From Crime To Cinema: Danny Trejo to headline McAllen parade
There aren’t a lot of people around who have lived the life of Danny Trejo, from prison felon looking at a possible death sentence to Hollywood fame.
This coming December, the 6th, he’ll be in McAllen serving as the headliner for the city’s annual holiday parade.
For a guy who started using heroin at the age of 12, smoking weed at 8, one could say he’s come a long way in life, given the fact that Trejo turned 81 this year and has been clean and sober for the past 56 years.
And he’s still working.
A Tough Childhood
If one were to scan “rough childhoods,” it would be hard to find one that can match Trejo’s.
Stories about his life flood the internet. In addition, his entry at Wikipedia paints a pretty good story, and there are multiple vids about his life available at YouTube, including his own documentary – “Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo.” If it’s true that the only thing a child really craves is love, Trejo missed out as a kid.
The closest he got to love, affection, and guidance, besides a brief stint with a grandma, was an uncle. Only one problem — the tío was an armed robber and drug dealer/heroin user. He was the guy who first turned Trejo on to drugs before the age of 10.
“Here, take a hit.” No matter how you cut it, actor Danny Trejo is more than a little impressive, in addition to being one of those guys that looks tougher than almost any other “villain” to grace the Big Screen. If you met him in a dark alley, you’d want back up.
Texas Monthly did a feature story on Danny Trejo in December 2020, titled: “How Danny Trejo Built a Decades-Long Film Career After Prison.”
For a breakdown of his life story, TM did a pretty good job.
At the bottom of his entry at Wikipedia, there are approximately 100 sources listed that tell the story of the kid who was indeed born under a bad sign. But in a solitary cell at San Quentin one night, possibly facing a death sentence after hitting the head of a prison guard with a brick, he decided that maybe his Catholic grandma was right when she plunked down money that she couldn’t afford into the collection plate, always affirming, come good or bad — there is a God.
So Trejo said a prayer from his solitary cell: “God, if you’re there, then it’s gonna be alright. And if you’re not, I’m screwed.”
Matter of fact. If Trejo got out of this scrape — attempted murder since the prison guard didn’t die — then he would turn his life around and prove a blessing to people rather than a curse.
As it turned out, during the 1968 prison riot at Soledad State Prison on Cinco de Mayo, the prison guard Trejo was accused of hitting with a brick, which is what sent him to solitary, didn’t die, and he was later released after no one came forth to corroborate the charges against him.
Trejo always said that he wasn’t aiming at the prison guard but had simply thrown the rock/brick out of rage during the mad melee.
Post-Prison Hollywood
Danny Trejo got out of California state prison in 1969, at the age of 25, serving five years of a 10-year sentence, and started working, volunteering, for nonprofits that helped drug addicts get clean and sober.
When he was 41, working with a nonprofit that established and operated sober living houses, Trejo was called to the set of a movie, Runaway Train (1985), where he was asked to help someone who was dealing with issues related to cocaine.
There, he ran into an excon who had served time with Trejo at San Quentin, but had turned into a crime writer (book and screenplay).
One thing led to another, and the former heroin addict, armed robber, drug dealer was now a full-blown actor with an union card to boot.
Over the past 40 years, Trejo’s acting credits would cover a large wall, in both cinema and TV (Blood in, Blood Out (1993); Machete; Breaking Bad; Monk, etc.)
In real life, perhaps his most repeated quote is this: “Everything good that’s ever happened to me came out of helping others. Everything.”
This coming from a guy who once said that the world is made up of two types of people — predator and prey. The predator that once defined his life as he robbed stores close to his house as a teen, and then into his 20s moved into more violent offenses, had turned into a defender, advocate for the down and out.
One Danny Trejo anecdote from the movie, Blood In, Blood Out, which focused on the Mexican Mafia. Part of it was shot inside the walls of San Quentin, and one scene was shot in the same cell Trejo once occupied as a prisoner.
A sense of déjà vu hit him hard. The walls so confining. The stark bunk.
Trejo has said that he often can’t believe how far he’s come. It’s as if, he’s said, that he feels like he’s still living a dream, and one day, his cell mate will wake him up and say, hey, it’s time to go get chow.
Helping Ex-Cons
Anyone who’s been a convicted felon knows how hard it is to land a decent job.
The prison system is almost set up, say prison reformers, to make sure that the ex-con commits another crime and is sent back to prison.
The endless cycle stuck on repeat. Can’t find a job, have no money, no support, one so often sinks back into either substance abuse, crime, or a combination of the two.
To help offset that, Trejo started his own restaurant business in 2016: Trejo’s Tacos, where he hires “second chancers,” including former prison inmates.
His personal journey from a prison inmate to a successful actor and restaurateur is a core part of his business philosophy, he has said publicly, and he actively seeks to provide opportunities for those who need a fresh start.
Danny Trejo in McAllen, Dec. 6th. What better choice?