Akil and Hong welcome Christian Limón to the show to talk about DSPS and how they fit into the overall Student Services ecosystem. From there, the three discuss Christian's path to SBCC and back (with a pit stop in LA in-between), his family's amazing cooking traditions, and the wonders of spicy chicken sandwiches and regional Mexican and Chinese cuisine. Christian is an amazing person!
Mentioned in this episode:
SBCC DSPS - https://www.sbcc.edu/dsps/
87-88 Lakers Back-to-Back (not 88-89 as mentioned on the show) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987%E2%80%9388_Los_Angeles_Lakers_season
SBCC EOPS - https://www.sbcc.edu/eopscare/
SBCC Umoja - https://www.sbcc.edu/umoja/index.php
SBCC Office of Student Life - https://www.sbcc.edu/studentlife/
SBCC Cartwright Learning Resource Center - https://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/
SBCC Luria Library - https://www.sbcc.edu/library/
SBCC Basic Needs Center Campus Location - https://www.sbcc.edu/map/locations/east-campus-classrooms.php
DSPS Email - dsps@sbcc.edu
MaryLou in Enrollment Services - https://sbcc-vaquero-voices.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-57-marylou-huerta-JIry5cE1
SBCC Student Health Services - https://www.sbcc.edu/healthservices/
The WELL - https://www.thewellsbcc.com/
DSPS Lab - https://www.sbcc.edu/computerresources/Assistive.php
SBCC Dual Enrollment - https://www.sbcc.edu/dualenrollment/
Moped - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moped
GT Performer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GT_Bicycles
SBCC Baseball - https://www.sbccvaqueros.com/sports/bsb/index
City of SB Summer Camps - https://sbparksandrec.santabarbaraca.gov/activities/summer-programs/summer-camps
Class B Driver’s License - https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/driver-licenses-identification-cards/commercial-driver-licenses-cdl/
UCLA Center for Accessible Education - https://cae.ucla.edu/
SBCC Enrollment Services - https://www.sbcc.edu/enrollmentservices/
Chili con Carne - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016037-classic-chili-con-carne
Burrito - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrito
Chile Verde with Pork and Nopales - https://www.latimes.com/recipe/chile-verde-with-pork-and-nopales
Mexican Rice - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016674-mexican-rice
Guajillo Enchiladas - https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/guajillo-tomato-enchiladas-with-braised-greens-or-roast-chicken-and-melted-cheese/
Finney’s Crafthouse (Best spicy chicken sandwich) - https://www.finneyscrafthouse.com/
Popeyes - https://www.popeyes.com/
Little Bird Kitchen - https://www.littlebirdsb.com/
The Shop - https://www.shopbrunch.com/
Jonesy’s Fried Chicken - https://www.jonesysfriedchicken.com/
Ten-Thousand Hour Rule - https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/complexity-and-the-ten-thousand-hour-rule
Blood In Blood Out - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_In_Blood_Out
Original Gangstas (Not American Gangstas) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Gangstas
Friday - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_(1995_film)
Stand and Deliver - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_and_Deliver
Mi Familia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Family_(1995_film)
Boyz n the Hood - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyz_n_the_Hood
The Michoacan File - https://www.themichoacanfile.com/
Intangible Cultural Heritage List - https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists
UNESCO - https://www.unesco.org/en
Regional Mexican Cuisine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_cuisine
Regional Chinese Cuisine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_regional_cuisine
Lunar New Year - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year
Mariscos Jalisco - https://www.mariscosjalisco.net/
Shrimp Har Gow - https://thewoksoflife.com/har-gow/
Yankees Appearance Policy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Yankees_appearance_policy
Captions provided by Zoom
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Hong Lieu: Hello and welcome to another episode of SBCC Vaquero Voices, a podcast highlighting the unique voices that comprise our campus culture, and how we're all working together to serve our students and the community at large. As usual, I'm joined by co-host Akil Hill.
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Akil Hill: What's good y'all.
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Hong Lieu: And today we're honored to welcome Christian Limon to the show. Welcome, Christian.
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Akil Hill: The Christian lemon.
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Hong Lieu: Legendary.
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Christian Limón: I'm not gonna lie. I'm a big fan of the show, and I just feel so honored that I'm the like a hundred 13th guest here.
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Christian Limón: messing around.
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Hong Lieu: It's a true honor to have you, and as someone who is, you've been in dsps for a little while now, you know, we had Jenna on the show early on to kind of talk about the overarching view of Dsps. But we wanted to get you on the show as someone who's in kind of in it, so to speak, and, you know, helping to keep, you know, serve our students and and be that integral part of of their lives as they come to spcc. So we're grateful to have you. And if you want to just kind of
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Hong Lieu: break down, what a you know, I guess not a typical day. But what's a you know? Where do you fit in in the whole process, or, you know, is it primarily intake, or just every step of the way you're there for students. I mean, just kind of break down how you, how you fit in the role there.
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Akil Hill: Wait, Hong, real quick, real, quick, before we start that we have to.
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Christian Limón: Oh!
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Akil Hill: So. The one of the other reasons why we brought you on the show is because our listeners we have the 2024.
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Christian Limón: Yeah.
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Akil Hill: That I've ever seen.
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Hong Lieu: Because.
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Christian Limón: Certified.
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Akil Hill: Employee of the year.
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Hong Lieu: You know what? 2024, and 2023, if we're in the interest of full disclosure. So we got like, this is the back to back Champs right here. This is like the showtime. 88, 89, you know, right there. So.
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Christian Limón: That's hilarious, ma'am, that that was so last year Akil.
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Hong Lieu: But it has some big shoes to fill, literally rocking these days.
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Akil Hill: Hey, man, you know it's the 13 s.
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Christian Limón: The big shoes to fill. And who knows? Right? Maybe next year we might be speaking to the the 2025.
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Hong Lieu: But.
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Christian Limón: Let's go. Let's go campus community. Hong Hong.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, it. It. Yeah, no.
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Christian Limón: Can you ever say you've left Hong speechless right there? Boom! We left him speechless. There it is!
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Hong Lieu: Definitely not easy to do so. Congratulations on that.
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Christian Limón: Yeah, just to take a sec on that honestly. And I've had this conversation with Aq. Already. But it's somewhere
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Christian Limón: I really can't do what I do without all those other student support staff members. You know the faculty that are so supportive. Dsps. There's just a lot of people out there that care about our students. And I think that's 1 of the benefits that I've had is just having a really great community around me who have taught me so many things, and I just feel fortunate to have those resources in place to better assist my students. So just a quick, thank you to all those colleagues that help out all the time. So
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Christian Limón: in terms of dsps, so just going back to the the initial question. So my role, I'm very fortunate in that my role is actually evolved over the past few years. To the point where, when I 1st started, it was a lot of front desk management overseeing our hourly staff helping students with onboarding process and just getting them all, you know, set up with Dsps, accommodations, and resources. To where now it's really evolved into a
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Christian Limón: There's not really any day that's like another. I mean, it's it's 1 of those things where one day I might be doing outreach with the outreach team and with Mary Lou and her staff, and being out in the high schools, and and really connecting with the students
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Christian Limón: before they get to Santa Barbara City College to facilitate that transition to Dsps and to college life.
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Christian Limón: and another day it might be coordinating our services for our deaf and hard of hearing students. That's 1 of the areas that I also oversee. We want to make sure that they have the appropriate accommodations in place, whether it be real time captioning an FM. System, or even sign language interpreters, whatever it may take. But then there's also the other component where I play liaison with other departments here on campus.
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Christian Limón: And so if there's a student at A and R or a student at Eops, or counseling, they're able to provide a warm handoff to that student to make sure that we're not just telling students. Hey, go down the hall, make a left. You're going to want to talk with someone in Dsps. It's become something that's a little bit more, you know. You always think about what's intentional versus transactional. And I think over the last few years. There's really been an effort in student services.
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Christian Limón: and I should clarify when I say, student services is not just the building. It's our staff down at Cesj Umoja. Office of student life, the library. Lrc, there's just a lot of people in place that have become so familiar with the services that they're able to make those referrals and those warm handoffs. So you know the day to day. It may not be the same, but the students we work with.
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Christian Limón: and the staff I'm fortunate to work with as well. They make working at dsps just an absolute pleasure, and I overall. I just feel very honored to be working at Santa Barbara City College as a whole.
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Hong Lieu: And that's it's good that you break it down. You bring it out to a more holistic approach, because it's not just yes, individual folks and individual departments. That building all those student services building is like a bedrock of the of the campus, but also now that the services go, you know to the library. And then Csj basic needs down in the down in the Eca.
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Christian Limón: Ecc area. I mean that, yeah, yeah.
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Hong Lieu: So it's good that you were able to kind of break that out and expand it like it is, and just show what it takes to kind of serve the students here, and how committed everyone is to serving the students here, because that's the key is that I mean in terms of talking to all the folks that we have on this show talking to folks in our day-to-day campus, you know, working lives like everyone is so committed to the mission. Everyone is just so down for the culture of just helping students and helping folks kind of get to where they want to be. And it's just really, really like
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Hong Lieu: fulfilling to see that as someone who doesn't work intimately with students just doing the website just seeing how passionate everyone is around. And folks like you are committed to helping, and how you just put everything, you know, but anything you're working on down just whoever's there, give them all your full attention like it. Just it's just really great to see. It's really great to work in a place where everyone is so committed at that level.
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Christian Limón: No, I appreciate that, Hong. I really do. But honestly, you're also part of that. You say I just do the website. No, that takes a lot of work, and I'm not going to lie. There's been multiple times where myself or my colleagues will reach out to Hong. We're typing up the email, and before we could click, send, he's already responding, done. I'm like, I don't even know how he does that you're quick with it, Hong. So we appreciate that as well on your end.
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Hong Lieu: I also know how much that, how much work goes into before you send me the email, because, Karina, she has these big old documents. And she says, just do this, and it's literally just following a script where it's like so easy, where, like the work that goes into before you even reach out like it's much appreciated for sure.
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Christian Limón: That's good to hear. I know Karina will will be appreciating those comments. Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: So I guess I guess the other question is, for folks looking to get in contact. Is there? Is there a best way? Is it. Just find someone, and they'll they'll find a way to get to you. Is it just a website? Or how? How would students who are interested or curious about, you know, evaluations, or just if they're not sure if they're right for Dsps, what's the best way to start that process off.
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Christian Limón: Yeah, so the nice thing is that there's so many different options. Now, you know, obviously, we have different groups of students, some that may have already received services in K through 12. They're familiar with the process. They know what next steps are, and they'll find us, whether it be online or they walk in in person, or they'll send an email, whatever it may be.
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Christian Limón: But then we'll have another group of students that we've definitely seen an increase in where maybe they got by in K through 12. They didn't realize there might have been an underlying disability or challenges that they were dealing with. Then all of a sudden, they get to the, you know, Santa Barbara City College, and it's different, right? The the requirements, the expectations.
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Christian Limón: Maybe they might be working a little bit more. They've got family obligations. They might be the caretaker at home. There's all these different challenges that our students are dealing with, and so I think for those students. We rely a lot on other departments.
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Christian Limón: I can't tell you how often you know we have other departments. Walk over a student and just say, Hey, you know, I think this student might benefit from your services.
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Christian Limón: and it's something that we're super appreciative. For, just because, you know, we can. We can go for that website and make it fancy and make it inviting and provide all the information there. But we also might be dealing with a student that's not tech savvy? Or who doesn't care for the online component? They might want that that engaging experience in person or over the phone or through zoom. And so, really, what it comes down to is.
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Christian Limón: we hope that
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Christian Limón: either through association with other departments, we're able to get referrals our way that they're able to find our contact information online email us, I always throw out that address Dsps at Spccedu. The way we manage that that email inbox is, there's multiple people looking into it throughout the day. And so we're generally able to respond within the hour, which is nice. But really, it's also the outreach. Right? So
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Christian Limón: I'm fortunate to do outreach with Mary Lou, who's been very upfront with her challenges as a former student, and what her experience with dsps. So I know that when she's out at the high schools speaking with prospective students that she's telling them about their story. I've been there when she's talked about her story, and it's just really refreshing to see that, you know. There's still work to be done with the stigma. But it's refreshing to see that there's more awareness.
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Christian Limón: more knowledge, and that there's people out doing the work on the ground, talking about their experience, their challenges with their disability. Even this podcast. I mean literally the last 2 people you spoke with Mary Lou and Dan. They spoke about their disability there, what they've dealt with. So all of that helps once our future students see not only the comfort that students have in coming in and walking through that door at Dsps, but also in
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Christian Limón: really disclosing their situations with other personnel on campus, because we only know what we know. And so we can only help a student if we get those referrals, or if we hear from them, but essentially a lot of the, I would say, just to kind of summarize all that you know, outreach component the web component the
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Christian Limón: personal relationships that you all have with our students. All of that. That's really what we rely on. And then, of course, the good old statement on the syllabus, so we always reach out to instructors and faculty at the start of each semester. Just say, hey! If you don't mind, throw that little blurb on there that if you do, if you do need Dsps services, this is how you contact them. So it's a team effort.
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Hong Lieu: And it is important to mention that it's always an ongoing thing to make that easier to do, because there are, you know, these are things that people will come into Sbcc or college thinking they're fully formed adults. But there are some things that aren't even onset until your early twenties mid, you know, even later than that. Possibly. So something where it's important to not struggle alone. And it's important to communicate with folks about what you're going through. If something doesn't feel right. If you don't, you know, if
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Hong Lieu: if things feel a little different, or if there's just something and you want to talk to somebody. There's so many outlets, whether it's student health and wellness, the well, you know any those kind of counseling services to get those referrals out, and and maybe it ends up in dsps, maybe ends up in something else.
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Hong Lieu: But these these kind of that that communication, I hope you know, regardless of how crazy this timeline is, and how wild things are. I hope that we can at least have honest conversations with each other, and kind of just get that word out about, you know, if if we're not feeling a certain way that we can try to get help, at least you know so.
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Christian Limón: Absolutely, and I'm glad you mentioned the well. They're great. Becky's great down there. Bnc. I mean, they're all amazing. In fact, yesterday we just brought in a group of students from our local high schools for a campus tour. You know, there's people from noncredit ale, and Roberto, who participated at the last minute enrollment services was heavily involved. The well, Bnc. Csj, I mean you name it. There's just so many people that were
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Christian Limón: without any hesitation they were all in on just making that student experience and their visit to campus just a memorable one, and the students loved it. They enjoyed it.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, I mean, I can attest to the the, you know, approaching Dsps. I mean, our offices are not too far apart, and I, you know, check in with Christian, you know, once a week, or whatever. But one thing I really admire about the staff and Dsps is like everyone's really attentive and friendly, you know, super accommodating, I think when you're you know we talk about when you know students have showing up with some type of trepidation around, you know, some of other learning challenges, or how are they?
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Akil Hill: maybe presenting themselves? It's it's refreshing to walk into a space where everyone's so warm. Help kind of break down that stigma of of talking about. You know some of the challenges you may be going through. And it's just like such a great place to be in, and so just want to give a special shout out to to everyone in Dsps and making that place just what it is, you know, just a really a welcoming space.
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Christian Limón: Thank you, appreciate it.
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Hong Lieu: And I know when I was that age like if you were warm. But it was kind of phony, warm like it was. I was not about it. You could sniff it out like right away. So the fact that you're able to get kids at that age to not only open up, but be receptive to help your offering, because that's the other thing is, I don't want help. I didn't want help from nobody nowhere. I want to do my thing, you know, and so the fact you're able to not only break those barriers down
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Hong Lieu: and and offer help, but they're willing to accept it, and then you're willing to create a relationship. I mean, he speaks to the kind of characters that are in that department and the people that are there, but also just the knowledge and the expertise you all bring of knowing what people need in this environment.
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Christian Limón: Thank you. And and I'm glad you mentioned you know, just the the warmness and the feel here, because obviously you never know what others think about a department. But I I do know that the the my, the colleagues I work with here immediately in our main office, Yvonne, Karina Dina, Joseph, I'm gonna forget someone.
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Christian Limón: I think that's pretty. Yeah. They're just so student centered and student focused that they truly care about our students. And one of the nice things as well is now that we're back to, you know, in-person services. And we're seeing more activity. And the energy is different. On campus is our lab. You know. I see our lab with so much energy and students walking in. We have our regulars that are there every single day. At 8 30 am. Just wanting a place to study or a place to just sit down and relax before classes start.
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Christian Limón: So you know, I really, I do really like the direction that the department as a whole is going, and a lot of it has to do with just making sure we're out there. We're talking to students, and that we're also taking feedback. Right? I remember there was at 1 point we received feedback that our website might feel a little too legally, you know, like, too.
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Christian Limón: And then it's true. Right? There's that balance of. We want to be warm. We want to be inviting. But then there's that legal aspect of disability services. So it's, you know, walking that fine line of both of those areas. And I think we've been able to navigate it. And again, that's where you come into play on that. A lot of that website stuff, you know, thanks to you and also other departments that are updating their websites, and we're just gathering thoughts and ideas from them. So
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Christian Limón: ongoing, right evolving, we just got to keep evolving.
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Hong Lieu: Definitely. And that's that's the most important part is because the the young folks are coming in. They I mean, they're, you know, they're ready to go and and just adapting and meeting their needs is is just yeah great to see. I'll do the work y'all do. I will get all that info in the show notes, because it's important for folks to have that options of how, wherever they, however, they want to contact. I will get that in the show notes. Thank you for that.
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Christian Limón: And actually, one more thing I'm just remembering, too, when we're talking about how we recruit students. And a lot of this also, I think also, more and more students are taking dual enrollment classes. And I think it's important to mention that the earlier they start that college experience.
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Christian Limón: the earlier they have access to these resources. And so you know, Sbcc has an amazing dual enrollment program. I know my daughter's participated in it. A lot of her friends, a lot of family members, and it's just great to have that that seed planted early on so they can carry it on, whether they end up coming to Santa Barbara City College, or they transfer. I mean, either way, it's about our community, right? And what benefits our community. And they're doing a great job out there at the high schools, also promoting Dsps services while they're out there. So thank you to dual enrollment out there as well.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, dual enrollment is such a great program. It's something that we didn't have at my high school when I was growing up, or maybe they did, but they didn't never offered it, because none of the kids but the rumors are. If you take one language course at Sbcc it satisfies the high school requirements for language in this district, so
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Hong Lieu: you can take, you know, whatever language you want to take at Sbcc, and then use that time at your high school for electives and whatnot. So any high school listeners.
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Christian Limón: You're exactly right, Hong. You got it.
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Hong Lieu: Handle your business. So that's pretty impressive. If you want to take like basket weaving in high school, you can do it. Just take it. You have the time. Make the time so.
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Christian Limón: There you go! Nice.
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Hong Lieu: But yes, thank you for that. I will get all that info in the show notes segueing to our next segment. What brought you to Spcc. We know you are a you know. The Limon name carries a lot of weight in this in this area. But are you? Are you born in Santa Barbara, or just, you know, raised.
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Christian Limón: Yes.
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Hong Lieu: All the above.
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Christian Limón: What brought me to see? That's a complicated one right there.
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Christian Limón: How much time do we got? No, you know what's funny
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Christian Limón: born and raised Santa Barbara High Santa Barbara, I should start from the beginning.
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Christian Limón: Mckinley Preschool, Harding up to 1st Grade, Cleveland Elementary Santa Barbara Junior High Santa Barbara High Santa Barbara City College. So I feel that I'm a product of our community, right? It's and I think,
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Christian Limón: you know.
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Christian Limón: growing up. You kind of want to be a good team player, and that's the goal, right as far as when I'm working, or even outside of of work at the home. I just want to be a good team player with those around me. And you start thinking about where those values came from. And it's growing up in this community, knowing that, you know I'm fortunate to have a family that holds education
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Christian Limón: and high regard. I. And I realize that not all families have that same support system, but also being aware of that growing up with, you know, friends and and
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Christian Limón: classmates that had different challenges, and and respecting that understanding that. And I think the accountability with the community right? So it's all that combined where you grew up in a community you have to be held accountable, because, hey, if you're downtown speeding on an e-bike like there's going to be someone down there that's going to recognize me. I got to make sure I'm on the best behavior, no offense to anyone that has e-bikes, by the way, and that's that's a new thing, you know.
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Christian Limón: I'm in.
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Akil Hill: He looks young, but he's not that young. He's not riding any bike.
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Christian Limón: Right, right, yeah.
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Hong Lieu: It was the moped. It was a moped back in the day. Folks would roll around the mopeds like crazy, like crazy people. So.
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Akil Hill: He wrote a he had a probably like a what was the I don't know. The
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Akil Hill: Bmx bikes like the red line. That was the one.
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Hong Lieu: The Gt. Performer.
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Akil Hill: The Gt. Performer. That was the one that was the cast.
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Christian Limón: What I wanted. But let me tell you, my dad, Jack, of all trades we're not buying anything new. He's he's fixing
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Christian Limón: more on that later, right.
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Akil Hill: Yeah.
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Christian Limón: No, I think just going back to my upbringing. Obviously, you know, product of the community that I'm very proud of.
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Christian Limón: and I had the opportunity after high school to keep playing baseball, and it's something that I loved, and I was passionate about, and I was able to do that here at Santa Barbara City College. We were right around the turn and Akil. You're familiar because you know all things Spcc sports related, but
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Christian Limón: you know it was kind of going downhill a little bit, and I'm probably closer to the the when the upswing started. Not quite on upswing. But I you know I enjoyed my time. Being a student athlete here at Santa Barbara City College is unfortunately something that I learned. I couldn't balance my academics.
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Christian Limón: The rigorous schedule with with being a student athlete, and then also the social life. I admit that I just could not balance that. And so I decided that I needed to just stop playing to really focus on my academics. And right around that time
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Christian Limón: I ended up getting a job with the city of Santa Barbara. So you all remember growing up in Sb. The people with the blue shirts driving around that white van? You know all that good stuff city, Santa Barbara across the side. So in order to to work at a summer camp, I needed a class B license.
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Christian Limón: So hold on to that thought right? So here I am applying to a job for a summer camp without even knowing I was going to work with campers who had pretty significant disabilities. I had no idea, you know, back then, Internet, you can't just research everything online. All I did is I saw ad in the newspaper, reached out, got a job with what was called Adventure Camp.
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Christian Limón: and it was literally probably the week before I started that I realized I signed up to work with students with disabilities. And I thought, Wow! Am I ready for this? And I didn't realize that was going to be one of the best decisions in my life. Before that I had worked at restaurants gardening with my dad. You know all these other service related jobs, and
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Christian Limón: when I stopped playing baseball, I thought, What what is it that I want to do. What do I want to explore? And I happened to get in in that summer camp, and that must have been in. Gosh! I don't want to date myself, but over 20 years ago. And so since then I've had the the privilege of working within the disability services arena, whether it be at those summer camps. Now, the thing about that class B. What I didn't realize at the time when I eventually transferred to Ucla. I don't know if you guys are familiar. Ucla, right? You kill. We're all Ucla here on this podcast.
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Akil Hill: 8 clap. 8 8 clap.
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Christian Limón: Oh, the President might be reaching out to us! I
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Christian Limón: no. But when I transferred there suddenly there was a job that was available that required a class B license, and it was to drive the disability van over at Ucla's office for students with disabilities. And so you don't realize these decisions you make early on how they're going to impact you later on in life. And I was fortunate and blessed to just be able to roll right in work at their office for students with disabilities, and did that for about a year and a half. As a student.
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Christian Limón: After graduating, I came back, and I actually was working at La Colina as an instructional maid with students who also had disabilities as well with 504 s. And Ips, and during that Gap year
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Christian Limón: I got a call from Ucla, saying, Hey, there's a very entry level position at Ucla. Are you interested? And I thought, you know, if not now, then, when and so I ended up making my way back to La, and 10 years working at Ucla's office for students with disabilities. After 10 years. There was an opportunity here at Santa Barbara City College.
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Christian Limón: and it was with enrollment services. So it was a little bit of a career change in terms of just. I was familiar with enrollment services a little bit, but you know I wouldn't say that I was a pro.
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Christian Limón: and I'm just very fortunate that I was able to transition over to enrollment services at Santa Barbara City College. After 10 years working at Ucla, and, in fact, Akeel was on the hiring committee. I still remember that because I remember sitting over an office of student life, the interview was across the hallway, and then that CC. 222, slash, 23, whatever you know, room that is. And so Akil walks out, and I'm like, man. They they really do things right like they got a bouncer over here escorting me to.
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Christian Limón: and then I realized, oh, no, he he's at admissions. He works here.
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Christian Limón: He was probably bouncing, too, at that time. So
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Christian Limón: you know, that's the thing right?
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Christian Limón: That looks familiar.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. He was.
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Christian Limón: No, no, no, but but it was something where. I do recall very clearly who was on the interview committee, and I'm just very fortunate for Akil Jennifer was on there, Sarah, who just left the college, and it's a huge loss for us, but we wish her well up there.
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Christian Limón: and it's just a blessing, right? Because you're at this interview committee. And I didn't realize how often I would work with these individuals later on. And so it's just nice. So I was fortunate to, you know. Vanessa Pelton gave me that opportunity to work with enrollment services. At that time I was overseeing the welcome center.
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Christian Limón: and that was also doing some of the outreach along with, if you you all may remember Joseph Cordero, who's an amazing individual and just someone that I was just so grateful to work with early on. But then we also tag team a lot with Cte at the time with Christy, with Liz, and so.
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Akil Hill: This.
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Christian Limón: They're also very supportive, me being new, they helped. And
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Christian Limón: it was. It was a nice transition. One thing I also should point out is, that's probably the best thing that could have happened to me is not going straight from disability services to disability services. But having that enrollment services experience, I mean, you learn so much. You know the different committees. We were involved in the different outreach projects.
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Christian Limón: That's literally the what allowed me to develop these relationships with so many people. Admissions and records was huge there at the time, with the old crew with Moises was there with Eddie. Angelica was obviously with transcripts at the time, but she was back and forth, and Gosh! Britney was there. I'm trying to get them. They were just so welcoming, and what I learned not only from enrollment services, but just engaging with other departments.
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Christian Limón: It's truly why I feel that I'm able to to better serve our students now. So just a great appreciation to all student services and those individuals that eased and helped with that transition.
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Hong Lieu: Great story.
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Hong Lieu: So question for you about your class. B. Did he make you drive a truck or a bus?
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Hong Lieu: It was a bus. Yeah. So oh, man.
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Christian Limón: It was. I think it was a 12 passenger bands. They need the class B and the passenger endorsement, and what they don't tell you is that as you're taking the test, and I took it right here on the on the Dmv. At the West side while you're taking it.
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Christian Limón: Whoever you're with. They're going to point out one as soon as you pass a sign they're going to say, hey, what did that sign say on the left? And I'm thinking, like man, I'm so nervous I don't know what it said. I'm just trying to get from point A to Point B, and so it's a. It's a tricky one. It's a written test at 1st similar to your your normal class, C. License or whatnot. But start with a written test, and then the driving test and a skills test.
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Christian Limón: That was an interesting one. Where you got to reverse. You got to do an alley dock little right angle reverse, but fortunately I made it out. No one was hurt in the process, no one was injured. And so here I am. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: Do you still have the class? B. License.
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Christian Limón: No, you know what I ended up letting it expire.
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Christian Limón: Da da.
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Christian Limón: After all that work right? I just didn't want to be responsible for for driving these buses for for eops running start, you know, taking them to these field trips. So now I'm playing.
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Akil Hill: No, I was. Gonna say, that's where we get a group of people for our best. BCC, take us down to La to a dodger game right.
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Christian Limón: Gotta make it happen.
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Hong Lieu: If you can drive a big old car on those roads by the dead. Dmv, right there, you can drive anywhere. Because, yeah, a little bit more room to work is always always appreciated, but those roads are tight.
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Christian Limón: I wish my daughter felt that same way. She I'll tell her like, yeah, I'll give her a little tip here and there about driving. She will not want to hear it, even if
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Christian Limón: Class BI didn't know. She does not want to hear that. So.
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Akil Hill: When Christian says he's nervous. He really was nervous when he took that test man, because when I saw when I came out to greet him for the interview, shook his hand. I was like, yeah, this guy's nervous.
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Christian Limón: I didn't help me. Did you have to shake it that hard.
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Akil Hill: Hey, man, it was meant to be like the great thing about listening to your story to me. It just kind of reminded me of you know, sometimes. You know, professions actually beckon people, you know. And you can think, you know, hey, I'm just gonna take this job like it's not. It's significant, but not too significant. And then it and it ends up that that position actually chose you right? And so the line of work that you're in. Literally, we think about it always as applying for it. But some in some cases
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Akil Hill: I really believe that those type of careers choose people, and it sounds like from listening to story that that you know that you were chosen to be where you're at. So it's pretty special thanks for sharing.
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Christian Limón: Thank you, appreciate it.
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Hong Lieu: And and for the listeners at home. Just just kind of kind of hone in on that. Is there something about the work in terms of because you were pivoting like this is something you didn't do before. It was, I mean, and it was. It was a random job for the summer camp. But then, as you kept doing work.
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Hong Lieu: I mean, were there certain things about the work that really was it the fulfillment you felt inside, or was there something that you where you kind of knew? I can keep doing work like this because we all have a lot of jobs, but in terms of like what speaks to us as a career like for some folks. Oh, it is about money, but for other folks it is. There's other intangibles. If there's something that you can just speak about in terms of what you felt. That really kind of spoke to you about about this kind of work.
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Christian Limón: Yeah, I would say it was just extremely rewarding, being able to show up to these camps and seeing the excitement of these campers each day, every day. It was something that I felt I needed in my life, not to say that I needed it for any reasons at all, but I feel like we all need that we all need positive energy around us. And these campers were able to provide it to me every single day. Literally. So I think what it was is, you know, I appreciated that initial experience, and I thought
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Christian Limón: I keep doing this. And again, I had previously worked at restaurants which had different schedules, where you're working weekends, you know, late nights. Fiesta's all that stuff, and it's hard work, and I love and appreciate all the skills that come out of that. But I was also those early years where I'm like, is there a job out there that will satisfy obviously an area of passion, but also, hey, it won't hurt if I get these weekends off. That's how I thought initially.
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Christian Limón: and
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Christian Limón: and that transition to like, you know, I really enjoy doing this. I think another component is early on. My dad would take me gardening with him, my sister and I. We'd have to go. So so if there's no school, guess we were going gardening with my dad, and he's going to have some things for us to do, and I would see
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Christian Limón: the labor, the physical labor, and the toll that it would take on him. And he was also working 2 jobs at the time, you know, one in the morning, second in the afternoon, so he was a busy man, and he, he would tell us without telling us like.
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Christian Limón: Hey, you can either keep coming with me to these jobs, or you can find something that you like that. You're good at that you want to do for for a long time. And so I'm really appreciative of that experience, you know. Seeing this this man who English was a second language, and even so, just him trying to communicate
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Christian Limón: to a non-spanish speaker. He's not speaking much English, but yet seeing how he can make them smile, make them laugh. He could do the job as a gardener, you know, working with someone on a different socioeconomic level. I feel like
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Christian Limón: that's something where? Where? I thought, okay, I'm learning so much here, not only from the work ethic that he has, but just also in terms of engaging, engaging with, quote unquote, the customer as as much as I hate that word customer. I feel like it's a little impersonal, but for the sake of of explaining or trying to get where I'm trying to get it essentially you know, you learn these skills that you don't realize, like, you know, when I got to that summer camp job I was joking around with the campers, and I feel like that's a testament to those experiences I had early on.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, definitely. And he's and you still carry that today.
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Akil Hill: Oh, man who wants a dad joke.
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Akil Hill: But sometimes it's it's about also to learning from like, you know, they say, sometimes, you know, it's like through opposites. Do you learn right? And so sometimes you figure out quickly, you know, like, okay, this. This work is hard work, and maybe I'm not designed for that. You know what I mean
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Akil Hill: as well as taking the values that your you know, your father was probably instilling in you guys, you know what I mean. And so sometimes you gotta.
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Akil Hill: you know, maybe do certain things that you're like, oh, okay, maybe this is, I'm not cut. I'm not built like this, you know. I mean, it kind of reminded me a little bit of
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Akil Hill: Mike Tyson when his son said that he came to him and said he wanted a box.
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Akil Hill: And and Tyson was like, man. You're like, basically you're not a Boxer man like I grew up on the streets of, you know, Catskill and I bought.
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Hong Lieu: Skills.
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Akil Hill: I box. So you don't have to box. You know what I mean like. And it's true, you know, in a lot of ways, you know that just that traditional hard work ethic
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Akil Hill: looks a little bit different in our generation than it does in our parents generation. But it's still once it's instilled in you. It just manifests in different ways.
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Hong Lieu: Hey? But don't, don't say I can't hang with garden, man. Come on, come on! Tell this dude man.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, man, he's got irrigation systems that you would not believe.
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Christian Limón: That'll be on the next podcast.
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Hong Lieu: We might not have enough time to go to the intricate irrigation setups.
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Christian Limón: You bring up a good point, though. QI think there's things that you can be good at
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Christian Limón: and not do as a profession, but still hold those skills
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Christian Limón: very close to you and use them throughout life. And I feel like, you know, one of my escapes. And I've seen Hong out there. We, you know, unfortunately, live nearby, Hong, and we see each other pretty often, and one of my escapes is just working outside on the guard on the garden, and I don't even know it's landscape architecture, right? I think that's what it's evolved to, right. So just doing all that. And it's it's a release. It's an opportunity to really, just get in.
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Christian Limón: I guess. Get in tune with with having the right mindset. But also, while I'm doing that, the kids are are watching. So you know, kind of wanting to instill that same work ethic. And and it's just nice. Man. It's super nice.
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Hong Lieu: And it's a great point that you bring up, because, you know, in terms of. When I asked the earlier question about what spoke to you about the work. A lot of folks will just the 1st thing they do that's really fulfilling to them. They'll just go. That's what I'm going to do for work. But we're not all built for that, you know. We're not all built like that. So it's something where you have to really
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Hong Lieu: find what speaks to you holistically, going back to the, you know, bringing it all together where it has to be fulfilling, but also has to suit you as a person and something that people don't think about the long game long enough, where it's something you have to do.
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Hong Lieu: For you know, (101) 520-2530 years. We're really quick nowadays to be like, oh, you only should work this, you know. 3 years, and you want to be jumping, jumping, jumping, but for us, the way we grew up it was like career. It was a path. It was long, and it was like a marathon, not a sprint. So you really have to think about. That's not only fulfilling.
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Hong Lieu: Now they're rewarding not only something you're good at, but something you can do for 2530 years, and and your your dad is stealing in you is like my dad is stealing me when he was working in restaurants 6 days a week, like, you know. I don't know if you want to do this, even though you know when he cook at home it was like, Oh, my God! It's incredible. I would love to do. This is like, no, my shoulder is wrecked, my wrist hurt like. I only do this because I have to. You know you. You could do this.
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Hong Lieu: but you could also do other things as well. So let's explore a little bit and then loop back, and I think people are in a rush. Sometimes they forget about that exploration part.
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Hong Lieu: and I think that's the most beautiful part of life, and it's something where you wouldn't have found your your real lane if you didn't take that time to be open while you were exploring and be like, Okay, especially pivoting away from something you were doing. Because when you're talking about playing baseball, it's not just the games we're talking about practice. You're practicing all the time. I mean, that's a lot of time that you all of a sudden have opened up.
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Hong Lieu: So you have time to do a lot of to do a lot of different things. If you're not open to that process and receptive. Then it's like, you know, it could go real bad. But it's it's it's a Testament to you that you were able to be kind of like, not responsible, but responsible, with all that, that whole process, and and find a lane that really works for you. And you really? Do you know, you excel in actually so.
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Christian Limón: No, thank you, Juan. I appreciate it.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. The last thing I'll say is also too like I mean, I think, when we all are fathers here and and you know, and we have, you know, in my case, I mean, I have a daughter that's in college. But in, you know, we as we think about career, and we talk about these type of conversations. I think we have to also
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Akil Hill: like really leading to the space of, we always want to think about the career being the end result, or the the paycheck is the end result. The true wealth, I really believe, is that telling our children is creating options for them
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Akil Hill: right? So you have. The wealth is in having the decision to make the best choice possible for you right? Whereas in certain cases, and we know, historically speaking, there wasn't any options. It was either. You just did that, and you did it until the very end of it, right. But now this younger generation is like, we gotta like. I always, you know, try to tell my daughters like you need to create as many options for you to have the best decision that is going to be made for you.
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Akil Hill: And so, by kind of like listening to your story, it reminds me of that. You know what I mean where you that you had options in a sense, where you saw what your father was doing, and even with you, Hong and our parents, we saw what they were doing.
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Akil Hill: And yeah, we could have, you guys could maybe could have went down that avenue. But also realizing through education, you, you may have more options or better options in some cases. And the wealth is really in having multiple options to decide what to to do and what's best for you and your well own well-being.
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Christian Limón: Absolutely well said. Options are options are great.
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Hong Lieu: But don't get it twisted. The paycheck is important, too.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. But if you got the paycheck and you're miserable, then that's you know what I mean. Like.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, but also, as when you grew up poor, that's pretty. You're pretty miserable, too. So you got to get a little bit more than we have. We were little.
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Christian Limón: Options and balance.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, yeah, and that, you know, that's the word. Right? There is balance, and also won't just circling back to your talking about your dad being communicator. I think we you know we we break down communication a lot with with language, but
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Hong Lieu: vibes as as the young folks are really into right now. Vibes are the key, and I feel like the communicating with vibes like that where your dad was doing it. You got it. Akil definitely got mad vibes. I mean, that is that higher level, that next level. And so it's not something, really. I don't even know how you teach it. But you you either, you know, like, but you do develop it over time. It is something that is learned, and it's like a muscle you exercise.
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Hong Lieu: But I don't know if that like 1st route, like the base vibes, I don't know if that can be taught or not. I mean, this is just something that, coming off the dome right now. But it is something where like that, that higher level communication is important to cultivate. And it's something that, like you can see how well it has served you, and how well it is. You know how important it is so.
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Hong Lieu: And Christian's father, I know Christian's father, Mr. Definitely has vibes. Man like.
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Akil Hill: Like, seriously. I've seen him in spaces, like, you know, like picking up, you know his granddaughter, and he's not a whole lot of words, but there's a there is definitely like A or to him.
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Hong Lieu: Or.
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Akil Hill: Really, that is really like super like, just warm, you know. So yeah, you know, you know. And Christian's mom's side note.
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Akil Hill: I know his mother.
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Christian Limón: Oh, we'll get to that, huh?
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Akil Hill: We'll get to that in later in the section. I guess I got a plug. I got a plug for her, too, as well.
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Akil Hill: Funny. That's what I see.
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Hong Lieu: On that on that note segueing right along. Good evening.
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Hong Lieu: That are real.
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Christian Limón: Yeah. So you know. Gosh, I feel like
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Christian Limón: food in our families has been such a generational thing where I gosh, I'm so lucky. I still remember my grandma walking into my grandma's house, and she'd have these little thin burritos crispy on the side, just, you know, with that nice little crisp beans, chile, concarne, red salsa.
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Akil Hill: Oh!
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Christian Limón: Little bit of refried beans and rice, and just very simple, but so so good. And now, looking back, I realize, like man when I would walk into that house.
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Christian Limón: I guarantee my aunts and uncles were like, oh, here come these kids again. They're about to eat all our food right? I apologize, but at the same time it's just it kind of started there where this appreciation for food and for home cooking and something I've been very fortunate to be around as well. That then transitioned obviously to my mom. Who's you know she she's she puts it down in the kitchen as well. I feel like she's
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Christian Limón: very similarly was able to recreate that chili con carne that my grandma made. And just oh, she makes another dish. It's a nopales with pork and green salsa just I mean, I can go on with the the foods that I've been surrounded with, and just so fortunate. But then now.
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Christian Limón: my wife, Sandra, I mean. She's also putting it down. I feel so fortunate and grateful that you know she's willing to feed me and to provide lunch occasionally. I shouldn't say that if you're listening to Sandra every day. Thank you so much.
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Christian Limón: you know. I just feel so blessed to be around such good food. And so I'd say, you know, nostalgic foods that that just always hit. And I'm always, you know, it could be a smell. That reminds me of it, whatever it may be. But my grandma's little mini burritos, my mom's chile con carne, and the chile verde with pork, and then a rice right Akil Akil knows about the rice, but she makes.
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Akil Hill: That.
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Christian Limón: Rice and Mexican rice, you know there's so many variations right? But and then with Sandra man, she makes these these red enchiladas with guajillo peppers, and and she's also kind of recreated the grilled cheese where it's like a grilled cheese slash. Torta. I already know how to explain it.
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Christian Limón: But, man, I'm just sounds kind of good right now. I'm not going to lie, but I've been fortunate to be around these foods as a result of being around so much Mexican food. We don't eat Mexican food out a lot. We don't go out to, you know, to purchase Mexican food, because we always have it at the house. And so with this food segment, I'm thinking, like man. What am I going to bring up? Because I feel like your guests have been incredible with doing their research with food. And so it's hard to bring up some that hasn't been brought up.
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Christian Limón: But I think I'm going to have to go with the spicy chicken sandwiches. I feel like I found the one that I feel is the best.
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Christian Limón: I'm gonna go ahead and say Finney's. I think that.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah.
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Akil Hill: Oh, okay. Okay.
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Christian Limón: Had that little Fresno pepper on there, and it just kind of hits with the slide. Everything just pretty legit about it, and I feel like I've done enough field work right enough. Research out there
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Christian Limón: where.
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Christian Limón: hey? It may not be your favorite, but it should rank up there, you know. Maybe top threeish or so, but I'm curious to hear, because there's also even the the spicy chicken sandwich over at, is it? What's that new spot at public Market Hong. I know Hong knows.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, no! It's gone.
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Christian Limón: Are you?
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Hong Lieu: Oh, no! The new one, the new one that.
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Akil Hill: Kitchen.
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Hong Lieu: The little kitchen. Yeah, because I thought you're talking about the one that the hot chicken that was there for a minute.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, Maddie's Eddie's.
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Christian Limón: So the the new one. They have a pretty good spicy chicken sandwich as well. But, man, I just feel like, even if you guys have any wrecks? I'm all ears.
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Hong Lieu: I'm still, honestly, maybe it's because we don't have one in town. I'm still Popeyes all the way, because in terms of.
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Christian Limón: In terms of.
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Hong Lieu: Well, quality quality is not going to be in the upper echelon, but when you combine price with quality in terms of that price quality ratio. I still feel like it's hard to be Popeye's, but maybe it's just because I always want it, because it's not nearby, because I only eat it like once in a blue moon, because it's so far.
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Hong Lieu: But.
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Akil Hill: Is throwing curve balls. Today.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, but it's like 3, 99. It's like, so cheap. And yeah. But but Phoenix is a great.
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Christian Limón: Vocal man. I hear it.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, locally, I think Finney's would have to take it. I haven't had the one at the little kitchen in the public market yet, because, you know.
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Christian Limón: The one I gotta try is I heard is really good. My brother-in-law said that the one over at
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Christian Limón: on Milpus, the right next to the wingstop rodeo.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, over there the the.
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Christian Limón: Oh, what's the name of this? Oh, Akil's looking it up right now.
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Akil Hill: I was thinking like
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Akil Hill: I don't. I don't know. I haven't eaten at that 1. 0, yeah, it's right. By Santa Barbara High. I've seen it, but I've never. I've never eaten there.
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Hong Lieu: Bossy's kitchen is that the one.
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Christian Limón: The one with the countertop. Yeah.
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Christian Limón: no, no further down further down, further down
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Akil Hill: Oh, there's a that must be new then, or I haven't heard of that spot.
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Christian Limón: Near the tire shop.
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Akil Hill: Oh, yeah, that's this little kitchen that's little kitchen. No, no, that's not little kitchen. That's the shop, right?
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Akil Hill: Copy.
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Hong Lieu: The shop.
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Hong Lieu: Pretty good, too.
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Christian Limón: Nice. Okay.
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Hong Lieu: It's pretty good. But in terms of the thing about Finney's that's really nice is that we talk about vibes already. The vibes at Finney's when you're eating there. It's like it's like a night out, you know. It's like a good time we're like. And even if you go inside the hotel and go to like whatever the bar in there, like. You go there beforehand. But
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Hong Lieu: once you get the table of Finney's like the people watching is is nice. It's it's nice to see an area that was for a long time in Santa Barbara like you were waiting for something to happen in the area where, like everyone's like, Oh, I heard, they're going to build a hotel. I heard they're gonna do this. And it was kind of sitting there for a while. And now to see like the Rusty's and everything there, it's kind of interesting.
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Christian Limón: There you go!
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, they they really. It came around, even though it took them, you know, 1520 years. But everything is done in the end. But it's and then and yeah, just, and it's a it's. It's a cool scene out there. So it's it's nice.
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Christian Limón: And now they got the one out in Golita as well. So.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah. Taken over the brew. How? The brewing company?
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Hong Lieu: No, yeah.
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Hong Lieu: Alistair.
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Christian Limón: There you go. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: So, Christian, have you tried Jonesy's fried chicken out in Golita?
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Christian Limón: No, I have heard of it, but is, should I? Should I put that on that to do list.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, that's definitely on the to do list.
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Hong Lieu: Jones. These is a solid, solid chicken sandwich. I haven't had the crazy ones like Akil's had with the Georgia peach, or whatever the way they sprinkle the honey on it and everything. Yeah, yeah, I haven't had any of those but the the basic standard chicken sandwich. That was a good one.
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Akil Hill: So
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Akil Hill: I'm gonna give a plug out to Mrs. Limon because we were. This is how I tried her rice, and this is how good it was I was. So we were at
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Akil Hill: her granddaughter's birthday party and you know, there's all this food like like I was like. I always look forward to the her birthday party because I know the food. There's the food's gonna be good there. So but for some reason, like I was making fun. I was laughing with Andy Andy Gill. I don't know if you guys ever ate with him, because this guy is like I looked at his plate. I looked at my plate, and this guy was like
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Akil Hill: triple the amount of food that was on his plate. And I'm like, if everyone, if anyone would have walked up right now they would be like, why do you have a kills plate? Because, you know, Andy compared, it's like, but it's always it's always the smaller people that always eat the most right so anyways, I was like, I tried the rice, and I was like
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Akil Hill: yo who make this rice, and
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Akil Hill: I think Andy was like yo, you didn't know about this rice, I'm like, no, I don't know about this rice. Where's this rice from. You know I'm going down all the restaurants. Bro. I was hitting them all up. I was like zarape los agaves los arroyos los this los that.
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Christian Limón: Yeah.
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Akil Hill: And they were like, he's like.
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Akil Hill: it's Christian's. Mom made the rice.
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Christian Limón: Yeah.
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Akil Hill: So I kid you. Not like I they're like, Hey, take a plate, man I took. I took a plate.
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Akil Hill: and I was like I got.
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Christian Limón: The kids before.
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Akil Hill: Andy does, and so literally the best rice I've hands down by far. Not even question I've ever eaten like, without a doubt.
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Christian Limón: And I know that would warm her heart. I mean, food is such a love language in our family, and I think across like not just my family everywhere, right? It's just food. It just connects people and it it brings out the best, I would say in people as well, unless you're waiting in line for Popeye's hot chicken sandwich.
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Akil Hill: Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: Those lines are gone, those lines are gone. Even the drive through is not that busy anymore? When I get to go? Because it's it's way far down there. You're right. It's not local. It doesn't count.
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Akil Hill: I think it's super cool, though, because it's the the simplest things are the hardest to make them taste. That good is the hardest thing to do and and like, and you know, especially like I, you could feel the love in that. I was just like what that first.st But I was like, yo, it was that moment was like, you take a bite. You start looking around like
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Akil Hill: yo who hate this? Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: And those kind of dishes aren't the dishes like a top chef style where you're trying to refine the recipe, this and that, that just you'd make it so many times that you it's almost like a reflex. But the little the little touches that you've made, the little changes you made are what really make it sing. It's like any dish that you make. It's like Malcolm Gladwell. The 10,000 h any dish you made, any dish you made a hundred times. Then you know the little, the little touches that that you like, and then it's just going to end up making it just yeah.
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Christian Limón: And I was eyeballing it.
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Christian Limón: and she would be so grateful for those comments to kill. So especially coming from you. Such a foodie. You know, I'm gonna have to make sure. And we've already told her. But I'm gonna have to remind her just how much you love.
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Akil Hill: Well, the cool thing is, I'm glad I was up. My taste buds were on point, because it's if it's the tradition that everyone knows about it. I took the bite, and I was like I was on par with the family. See, I was in there
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Akil Hill: family after the 1st bite. There it is.
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Christian Limón: You got your 10,000 HA week.
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Akil Hill: You know.
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Christian Limón: That's why, man!
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Christian Limón: Oh, man.
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Hong Lieu: Very nice.
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Christian Limón: So.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, thank you for that. I'll get. I'll get recipes in the show notes. I do love the burritos that come in like the smaller style, like little Burritos. There aren't that many places most places would like to burrito the size of your arm, which I love as well. But now, my older age. They put me to sleep so the little, the little compact ones I could eat like 2 or 3 or something. I'm all about it now, like burritos of palm in La is like one where it's so good, and if.
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Christian Limón: As well as well. Yeah, just measured, Salsa, though. Right? You get that heartburn. I've heard that heartburn's coming.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah, it's better now. But yes, it's still. It's still a, you know. Still a thing. But yes, I'll get all the recipes show notes. Thank you so much, Segway. Right along. Bring it home higher learning, piece of culture, and as many as you like, as many as you like.
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Christian Limón: Oh, man, so I don't know if you guys have heard this movie blood in blood out. No, I'm just playing.
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Hong Lieu: Hey!
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Akil Hill: Started, man, don't.
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Christian Limón: No, here's the deal with that movie. I felt like growing up. It was. It was almost like a rite of passage like, Have you? Have you.
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Hong Lieu: Yes.
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Christian Limón: Be like, and if anything, my takeaway is like I don't want to go to jail like.
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Christian Limón: you know. If anything, it kept me in a straight line kept me on par.
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Hong Lieu: And that's, you know, the higher learning to me is, think about those like that those random tapes that the Homies would have, and, like everyone would watch it at some point. Blood and blood out for me. Friday. There's that movie American gangsters with Jim Brown like any homies that would roll through. We would watch American gangsters with Jim Brown. I mean, it's not for everybody. But if you know, like, it's 1 of those things where it's like man, it's.
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Christian Limón: Well, there are so many solid ones growing up. And and this isn't even my cultural thing. I'm going on a tangent. Yeah, I apologize, listeners, but you know they're stand and deliver me familia like they're boys in the hood, like. I remember our aunts and uncles literally asking us about the social ramifications of. But and I'm thinking, like I'm 7 years old, I don't know.
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Christian Limón: but
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Christian Limón: just like planting that seed of watch a movie for more than just watching the movie like read into it. Check it out like, what disparities do you see what's going on? What are the unwritten messages? All that stuff, so that that's a whole. Another conversation. But you know I was fortunate to have you know, aunts and uncles around, and and cousins, and even my sister who made you think about things in a different perspective. So.
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Hong Lieu: Those conversations like we need to have more of, because I think a lot of times in terms of literature and film. We watch a lot of stuff that's like right on the nose, like people want to watch documentaries. But if you watch like film and read books like fictional books and pull the same means. You would get like, you know, versus a self-help book. Those are very important. I'm not. I'm not discounting them at all. But if you read just fictional literature and pull a similar message out, it hits you just as hard, and in some ways it can hit even deeper, because
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Hong Lieu: you have to kind of mold it into the message that you take in, whereas there's like a general message, and then you have to really shape how it speaks to you so like watching films like blood and blood out. You take it like you take it like I don't want to go to jail. All the folks take it like
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Hong Lieu: family is not always blood, and then, you know, and family and respect is all also a priority and stuff like that. So it's awesome. And there's
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Hong Lieu: all these things you can pull out of it that go beyond. When a self, when a book you open up it just says family is important respect. It doesn't always hit like that. Where, if you have to pull it out and extract it. So that's where the that's where I love this segment because the most random thing, if it hits you like that, then it's worth highlighting, because it might hit someone else just like that, or even deeper. So you know, yeah.
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Christian Limón: We already touched on it then.
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Christian Limón: and that was what I said.
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Akil Hill: I mean. We all remember the scene in Boys in the Hood where Lawrence Frisburn is talking about gentrification.
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Christian Limón: With the billboard in the back of the billboard.
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Hong Lieu: Over to the college.
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Akil Hill: Everybody knows but that to me, I mean, that was the 1st time I I ever really heard about that. You know what I mean in in that way, you know. And so, yeah, that's
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Akil Hill: definitely spot on.
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Christian Limón: 100%. Now, all that said that that wasn't the direction I was gonna go with culture.
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Christian Limón: I'm glad it was brought up because you guys made some really good points. And it's true, right? A lot of it impacted a lot of people, our age in a very significant way. Those types of movies, and that reality right? That we maybe didn't see every day. But in terms of just culture, man, I got to stick with food like I'm so sorry to just keep rambling on about food. But I recently came across a documentary called
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Christian Limón: the Mitra Khan files
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Christian Limón: and the documentary that essentially discusses the effort of Mexican culinary artists. Right? And when I say culinary artists, we're talking about these ladies in in the middle of nowhere, creating food out of the most natural of elements, you know no pesticides, no influences, nothing like that. And just talking about their experience. And the whole purpose of that film was to document
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Christian Limón: the effort for. And I'm gonna have to remember. Hopefully, I say this right. But they were trying to get designated as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by Unesco. I'm not gonna lie. I had to write that down to read it.
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Christian Limón: Unesco being the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. And so initially, they applied for this designation in 2,005, and it covers a story about going through the process of applying having to fly to France, and bring your ingredients and cook for all these judges and all these individuals that you know when they saw, maybe
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Christian Limón: someone that represented an indigenous culture from Mexico show up to this fine dining 5 star French kitchen, you know the looks they got, and getting past those looks to suddenly, they're cooking. And all these top, you know, culinary chefs from France or whatnot. They're watching them cook, and they're amazed. They're like I've never seen this ingredient. I've never seen a comal out of clay like I haven't seen these things. And so
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Christian Limón: for me, it just talks about that journey that a lot of our ancestors went through as far as just creating this culinary experience, but then seeing on a larger scale with them, literally trying to get that designation, and even though they got denied. In 2,005.
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Christian Limón: They revamped. They went back to the drawing table, and they came back in 2,010, and they were able to get that designation. And and at that point, you know, you see the respect that Mexican food has across the world, and how it's intersected, you know, with
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Christian Limón: the trade route, India, Mexico, north, whatever it may be, and all the ingredients, not only that originated from Mexico, but when you combined what they got from other areas, and just the amazing, unbelievable food that was created. And even one of the portions of the movie talks about. You know, when you think tomatoes, you think Italy right? Marinara sauces all pomodoro all these things right when you think about chilies. You think India
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Christian Limón: when you think about avocados, you think carpenter root. No, I'm just playing that. They didn't say
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Christian Limón: all these ingredients right that are from Mexico.
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Christian Limón: that other countries have taken on as their staple, their food staple and one of their primary ingredients that they use. I just think, honestly, it's just it amazed me, even though you know. So the interesting part is, Danny Trejo was a narrator for that, and I'm just.
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Akil Hill: Oh, cool!
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Christian Limón: I know he's gonna pop up at some point with the with the machete, and just start cutting meat
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Christian Limón: stocks. Now he didn't show up on the film. But he narrated the whole thing. And it's not one of those, you know. It's not gonna be an action packed movie. It's literally you're going to sit, and you're going to sit and watch it for the the content. And what's being covered, and just the amazing journey that they went through in order to get that designation.
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Hong Lieu: And it's a well-deserved designation, too, because it's it's 1 of those things where
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Hong Lieu: Mexico and you know, Central and South America as a whole that whole coastline. But you know, from Mexico all the way down in terms of the the exploration that was happening, the trade and the people that were coming through. You have a lot of Asian influences coming into those regions. You have a lot of just global regions. So so a lot of.
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Akil Hill: African, too.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah. And so when you have that, when you have that, a strong indigenous culture with with cuisine that was already well established, and they're integrating. And that's the true fusion. That's when people talk about fusion. And it's not a bad thing, you know, when you're actually taking that and fusing it. And and really and it's really something where you you kind of.
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Hong Lieu: Not that you feel bad, but I do feel bad for folks in in certain parts of the country and world, who, when you, we hear Mexican cuisine, it's such a small subset of the of the food when there's so many regions like
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Hong Lieu: the seafood in Sinaloa. You know the the Guerrero, the you know all the birria, the different animals depending on what region you're cooking with the wine country in the in the Mexican area. I mean, it's something that's the same for me with Chinese food, where, if I didn't grow up in La.
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Hong Lieu: I would have no idea, because Chinese food gets treated the same way a lot of times where it's like it's like this small subset of a region, and you call it. Like all Chinese food, it's like, no, that's just like Cantonese food, or that's just Szechuan, whereas, like Mexican food is like, no, those are just Antojitos. No, that's just like, you know, it's like it's hard to really wrap your head around it. So it's good that they were able to present it in a way that
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Hong Lieu: you can finally get just a small idea, because even explaining it, you're not, you're never going to know without just tasting and just having exposure to that kind of thing where I was lucky in La to have like regional Mexican restaurants where I could try things and be like, oh, my God, this is totally different, you know, like in frijolados versus, you know, like trying stuff like that, like the ferment, the fermenting, and the pickling, like all the different styles of food that you think about, and it's represented, whereas whether it's grilled, smoked, slow cooked.
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Hong Lieu: you know, like it's like, yeah, well deserved. So.
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Christian Limón: Because they actually even talk about. Even within the Mexican region. There's layers of it inside of Mexico. It's so so regional, where a chile poblanos, a chile urbano in one area, and it's a chila ancho in another, and a chile paciena, and it's like every area literally has a name for their chilies, because that's that it originated there. They grew up with their, you know, their ingredients, their styles, all that stuff. And it's so regional even within the region of Mexico. It's amazing.
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Hong Lieu: Just mole. You can order mole at every.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah.
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Hong Lieu: multiple restaurants. And the base is so different. And it's just its own. It's just its own thing, because everyone's got their own little spin on it, because you can throw like even the bases are different. And then beyond that, the little things are on top of that.
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Christian Limón: Yeah, for sure.
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Hong Lieu: So, yeah.
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Christian Limón: Speaking of. I don't even do my dad justice with the mole, so he does a yearly mole, and I'm now flip flopping, flip-flopping. I'm going back and forth with these, but he does a yearly mole where I've now become kind of a sous chef.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, nice!
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Christian Limón: Where I'm just kind of on the side, doing whatever he needs right. And sometimes I feel like he just gives me busy work. Whatever I get it. But
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Christian Limón: just seeing the process of that, you know, from soaking chiles a couple days in advance to the impact of sesame seeds on a mole to even like one or 2 tomatillos. And just seeing that process where you know, you got to measure how much thickness you want to add. And you got to figure out
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Christian Limón: you want to use dough. You want to use crackers, you know all these different things. And it's just amazing to see that production that was also talked about in the documentary, where Mole is actually one of the main dishes that brings together all those flavors from across the world like that itself. You can't make Mole without the impact of the international impact of that of that trade, that food trade. So just an amazing, amazing documentary.
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Hong Lieu: And when you talk about food as a love language, that food that you can cook as a family like, you know, we just had the, you know, lunar New year just just passed for a lot of cultures. And there's a lot of cultural traditions around that where you have certain dishes that are meant to be made as a family, you know, like it's because the whole point of lunar years to spend time with your family and one of the ways. You force people to do that because they don't just want to sit and talk to each other for a while is just a certain dish like, you know, Bantette, in the
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Hong Lieu: in the Southeast Asian culture is like almost like I used to call the Asian tamales because they wrap, you know it's like sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf, but you have to like braise meat and then slice it and put it in the middle. Wrap it in sticky rice. Then wrap that banana leaf and steam. It's like making tamales during the holidays. Kind of a similar thing where it's a family endeavor, where it's not just one person that makes it, and everyone eats it. It's like you all make it. You kind of chill for a minute. It's while it's like cooking or whatever, and then you all eat it after. And it's like just as
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Hong Lieu: big like family thing. So that that love language. It's it's it's it's cultivated. It's like, it's not a feature, it's not a bug. It's a feature, you know, like it's it's part of the whole deal. So
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Hong Lieu: and then we have Molly for like 2 months after that.
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Christian Limón: I love it. It's good. But, man.
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Christian Limón: you know what's good, though next time you have a mole like a nice mole you get one dish, because right when you have it for so long after you make it. Yeah, you gotta try new things. So if you just have, you know your nachos mole, and then we do a little topper of just onions diced up onions soaked in lemon. Top it with that a little bit of salsa that it definitely hits.
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Akil Hill: I was thinking about moles, chile, chiles.
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Christian Limón: That, too. That, too. No joke, that, too. Absolutely. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: And those restaurants that cheat and just use chips in their chilaquiles. That's what they're doing, anyway, with the Mole nachos.
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Christian Limón: And I just use the wrong word. But you're right, Chilaquila.
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Akil Hill: Hey? One thing I'll I'll say, what's really interesting kind of hitting on both your guys's points about, you know. Mexican cuisine and and Chinese cuisine over the break Hong and I. We kind of did a little food tour, where he he took us to some of his spots down in La, and we started off at the food truck. What was the name of the food truck? Hong.
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Christian Limón: Oh, Marisco Salisco. Oh, yeah.
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Christian Limón: yeah, that's a that's a that's a good one. Right there.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. So the crazy thing was, it was like one of the best tacos I've ever eaten. But then, after that, then we went to a dim song. Place right Hong.
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Hong Lieu: And then.
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Akil Hill: And we had we. So we ordered, what do we order? We? We ordered Dimsong.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, it was a hot guy, the shrimp dumplings. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: But the the crazy thing is, they were both similar in taste.
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Akil Hill: right like the texture. And I was like I was, and I just was blown away by that where it was like. How does a dim song remind you of a taco that reminds you of the dim song it was
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Akil Hill: it was.
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Akil Hill: It was really cool. It was really cool.
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Hong Lieu: And it shows you that that cross-cultural communication that was happening, that you know it doesn't get. It doesn't get talked about enough where, like people are like. Oh, you know, fusion is bad. I mean, there are a lot of bad fusion restaurants out there, full disclosure, but fusion really is the backbone of
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Hong Lieu: world civilization, you know, like it. Really, without all this exploration and trade we wouldn't have the distinct, very flavors we have. And and you know. Similar. I mean, we like what we like, similar similar texture, similar preparation. I mean, that stuff gets passed along to you. And it's just yeah. It's.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, pre pop eyes pre Popeyes.
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Hong Lieu: And that's a good example of that trickle down effect, too.
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Hong Lieu: Popeyes blew up, although Chick-fil-a is probably the Og. If we're going, you know, but then it goes to Popeyes, and it just exploded. Now where everyone's got one. But yeah.
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Christian Limón: Right.
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Christian Limón: So for folks looking to watch the movie, where can they find it? Is it streaming on a service? You got to rent it.
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Christian Limón: Yeah. So you got to rent it right now, Amazon, for a couple of bucks, or, I believe, Vimeo, I think Vimeo was the original, the original site that had it online. I think it's a little more expensive on Vimeo. But yeah, you could definitely get on Amazon.
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Hong Lieu: Still worth renting and watching, supporting the creators and supporting the message of the film as well. Because it's probably I love food films and documentaries and stuff, because the shots the food is always are always so good. So yeah, I'll definitely I'll definitely make a.
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Christian Limón: Like, I said, it's not going to be like a thriller. And energy like it's not. But it's gonna be just the content. It's just a lot of good info right there.
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Christian Limón: so Miklo doesn't show up halfway through, and then one of the chefs gets thrown in jail or anything.
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Christian Limón: and locals.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, I will put all that info in the show notes, and definitely, looks like a great film.
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Hong Lieu: Christian, thank you.
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Christian Limón: Gosh, thank you. Guys like I look, I know. I know I.
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Hong Lieu: Been going after this for a minute, you know, schedules weren't working out or whatnot, but I'm glad it worked out. And no, it's just again I'm I'm sitting here with the the literally the face of Santa Barbara City College with a keel, and then hung Cyclopaedia.
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Christian Limón: I'm telling you, man, I'm always amazed by Hong man. His knowledge just on.
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Akil Hill: Oh, for sure! He's he is! He is the Waco, the walking Wikipedia.
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Hong Lieu: It's mostly it's mostly useless knowledge. But you know what? Yeah, it does.
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Akil Hill: Hey, man, I'm sorry.
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Hong Lieu: Rich. It doesn't rich me as a person, so I do claim it so.
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Christian Limón: Love Akil. You can't put yourself. You gotta lift you up. You're you're you're a real one. So yeah.
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Akil Hill: For sure he's definitely selling himself short man.
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Hong Lieu: We're we're glad we definitely nailed the scale because it's like the class B license. And the work is like it happened when it should happen. You know this is this is the perfect time. So you you were right to you right to let us know like, just let me know. I will do it. And you you were, you man of your word, so.
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Akil Hill: Hey? So, Christian, before you go? One last question one. Tell the viewers, what position did you play in baseball when you were here at Sbcc?
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Christian Limón: Yeah. So I was in the in the middle infield. So I did a little short, a little second depend on the pitching lineup or pitching, whoever's starting high school short. And then when I got city college second and short, I do a little bit of both. Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: Got the cannon, got the cannon for the arm, playing short.
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Christian Limón: It's funny, too, because I I get it. I'm not the biggest dude right. But but hey, don't question my arm, strength, man.
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Akil Hill: Hit that throw from from the from the hole. You know it is.
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Hong Lieu: Even the whole throwing, throwing it first.st No problem right? There.
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Christian Limón: There you go!
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Akil Hill: Hey! Bill!
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Christian Limón: Also, that's probably a good opportunity to just remind Akil who the world champions are right now. The dodgers. I just want to throw that out there.
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Christian Limón: Hey! Hey! Your players cannot wear beards, apparently. I just.
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Hong Lieu: They just announced it today. I was like that cracked me up that they finally rescinded the facial hair palsy on the Yankees.
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Christian Limón: Maybe that'll be it right there.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, I know. Well, I I mean, yeah, the dodgers definitely one. And I just I think the dodgers also should get credit to the Yankees because we they used our blueprint right now, like every I remember when the Yankees were getting everybody the Dodger fans are all you're buying your team. No one's in the farm system. Now look at now, look at the dodgers now.
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Hong Lieu: But hey, man and Dan, okay.
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Akil Hill: Hey!
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Hong Lieu: You just got.
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Akil Hill: But I'm I'm happy. I'm happy for the Dodgers fans, you know, like.
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Christian Limón: Some of the most.
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Akil Hill: But love people. But I'm just letting you all know. Yeah, you know, just letting y'all know.
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Akil Hill: Salary deferrals are now of part of the game. So.
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Christian Limón: We can make this a sports podcast.
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Akil Hill: My son has a Jackie Robinson Jersey, you know. We gotta you know.
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Hong Lieu: There you go!
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Akil Hill: Summer Brewing.
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Christian Limón: Oh, exactly!
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Akil Hill: You know what it is.
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Hong Lieu: Beyond beyond the sports. Talk any final words for our listeners before we say goodbye, Christian.
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Christian Limón: I, honestly, I just think more than anything, just always feel free to stop by the office with any questions, to stop by with a student again that Dsps at Spccedu email address. We're on it frequently in case you can't make it to the office. And it's you know, I don't want to sound cliche, but it truly takes a village. I do think that right now student services and beyond is
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Christian Limón: has created a village for our students and just got to keep improving and making sure we're there for the students. So yeah, no, I appreciate you guys for doing this. I truly do, because I feel that there's a lot of things that we know about our colleagues.
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Christian Limón: But when we listen to these podcasts, we learn a little bit more, and it just makes us better at our jobs when we know a little bit more about our neighbors. And so I appreciate you guys for taking the time. I know it's not easy dedicating, you know, a couple of hours every other week or whatnot, you guys do. But it's it's very much appreciated. So thank you guys.
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Hong Lieu: Thank you.
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Hong Lieu: And also.
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Christian Limón: I'm not even gonna lie. I said some names earlier. I didn't say names after I'm like, Oh, man, I didn't say so, and so give credit to so and so. But there's a lot of you out there that are amazing, unbelievable. Even those peeps out at admissions that are 49 er fans. You know you are so.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, wow!
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Akil Hill: This guy.
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Christian Limón: Take a shot at everybody right now, like.
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Akil Hill: I so what like a politician man.
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Hong Lieu: My apologies.
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Christian Limón: Oh, man, don't.
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Hong Lieu: Little shade right there.
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Hong Lieu: I had to on the way out. That's it.
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Christian Limón: Okay.
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Hong Lieu: He knows we got no time to rebut, but oh, well, until next time y'all this is Vaquero Voices. Take care.
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Akil Hill: Take care!
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Christian Limón: Thank you.