Passport Podcast

What does it mean to hit rock bottom? If you are down and out how low does one have to go before there is nowhere else to go, but up? For our guest, Manny Fernandez, his life on the mean streets of the East Bay in-between trips to California's Juvenile Detention Centers led to existing one day to the next without much hope for the future or value for life. After a violent fight over a girl and getting kicked out of his mom's house for the last time, Manny lands back with his drug dealing step-dad, Mike until one afternoon when the Sheriff's Department busts down the door and hauls Mike away to jail. At just 17 years old, Manny finds himself left to squat alone and to live in fear that a rival gang would hunt him down and take his life and that of his family. The presence of violence, drugs, and crime finally catch up with him after a decade of dysfunction and desperation. Until one night when Manny takes a walk around the block that changes his life forever. Listen to Part 2 to hear how he turns his life arou