--

-- Vincent Peña 1:09:15

Well good. That's good. That's good to hear. And yeah, you may have a lot of good points about kind of the, how tumultuous it is, you know, navigating what the healthcare system looks like, right? And being able to, especially with kids or family, and especially during a pandemic, that's definitely only been made more difficult. If it wasn't already. During this whole-

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:09:38

They don't make it easy. They don't make it easy. And that's a reason that's because they want to take your money.

-- Vincent Peña 1:09:42

Absolutely. Yeah, and especially the idea of the the, the notion of making COVID-19 a preexisting condition for further insurance in the future like you're the, the idea that you might be penalized because you know, you had this this virus this you know, if you were a victim of the pandemic, especially when you it's, it's disproportionately affecting communities of color that, you know, it's gonna be, again, another disproportionate impact on those communities when it becomes more expensive to do these things in the future, like get health insurance and access that. Especially when you consider a lot of like Latinos and Hispanics in particular work essential jobs, and not all those essential jobs come with health insurance through their employer. So, yeah, a lot of things are gonna, you know, a lot more dominoes are gonna fall regarding the pandemic than we're seeing now.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:10:33

We're still at just the tip of the iceberg.

-- Vincent Peña 1:10:35

Absolutely. Okay, so that's a time moving on from, from healthcare. I know you talked about in our pre interview form, going to school or resuming school for you and so how has you know, you know, your education-- like the other questions, how has COVID impacted your education in terms of like, you know, if you -- I imagine you had to re-register and signed up. And so given the, you know, the ongoing debate about what school looks like in the fall and how to safely open schools, what was that that experience like for you? Getting back into school, what is it -- what does the semester going to look like in the fall?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:11:20

Great question. Yeah, it's affecting a lot of people. And the way it's affecting me personally is, you know, it could be worse. When I think about it, you know, I graduated high school, jumped right in college, you know, did a few years and jump into the workforce, I didn't finish my degree. Simply because I got a good opportunity at work and want to jump in and start making some money. So, a few years down the road, I've switched gears and really evaluated the impact that I want to have in my life, in my career, and going to school is a huge part of that. That being said, you know, I enrolled for a full, I am enrolled in a full semester for the fall, five classes, 15 credits, you know. Arranged a scheduled and as I'm excited to walk around campus and meet people and study in the library and have a good time and campus is closed. Campus is closed. It's locked down. All of my classes have been now moved to online, high -- online classes exclusively. Some with teachers that are, you know, in person, teachers primarily, not, you know, to downplay any of that, but I just think it's interesting to see, you know, the navigation thing. So, I mean, it's, it's gonna switch as far as the learning style, right? Personally, fortunately, I am completely fine to work from a computer, exclusively with technology. I'm a little more savvy. I'm very well disciplined when it comes to time management and setting things aside. But, you know, when -- it's different to have an online class, if anyone who's gone to college or higher education, or just taking a class online, you've got to be self-disciplined in another sense. Even more so sometimes, I think, when you know, I've got class at 10am, I better get up and go, or I'm gonna sign in to do this on the computer. Human nature kind of plays a factor into that. Also, it's just a different interaction. You know, when you're in a lecture hall and you're having a debate and you're collaborating and you're seeing energy and you're sharing knowledge and you're working, it's it's interesting, and it's a good way to learn, you know, collaborative learning. But when you're online, there's just subtle differences. You know, you're on a computer, some people are talking here, some people here. You're on a computer, you can't. You know, it's different. But yeah, so that's how it's impacted my education. So, right now I'm finishing a criminal justice degree from Arizona State University. As of which, upon completion, I'll be attending law school to then move forward and be an attorney. That's my game plan. That's my goal. It's -- I don't know how COVID is going to play into effect because I do still have a few years left before completion. So, I'm interested to see how that's gonna impact attendance at school later.

-- Vincent Peña 1:14:46

Absolutely, yeah. So, I guess what, what, what is the type of lawyer that you are studying to become and what has that, what is that influenced by?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:15:00

Great question. So, the first job that I have -- my mother -- so my mother has worked as a paralegal assistant and various law firms in Phoenix, downtown, central Phoenix for the past 20 years. And so, my first job at 15, in my youth, was I was a file clerk in a law firm. I walk around, you know, help with little papers and do inventory and stuff, you know, just little, you know, gopher work, right. But it exposed me to be any environment around attorneys and partners and lawyers and the justice system and understanding, you know, how that comes into play. And so that has always been sort of in the back of my mind. It's always been in my heart as a passion. My mother is very passionate about law and justice, as she is still a paralegal assistant and working, you know, in law now. Me personally, the route that I'm going to take is I plan on being a prosecuting attorney, primarily. I want to be in a courtroom, I want to be in trial. I want to really prosecute any injustice that takes place. I want to prosecute police for murdering civilians on the street. I mean, that's my goal. As far as my purpose for being an attorney, I want to be able to prosecute police officers for killing people on the streets unlawfully. So, and also be able to provide public defender assistance to people or minorities who might not be able to have resources or an understanding of our legal and justice system. I want to help support our minority community and impoverished community to navigate the legal and justice system. So I plan on being a litigator in all and all as far as when it comes to me being a, you know, an attorney. Gotta pass the bar first. But that'll come in due time.

-- Vincent Peña 1:17:05

Yeah, of course, you know, you have a little bit of time before all that. But yeah, that makes sense. And I'm curious too, then how-- I imagine some of this is influenced by your especially if you you know, your, your goal is to prosecute injustice, right, especially at the hands of police officers, or do you have any experience, especially, you know, involving it with your activism that has kind of colored or influenced the way that you feel about police and especially in an age now where you know, police brutality is, is on television a lot and we see it and there's, you know, there's more accountability or should be, like, there are a lot of calls for accountability and not always seeing the result of that accountability. But I guess so. Long story short or to be more succinct, what has your experience been with police and what are those interactions been like?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:18:02

Sure, that's fair. So, I'm about six feet 230 pounds. I'm Brown. You know Mexican, you know, and when I'm out there in a mask, and I'm standing for what I believe in, I'm not welcomed by police officers. Even on the streets, you know, walking normally I can be in it, I love to wear a suit. I love to dress up, you know, I love to take care of myself, you know, but it doesn't really matter. I do not get a welcoming environment from any interaction I have with police, no matter how friendly I approach them. And so that alone tells me that there's a systemic cultural problem. In and of itself there's a lot of problems, but we don't have to get into that. But what I will say is that, most recently, I was actually brutally attacked by police officers, unlawfully was online detained, I was beaten in the street, and they almost broke my neck. Because I was standing for what I believe in. I was standing in the roadway, attempting to back up and leave before I was surrounded, ambushed, bum rushed, and essentially attacked and beaten in the street. I was flipped over onto my head. I had three officers on my back. They were beating me they were punching me under my armpits. I don't know if anyone has ever gotten punched in your armpit under here from behind you -- it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good. They chained me up. Set me on the street. This is degrading. What kind of man woman individual human deserves to be beaten and put in chains in the street? All on camera for everyone to see. That's my interaction with police. So, I've come to them respectfully. I've come to them with an educated dialogue. I've come to them nonviolently, and will continue to, but I'm not being, I'm not, I'm not reciprocated, I'm not receiving that same mutual level of respect. So, is that because of the way I look? Is that the color of my skin? Where, Why? I don't get it. So, I do get it. I know why and so do you. But my interaction with police officers is this. Knowledge is power. I'm not trying to use weapons. I'm not trying to use my fears. I'm not trying to hurt people. I'm not trying to riot or break a bunch of stuff. What I want to do is to make sure that you understand, and you hear the knowledge that coming out of my mouth because I'm trying to speak about what's really happening here. So, I don't have a positive relationship with law enforcement simply because of the interactions that I've had. Whether, albeit, whether in an arrest or not in a normal interaction on the street. So, I do not have a positive interaction with the police do not have a positive connotation. That's not to say that there's not some-- I'm not even going to get into that all. I'm going to do is speak personally about me, as a man, as an individual, I do not have a positive outlook or a positive connotation solely associated with law enforcement or police

-- Vincent Peña 1:21:49

I know understandably so, especially, you know, given you've experienced, you know, police brutality --

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:21:55

Police brutality in its finest, yeah, and so you know. They could've killed me. They could have killed me in the streets.

-- Vincent Peña 1:22:03

No and that absolutely and that that is a more than I think justifiable reason for, you know, pursuing the type of litigation that you're trying to pursue, right? The type of lawyer you want to be. Because I think, you know, just as an aside, you know, it's not just the police who are responsible for the lack of accountability that they face--

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:22:24

Right. I couldn't agree more.

-- Vincent Peña 1:22:25

They operate within the justice system that that tolerates and even excludes -- excuses and you know, encourages either urges --

-- Richard Villa Jr.

Yes, perpetuates. Yeah, absolutely.

-- Vincent Peña

So yeah, no, I'm sorry that that happened to you, but I also glad that you know, your-- you use that as a basically a starting point from which to make it better, right? Instead of like you said, you could get angry about it. You could respond violently and aggressively, and we only know that's going to foster more and more aggressive response on their end right? Like, it's not gonna make -- they're always gonna win that, that that battle in that way so anyways. Well, so I guess you know, we've kind of gone through all the all the topics that I had outlined for us we talked about. You know COVID, generally, your impact on work, health care, family, activism. And so, I guess really right now is, is there anything that we did not talk about that you would like to talk about or to share as it relates to, you know, COVID and, and what's been going on?

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:23:46

Sure, I mean, with that, I would just in a closing statement, closing remarks, I'd just like to mention the appreciation that I have for the ability to share this story, not only, you know, for myself and my personal story, but more so, so that people are aware and they know what's really happening in their backyard, you know, and for generations to come after us to understand, this is what was happening at the turn of the decade, 2020. The turn of the decade, this is where we started. So to be able to take part and participate in something as important as this, I'm -- I couldn't be happier. You know, I consider this a big responsibility and I'm happy I get to share my story. You know, also, help be a voice for my people here in Phoenix here in the valley, the minority community, my brown community, my Black community, you know. So, this is something that I'm going to continue to do for the rest of my life. You know, I can't see myself living any other way, except for pursuing justice for all and pouring my heart into activism and opposing the oppressor. So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you.

-- Vincent Peña 1:25:19

Absolutely. I'm glad that it's provided you that, you know, a benefit as much to us as it has to you because this has definitely, definitely been a great, a great chat.

-- Richard Villa Jr. 1:25:34

Certainly. Certainly. You're my brother Vincent. You're my brother. Thank you.

--Vincent Peña 1:25:30

So, if you have um, no more things, I'm just going to go ahead and end the recording right now. So just give me a second.