Having always wondered how Danny Trejo came to be in films, I was excited to see what his story might be.
An inspiring, unrestrained tale is what I found in the pages of “Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood,” written by Trejo and his longtime friend Donal Logue. He details his journey from convict to Hollywood celebrity with humor, truth and passion; he tells it all, including his faults.
From the beginning of his story, Trejo defines what it means to be a Trejo man, as strong, proud and inevitably a criminal, a drug addict, or both. With his Uncle Gilbert as a tour guide to life on the streets, Trejo falls into a life of drug addiction. His battle with addiction would lead him from juvenile detention to an infamous California prison, where Gilbert’s lessons on survival would be put to the test.
The struggle with addiction began with his first shot of heroin at age 12. Oddly enough, it was in the darkness of his prison days that he found a path to sobriety and a sense of purpose.
I laughed and cried a little at the event in his solitary confinement cell, his one-man performance of “The Wizard of Oz,” that led to his triumph over addiction. While in prison he found a purpose outside of his next fix in helping other people win their freedom from drugs. He continued to do this after being released from confinement. The decision to help others ended up leading to him being one of the most recognizable faces in the world.
His journey into Hollywood life was accidental and fantastic. Seeing all the parts of his journey, his interactions with others (rich and poor) was an eye-opening experience for me. Written in a way that sounded authentic to him, I could hear his voice in my head as I read. This read was a roller coaster ride of emotions that did not let me down.
