Americanos: Tito Ortiz, Mexico | Americanos

I'm Tito Ortiz from Huntington Beach, California. I'm a father, I'm a businessman, and I'm a proud American-Mexican. When I was 24 and I became the world champion, talking about a dream coming true and your life changing completely. However, being a kid that came from the street, picked on by others by calling me a wetback, to all of a sudden putting that aside and forgetting about all that and training as hard as I possibly could and becoming the world champion. Education is a big thing for me because I missed out so much of that in high school. Wrestling is what kept me in school. If it wasn't for wrestling, I wouldn't be where I am today. My true name is Jacob. In the Bible, Jacob wrestled against an angel. The angel beat him and saved his life. And this is my story that that's what saved my life was wrestling. As a kid, I used to watch professional wrestling. Back in WWF, which is WWE now. I remember watching Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage and Tito Santana. And I remember coming home, I mean, stripping completely, almost naked, just my underwear, grab my blanket and sit there and watch him wrestling as my friends were out playing on a Saturday. And I remember my mom, she'd get the paper towel, cardboard, and she'd be like, and in this corner, Tito Ortiz. And it was just as a kid, I would just like, that was what I wanted to do. So when I walked into the wrestling room as a freshman, I was like looking around going, where's the ring at? And all the guys are laughing at me. Coach is like, ring? Like, yeah, like in professional wrestling, WWF, like the real stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no. Totally different. This is not what it is. I go, do I get to slam the guy though? He goes, you get points if you slam the guy. I go, really? I'm in. That first year I was on varsity and I pushed myself. It was weird because every single time that wrestling season was over, I would get in some type of trouble. Either it was stealing something, fighting with somebody, or something just I shouldn't have been doing, breaking the law. I end up going to juvenile hall. I was trying to find not only acceptance, I was trying to find attention that I never got as a kid. And it was just crazy that I look back on it, that my life was tough. I wouldn't take back anything at all, ever. There's nothing in my life that I'd ever take back and wish I could do over again, besides my parents doing drugs. With my father, there was a love and then there was a hatred. Up to the age of six, I had all the love I needed. I had all the attention I needed. I remember laying on his chest and pulling his chest hairs out and him screaming at me, stop that, but just the smell of them. I was taught true love. I was taught these things that I didn't realize until I got older, how it would really help me. So my father had his hernia taken out. He was in the hospital. He was in the hospital for, I think, about a month and he came out. When he came out, he still had the addiction from the morphine that the doctors prescribed to him. And his brother introduced him to heroin. When I was about six and a half, seven years old, my mother started using it with him and life changed completely. My dad lost his business. He lost work because he didn't show up and things just kind of spiraled down. I remember to this day, a movie, Bloodsport. I went to the movies and we're sitting watching it. And I was like, oh, what dad did? I went to go look and he was knotted out from using heroin. And I was so mad that he couldn't take that one day to be sober with his son. I needed to understand why my father went through the things he went through and understand that it was all because of addiction. The things that I seen as a kid that I don't want my kids to see or I don't want anybody else to see is drug use for my parents, using heroin, shooting up with a needle. My mother finding ways to pay for my father's addiction and their addiction. You know, as a kid growing up, I had such a hard life that I never thought that I was just a victim of society. I took responsibility of my actions and I wanted to fix something for the future. I graduated high school. I thought I'd be the big man in this world. Go out on my own. Told my mom I wanted to move out. She's like, are you sure? I go, yeah, I want to move out. And I got a job at Allied Movement Service. Worked for them. Hung out with one of my friends that we did the speed methamphetamine. And I'd have 16 hour shifts and I was using every day. I would go to work and I'd finish my job and stay up that night and maybe get a couple hours sleep. Wake up the next day, do it again and again and again until I was about 18 and a half, almost 19. And I was at a club and a coach, an old coach, seen me. He was like, Deetha? I was like, hey, what's up, Coach Raul? He's like, you doing all right, man? Yeah, I'm fine. He goes, you sure, man? You don't look too good. Yeah, I'm fine. What are you talking about? You ever thought about coming back and wrestling and going back to school? I'm like, I'm on my own right now. I have my own apartment. I'm trying to make ends meet. He goes, you're Mexican, right? I go, yeah. He goes, we can get you financial aid at the junior college. He goes, but you got to make the first step. I thought about it and I was like, oh, really? That night, Saturday night, went home, partied with my friends, got home about one in the afternoon on Sunday. And I looked in the mirror and it scared me. I was turning to my parents. It was hard. I was 6'2", sucked up, big black circles under my eyes, pimples all over my face, and I was becoming a drug addict. It scared me. I said, it's time for you to be a man. Step up. Monday morning came, called my work, and I said, I can't come in today. What do you mean you can't come in today? He said, I got something that I want to look into. I want to see about this school, coming back to school. I just hung up the phone. I walked into his office and got a big smile on his face. I didn't think you were going to show up. You showed up. I looked down at my girl. I don't want to be like my parents. I refuse to be like my father. Refused. I made sure of that with my kids. I think the victories that I've had through my life, the best ones are the ones that I've been able to sacrifice everything for what I wanted. And that was to get my hand raised. To make sure that my kids had food on the table. To make sure my kids weren't growing out their clothes. They had a father who loved them. A father who sat down and talked to them and saying, I'm proud of you. I was willing to break the cycle that everybody else that I knew would continue doing the same thing. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to be an adult. I'm going to change the cycle. And I'm going to do something great, not just for myself, but for my kids. It's being unselfish. I wasn't willing to be selfish and think about myself. It's time to be unselfish and think about my kids' future. And that was my number one. Because my legacy of being a fighter doesn't mean shit to me. What matters to me is a legacy as me being a father. My children are my legacy. My children is what I really care about. When I'm long gone and spread my ashes in the ocean, my kids remember that my father was a great man. I'm Mexican-American or American-Mexican. The reason I say American-Mexican is because I was born here in the United States, but I have Mexican descent. My friends that I've known that have been Latinos, no one's ever wanted handouts because they want to work hard for their name, for the person who they are. I don't want someone to take care of me. I mean, that's one of my biggest pet peeves is trying to borrow something from somebody. I won't do it. I'd rather work for it. All my Mexican friends are exactly the same way. They don't want handouts. Let's work for it. The hardest working people are Latinos. They want to work hard. You see them selling oranges on the side of a freeway because they want to provide for their family. They're picking strawberries for hours upon hours. I'll be seeing guys making their own businesses or just washing cars. That they come to my house, they wash my cars. And then my Latino friends are like, It's like, you have a good day? Of course. We live in California. And all the Latinos that do come from Mexico, they do get their citizenship. They do come over the right way. They're getting away from their country because they want somewhere where they can live the American dream. People forget about that American dream. I'm living the American dream, or at least trying to. I'm chasing it. I'm chasing the American dream every single day. And it was always a dream for me to live on the harbor. I mean, I remember being a kid at 14 years old, fishing in Huntington Harbor. At like 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, going, One day I'm going to house here. My buddy's laughing, going, Shut up and beat the hook, dude. What are you talking about? Well, when I purchased my house in Huntington Beach in the harbor, I took my buddy fishing on the dock. And it was the same friend that was on the docks back in the day. And we drove by that same dock and he's like, Hey, dude, remember that one night we were out on this dock and you said you were going to buy a house here? I looked him straight in the eyes, like, Remember? I never forgot about it. It shows that with hard work and dedication, you can achieve anything. And it was goals that I was willing to set in my life and conquer those goals time and time again. I want my kids to chase that American dream. I want their kids to chase that American dream. I want every Latino that comes to the United States legally make that American dream possible for their families. And I think that's very important. Donald Trump, I worked for in 2005. I got to see what type of man he was. I worked for eight weeks for him. I'm not a celebrity apprentice. Out of his time, when I'd ask him questions, he could just kind of shove me off and say, get away from me, everything. But he answered my questions. And when he ran for president, I was like, I've never voted for a president ever before. I knew who Donald Trump was. I knew what type of person he was. And when he said he wanted to change this country from what it has become, I had to support that. I'd seen how bad things were getting. I mean, I've seen how our military was treated. I mean, I've been to Iraq six times. I mean, I visit all the bases. And it's important because we have been weak. People are, they don't respect the United States. They're starting to. The reason they're starting to because we finally got a leader that ain't gonna take no more people's bullshit. This country needs that. We need to be strong again. How can the left control all the Latinos is to spread hatred. When I see in general that a lot of them say, you know, Trump's racist and he calls us all rapists and murderers and drug cartels. It's like, which ones are you talking about? Because I know Trump ain't talking about those ones. Trump would talk about the bad ones that shouldn't be coming to this country. That's what he's talking about. But when the media generalize it to just Mexicans, it's propaganda. They don't want people to get educated. They want to dumb people so they can believe anything they show, any propaganda they can show on the news. People say, oh my gosh, that just happened. That must be real. Do your research behind it and see if it's true. Go online. As I tell people, don't believe what I say. Research what I say. Your eyes are gonna be open. You're gonna be like, wow, be a free thinker. Don't do things because people tell you what to do. Do these things because you did research on it. We want something great for this country. I don't want this country to be like Mexico. I mean, there are some countries out there that, I mean, Mexico. I go to Mexico every year. I go to Mexico at least three or four times a year. But I got to watch the spots I go to. I got to be very careful because when I bring my family, I got to be very careful. I shouldn't have to look over my shoulder. Here in the United States, you never do. And I think anybody that wants to come to this country or who is in this country, to be a free thinker is the best way to be because that's our freedom. We all come from different walks of life, different ideas, different ideology of how we grew up. We have gone so far in the future living in this country because of hard work and Americans that, why go backwards? And it's educating yourself on what this country was truly about, what our forefathers wanted. I mean, that's why we have the Constitution. It's because they wrote it to make sure we take control as we the people, not the government. The government should not take control of us. We should keep control of us. At the end of the day, we want a country that we can make better. Helping people is what I wanted. And it goes back to wanting to be a high school coach, want to be a resource teacher because I want to help kids. Not just helping kids now. Now I'm helping adults. Now I'm helping kids that are grown. Now I'm helping Latinos that want to be outspoken, that want to be businessmen, that don't think they can do it because they're Mexican. No, bullshit. Let's own businesses. Let's make this about United States of America. So many men and women have died for this country. And I think they deserve the respect back of being honest, of being hardworking Americans. I just wanted to set an example, not only for my children, set an example for all the Latinos that are here in the United States, all the ones that want to come here legally to the United States. But it's setting the right example of being respected and treat others the way you want to be treated. I hope you love this interview. PragerU is a nonprofit organization. So please make a donation for the future of this great country.