Defy Ventures

Greetings!

 

My full name is Luis Angel Corella, but I go by “Angel.” I am a 35 year-old Mexican-American, born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. You might think that in a big city there would be opportunities on every corner. But I was raised by a single parent. My mother did the best she could, and I’m thankful for that, but there is only so much an ex-heroin addict can do. I was born into this world only to fail.

 

Where I grew up, there were no peewee football teams or soccer moms. No famous people donating money or trying to fix our community. Growing up, we played tag with rocks and boulders. As we got older that quickly changed: bats, knives, and guns took over….

 

My role models consisted of ex-convicts, hard core gang bangers, and drug dealers. Nice clothes creased up with handkerchiefs hanging from their back pockets. No expensive suits or ties, but the same shiny Stacey Adams (shoes), and on special occasions nice fedoras. Those were the famous people I grew up wanting to be like. Like police officers, they watched our streets protecting us from enemies that may want to creep. Drinking liquor, smoking cigarettes– I saw it on TV, so isn’t that normal?

 

Between the ages of 11 and 13 years old it dawned on me: I’m the man of the house. My siblings looked up to me, they needed me! A kid myself, what was I to do? Naturally out of frustration, I cried! I was introduced to smoking weed and as they say, I was “high as the sky.”

 

I ended up in the system, Juvenile Hall. There I learned drugs could be sold and young kids like me could be in control. Labeled by the system as delinquents and hoodlums, we did our time. No one came to hug or nurture us. I still recall the District Attorney’s words, “menace, parasitical.” Not knowing what they meant, I looked them up. WOW! I was not a gang member, I was still a kid lost and in search of a way. A big cheeked boy, with puffy hair, who loved playing with his Hot Wheel Cars and thought everything on the TV show “X-Files” was real, and yet I was a parasite. What options did I have but the ones in front of my face that were pretty much handed to me on a platter?

 

In Junior High School I learned joints sold for $5.00. How was a destitute kid going to pass that up? Before I knew it powder milk and Kixx became real milk, frosted flakes with bananas, and even a pop tart every now and then. My poor mother didn’t notice, but my baby brother and sister did, their huge smiles shining when they saw they were having the same thing kids on TV were enjoying. I became a gang member in the eyes of the system because of the neighborhood my family could afford to live in.  I had no choice; I wanted to live in Beverly Hills like the kids on TV. I wanted to go to a school where teachers would educate me and not smell like beer and smoke. To live where my family could attend country clubs or maybe even a book club. Instead, my family went to the Los Angeles County Jail, Chino, Folsom, and San Quentin State Prison. Our clubs were parenting classes, Narcotics Anonymous, and Alcoholics Anonymous. The big city of angels where I’m from was not as heavenly as people think. Young Mexicans like me had no American dream to look forward to.

 

I became a gang member; it was my choice to accept it. I gave it my all, thinking that life would turn out great. Influences, beliefs, and habits took over. I was determined to be the best at it and have it all. I did not see the negativity in that life, at the time I did not think that lifestyle was wrong and that I was hurting my family as well as my community. I made mistakes but by the time I realized it, I was 19 years old with a sixty-nine year to life sentence. I grew into a middle aged man with nothing, no education, an ill mother, and a brain that only recalled all the wrong choices in life that I’d made. I had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

 

In February 2017, my celly came back from the first DEFY Ventures event at Pelican Bay State Prison, and I’ll never forget his words: “I had a great time.” He told me all DEFY offered and did. He said to do the course and get accepted, we had to fill out some forms and write our story and explain why we should be selected. I didn’t want to. I was negative about it. My celly said, “You damn pessimist, just do it.”

 

I did, and I’m thankful to my good friend Gil “the Kat” Garcia for his encouragement. I was accepted. DEFY Ventures has been the best experience of my life.  It’s like I joined a positive gang of ballers. I joined a family that loves me and accepts me for who I am and my past.

 

Fresh out of the SHU (Security Housing Unit) from a month term, I was forced to bear hug dudes of different races/ethnicities. Nope, I thought to myself, about this crazy white girl “Cat.” Not me, she don’t know what I’ve been through or seen. Then she called me out on it. She said we all have our word to allow ourselves to be vulnerable. I’m a man of my word, and I’ve never ranked out so I couldn’t now. I did all my work, but, I must admit, the book DEFY provides us, The DJ, met the floor and wall more than once. I even bit it. Little did I know The DJ was feeding my brain and washing out the bad.

 

DEFY has change my life in so many ways. I thought it was a business course but it was more. I learned how to let go of unnecessary relationships, and practice proper etiquette. I even learned that my mistakes in life could be forgotten and forgiven if I allowed it to happen. I let the process take its course, and I learned so much.

 

I thought that my life had ended because I was sent to prison for life and that I would never experience anything good life had to offer. It’s a trip to say, but because of Defy Ventures and Catherine, I have accomplished what is, so far, my “brag shamelessly story.” I earned my Baylor University, Hankamer School of Business Certificate in career readiness, which came with a sweet graduation picture that made my family proud. They now believe in me.

 

I formulated a business plan and pitched it to venture capital investors, for which I won a semi-finalist certificate in the First Pelican Bay State Prison “Rocket Pitch Competition,” and I was able to bust down and “work out” with my fellow EIT Monte Coss, CEO and Founder of Con Body. Not to mention Barbara, a Billionaire Investor, who also busted down with us and kicked our ass. I mean really, who can say they busted down in an active level 4 yard with a woman billionaire who has no reason to care for them? I can! Believe it, burpees, sweat and no knees on the floor. This woman did a prison work out with us. Thank you Barbara! I’m telling you, tough woman! My graduation, July 22, 2017, is a day I’ll never forget! Although I’ve never been released, I imagine that was the feeling. Gil and I walked up and jumped straight to it, washing up and showering. We were proud of this celebration! Might I add, Gil and I have been good friends for years, so we argue a lot. A lot. Not this day, though, no time for it. I picked up his slack, he picked up mine. No room for being late.

 

When we were all introduced and got past the walk the line exercise, I was left without words. These investors opened up to us as we did to them and they saw us as humans, not prisoners! This has impacted my life. No one has ever donated money to educate me, to better my life till now. I wrote in my letter to be accepted that I would work hard and give it my all if DEFY accepted me because I had something to gain. I gave it my all and my resiliency paid off. DEFY, Catherine, and all the investors changed my life. I’m now a man focused on positivity. I have confidence now, so much that I have involved myself in too many positive programs to count. DEFY brought me closer to my fellow EIT’s, so much so that we all see each other as family. DEFY has accepted me into its academy and their hearts. I’m not religious but Catherine Hoke is a saint in our eyes. She has sparked hope in our hearts, and her love and support is a blessing in my life. I’m so thankful she has crossed the line.

 

Thank you all DEFY staff for all you do for us, you sparked a fire in our dark cave, we all now can see the freedom we never had.

 

WE ARE DEFYING THE ODDS!