Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, & Hollywood

Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, & Hollywood by Danny Trejo with Donal Logue was a quick read and dive into the life of Hollywood star Danny Trejo and was easily one of the best books I read in 2021. 

Danny Trejo was born May 16, 1944 in Maywood, CA to Dolores Rivera King and Dionisio Trejo. His mother was married to someone who was fighting overseas in World War II when she became pregnant with Danny. Dionisio Trejo was a zoot suiter and after 1-2 years he forced Dolores out of the family residence and married Alice Mendia, and she raised Danny from the time he was 3.5 years old.  

Danny did not have the best relationship with his father or step mother, both parents tended to be cold and domineering. Subsequently, Danny’s closest adult male relative was his uncle Gilbert, who had all the swagger and machismo that a young boy could want to emulate. And Trejo did. Unfortunately, Gilbert Trejo’s swagger and machismo led him directly to a life of crime and drugs, and Danny followed right behind him, participating in his first drug deal at the age of seven, and his first arrest by age of ten. He had his first heroin overdose at age 12, although Gilbert managed to bring him back from that one. 

Typically, when someone starts down that path that young, their life is practically a done deal. And when he landed his first prison sentence, that’s exactly what it seemed like. He had listed to his Uncle Gilbert and did everything Gilbert told him to do to become the biggest swinging dick in whatever prison he found himself in.  

So he was in and out of prison for the next 14 years of his life, including doing time with Charles Manson—pre-Tate/LaBianca murders, but they did serve time together. Then in 1968, while serving time for armed robbery and drugs at Soledad prison, a riot broke out on Cinco de Mayo. Trejo and two prison buddies were involved in assaulting some prison guards, which in 1968 was a capital offense. So at 24 years old, Trejo’s staring down the death penalty. He realizes his life could literally be over now. 

So he makes a deal with God—help him out, and he’ll get sober and help people. And as he says in the book, if you’re praying why worry? And if you’re worried, why bother praying? At some point, you just have to have faith. 

There was not enough evidence to definitively say that Trejo and his friends were involved in the assault. He was released from solitary confinement and immediately began delivering on his agreement with God. He got himself clean, and started helping those imprisoned with him get clean. He was released in 1969, having only served half of his ten year sentence, and he never went back. At least, not as an inmate.

 When he was released he returned to Pecoima, CA and kept on with his promise from God. There was nothing fair-weather to him about this vow, and he’s been sober since 1968 and helping people to get sober just as long. He is known for his acting, but what keeps him going is his drive to help people. 

So right out of prison he began working with organizations that help others get sober. Not just AA and NA, although certainly with them too, but with facilities where people go to get sober. He’d go out and find people who were struggling and talk them into getting the help the needed. He met like three of his four wives doing this. 

And because he was so dedicated to helping, one night he got a call from a kid on a movie set who was struggling with staying clean, and he answered that call and went to the set. It was late at night and Trejo didn’t really feel like answering, but he remembered his sponsor telling him that helping others is part of the process, so he did answer, and while walking across the movie set looking for this kid, he sees Eddie Bunker. The two of them had served time together at San Quentin and Eddie remembered Trejo was a boxer and got Trejo in front of the director to help one of the actors out with his boxing scenes. And Trejo ended up being in the scene as well.  From there, Trejo ended up being cast a lot as a prison inmate. I mean, he could play that role pretty convincingly, having actually done it in real life. No method acting needed here.  

And for quite a few people that’s what he’s known at, the big scary Mexican inmate, Johnny 23 from Con-Air. And for many more, he is also known as Machete. But is proudest role was George from the moving From a Son, which was directed by his own son Gilbert. 

His life was an open book in telling this, just out there telling everything. He does talk about two movies that came out at about the same time in the late 1980’s early 1990’s, both filmed on site at various prisons in the state of California. The one he ended up acting in was Blood In Blood Out. The other one was American Me with Edward James Olmos. Trejo was offered parts in both and read the scripts for both and he had serious concerns about the script for American Me which he discussed with Olmos at the time. And his reasoning was sound. He makes it very clear that he has nothing but respect for Olmos, his career, and his talent, and contributions in helping Latino actors step forward into leading roles. But the fictional story of American Me took an awful lot of liberties with the story it was purporting to tell about the real life Mexican Mafia. And there were filming problems with American Me when the cast and crew didn’t take the correct steps to get the right approvals from the convicts. That’s the union they forgot to include in the process.

When they were filming Blood In Blood Out, which filmed almost problem free, but the guards were trying to give the actors vests to wear, and the actors were trying to be all tough manly men, and the guards looked at Trejo and said “tell them why they need to wear these.” And Trejo said “you need to wear the vests so that if something goes bad, they know who not to shoot.” And everyone vested up. 

From the point he started acting, every acting job he was offered he took. He talks about how some actors are worried about their next roles, some actors won’t take a job if they don’t like the role….if you look him up in IMDB, it’s been reported that he’s been cast in 427 acting gigs…as of this review on December 19, 2021. You could watch one thing he’s been in every day and it would take a full year to complete his collected works. And he took all these roles for a variety of reasons. As he says, even his worst day acting is better than his best day in prison. Believable.

 Also, by agreeing to be in the role, he’s helping to keep other people employed, doing his part to keep the economy going. Not said by him but by co-author Donal Logue, everywhere Trejo goes, he finds meetings (meaning AA/NA). He’ll seek out troubled youths homes and talk to the kids. There are so many people all over who talk down to people, who sit on their golden pedestals and tell everyone what we should be doing to make the world a better place. Trejo actually does it. He shows up and is the change. He shows people there is a different way.

 It was not all smooth sailing. He didn’t wake up in solitary, promised to get sober, became an actor, and everything was sunshine and roses. There were plenty of rough times in there, he was married four times, freely acknowledges the marriages failed because he stepped out. He was not a loyal or faithful husband. But he knows that has to do with the environment he was raised in. All of the men in his life had one at home and one in the streets. It took him having a daughter to know that wasn’t normal or right. So he learned from his kids. He had health problems and health scares, but he’s a tough guy, with a big heart, who continues to give back to his community. 

This book was so good. I cried my eyes out while reading, and while reviewing it, which you can see on YouTube, Rumble, and PodBean. 

It was so powerful and so beautifully written. And it leaves one wondering what one can do to make the world a better place. It was a true heroes arc as described by Joseph Campbell. I would recommend this to anyone, but especially to anyone struggling with addiction. Because as much as I adored it, it wasn’t written for me. It was written for anyone still trying to find a way out, to let them know there is hope and life on the other side.