Maria Hinojosa

Maria Hinojosa is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, professor, and the founder of Futuro Media Group. She is the host of Suave.

Who is Suave?
My first response to that question is, he is a man with an attitude, with a sense of, not like a “fuck you” attitude but more like…let’s say he’s present. If he's in a room you're going to find out he's in the room. He has presence, swagger, and a state of mind about himself and his place in history. It's pretty badass. Remember he is the kind of person who would come up to a woman journalist and step up to her, not in a violent way, and show up and say, “hey. Look at me.” 

That comes after being in prison for less than a decade. By then he tried to take on the whole system, was fighting with guards. By the time I met him, he was in a different place in his life. That’s why he came up and asked, “what should I do?”

He wanted to be my eyes and ears. As he was settling into prison, what was once South Bronx swagger and bravado, “I’m tougher than you, you’ve got nothing on me,” then becomes an intellectual challenge. He needed to l learn to read and write. He tok the GED seven times. It took him sixteen years to graduate college, but he did it. He had to get his intellectual swagger to match the street swagger. I’m friends… I’m friends? I’m friends, I’m in touch with him throughout this entire period. There was a period of seven years when I didn’t hear form him a lot. After 9-11 I was a busy mother of small kids and he was in solitary confinement. I don’t remember if I missed the calls. 

Then there’s the Suave now, who you meet in season two. Known as Mr. Pulitzer. He’s proud. He should be. It's important for Suave to have an ego. If he didn't have an ego, he wouldn't be able to do what he did. I celebrate his ego even though it drives me crazy. 

At one point in season two Suave says, “I never had this much pain and misery in my life when I was in prison…” Did you see that coming?
Noooooo. I did not foresee this. I did not see it coming at all. 

When you bring up the word biblical it's like “huh. We are not practicing religious people but there is a huge part of the story that involves santeria. That, for me, is for me the most revealing thing to me about the whole season. There was a lot of fucked-up-ness. My question was why. Why this person? I meet so many people. 

OK so we listened to season one, why should we listen to season two?
Season one was a roller coaster. It was, from the conception, a bet. Is there a podcast here? Is there a story that's going to connect with anyone? Is this going to work? I struggled for years within my own company to get them to believe in this story. You have to fight for every story all the time everywhere as a journalist, you are forever pitching. All my staff knew was that someone was calling me from prison. They were like, ‘who is this person?’ I had to fight to convince them. We were a small nonprofit. I got Maggie Freleng to listen to the phone calls, and she said, “there is a story here but you can’t be part of it.”

Did you know that at that point?
No.

So season one was a literal roller coaster. Season two is an emotional one. It’s like when you’re sitting in a roller coaster seat, you know that little bubble you get in your stomach when you go over the mountain? That’s season two. And you’re holding on for dear life because you feel like you're going to fall out of the car.

The message of it is: this is what life on the other side looks like after 31 years in prison. Life is fucking hard. It's hard for all of us, we live in the United States in a challenging time. Add to that being in maximum security prison for 31 years. Add seven in solitary confinement. Of course he is going to have these deep emotional challenges. He has allowed us to document it. Is it hard? Yes. Iam so proud of the work. It is investigative journalism that reaffirms our commitment to journalistic consciousness in America. 

And you know, there was the initial concern that we were not taking people to sufficient places, but in the end we do.

Do you know if there’s a season three?
No. But Suave is a ham and I do think a season three would be kind of a breath of fresh air. 

Did you really offer him cannabis gummies when he’s on parole? 
Yes! I knew i couldnt offer him a joint but I was like … he can just have a gummy! I’m a medical marijuana patient. For people who struggle with sleep, I’m Doctor Hinojosa.

How have you changed as a journalist since you started talking to Suave?
How have I changed as a human being?

I'll tell you this, it will say everything. In recording season two my son, who is now a working journalist, said to me, “there were times where I was having a conversation with you and Suave would call and you’d go take the call.” When your son says that to you 're like ‘oh snap.’ There are reparations. That is a theme that comes up in season two.

One lesson for me is to trust your gut when you feel like there's a story that needs to be told. Trust your gut and fight for it. There has been a lot of hell and insecurity throughout the entire Suave story, a lot of emotional toil. But there was a story that needed to be told. I would hope that young journalists get that message.

Thanks, Maria!