In 2016, I met The Jump producer Danny Corrales. Himself a 4th generation Mexican American, Danny asked if I wanted to help him create a digital show called No Hablo Español. The show was to focus on having conversations with Latin athletes and entertainers, exploring the intersection between cultural heritage and sports/entertainment. It stuck with me the reason Danny told me he was inspired to make the show.
When athletes/celebrities visit ESPN LA for show appearances, we’d call that a “car wash”. It would involve guests arriving early in the morning so they can schedule as many show appearances they can fit in one day. Danny noticed a pattern of Latin athletes/entertainers, like a Danny Trejo, that would come in for a “car wash” but would not get booked on as many shows as others. Under One Nación, an initiative spearheaded by Hugo Balta to create more bilingual content at ESPN, No Hablo Español served as a platform for athletes and entertainers to talk about their cultural heritage, and the complexities of being bicultural in the United States. It featured such conversations with acclaimed entertainers/athletes like Jimmy Smiths, Oscar De La Hoya, Danny Trejo and many others.
Being a Latino, I jumped at the chance to be part of No Hablo Español. Danny is one of the most talented producers I’ve met at ESPN, and working with him was one of my most collaborative and rewarding experiences I had at ESPN. It was very much a passion project for both of us, looking for resources wherever we could find them and often staying past our “office hours” to work on it . It’s one of the most rewarding experiences I had at ESPN and there’s no better example that reflects how much of a passion project it was than our interview with acclaimed composer/drummer Antonio Sánchez.
Drummer of the acclaimed jazz band Pat Metheny Group, Antonio Sánchez composed the music for the Oscar winning film Birdman. The drum-only original score featured improvised virtuoso drum solos by Sánchez. Danny and I both being amateur drummers in our youth “rock” days, we were in awe at the opportunity to have Antonio be part of the show. Danny came up with the genius idea of having Antonio do some live drum scoring to NBA highlights. Event hough the idea had the potential to generate some really unique results, it presented lots of challenges. Where would we get a drum set? How would we shoot it and record the audio with the resources we had? Again, we mostly had less than twenty four hours to prepare, and everything we did had to be done within Studio 4 (a one-man-band production studio that I managed).
Despite all the difficulties, we persisted. Danny brought in his personal electronic drum set into the studio. I remember unloading Danny’s drum set from his car, carrying it into the studio and thinking “is this crazy? Will it even work?”. Despite providing Antonio with a modest drum set in comparison to his skills, he was an absolute joy to work with and got on-board with the idea. Looking back, the end result wasn’t really what was important. What I’m most proud of is that we went for it. We could have just settled for the average interview format of the show, but we persisted for the sheer reason that it sounded like a fun and unique idea. When those two elements are behind the steering wheel, the journey is always a rewarding one.