You’ll have seen his face, heard his voice, you’ll have winced at the violence, you’ll have been shocked by the burritos adverts, but you’ll not know all of Danny Trejo’s story.
You’lll probably be aware that Trejo comes from the other side off the tracks. The one where brutality, murder, crime and everything else. takes place. The side of the tracks weever we would not normally go, given the choice. Trejo had no option. That was very much his life. Born into that cycle and fighting to get out.
Trejo before making films and becoming a household face, if not name, and being on many a Hollywood speed dial, did time at Folsom State Prison, Soledad State Prison (Correctional Training Facility), California Institution for Men (Chino), San Quentin State Prison, Vacaville State Prison.
He trained and fought fires at Conservation Camps in Jamestown, Magalid, and Konocti.
While incarcerated at San Quentin, he trained in boxing and rose to be the top prison boxer.
Now, he is sober (52 years now) and counsels troubled youth, steering them away from a path he once trod. In this honest document of his formative years, Danny Trejo takes us back to his childhood and paints a vivid picture of a horrendous home life, addiction to drugs, crime, life behind bars, health scares, to sobriety, and helping those fighting the same demons he has, including his children.
The years worn on that trademark scowl have come at a cost, and this story reads like a movie.
Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood is out now via Simon & Schuster and as an audiobook.
