Richard Cabral Quotes

I grew up in East Los Angeles, which is the biggest population of Mexican-Americans in America. I was born and raised there.

I was one step away from getting my life taken away, whether it was life in prison or being dead on the streets. But I was saved.

Majority of minds are warped into the belief of the only person worth helping is themself.

Your only true obligation in a gang is to be committed and be there when your brothers need you.

I spent my life behind bars, and what people don’t know is getting out of prison is really nerve-racking – you’re not used to society; you’re not used to the world going by so fast – so to step on that lot was quite overwhelming.

I remember my first thing was ‘CSI: Miami.’ I played a Cuban gangster. And that was it. I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t have to clean toilets.’ I could actually dress up and get paid equivalent to that. So that was my introduction into the Hollywood industry.

Through sharing my pain, I can possibly heal your pain. There is no other feeling like it. Money doesn’t compare. This is the true meaning of art.

There’s comes a point when people who have lived a life of crime get tired and want to change.

I’m definitely not joking around on set.

I believe God talks to us in mysterious ways. I knew if I did not pay attention to His message, I was going to do life in prison, or I was going to end up dead.

The lifestyle that I grew up in, it was passed on to me. I didn’t know there was another world.

Art saved my life.

If you grow up on the good side of the tracks, you’re going to belong to something over there. If you grow up on the bad side of the tracks, you’re going to belong to something over there. It’s not rocket science.

The true meaning of an artist/actor is opening my heart to the audience and, at the same time, opening their heart.

As an actor, I draw from myself.

I can’t point my finger on a ‘dream role,’ but the days that I’m able to fulfill the stories of the ‘hood/barrio on film, those will be great days.

I think 98% of gang members in Los Angeles would agree that being a gang is just like being part of a community.

It’s nothing like changing or helping a person find themselves, but who would’ve thought that I would make it to a point in my life where somebody would be naming a damn burrito after me.

Nobody succeeds on their own. Someone has to be there to show them the way, and if you give that experience to a person on the street – a gang member, a prisoner – he might succeed. That’s how it was for me.

Being an artist, being an actor, it’s about telling stories that could heal, that could open up discussion that could make the community better.

My family had been involved in gangs since the 1970s.

My father figures were all gang members.