Americanos: Jesse Holguin, Mexico | Amerianos

My name is Jesse Hogeen. I'm American-Mexican, and I'm the founder of the Lexic Movement. As I grew up, every single member in my family, every single male, was a gang member. So I always grew up looking into that lifestyle. I didn't think about if it was going to affect my whole life. I wasn't thinking about my future. So I grew up, as other kids maybe grow up, looking up to an athlete or wanted to be a movie star or something like that. My goal my whole life, since I can remember, I always wanted to be a gang member. Usually, literally every single weekend, we used to get shot at by rival gangs. So I got into the gang very young, and my family had a good reputation around the neighborhood I was in and all that. So I tried to earn my own respect. So I started doing shootings and doing things at a very young age. So I ended up getting arrested. I got incarcerated for a shooting. And I went to the youth authority for several years. Any gang member or young kid and all that, our worst nightmare was like, we don't want to go to youth authority. The baddest little gang member, whatever. It's our worst nightmare. And that's where they sent me when I was little. And in there, they called it gladiator school. I'll give you a little story. My first night, I go in the shower. Some guy runs in the shower with me with a shank. I'm in the shower, little kid naked. He's going to stab me in the shower. And again, I was scared. Then I told him, what? Go ahead, stab me. What's up? I ain't scared. What's up? So he was like in shock. Dang, this little kid. You know what I mean? I was like, go ahead, stab me. I don't care. What's up? I ain't scared. Whatever, whatever. I didn't even know I was. But that was just my first day. That's why I said by the time I got out of there, I was all crazy. I was institutionalized. So being like that, I ended up being the leader of my gang. And my gang was a big and powerful, respected gang. So I ended up achieving the greatest that you could hope for in that lifestyle. I achieved. I was the leader of my gang. I had the respect. I had women. I had everything. But I still wasn't happy. I always worked. Even though I was into gangs and all that, I always had a job and all that. And I was working with some older Christian man. And he started sharing the gospel with me. And I never heard it the way he was sharing it with me. So he was sharing me, telling me about Jesus and things like that. And I told him, you know what? That sounds good. You know what I mean? Maybe one day, if I ever get married and stuff like that, maybe I'll go to church. I told him, but I don't want to be a hypocrite. I don't want to be no half-stepper. I'm not ready. Maybe one day. And then I said, but I don't even think I could be forgiven. I did too many things. And that night, I was supposed to do a shooting. And he told me, you never heard of their story about King David and the Bible? And I said, no. And he said, well, he was a great man of God. And he was sleeping with the soldier's wife. And he had his soldier killed. So I went into one of the rooms, because I was a painter at the time. So I was on my knees and I was painting. And I didn't know how to pray or nothing like that. But I just said, God, help me to change. So sure enough, that night, I went, did the shooting. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And got in a high-speed chase. We crashed. And then the cop came, and boom, and he handcuffed me. So I was in the county, and I thought about, I had seven felonies. I was supposed to get life. And I started praying. I was thinking about what that guy was telling me, and I prayed. And it's true that God, like, I don't remember the words I said, but it's true that God knows your heart. Because I prayed, and I was asking God, I was telling God, please give me one more chance to get out. And I promised I'll never touch a gun again. I'll never touch a gun again. So that night, it was really weird. I had a dream in the county, and like, something came in my dream. And I couldn't see the face, but you know, you could just sense the evil. Something was in my dream, and in my dream, I was scared. But then I said, you know what, Jesus. And I just say, Jesus forgave me. And it left. And when I woke up, I was changed. I was a whole different person inside. Like, I didn't understand what was going on with me and all that, but I just knew something dramatic, because I was totally changed. Because before that night, I would be thinking in my head, I would always get thoughts like, I could catch my enemies like this, and I can run up on them like this, and shoot them like this, and just only thoughts like that. And I always think like, man, what's wrong with me? How come all I ever think about is how to hurt people and doing things like that? Like, what's wrong with me? But after, when I prayed that night, and I woke up, all those evil thoughts and just like everything about me was changed. And I didn't know what was going on. And I remember when I used to be in juvenile hall in the youth authority, I used to try to read my Bible, but it was boring to me. I didn't understand it. It was like nothing. But after, when I prayed and all that, I tried to read my Bible, and the Bible came alive to me. Not only did it come alive to me, I was hungry for it. So I was learning. There was Christian brothers doing church in there, so I would go to Bible studies in there. I didn't want people to think that I picked up the Bible in jail. So my mistake that I made was I tried to walk on both sides of the fence. I would kick it with the fellas, all the guys in there, but then I would go to Bible studies on the side. So I was doing both. And then I went, I got blessed. I only got a few years. So I went upstate and went to a level three yard. And anybody who knows about prison, level threes and level four, that's the biggest, that's where the murderers and lifers and all that. And my first day on the yard, they're like, Hey, we need you to do things and this and that. So I started getting fights, going to the hole and just in prison, how it is. So I got released. And the day I got released, all my gang was at my house. All my family and all my homeboys were at my house. They had me a party and they were all there and they were like, Hey, we're so happy that you're out now. We want you to run the gang again. And that it hasn't been the same since you've been gone and all that. They were trying to tell me and I tried to tell them, you know what? That's it for me. And they were like, what? Nah, you're just saying that because you're fresh out. You'll be back. And I was like, nah, that's it for me. I want to go to church. So they were all against me. I'm arguing with all of them, all of them. I'm arguing with all of them. They're like, nah, arguing. And even my own mother, my own mother tells me, I'll disown you if you turn Christian because they hated Christians. So my mother told me, I'll disown you if you turn Christian. And so imagine that she would rather me being a gang than going to church. So I had all of that. Plus I was fresh out. So I wanted women, you know what I mean? One sentence to another. So I ended up slowly but surely. And one of my little cousin came and he got murdered now. He got murdered. But my little cousin came and he gave me a gun. I went to some guy's house and I was just going to kick down his front door. And go up in his house and get him. That's just a little glimpse of the kind of person that I would, that I used to be. I was kicking down his front door and he shot me out the side window. I got shot. I didn't know, I didn't hear the gunshot and I didn't feel it or nothing. I just, I was on the floor and he was trying to shoot me some more. And I was trying to pull myself with my arms. And they picked me up and they took me and they took me to the car. And they were like, what's wrong with you? I told them, I don't know. I think I'm shot. I can't feel my legs because I didn't feel it or nothing. I had no blood or nothing. So they lifted up my shirt and they told me, yeah, you're shot. And the reason why I had no blood is because the bullet went through my lung. And it went into my spine, but I was choking on my own blood. All my blood was going into my lung. So I tell myself, hang on for the ambulance, hang on for the ambulance to come. So then the ambulance come. The cops and the ambulance, they're all on me. And they put the IV in me and they're all talking. And they're like, he's not going to make it. His only chance is to call for the chopper. So the cops tell me we're going to call for the chopper. We're airlifting, you hang on and all that. So I'm like, man, just hang on for the chopper. Hang on for the chopper. So finally the chopper comes in and they put me in and we're airlifting. We weren't flying. And it was a trip because I was all scared, dying and all like that. And once I started calling out to Jesus, it's like hard to describe. I thought a wonderful peace came over me. And I was just so at peace, so comforted. It was like if you shot me up with morphine. And then ever since that day, the Lord just been using me in my life for so many things. Even in the hospital, they were amazed when they see me. The doctors were like, man, we never seen usually a guy like you before. Usually when we tell them they're never going to walk again, usually we have to give them antidepressant medicines. But the Lord gave me peace for my situation. And the doctors were like, can you go around the hospital and try to cheer up all the other patients? So I was all shot up and all that myself. But I'll go around the hospital trying to cheer up all the other patients. So even then, the Lord was already starting to use me. Even the nurses were in shock. One time they went into my hospital room and it was full of gang members. It was full of gang members in there. And they were like, hey, we want to go get the guy that shot you. We're going to go get him and all of that. We're going to get the guy. Where's he at? And asking me. And I told him, you know what? Let the guy go. And they were like, what do you mean? We're going to get him. What do you mean? And I said, I forgive him. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's wrong with me or whatever, but I forgive him. Just let him go. I know I was supposed to die that day. But God left me for a reason. And that's for like anybody that's watching this video or that hopefully it will touch your life. As I started growing in my faith, I just seen that the left was totally against all my Godly moral values. So myself as a Christian, I could no longer support the left no more. So that's what prompted me. And then I was just tired of seeing that the fake media, I guess you could say the fake media got me to get involved. So I seen what Candace Owens was doing with Blexit. And I was like, we need to start one for Latinos because I know all the Latinos. Because I live in L.A. and almost all the Latinos that I know were conservative. So I was like, and then I know the media and the left, they try to always push the narrative that Latinos were for the left and all that. And I'm just like, as far as I know, the Latinos I know, that isn't true. We're pro-life. We're pro-Second Amendment. We're against socialism. So me and I told all the Latinos. So then I started up the Lexit movement. And it's just been taking off. As soon as it took off, we blew up. And then I feel it blew up because at Lexit, we put God first above all things. Like we always represent like we're not a Christian organization, but I'm Christian and I'm not going to be ashamed of the gospel. So I say it boldly and at Lexit, we always represent God first above all things. So I feel that's why God has been blessing our movement. People wondering how hard is it to get a gun beating a gang? No, on the streets, it's not that hard. Yeah, I think it's just so crazy that the left, that they want to release criminals. They want to take legal guns away from us and defund the police. That's totally insane. And I know Latinos and minorities do not support that at all. Nobody that I know is in favor of defunding police. That is totally ridiculous. We know what lawlessness that would be. If all of us get rid of our guns, that's not going to make all the criminals say, yeah, here's our guns too. That's going to even make them even more than they could know any house or any person they see. Even off the top, you know how many women and stuff like that's going to be raped and things like that, like off the top. That's the only deterrent because I know I used to be a thug. So if they know there's no cops, the gang members, they're going to have a field day. They're licking their chops. They're hoping that they defund the police. Yeah, I've seen some, there's a couple of punk cops or bad cops or whatever like that. Of course, in any job, you could go to a restaurant right now and there's going to be a bad waitress and everything. Like if a Mexican does a crime, you shouldn't blame all Mexicans for what one Mexican did. They shouldn't be blaming all the cops for what seeing a few bad ones are doing. But I never thought all cops are bad or they're out to get me. I can't go outside. They're going to shoot me or they're looking to get me because I'm a minority. That's ridiculous. It's not like that. That's why most of the bad things that happen like that. I was shot by another Latino. Most blacks and Latinos are shot and killed or whatever by our own race. Isn't it funny how when I was bad doing all my gangs and all that stuff, I had constant run ins with the police officers. But now that I'm living right, when you live right, I never have no problem with the police officer. I never get stopped, never. Isn't it funny coincidence how that happens when you live right? You're doing right. You never get harassed by the cops. But that's why Latinos, you don't see us complaining because we get shot and things like cops and all that, too. But you don't see us out because we know if a Latino, something like that happens. First thing we're going to know is what were you doing wrong? What were you doing wrong to get the cops in your life or doing that or just comply with the police? Like even if the cops pulled me over or whatever, even if they were being bad with me or whatever, I would still comply. You still say, OK, all right, even put my hands behind my back or whatever they say and you won't have a problem. I ain't going to be fighting with them, pulling a knife on them. Or if you do that, you expect what's going to happen. You know what I mean? And Latinos, we know if it was a Latino coming at an officer with a knife and all that, all of us Latinos, like it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know you come at a cop with a knife. What's going to happen? So that's just all ridiculous. Like I said, I even being an ex-gang member, I was never against the police. We support and like I said, we back the blue. When I was growing up, even though when I was into gangs and all of that, I was pretty much into politics because I didn't really know too much about it. But I just remember growing up my whole life, my family told me we're on the left side. And then I was like, why or what? And they said, because the left is for like the minorities. Yeah, Latinos, they put a lot of they've been putting a lot of things above our faith. Latinos are mostly Catholic or Christian. But for some reason, we haven't been voting those issues. I think because a lot has to do with the fake media and stuff like that, because they try to make Latinos single issue voters. They try to make us only focus on immigration, like if that's all we care about. The left uses that to manipulate minorities. They try to push race. Everything you look at the left, everything is race, race, race, race. That's all they want to do is to manipulate Latino because they don't want you to focus on pro-life, Second Amendment, the economy's doing great, the great trade deals. I mean, they don't want you to focus on all that. So they're like, look, race, race, race, everything's racist, racist. It's a lie. And the world is it's actually way less racist than back in the days. I never worried about no white supremacist or race problem. Like I said, I'm only worried about my own race doing something to me more. I'm more conservative. I don't consider myself a Republican or a Democrat. I'm a Latino from L.A., ex-gang member, but I vote the Bible. So I just feel I vote. I'm a conservative. We're in the greatest country in the world. Anybody can succeed. Like I was saying that my grandfather, he bought his own home, everything. He had the American dream. Name other countries that you can't do that. You can't go over there. That's why they're trying to flee, even especially Latinos. We're fleeing our countries coming over here because it's the greatest country in the world. I've never hated America. I've never thought I was a victim. Latinos, we don't think that. We're not victims. And Latinos too, we're hard workers. We don't want free handouts. Most like we're entrepreneurs. We're hard workers. We're against that. And America is the greatest country. That's why what I see from the left is they're trying to get minorities to hate America. You even see them out there. They're burning the American flag. All that kind of stuff. They're kneeling for the national anthem. Just like all that stuff. I'm against all of that. I love America. I've always loved America. That's why I say I'm an American Mexican. Usually they say Mexican American, but I'll say I'm an American Mexican. Anybody can succeed, whether you're black, brown, whatever. You can succeed if you just work hard, study, and do right. Anybody can succeed in America. Thank you so much for watching this video. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to PragerU.