#308 – Voices of 9/11: Recounting Stories from New Yorkers on the Day (Re-release)
Welcome to a special re-release of the Spun Today podcast, episode #308: "Voices of 9/11: Recounting Stories from New Yorkers." In this episode, we journey back through the eyes and words of everyday New Yorkers as they recount their vivid, personal memories of September 11th, 2001. These are not the polished soundbites of newscasters or politicians, but unfiltered, honest recollections from people just like you—students in classrooms, office workers downtown, and families scrambling to reconnect across a city thrown into chaos.
You'll hear about the confusion and disbelief that swept through classrooms and office buildings, the frantic attempts to connect with loved ones when communication networks collapsed, and the transformation of an ordinary Tuesday morning into a defining moment in history. Through these voices, the complex aftermath unfolds—how the city’s unity and compassion emerged, but also how suspicion, grief, and lingering trauma shaped lives for years to come.
Join us as we explore not only the immediate reactions and long-term impacts of 9/11, but also how these harrowing experiences, foster resilience, and inspire a collective resolve to remember and rebuild. This special episode is a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to endure and find light, even in the darkest of times.
Special thanks to: Jacey Pascasio, my Father Segundo Ortiz, David Ortiz, Janet Ortiz, Yudy Azurdia, Raul Azurdia, Zoila Ortiz, Elaine Almonte & Steven Almonte.
The Spun Today Podcast is a Podcast that is anchored in Writing & Random Rants, but unlimited in scope. Give it a whirl.
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Links referenced in this episode:
9/11: TIMELINE OF EVENTS: http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-timeline
George W. Bush The Night of 9-11-01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbqCquDl4k4
Angel in the Rubble: The Miraculous Rescue of 9/11's Last Survivor: https://amzn.to/4gZfjWm
Elaine Almonte’s Facebook Post: https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100795821199994&id=26304929&set=a.836445090434.2248017.26304929
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TRANSCRIPT
David Ortiz [00:00:02]:
I was 22 years old, and I was working in downtown Manhattan by the seaport.
Zoila Ortiz [00:00:07]:
I was in gym class. I was 17 years old.
Raul Azurdia [00:00:14]:
I was driving normal down the street, and all of a sudden, this—
Raul Azurdia [00:00:26]:
what I thought at the time— some crazy lady ran out the house flapping her her hands, like, asking for help.
David Ortiz [00:00:35]:
It was during the home period of my high school.
Tony Ortiz [00:00:39]:
How old were you?
Elaine Almonte [00:00:41]:
Uh, 15.
Janet Velez [00:00:47]:
I was in high school, but I know it was my first period class that I had, a math class. With Mr. Chan, that was his name.
Jacey Pascasio [00:01:01]:
I was around 10, so I was in 5th grade and we just had started. I was in PS 90.
Speaker J [00:01:09]:
I think I was in Mrs. Setron's class. I think it was a math class, and I took a pass to go to the bathroom, and while I'm coming back, somebody screams through the hallway, yo, did you hear that the, the towers got hit?
Jacey Pascasio [00:01:18]:
Like, what?
Tony Ortiz [00:01:29]:
Cohesion and a sense of togetherness is often a byproduct of turbulent times. That was the case on September 11th, 2001. It remained the case for weeks and even months after. But in time, the unity faded, and in its place, what remained were the seeds of suspicion and mistrust. What is it about these situations that, in the longer term, creates this type of wedge? They create divisions amongst us that splinter out from the very moments that initially brought us together. I suspect it may have something to do with the sense of humanity dissipating, and ideological gains becoming the metric by which we dictate priority and measure worth. Is it just a function of time passing? Some period that varies in length from person to person where we realize that we're okay with not caring as much anymore. When enough time passes, the resemblance between the creation of a Volk community by the Nazis in pre-World War II Germany is indistinguishable from white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:42]:
When enough time passes, the ineptly trained and overzealous acts of the police officers that killed Eric Garner look nothing like the avoidable and relentless police brutality experienced by Rodney King. In time, the foreign policy decisions that led to the military intervention that resulted in unstable regime changes and unintended consequences in countries like Iraq and Libya don't remind us of the same actions taken In countries like Iran, Nicaragua, Venezuela decades earlier. Maybe that's why history tends to repeat itself. In this special edition episode of the Spun Today podcast, you'll hear a collection of firsthand experiences from New Yorkers that lived through the events of that tragic day that is forever stamped in our collective history and continues to make an impression on our day-to-day lives. I'm convinced that it may be our generation's duty to continue sharing these stories, to make sure that no amount of time could ever fog our memories and that we never forget. This first interview is also my first attempt at recording a telephone conversation for the podcast, and the quality isn't the best, especially in the first few seconds where I'm trying to get the levels right. However, it definitely is listenable, and just wanted to give you guys a heads up because there are a couple instances where, being a phone conversation, there's a bit of a lag, and I speak over her, she speaks over me, etc. But it's an important take from the youngest person that I interviewed that experienced 9/11, and I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on the quality.
Jacey Pascasio [00:04:33]:
I feel special. I feel special.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:38]:
Out of everybody that I've interviewed, you're the, the youngest person. So obviously you were the youngest.
Jacey Pascasio [00:04:45]:
Oh, of course, of course.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:46]:
Yeah, you're the baby of the podcast.
Jacey Pascasio [00:04:49]:
Yeah, that's good, that's good. That's nothing bad.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:54]:
Yeah, so it's a different perspective. So obviously you were the youngest.
Jacey Pascasio [00:04:58]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:59]:
When it actually happened. And yeah, how old are you? On 9/11, 2001?
Speaker L [00:05:05]:
Or like what grade were you in?
Jacey Pascasio [00:05:07]:
So I was around, I was around 10, like 10. I was going to be 11 in November. I think I was around like 6th grade. 'Cause I remember that 9/11 happened like one year before we moved to DR. So I was in 6th grade and we just had started. I was in PS 90.
Speaker M [00:05:32]:
Gotcha.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:32]:
Shout out to P.S.
David Ortiz [00:05:33]:
90 in Queens.
Jacey Pascasio [00:05:33]:
Back then. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, so what I remember was that day we were in class and, um, so we were in class. I don't remember what class we were in, but, um, we were there. And when we found out, it was kind of when everything had already happened. So both towers were already hit. Um, so they kind of already knew that it was a terrorist attack.
Jacey Pascasio [00:06:03]:
They, they really didn't think it was an accident at that point.
Raul Azurdia [00:06:06]:
Okay.
Jacey Pascasio [00:06:06]:
Um, so they told us and, um, when we were in class, everybody, you know, everybody wanted to know, the teachers, 'cause they, they already knew it was a terrorist attack. So everybody wanted to know. So they brought in, um, the TVs, like from back in the day when, um, Like the big TVs that were like on the stroller with the VCRs.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:28]:
You used to like roll it in.
Jacey Pascasio [00:06:30]:
Yeah. They like rolled it in though.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:33]:
The VCR in the middle and then they would like push it in like in a—
Jacey Pascasio [00:06:35]:
Yeah.
Speaker M [00:06:36]:
Yeah.
Raul Azurdia [00:06:36]:
I remember those.
Jacey Pascasio [00:06:37]:
Yeah. So they pushed it in and they were like, you know, let's see the news because nobody really knew. And I guess they had to determine at that time too what to do with us because we were in the middle of class.
Speaker M [00:06:48]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:06:49]:
So, um, we thought we turned on the TV and we were watching the news and you know, it was, it was kind of everything happening at that point. So when we were watching the, the TV, like one of the ladies, she was like, oh, you know, did— like one of the teachers, she was like, does anybody have like parents or anything, or anybody that works in the city? You know, and everybody that did raised their hand and said— and there was one of the kids that, that I do not know if both of the parents or one of, I don't know if it was a dad or the mom that worked in, in the Twin Towers actually.
Raul Azurdia [00:07:29]:
Oh, damn.
Jacey Pascasio [00:07:30]:
He was like, yeah, you know, yeah. So, and then when we were watching the TV, that's when they both went down. So, you know, everybody was in shock and that, that kid that was in the classroom, he got really bad because at that point nobody knew anything. So he didn't know, you know, where, Where was his parent at? So he got really bad. So when everybody saw that the towers went down— yeah, because when everybody saw the towers went down—
Tony Ortiz [00:08:02]:
Real quick, they don't— like, obviously they couldn't know at that time, like the teachers and stuff, and everybody was trying to figure it out. But it was crazy to like just, you know, put it on TV in front of all the little kids, and then, you know, obviously they couldn't know that towers were gonna fall. That's crazy. That must have been traumatizing.
Jacey Pascasio [00:08:18]:
Yeah. So yeah, at that time nobody knew that that was gonna happen. They just kind of wanted to get information themselves because, you know, like, who do you call?
Tony Ortiz [00:08:27]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:08:27]:
When that's happening, you know, to like figure out like, oh, okay. And back then, like, exact details, nobody really knew.
Tony Ortiz [00:08:35]:
Exactly. And back then it wasn't like now that, you know, you could just like Google it or go on your phone.
Tony Ortiz [00:08:39]:
Plane number 1 was American Airlines Flight 11. Out of Boston, Massachusetts. It struck at 8:46 AM. Plane number 2 was United Airlines Flight 175, also out of Boston, Massachusetts, and it struck at 9:03 AM. The tower hit by plane number 2 was actually the first to collapse, and it collapsed at 9:59 AM. The remaining tower, which was the first to be impacted, later collapsed At 10:28 AM.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:10]:
Is also my wife.
Jacey Pascasio [00:09:13]:
Yes. And the teacher's like, and the teacher's like, are you sure? Are you sure that was your sister? I'm like, yeah. How did they—
Tony Ortiz [00:09:20]:
when you guys, you guys were inside and then what, they made like an announcement or something and said, okay, everybody line up outside? Or like, how was that? Like, how'd you get from inside?
Jacey Pascasio [00:09:29]:
Um, no, so we were, we were told to stay in the classroom and then while the parents started because they really didn't tell any parents to come and pick their kids up. I guess parents were just doing that on their own, you know, because they were afraid.
Speaker N [00:09:43]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:09:43]:
So when, when they came, they would tell you. So like when Zoila came, they went and they grabbed me and they're like, okay. And they showed me, like, they showed me Zoila from afar and they're like, is that your sister? And I'm like, yeah, that's my sister. And they're like, okay, so you could go with her. And Everybody was kind of afraid because at that time when someone went to pick me up, there was one other plane that was still like flying around and nobody knew where it was gonna hit.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:14]:
The other plane that JC mentioned was one of the other 4 planes that were in play that day. It was United Airlines Flight 93 out of Newark, New Jersey. You all may remember that there was a movie made about it. In short, The passengers realized that their flight was hijacked.
Jacey Pascasio [00:10:31]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:32]:
They tried contacting their families through cell phones, and some were successful. In doing so, they learned of the attacks in New York earlier that morning. They bravely attempted to take back control of the plane from the hijackers, and the hijackers responded by deliberately crash-landing in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Everyone on board died.
Jacey Pascasio [00:10:54]:
Just all day, watching the news, watching everything that happened. Um, seeing everything that happened. And my dad got home super late because he was in the city when that happened. So he got home like at the nighttime.
Tony Ortiz [00:11:11]:
And do you remember like when you guys like spoke to him and you knew that he was like good?
Jacey Pascasio [00:11:17]:
Um, I don't remember that. I think at some point he called my mom and he was like, oh, um, you know, I'm okay. I'm just stuck. Because, um, I think he was just one of the people, because you know how they closed down the bridge and everybody started walking on the bridge? I think he just couldn't get past, you know?
Speaker M [00:11:35]:
Yeah, he couldn't.
Jacey Pascasio [00:11:36]:
So he called and he told us, yeah, he told us that, you know, that he was fine. It's just that he was stuck there. So he's like, I don't know what time, you know, we're gonna get home. But it was pretty much, you know, that and Just like, I remember that night, like you would, you could see that like New York was just, it was just like totally black. Like it was just like sad. Like it was a different atmosphere to what New York City is usually, you know, like day to day.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:10]:
Yeah, it's usually like vibrant.
Jacey Pascasio [00:12:11]:
I guess it really was.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:13]:
Yeah, like it was just like depressed and like the entire city.
Jacey Pascasio [00:12:17]:
Yeah. Yeah. You could just feel everything. And, and at that point, you know, like me, I really didn't know about like terrorists or anything. I think that was the first like time that I kind of knew what it, what it was that I really learned what it was like. I was never in a place where that ever happened, you know? So like we kind of knew about it, but we never experienced it that way.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:44]:
Yeah, definitely not.
Jacey Pascasio [00:12:46]:
So yeah, yeah, yeah. But I know it was something really sad, you know, and to hear all the stories. And I actually never went to the World Trade Centers.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:58]:
Yeah, that's why.
Jacey Pascasio [00:12:59]:
To the towers, I never visited. And I was like, oh damn, like I never got to actually go and see it up close. And so it was really sad, you know.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:11]:
Eso no pasa a nosotros because we take it like living in the city, like we take it for granted because I never went.
Jacey Pascasio [00:13:17]:
Yeah, I went. Go, you don't go and visit. Like, I always saw it from afar, you know, like if we traveled and we saw it from the bridge and we're like, oh, look, look at it from afar.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:27]:
Yeah, like the skyline.
Jacey Pascasio [00:13:28]:
But I never actually— yeah, I never actually went and like, it was like, okay, I went inside of it or I visited or—
Tony Ortiz [00:13:38]:
Yeah, you know, like I had— that's that, you know, father has like an old school, like a VHS tape of one day when he took me and my brother and my mom and we went over there and he has it on video, but I was like 2 or 3 years old, so I don't remember that.
David Ortiz [00:13:53]:
Oh dang.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:53]:
And then, but that was literally the first time.
Jacey Pascasio [00:13:55]:
Oh, so you never went either?
Tony Ortiz [00:13:56]:
No, I never went either, tampoco.
Elaine Almonte [00:13:58]:
Oh dang.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:58]:
Except for that time, which obviously I don't remember. And then, um, yeah, I went afterwards.
Jacey Pascasio [00:14:03]:
And I could— there's probably a lot of people. Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:06]:
To the memorial.
Jacey Pascasio [00:14:08]:
Yeah, I haven't gone to the memorial either. I really want to go though.
Speaker M [00:14:11]:
Yeah, you should.
Jacey Pascasio [00:14:12]:
Um, and to the museum that they did, I really want to go to that. Um, but I bet you there's a lot of people that never went and actually lived here probably for years and never got the chance to go.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:24]:
Yep, exactly.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:25]:
And, um, that's why after that I wound up going to like the Empire State Building and a bunch of places like that.
Jacey Pascasio [00:14:31]:
Yeah, yeah, I know it's good to go and see because, you know, you never know, things like this could happen. Yeah. And, and that's It's something really big, I think, especially like in New York, because even now where I work, like every time that they do a fire drill or any kind of drill, they always mention 9/11. They're always like, you know, remember 9/11 and, you know, don't wear heels or don't wear flip-flops because you never know. Because it's like, look at 9/11.
Raul Azurdia [00:15:03]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:03]:
You might have to run down the stairs.
Jacey Pascasio [00:15:04]:
They always, they always—
Tony Ortiz [00:15:05]:
to the spot where we have to go.
Jacey Pascasio [00:15:07]:
Yeah. Like every single time they always mention 9/11 and I'm like, that's— and it's been how many years now and they still mentioning it. I think that's always going to stay.
Jacey Pascasio [00:15:18]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:18]:
That's like the biggest impact, especially with New York, aside from obviously like all the lives lost and stuff. Like it changed how like we even like act and operate like in work, in everyday life.
Jacey Pascasio [00:15:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. And especially, you know, with all the people that died, you never know in what situation you could be in. It's not like you could choose it, you know, you know, it's always something that's going to be remembered. That's really for sure.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:43]:
You got anything else, J Space?
Jacey Pascasio [00:15:45]:
You know that I was thinking, like I was telling you the other day that, um, that it's, it's something that, you know, our kids are going to be asking us about. And I think like in Facebook, I read one time, I don't know what year it was, but they were like, oh, this is like the first year that Freshmen are going to learn about 9/11 as something that happened before they were born. I was like, damn. Like, I felt old. Damn, I was like, yeah, I was like, damn, I'm old. No, but then I was like, you know, it's something, you know, like years pass by and you kind of didn't feel it and you're like, wow, you know, it's been, Like 16 years already since that.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:35]:
That's crazy.
Jacey Pascasio [00:16:36]:
And it's still a big impact. So yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:38]:
If, if that made the, the official baby of the Spontanei Podcast feel old, then it did happen a very long time ago.
Jacey Pascasio [00:16:46]:
Woohoo! Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, thank you for having me.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:54]:
Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it very much.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:00]:
My father, at 77, is the oldest person that I interviewed for this episode. He has an interesting perspective in that when he first came to this country from the Dominican Republic in the early '70s, he was around and saw much of the World Trade Center construction going on, and he shares that with us here. And if you don't understand Spanish, shame on you.
Speaker M [00:17:26]:
A las 5 de la mañana.
Raul Azurdia [00:17:28]:
A esa hora, por supuesto, estaba todo normal, con los otros trabajadores diciendo lo que tenía que hacer, etcétera. Y de repente, a las 9, ¿verdad?
Speaker M [00:17:41]:
Sí, era como las 9 y pico.
Raul Azurdia [00:17:43]:
Sí, 9:15, por ahí. Cuando en el sitio donde estábamos pues se veía todo perfecto. Porque no habían palos ni nada de lo que era el ejército, el ejército cerquita ahí.
Speaker M [00:17:57]:
Pues donde ustedes trabajaban era un parqueadero, eran todos como garajes, pero que no eran altos.
Raul Azurdia [00:18:05]:
No, no, no. Y además los garajes eran 2 o 3 de más pequeños, los demás parqueaban afuera, como un parking grande. Eso mismo, un parking lot grande. Cuando veamos, yo estaba allá en la parte de atrás chequeando todo y cuando oigo el escándalo allá cerca de la oficina y voy para allá de una vez y veo a Alan que tiene la cabeza así y hace, what? Ya salió de la oficina para que le dijeran lo que estaba pasando. ¿Y qué pasó? Y ahí fue que se pudo ver cuando el segundo avión impactó la otra Torre Gemela. Eso sí lo vimos derechito ahí.
Speaker M [00:19:21]:
Pero cuando subieron la primera vez, ¿cómo cuánta gente subieron?
Raul Azurdia [00:19:26]:
Éramos como 12, pues ya había más gente ahí de los mismos que estaban parqueando y cosas, y subieron algunos de ellos y estaban Cuando subieron se veía mucho humo. Sí, sí, sí, sí, estaba nublado. Y entonces ahí fue que vino el otro avión y ahí comenzó a impactar.
Speaker M [00:19:44]:
Pero, ¿desde cuándo se vio? Primero cuando se sube se ve mucho humo y están ahí mirando, como pues, ¿cuánto tiempo?
Raul Azurdia [00:19:52]:
Y la sorpresa fue cuando llegamos y mirando y todo, cuando veamos el otro avión que viene derechito.
Speaker M [00:19:59]:
Se fue de una vez, subieron y de una vez vino el otro.
Raul Azurdia [00:20:02]:
Claro, fue cosa de un minuto o dos, diría yo. Ya fue una cosa terrible.
Speaker M [00:20:09]:
¿De qué distancia estaba el avión cuando vieron que iba a chocar? ¿Venía de lejos o era nada más?
Raul Azurdia [00:20:15]:
No, porque si hubiera venido de lejos, uno dice, bueno, seguro es un avión que pasaba por ahí cerca o algo, pensaba uno, ¿no? Pero ese no, ese venía ya cerca de la torre, como Como de aquí a la calle. A la calle, exactamente. Y venía derechito, derechito por la otra calle.
Speaker M [00:20:34]:
¿Cuando ustedes lo vieron por primera vez sabían que iba a estrellarse?
Raul Azurdia [00:20:37]:
Oh, seguro que sí, definitivamente. De ahí fue que todo el mundo gritó. Fue terrible. Y nos quedamos un rato ahí arriba y ahí fue cuando habían pasado, yo diría, 15 minutos del primer avión que Y ahí la torre número 1, cuando cayó. Exactamente.
Speaker M [00:21:04]:
¿Ustedes vieron cuando cayó también?
Raul Azurdia [00:21:06]:
Sí, sí, claro, claro. Y cuando cayó la segunda también, fue terrible.
Speaker M [00:21:13]:
Y después de eso todo el mundo para la casa.
Raul Azurdia [00:21:15]:
Sí, Navegala dijo, vámonos, cerremos todo, no hay trabajo hoy. Y nos fuimos. Entonces yo pensé en David, ya que David trabajaba por ahí cerca.
Speaker M [00:21:28]:
Sí, papá de Ecuador.
Raul Azurdia [00:21:32]:
Y ahí fue que yo cogí el carro y fui.
Speaker M [00:21:38]:
¿Pero tú fuiste a la casa?
Raul Azurdia [00:21:40]:
No, no, comencé a llamar primero a David a ver si lo localizaba.
Speaker M [00:21:46]:
Yo estaba en escuela también. Cuando pasó, y para mí estaba, estaba en una clase y entró un profesor a decirle al otro profesor que chocó un avión. Pero pensábamos que era como ha pasado antes, como la gente que tienen aviones de como de un pasajero y que chocan sin querer porque no saben, o un helicóptero o algo así.
Raul Azurdia [00:22:11]:
Claro.
Speaker M [00:22:12]:
Y después se fue y seguimos la clase. Y después, después que chocó Coe segundo, ahí fue, ya vino otra vez el profesor y después nos dijeron que seguro es un ataque, que todo el mundo se puede ir si quiere, si tiene familia por ahí que llamen, que se vayan. Y ahí yo me salí también y cogí para la casa y estaba llamando también a ti, a David, a ti, a David, pero no entraban los celulares porque la Torre Mela tenía la antena de todos los celulares.
Raul Azurdia [00:22:40]:
Exactamente.
Speaker M [00:22:40]:
Nadie se podía comunicar por mucho tiempo.
Raul Azurdia [00:22:44]:
Y yo no sé cómo fue porque yo seguía insistiendo y en una entra David. Entonces yo le digo, desesperado, ¿por dónde vienes, mijo? Entonces me dijo, voy caminando con una amiga todo Atlantis.
Speaker M [00:23:02]:
Pero ya eso era después. Primero tú llegaste a la casa porque después yo llegué también a la casa y no encontramos a él. Y después seguimos llamando a David y comunicamos porque tenía que caminar el puente.
Raul Azurdia [00:23:17]:
Sí, pues salimos después a encontrarlo.
Speaker M [00:23:20]:
Sí, sí, pero ya eso era más tarde.
Raul Azurdia [00:23:22]:
Sí, sí, por supuesto.
Speaker M [00:23:24]:
O sea que duró más tiempo para comunicarse.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:26]:
Sí, sí.
Speaker M [00:23:27]:
Y después fuimos pues adelante porque él caminó el puente con un amigo.
Raul Azurdia [00:23:34]:
Exactamente.
Speaker M [00:23:35]:
Y lo encontramos de este lado.
Raul Azurdia [00:23:36]:
Era terrible eso, uno pensaba todo lo peor. Porque imagínate, según David nos dijo, yo creo que era como a 4 cuadras que estaba trabajando.
Speaker M [00:23:47]:
Sí, por donde yo estoy ahora.
Raul Azurdia [00:23:51]:
O sea, un problema, un peligro además. Y fue una alegría grande cuando, gracias a Dios, Llegamos a la casa.
Speaker M [00:24:03]:
Estamos tontos. Y después de eso, ya un par de meses, era nomás eso en las noticias.
Raul Azurdia [00:24:12]:
Eso era la noticia nomás del día, todo lo que hablaba de eso nada más.
Speaker M [00:24:17]:
Me acuerdo esa noche viendo, esperando que hable Bush, el presidente, para explicar.
Raul Azurdia [00:24:25]:
Y desde ese día entonces comenzó toda la gente, o sea, el mismo gobierno a vigilar, más vigilancia, más policía en la calle, bueno, de todo.
Speaker M [00:24:36]:
Sí, de todos lados.
Raul Azurdia [00:24:39]:
Sí, pero después que eso pasó hubieron de esa misma gente mala en el mundo que pidieron miedo y ahí fue que comenzaron más ataques a en distintos sitios del mundo.
Speaker M [00:24:55]:
¿Cómo vieron que pudieron lograrlo?
Raul Azurdia [00:24:59]:
Algo difícil, ¿verdad? En Nueva York, entonces, en Nueva York.
Speaker M [00:25:05]:
Y eso que nada más fue uno, uno habla más de Nueva York porque estamos aquí y fue el más grande, pero también fue el Pentagon en Washington que cayó un avión ahí y habían como 2 otros, uno que tumbaron, Otro que se escapó por otro lado.
Raul Azurdia [00:25:23]:
Era un ataque que iban a hacer prácticamente para acabar cerca de la presidencia con todo donde estaba, incluyendo Nueva York. Pero fue terrible, eso duró 2 o 3 semanas o meses que nada más se hablaba de eso. Y ahí comenzaron los muertos que habían habido en esos tiempos.
Speaker M [00:25:49]:
3000.
Raul Azurdia [00:25:49]:
Exactamente.
Speaker M [00:25:52]:
¿Y cuánto tiempo? Pues yo creo que no me acuerdo bien, pero creo que cancelan la escuela después de eso para un par de días o para la semana. ¿Y trabajo?
Raul Azurdia [00:26:03]:
No, yo al otro día ya estaba allá. La escuela de la Sierra Romana, todas las escuelas públicas que estaban para allá cerca de Pues yo llegué a trabajar ahí, de los primeros trabajos míos en Chamber Street, donde yo compré ese aparato. Yo trabajaba en Park Place, que queda más pegado de la alcaldía.
Speaker M [00:26:30]:
Ah, estuviste en las Torres Gemelas cuando lo estaban construyendo, ¿verdad? Que tú me dijiste.
Raul Azurdia [00:26:36]:
Claro, mira cómo las Torres Gemelas El parqueadero que hicieron fue de toda la tierra que sacaron del río, o sea, achicaron, el río era grandísimo por ahí y lo achicaron una forma, por ejemplo, este es el río y el terreno y lo pusieron como así y todo eso fue parqueo, o sea, toda la tierra que sacaban para hacer el parqueo grandote que—
Speaker M [00:27:05]:
¿Y la sacaban Porque ahí donde entraron las Torres Gemelas, en la base, sacaron la tierra de ahí y taparon parte del río.
Raul Azurdia [00:27:13]:
Para poder conseguir también parqueadero, porque era difícil en el Bajo Manhattan, no es fácil con tantos edificios y negocios. Así hicieron, sí.
Speaker M [00:27:24]:
Wow, entonces tú viste antes de construir las Torres Gemelas y después viste cómo cayeron.
Raul Azurdia [00:27:29]:
Yo llegué ahí en el carro Por ahí mismo, Riverside Drive. Yo voy a Riverside Drive, que ahí llegaba yo. El Park Place quedaba cerquita de Riverside Drive, como 2 o 3 cuadras. Yo llegué ahí en el carro, así, allá al trabajo.
Speaker M [00:27:50]:
¡Guau!
Raul Azurdia [00:27:53]:
Pero fue terrible, eso fue un momento, una cosa que nadie esperaba eso.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:02]:
All right, so tell me what you remember from that day, from 9/11. What happened? You said you were 22.
Jacey Pascasio [00:28:30]:
I was 22 years old and I was working in downtown Manhattan by the seaport.
Raul Azurdia [00:28:36]:
Doing what?
Jacey Pascasio [00:28:38]:
I was a records clerk at a law firm, a big defense— a big law firm. They did a lot of patent laws. They did a lot of like— a lot of their clients were like big corporations.
Jacey Pascasio [00:28:52]:
So—
Tony Ortiz [00:28:52]:
And it was downtown? Do you remember like the address?
Jacey Pascasio [00:28:55]:
It was downtown by Water Street.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:00]:
So that's like by the seaport?
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:02]:
Mm-hmm, by the seaport.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:03]:
So is that the building that has the cubes? Like it looks like ice cubes, the building? Like the windows and stuff?
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:10]:
No, it's a glass building.
Raul Azurdia [00:29:12]:
Okay.
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:13]:
It's a big glass building. They had 2, they had a few floors in a glass building by Water Street and I, I don't remember the— I don't remember.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:27]:
I always thought for some reason, like when I see it's like a black building that has cubes around there, I always thought for some reason that's where you used to work.
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:33]:
Is it a black building?
Tony Ortiz [00:29:34]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:35]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:36]:
And it's like—
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:37]:
I thought you meant like ice cubes.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:38]:
No, it looks kind of like, like in, like the windows.
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:42]:
I think that might be it. I always can tell—
Tony Ortiz [00:29:44]:
Like a grid, kind of?
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:45]:
I can always tell that building because the building next to it, which is where I really worked at, was a, a gray building.
Speaker M [00:29:55]:
Okay.
Jacey Pascasio [00:29:55]:
It was a gray building next door. So the reason I'm saying it was a big law firm is because they had, um, they had a few floors in that glass building and it was like high up somewhere like in the 40th floor or something like that. And then they had the records department in the building next door, which is where I worked at, on the 2nd floor.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:13]:
So you used to have to go between both? Buildings?
Jacey Pascasio [00:30:16]:
Well, I normally worked in the gray building, but that week, um, I had to cover somebody in the, in the glass building, which is the higher-up one. Yeah, like Dad says, you know, I've always worked really hard and, you know, my bosses recognize that and they give me extra work. Yeah, no, but to the workhorse. Yeah, exactly. So it was September 11th, 2001, and this was when New York had like bare minimum security guards everywhere. And it was like one security guard in the building who I never looked at him, he never looked at me. There was like no relationship, you know? Yeah, you know, I just walked into my building, they never stopped me. And I would— and, and I went up to the second floor.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:57]:
It was like a different world before 9/11. It was a different world.
Jacey Pascasio [00:31:00]:
It was like—
Tony Ortiz [00:31:01]:
I don't think we've even realized like the impact of it.
Jacey Pascasio [00:31:04]:
It was, it totally was.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:05]:
Because it was like a lot more lax And like security was just like, not for show, but it wasn't, it's like now it's like proactive security.
Jacey Pascasio [00:31:15]:
You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. They, they're definitely like, you know, watching out for stuff. Before it was just basically a warm body sitting in the front of the building, you know?
Speaker L [00:31:27]:
So you didn't know—
Jacey Pascasio [00:31:27]:
Basically who you would ask information to.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:30]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:31:31]:
It wasn't like a security desk how it is now. So I walk into—
Tony Ortiz [00:31:35]:
Emma, uh, real quick. I took, I remember once in high school, I took, I cut class one day with a couple friends and we went to, one of them wanted to take a, he had dropped out of high school like the year before and he wanted to take a security guard test. And me, Esrin, and him went to, like went with him and we just signed up and we're like, fuck it, we cut school, let's just take the course anyway. And we wound up, it was like a whole day. course. It was like staying in school.
Jacey Pascasio [00:32:04]:
That's fun.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:04]:
But after that, like, I got to the— like, they literally said, okay, you passed, go to the front desk. And they printed out a certificate, and with that you could apply to like any security job. That's how— like, I was like 17, I think, or something.
Jacey Pascasio [00:32:15]:
Nobody cared? Nobody asked you for anything?
Raul Azurdia [00:32:17]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:32:17]:
Yeah. So, um, so you didn't know him, he didn't know you, the security guard? Yeah. So I'm just, you know, like, mentioning, yeah, how you to be. And then, so I go up to the second floor and I started work, I think like around 8:30. I was probably like a couple of minutes late or something like that. I don't know. But, you know, if I was, it wasn't by much. But, all right.
Jacey Pascasio [00:32:43]:
So I got there like at 8:30. Then, you know, I'm starting my morning and then all of a sudden this kid, I remember, he was like one of those like gentle souls. kind of people. He was always like very soft-spoken. So he walks in and he's like, oh, a plane hit the Twin Towers. And he looked like shooken up. And I was like, man, this guy's probably talking shit. I don't know what he's on right now or whatever.
Jacey Pascasio [00:33:13]:
So I just keep going on with my business. And then somebody else comes in and says, oh, a plane hit the Twin Towers. And then it starts spreading and then, you know, it takes a couple of minutes for, you know, like the information to start circulating. And then—
Tony Ortiz [00:33:30]:
And it was 2001, so it wasn't even, like it wasn't iPhone time yet.
Jacey Pascasio [00:33:35]:
No, it wasn't iPhone time. You'd log in the mornings and—
Tony Ortiz [00:33:39]:
There was no Twitter, there was no—
Jacey Pascasio [00:33:40]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:41]:
There was nothing like as immediate as now.
Jacey Pascasio [00:33:43]:
Right.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:44]:
Like now you hear of anything like what happened in Virginia, like you literally type the word Virginia and videos pop up. Well, you already get alert.
Jacey Pascasio [00:33:53]:
You get an alert on your phone. But back then, I had like one of the early Nokias with the small screen.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:59]:
Yeah, which wasn't a smartphone.
Jacey Pascasio [00:34:01]:
No. For any millennial listeners. And the internet was very new, so, and I was young, so it's not like I was going on there to read the news or anything like that. I remember I used to like chat to one of my coworkers when I used to come in, and it was like through email. I wasn't on the internet as much. So then all of a sudden everybody, you know, whenever there's a panic regardless of what it is, you know, people just get nervous and they just start bouncing around.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:29]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:34:29]:
You know, basically looking for direction or whatever. So I'm seeing, you know, what's going on in there and I'm just like, man, is this really happening? You know, did a plane hit the Twin Towers? And I was just like, you know, I don't know why everybody's so nervous because I think a couple of months before, a Yankee was flying a little plane and he crashed into a building. So I was like, oh, some idiot. He clipped it or something.
David Ortiz [00:34:58]:
Huh?
Tony Ortiz [00:34:58]:
Like he clipped it or something?
Jacey Pascasio [00:34:59]:
Yeah, something like that. And I thought, you know, that's probably what happened.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:04]:
That was a lot of people's first impression at my school too. Like the teacher at my school, a teacher came in to tell our teacher and then the teacher told us and he was like, it's probably just some rich guy that was like coked up and hit, you know, a plane or something. Oh yeah, clipped the building.
Jacey Pascasio [00:35:20]:
That's all I thought.
Raul Azurdia [00:35:21]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:35:22]:
And then, um, like I said, I had to cover, um, in the other building, and I'm not liking the energy in, in the, in the floor.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:31]:
And also, at this point, you're in the second floor building?
Jacey Pascasio [00:35:34]:
I'm in the second floor building.
Raul Azurdia [00:35:35]:
Okay.
Jacey Pascasio [00:35:35]:
So I'm not liking the energy, and I'm just seeing a whole bunch of aimless people wandering around speculating what's going on, and I'm just like, all right, Let me just go— let me go to the other building and see what's going outside in the street to see if I, you know, if I get a little bit of information on my way over to the other building. And when I'm walking, I just see like— I remember there was like a lady crying and a whole bunch of guys just like frozen looking up.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:03]:
In the street?
Jacey Pascasio [00:36:03]:
In the street by my building. And then I'm looking at everybody and everybody looks, again, like really like— was shooking up and nervous and sad. And then, um, I look up and I see like the building is on fire, and I'm like, oh snap, that looks pretty bad. And then—
Tony Ortiz [00:36:20]:
How close are you?
Zoila Ortiz [00:36:21]:
Like how—
Jacey Pascasio [00:36:23]:
I would say like maybe like a good 8 small blocks away, maybe something like that. That was pretty close.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:31]:
I got a good view of it, especially like those buildings, like they're so high up, you could see them They seem closer than what they are, even if you're far away. Like, it's the skyline. You can see it from, like, Queens. You can see the skyline. So imagine 8 blocks away, you're, like, right there.
Jacey Pascasio [00:36:46]:
Especially those 2 huge buildings. I mean, in downtown Manhattan, the buildings aren't that high, as high as, you know, Midtown. So, um, so I see everybody panicking outside in the street, and this is before knowing it's a terrorist attack or anything. I'm just sort of like, all right, So, if I stay out here, it's just a whole bunch of panicked people. So let me just go upstairs, see if I can get a better view, or let me just, you know, let me— actually, no. I said, let me just go upstairs away from like all this commotion. And so I go upstairs and, you know, I start setting up in my room. There was no windows in the office that I was covering.
Jacey Pascasio [00:37:29]:
And then, you know—
Tony Ortiz [00:37:30]:
Before you went out though, did you think like— 'cause at that time you still didn't think it was a terrorist attack.
Jacey Pascasio [00:37:38]:
No.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:39]:
You didn't have like reasons to think that, but you felt—
Jacey Pascasio [00:37:41]:
Yo, everything was peaceful that year. Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:44]:
And did you feel like, you know, obviously it's fucked up, whatever, but it's a fire, you know, they'll put it out and whatever?
Jacey Pascasio [00:37:51]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:52]:
Yeah. That's what I would've thought too.
Jacey Pascasio [00:37:54]:
That's exactly what I thought. And, you know, that year was, you know, Bush's first term, right?
Janet Velez [00:38:02]:
Mm-hmm.
Jacey Pascasio [00:38:04]:
In 2001?
Tony Ortiz [00:38:06]:
I think so.
Jacey Pascasio [00:38:07]:
Or was it his second?
Tony Ortiz [00:38:09]:
I think it was his first.
Jacey Pascasio [00:38:10]:
It was his first term, but I mean, was it his first year?
Tony Ortiz [00:38:13]:
I looked it up. Thanks, Google. And 9/11 did happen during George W. Bush's first year as president. He was inaugurated on January 20th, 2001. 8 months later, we had 9/11.
Jacey Pascasio [00:38:29]:
The rich guy who used to own a baseball team whose dad was the president was the president. And, you know, the Al Gore elections or whatever, everybody was pissed off. But, you know, that Al Gore's— here in New York, Al Gore lost his seat or whatever. But at the end of the day, it was just, you know, some ex-president's son running the country. And he was like a, like a, almost like a lovable idiot in the office. You know what I mean? This was before any problems were going on. You know, the economy wasn't that bad. You know.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:06]:
Yeah, like a lot of the negative connotations that Trump has now, like in terms of like incompetence, but minus the like hatred and bigotry and—
Jacey Pascasio [00:39:13]:
Yeah, the maliciousness of it.
Speaker L [00:39:15]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:39:16]:
nothing like— times was good, the economy was good.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:19]:
Yeah, um, because it was just after Clinton.
Jacey Pascasio [00:39:22]:
Yeah, the economy was good. I was 21. It was like the end of the summer, you know, it was like early September.
Speaker M [00:39:29]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:39:29]:
So it was just like the perfect time in New York. And, uh, what— I forgot why, why I mentioned that.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:37]:
That Bush was in president, it was his first year.
Jacey Pascasio [00:39:39]:
Yeah, so, you know, everything was like— everything was pretty much lighthearted at that point. Um, so then, so then, um, my coworker goes over, goes over to, to me.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:53]:
So you went up already?
Jacey Pascasio [00:39:54]:
I went up. I'm like on the 40-something floor. And he's like, yo, you know, the Twin Towers, you know, got hit and they're saying that it might be a terrorist attack. And I'm like, really? And I'm like, all right, let's go see if we can find a conference room and try to see if we get a good view. So then—
Tony Ortiz [00:40:09]:
There's no TVs and shit in the office?
Speaker N [00:40:11]:
Huh?
Tony Ortiz [00:40:11]:
There was no TVs and shit in the office?
Jacey Pascasio [00:40:13]:
No, no, this was again, 2001. There weren't, I don't think there were a lot of flat screens back then, right?
Tony Ortiz [00:40:19]:
No.
Jacey Pascasio [00:40:19]:
Or if there were, it was, I mean, if flat screens existed, it was like a new technology.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:24]:
True. Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:40:25]:
Um, so anyways, uh, so I'm like, let's go look for a conference room. And we, we look at the conference room. Are you gonna edit this a little bit?
Tony Ortiz [00:40:35]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:40:36]:
Okay, good. So, so we go to the conference room. What?
Tony Ortiz [00:40:40]:
Like, edit what?
Jacey Pascasio [00:40:41]:
No, I'm just like the conversation because I feel like I'm rambling.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:44]:
No, no, good, good.
Jacey Pascasio [00:40:45]:
So, so we go to the conference room and we're looking at the building and we kind of like see a little bit, but we can't see— we can't get a good view of the building. I think we, we saw like, uh, like a, like a little bit of flame or something on one side. And then me and him start talking and—
Tony Ortiz [00:41:02]:
And a lot of smoke at that time?
Jacey Pascasio [00:41:03]:
Yeah, no, there was no smoke yet. So he's like a jittery guy. I think you remember in Francois, he was like a little bit—
Tony Ortiz [00:41:10]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:41:10]:
I don't know, he might've been slow or something.
David Ortiz [00:41:12]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:41:12]:
And not might've been, he had something wrong with him.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:14]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:41:15]:
So he was like very jittery and he was like this tall, wiry guy and he was like, you know, jumping around and stuff. And then, you know, so me and him are talking and then I look back again and all I see is the window's like completely white and I'm like, oh shit, something went down. I don't know, I don't know what's going on. So, so I tell him, you know, let's circle the floor. You go to the left, I go to the right, and then we'll meet halfway and make sure that, you know, we, um, we tell anybody who's in their office to, to go downstairs. There was one person there, I think. It was this one attorney that was there. And then we all go down, and then that's when—
Tony Ortiz [00:41:52]:
You took the elevator?
Jacey Pascasio [00:41:53]:
We took the elevator down, and then we, we go down to the main floor, and there was no—
Tony Ortiz [00:41:58]:
at this time there was There's still no, like, announcements, like the security guard in the building, like nothing?
Jacey Pascasio [00:42:03]:
No, this guy barely had a pulse.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:05]:
Gotcha, okay.
Jacey Pascasio [00:42:06]:
You know, he didn't know what was going on. And you gotta remember, all the firemen in downtown Manhattan were running over there. Like, I'm pretty sure, you know, they weren't busy trying to communicate to the other buildings, you know. I'm not sure, I don't know. Or even if they had the manpower to communicate to all the buildings.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:23]:
True.
Jacey Pascasio [00:42:24]:
But all I know is that nobody told us anything.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:26]:
And this was a new scenario? Yeah, like now, like now they do, they have protocols. I'm sure they do it at your job too, like fire drills and all that shit. The warden, the fire department comes, they make sure, they tell us where to walk in case something happens, blah, blah, blah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:42:39]:
They have it, they have it down to a point where like, they're like, if you get, uh, chemical poisoning and you walk outside the building, you're gonna have to take off all your clothes and then they're gonna— have you heard that instruction?
Tony Ortiz [00:42:49]:
No.
Jacey Pascasio [00:42:50]:
They, they, the fire warden now says that, um, you know, We shouldn't leave the building right away because if we do leave the building and it's a chemical attack, we're gonna have to get completely naked and we're gonna have to be hosed down in order for us to get back into the building. And I'm like, if there's a chemical attack, that's like the least of our problems.
Tony Ortiz [00:43:11]:
The last thing you wanna do is get back to work.
Janet Velez [00:43:13]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:43:14]:
We're like, we're all dead at that point. So then—
Tony Ortiz [00:43:21]:
You guys walking around the building.
Jacey Pascasio [00:43:22]:
So we walk around the building, grab the attorney. And then I don't like seeing people crying, especially when things are bad, because I'm just like, yo, it's not helping. It's not helping. Like, we're just sitting around fucking crying and they could drop other shit on us. So I'm just like trying to gather, you know, like, what are we gonna do? So then, so then I see people in the street like all like disoriented. They must have like went through some shit.
Tony Ortiz [00:43:45]:
How was that elevator ride down?
Jacey Pascasio [00:43:47]:
Quiet.
Tony Ortiz [00:43:48]:
Nobody said shit.
Jacey Pascasio [00:43:49]:
Nobody said shit. And, um, so you walk over, so we walk down and then, and then, you know, we didn't know who the attorney was or whatever, so we just left. But me and, and Francois, we knew each other, so I was like, listen, you know, uh, let's go back to the office and see what's going on. I see everybody like in white and like, you know, they all look scared.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:13]:
Like that powder.
Jacey Pascasio [00:44:13]:
Confused with all that powder on them.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:16]:
And you tell him, let's go back to the second floor office.
Jacey Pascasio [00:44:19]:
Let's go back to the second floor office. And we go over there. And then when I get over there, oh, I see a couple of other coworkers of mine that we used to like hang out during the time. So we were like friends. And I was like, yo, listen, let's all gather all our stuff and then we'll all leave together back to—
Tony Ortiz [00:44:39]:
Back home?
Jacey Pascasio [00:44:43]:
Yeah, back home. And then obviously by the time I went over, like, I don't remember, but I think I was walking and people were crying and stuff like that. And then people were saying that the Twin Towers fell, you know. So I knew already.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:55]:
Did they fall already?
Jacey Pascasio [00:44:55]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:57]:
So then when did the— you didn't see like when the second plane hit or hear it or anything?
Jacey Pascasio [00:45:02]:
No, no, no. I just saw the white smoke in the conference room.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:06]:
And that's probably like when the other one hit?
Jacey Pascasio [00:45:10]:
I don't know. I saw a whole bunch of white smoke and then, um—
Tony Ortiz [00:45:14]:
Because the white smoke was after they collapsed and they collapsed after both of them were hit.
Janet Velez [00:45:18]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:45:18]:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They both must have hit and they collapsed almost at the same time, right?
Tony Ortiz [00:45:24]:
Yeah, I think so.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:25]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:45:25]:
So, so then, you know, after I gather my stuff and I look for a couple more friends, um, you know, I turned around and I'm just like, I asked somebody for the original group of friends, you know, where they were, and they were like, oh, they left a while ago already. And I was like, all right, fuck this, so we're leaving too. And then I remember it was me and, and 2 people, and we crossed the bridge.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:53]:
The Brooklyn Bridge, right?
Jacey Pascasio [00:45:54]:
The Brooklyn Bridge. Um, we weren't too far from there.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:57]:
And I remember when I left school, I was trying to call you because I knew you worked in the city, but I don't know where exactly. And like none of the cell phones worked or anything like that. I was trying to call you, Mom, and Dad. And then I went home, and I think Dad was the first one home. And like we kept trying to get in touch with you, or maybe Mom was home already too. But I think I got home before, before them. I'm not sure, but I know the— I think you were like the last one that we spoke to. And then when we finally got in touch with you, we knew we had to drive to Brooklyn 'cause you were gonna walk the bridge.
Jacey Pascasio [00:46:38]:
Yeah. I finally communicated, like I finally got in communication with you guys and I told you that I was going to Brooklyn. But again, during that time, I wasn't really scared. You know what I was scared of was walking the Brooklyn Bridge 'cause it always scared me. Crossing the bridge, walking walking over a bridge, you know, because of the height. But at that point, like, I, I wasn't scared or anything. I was just like, all right, let me, let me just get home. And I know, I knew you guys were okay because, um, none of you guys worked in the city.
Raul Azurdia [00:47:11]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:47:12]:
And I knew I was okay, so I was like relieved at that point. I'm like, you know, we're all okay, you know. So I was just trying to get home and I was just thinking about like, damn, this is gonna be a long-ass walk. from Manhattan all the way to Queens. So when I got through to you guys, I was just like super happy, like, oh great, I don't have to walk.
Tony Ortiz [00:47:31]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:47:32]:
And then, um, and then you picked— and then you guys picked me up and a friend of mine, right? And then we went, um, like a girl. Yeah. And we went to get, um, you know, we, we came home, I changed, and then we dropped her off.
Speaker J [00:47:46]:
Did you—
Tony Ortiz [00:47:46]:
you had the white shit on you too?
Jacey Pascasio [00:47:48]:
No, no, no, because remember I was up Up on the second floor.
Raul Azurdia [00:47:51]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:47:52]:
Maybe I had a little bit, but I dusted it off. It wasn't like, you know, a lot of it didn't get on me.
Raul Azurdia [00:47:57]:
Mm-hmm.
Jacey Pascasio [00:47:58]:
So then we dropped her off and I remember my eye was bothering me because 2 years earlier I had a paper cut in my eye and that takes years to heal.
Tony Ortiz [00:48:07]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:48:07]:
Because you're always blinking, so it opens up the wound. So I guess the dust and all that, like, like—
Tony Ortiz [00:48:13]:
They fucked it up.
Jacey Pascasio [00:48:14]:
Yeah, irritated it up. So I was just like, I have to go to the doctor and get you know, eye drops. So I went to the same day.
Tony Ortiz [00:48:20]:
The same day?
Jacey Pascasio [00:48:21]:
Yeah, same day. Um, so when— so I made the appointment with the doctor and I went over there and, and, and, you know, he said, well, you know, he started talking to me. That's all everybody was talking about.
Tony Ortiz [00:48:34]:
What doctor?
Jacey Pascasio [00:48:35]:
Um, the eye doctor on Liberty and like past Lefferts, like 123rd. And I guess he was being a doctor and he was just sort of like, you know, making sure I was okay. And he was like, you know, Are you okay? Aren't you nervous? And I was like, I remember I was just like smiling a lot.
Tony Ortiz [00:48:49]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:48:49]:
You know, I was just like, no, everything's okay. You know, it was crazy. You know, I didn't really see much. You know, he, he, uh, switched the subject and started talking about my, um, you know, my name because David Ortiz. And back then David Ortiz, baseball player, baseball. And, um, you know, but basically, uh, I think I was in shock. Because all I remember doing after that was smoking a lot of weed all fall and all winter.
Tony Ortiz [00:49:18]:
Yeah, I remember that. Was that when Steve came from Florida too?
Jacey Pascasio [00:49:23]:
That was—
Tony Ortiz [00:49:23]:
Or was it the summer after that?
Jacey Pascasio [00:49:25]:
Yeah, after that summer.
Tony Ortiz [00:49:25]:
They spent a while there?
Jacey Pascasio [00:49:26]:
Yeah, after that summer, yeah. So, um—
Tony Ortiz [00:49:32]:
After that, all the coverage was like just 9/11 shit nonstop.
Jacey Pascasio [00:49:36]:
So I came home And I just remember like all of this was like all 9/11 and it was— everything was all 9/11 on TV and it was all speculation, you know. They were saying like, I think Obama— Osama's name was being mentioned and Al-Qaeda. But at that point, like, I don't think any American knew who the fuck those two groups were, who that group was or who Osama was.
Tony Ortiz [00:49:58]:
Like it wasn't in like the zeitgeist the way it is now.
Speaker L [00:50:01]:
It wasn't.
Jacey Pascasio [00:50:02]:
And there wasn't a lot of information on them, so it was like basically like CNN and all the other channels who, you know, nowadays you have a lot of news channels, but back then it wasn't as many, but everybody wanted to be a news channel. So it was just like a lot of like unprepared reporters trying to report a story about 2 buildings falling and we don't know anything about what happened.
Tony Ortiz [00:50:24]:
Yeah, and everybody, I remember waiting, like anticipating Bush's speech because at that time it's like, and even now, like if something like that would go down, like the country looks to the president for, like, all right, you guys have the answers, tell us what the fuck is going on.
Jacey Pascasio [00:50:39]:
Right. So, at that point, like I said, yeah.
Tony Ortiz [00:50:43]:
Especially at that time when information is less scarce— is more scarce.
Raul Azurdia [00:50:48]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:50:49]:
Yeah. Everybody was unhappy of the fact that, you know, Al Gore lost the election. So then, at that point, I was just like, oh boy, look. Everything was okay, you know, this guy won the election. And I was sort of like thinking like, it's only gonna be 4 years. He's a bumbling idiot. There's nothing going on in the world, whatever. But then September 11th happened and then I remember I'm just like, alright, we gotta wait for the president to talk.
Jacey Pascasio [00:51:15]:
What's he gonna say? And then he started talking about like he was gonna wage war on—
Tony Ortiz [00:51:23]:
Wage war?
Jacey Pascasio [00:51:24]:
Yeah. on Islamic terrorists, terrorism, or something like that, or something about— I forgot what his speech was, but it was very harsh on some like, shit's about to go down now, you know.
Tony Ortiz [00:51:37]:
I'm gonna try to find it and put it, drop it into the episode. I don't remember it though.
Speaker N [00:51:42]:
Good evening. Today our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices— secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings fires burning, huge, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat, but they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.
Speaker N [00:52:47]:
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world, and no one will keep that light from shining. Today our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could. Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Our military is powerful and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C. to help with local rescue efforts.
Speaker N [00:53:48]:
Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks. The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington, which had to be evacuated today, are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well. The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks.
Speaker N [00:54:48]:
And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism. Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me.
Jacey Pascasio [00:55:35]:
Amen.
Speaker N [00:55:36]:
This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you. Good night, and God bless America.
Jacey Pascasio [00:56:06]:
Well, all I remember is after I heard him say that, I was just like, oh, like shit's about to get real. Yeah, because I was just like, you know, um, back, back then before we, we started like the war on terror, it was basically like, all right, a bad guy did something, you fucking grab the bad guy and you lock him up and that's it, it's over. But he was on some like, you know, we're going to go after nations or whatever that, that, that supported terrorism.
Tony Ortiz [00:56:36]:
It was more instead, instead of like a clear objective, it's— it opened it up to like going after an ideology, which which is a never-ending shit.
Jacey Pascasio [00:56:43]:
Right. And then I was just like, wow, this is bad and this isn't gonna end for a long time because I just remember thinking that. And you know, back then I was smoking pot, so I just remember like getting high thinking like—
Tony Ortiz [00:56:54]:
Going off into tangents and shit.
David Ortiz [00:56:56]:
Huh?
Tony Ortiz [00:56:56]:
Going off into like tangents.
Jacey Pascasio [00:56:58]:
All I remember was thinking was, all right, this isn't gonna be one of those like clear-cut, like 1993, there were guys tried to blow up the Twin Towers and They got arrested and they're in jail. This was like, you know, the president's talking about war.
Tony Ortiz [00:57:13]:
It's gonna be an open-ended thing.
Jacey Pascasio [00:57:14]:
Yeah, and I was just like, oh man, this is some fucking shit.
Tony Ortiz [00:57:18]:
And he's the one behind the wheel as opposed to Al Gore, which seemed more composed and presidential.
Jacey Pascasio [00:57:22]:
Yes, that's exactly what I felt. And I was just like, this bumbling idiot is talking about war and this isn't gonna end for a long time and this is gonna change the course.
Tony Ortiz [00:57:34]:
Of everything.
Jacey Pascasio [00:57:35]:
Of everything. And that's what I was That's what I was thinking and then I was just like so disappointed. And remember we went to the Rage Against the Machine concert?
Raul Azurdia [00:57:42]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [00:57:43]:
So I was listening to them a lot and I was just like so anti-government at that point because I'm just like, these idiots are going to war on a religion and an ideology which is like half the planet. And it shouldn't have gone down like this because Al Gore wouldn't have taken that stance.
Tony Ortiz [00:58:02]:
True.
Jacey Pascasio [00:58:03]:
was a pussy even when he was campaigning. That was his problem. He was like, not an emotional guy or whatever.
Tony Ortiz [00:58:13]:
And Bush was all— He was almost two-measured.
Jacey Pascasio [00:58:15]:
Yeah, Bush was like all—
Tony Ortiz [00:58:16]:
Cowboy.
Jacey Pascasio [00:58:17]:
Yeah, fuck this, let's blow 'em up. And that's what I remember about that day and the following day, just being very like, disappointed and sad about where things were going.
Tony Ortiz [00:58:36]:
It definitely changed the course of everything.
Jacey Pascasio [00:58:38]:
It did. It definitely did. Oh, this is something I was thinking about today because I knew you were gonna record, but this is— remember that analogy that Obama said about being a president is sort of like Football? Not football, but like sort of like a ship at sea where like you hope to, you know—
Tony Ortiz [00:59:05]:
Turn it like 1 or 2 degrees.
Jacey Pascasio [00:59:06]:
1 or 2 degrees and then eventually it'll end up in a different, you know, it'll change the course of the ship but not by much.
Tony Ortiz [00:59:15]:
And it doesn't seem like much initially, but in the long term, that 1 or 2 degree difference is like—
Raul Azurdia [00:59:20]:
Right, is huge.
Jacey Pascasio [00:59:23]:
So, I was thinking about that back in 2001 where if Al Gore was in office, I don't think we would have gone into those wars. And we ended up going into those wars. And 15 years later, there's still the talk about hating Muslims. And a lot of people, including our friends, talk about to this day, like, these fucking Muslims with their ideology and so forth. And it's funny to see like somebody like Trump now in office who's still talking about, you know, negatively about groups, but now he's expanding it to like Blacks and Hispanics.
Tony Ortiz [01:00:04]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [01:00:05]:
But it's that same— that ship that was steered a couple of degrees, now all of a sudden, you know, more people have problems with that kind of ideology because now he's talking about You know.
Tony Ortiz [01:00:17]:
He exacerbated it more. Yeah, and like Obama reined it in afterwards.
Jacey Pascasio [01:00:20]:
He did rein it in.
Tony Ortiz [01:00:22]:
And then it just got exacerbated again.
Jacey Pascasio [01:00:23]:
And Obama, you know, not enough is said about his credit of absorbing a lot of racism because, you know, he took the high road on a lot of things, you know, where he could have been snapping like Trump. You know, when they were calling him a liar during his national address and, you know, just all All the races. I mean, even Trump, when he was asking for his, uh, proof of birth certificate and so forth, they always took everything with a high road.
Tony Ortiz [01:00:54]:
And, you know, and just like the, the— I remember if it was Mitch McConnell, I want to say, like, whoever the leader of the, the, uh, Republican Party was, like the House, they literally said our objective for the next 3 years is to make sure that nothing, nothing It was also Agent Orange, um, what's his name?
Jacey Pascasio [01:01:16]:
Um, damn, I forgot his name. Dad hates him. He was a heavy smoker. I forgot his name, but he was also very tanned.
Speaker M [01:01:26]:
Yeah.
Jacey Pascasio [01:01:27]:
He was orange. Look, you notice how Trump is not as tanned anymore?
Raul Azurdia [01:01:30]:
Mm-hmm.
Tony Ortiz [01:01:31]:
But you know, that's supposedly makeup that he puts on and everything.
David Ortiz [01:01:35]:
I don't know.
Tony Ortiz [01:01:36]:
Yeah, that's weird though. Yeah, exactly.
Jacey Pascasio [01:01:38]:
But I mean, you know, he's—
Tony Ortiz [01:01:39]:
He's a celebrity.
Jacey Pascasio [01:01:40]:
He's a celebrity. He's not a politician, you know? So, I mean, are you surprised when you see the Kardashians always putting makeup on and coming out with their colored eyebrows and stuff like that? That's just what they do. But, again, back to what I'm saying, what Obama said definitely has relevance where now you have this president in here—
Tony Ortiz [01:02:06]:
Who's not measured. He's not composed.
Jacey Pascasio [01:02:09]:
And he's still talking that hate shit about, you know, hate is—
Tony Ortiz [01:02:13]:
At a higher level too.
Jacey Pascasio [01:02:14]:
Yeah, blaming, blaming, blame groups for, you know, the problems that we have in this country and so forth. Like back then in 2001, I think that was very irresponsible to say like, all right, Islam, we're going after Islam. Like, you know, not all of them are terrorists, you know? And again, like I said, 17, 16 years later, we have President Trump over there, except now he's widening it up to a lot of other minorities.
Tony Ortiz [01:02:42]:
Mexicans, Hispanics, Blacks, Muslims still.
Jacey Pascasio [01:02:46]:
Yeah. So that's what I was thinking about today.
Tony Ortiz [01:02:51]:
Yeah, that's true. That's a good point.
Jacey Pascasio [01:02:53]:
That's it.
Raul Azurdia [01:02:54]:
All right, yo.
Jacey Pascasio [01:02:55]:
Thanks.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:01]:
Okay, Miss Velez.
Janet Velez [01:03:03]:
Hello.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:05]:
So say, say something. Let me just make sure it's working.
David Ortiz [01:03:07]:
Hello.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:08]:
All right, so on 9/11, what do you remember from that day? And like, where were you? How old were you, if you remember?
Janet Velez [01:03:17]:
Oh, what year was that? I think I was in high school.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:24]:
Um, junior year, senior year, junior year.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:29]:
For me, I think it was junior.
Janet Velez [01:03:32]:
Junior?
Speaker M [01:03:32]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:03:33]:
So it was either for me junior or sophomore year.
Raul Azurdia [01:03:37]:
Okay.
Janet Velez [01:03:37]:
But I know it was my first period class that I had a math class with Mr. Chan. That was his name. And I love math, but I just didn't love it at first period in the morning.
Tony Ortiz [01:03:50]:
Yeah, too early for that.
Janet Velez [01:03:54]:
to be excused to use the restroom. And as soon as I stepped out of the hallway, I saw my friend Louis. And he told me if I saw the Twin Towers. And I told him, no, I didn't. And he was like, oh, come with me. He goes, the Twin Towers are on fire. But I thought he was joking because he's normally a jokester. So I followed him into the staircase of a corner of our high school on the 5th floor.
Janet Velez [01:04:30]:
And as I looked out the window, I just saw one of the tall buildings and it just looked like a puff of smoke on top of it.
Tony Ortiz [01:04:41]:
What high school?
Janet Velez [01:04:43]:
New Utrecht High School. So it's by, um, Fort Hamilton, um, down that— but it's in, uh, what is that called? Bensonhurst.
Speaker M [01:04:52]:
Okay.
Jacey Pascasio [01:04:53]:
Right?
Tony Ortiz [01:04:53]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:04:54]:
Um, and, uh, and all I saw was like a, a puff of smoke, and I only saw one building. Um, so I told him, I said, are you sure it's not the Empire State Building and not the Twin Towers? Cuz there's only one building and it's on fire.
Tony Ortiz [01:05:10]:
So at that point it had already fallen.
Raul Azurdia [01:05:12]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:05:12]:
And I didn't realize that because— so I, um—
Tony Ortiz [01:05:16]:
Was it all— was it black smoke or like that white?
Janet Velez [01:05:19]:
No, it was just a, like a dark black smoke. Um, and, uh, I was, I was just like, you know, I was in high school, so I was kind of naive and vain. Like, I was just like, oh my gosh, man, that's crazy. That, that was my only thought. And then I was just thinking, oh, I get to go back to my class and announce it, you know?
David Ortiz [01:05:43]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:05:44]:
'Cause I didn't know how serious it was. So I go back into my class and I just kind of said, oh, by the way, the Twin Towers are on fire. And my teacher just—
Tony Ortiz [01:05:57]:
To the teacher or like the whole class?
Janet Velez [01:05:58]:
To the whole class, including the teacher. And my teacher just was like, Whatever.
Tony Ortiz [01:06:04]:
What the hell are you talking about?
Janet Velez [01:06:05]:
Sit down. And no more than 2 seconds after I said that, um, over the loudspeaker came on and they said that there was a terrorist attack on America and, um, 2 planes crashed into the, the Twin Towers. And all I remember was looking at my teacher's face and he was in shock. And I didn't, you know, we as the students in the class, you know, we were young, so we just, we didn't really understand exactly—
Tony Ortiz [01:06:41]:
Like the impact of what was going on at the time.
Janet Velez [01:06:43]:
Yeah, what was going on. So we were just like, okay. But by the reaction of our teacher's face, we knew it was something serious.
David Ortiz [01:06:52]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:06:52]:
But we didn't know how serious. And after that period, Everything was chaos in the school. Teachers looked—
Tony Ortiz [01:07:00]:
Did you guys finish that, the rest of that class or that period, or?
Janet Velez [01:07:04]:
We did, but after, after that happened, it kind of is a blur. All I know is that no one could concentrate after that. The teachers all looked kind of panicked, and all I knew is that I was trying to find my way to my best friend, because after that I had gym. So I made my way to the gym, and it was chaos. There were— all I saw were children crying, like my students crying and teachers crying and other teachers consoling. And my gym period became like a Just an area for people to gather instead of, like, classes, presuming, like, as usual. So, I just took that time. I actually found my best friend, and she said, listen, her mom called the school and said she wants her daughter, myself, and another friend of ours, because we all lived around the corner from each other, to go home.
Tony Ortiz [01:08:14]:
Um, so she called your friend, like, she had a cell phone or—
Janet Velez [01:08:17]:
Um, no, she got in touch with the school.
Speaker M [01:08:20]:
Okay.
Janet Velez [01:08:20]:
And the school got in touch with, uh, Adiba. And then Adiba found myself and she's found, um, our friend Lavon. And, uh, and she said, listen, my mom said we gotta go, so we need to go. And I was like, all right, we'll leave in school early then, that's fine. And, uh, when we left school, we were heading— the trains weren't working. So—
Tony Ortiz [01:08:47]:
How far was your commute? Like—
Janet Velez [01:08:49]:
Normally our commute is about an hour.
Jacey Pascasio [01:08:55]:
Damn.
Janet Velez [01:08:55]:
So, um, to get to our school, we would have to take the bus to the train and transfer to another train. So we had to take 2 trains and a bus.
Tony Ortiz [01:09:05]:
What trains? Do you remember?
Janet Velez [01:09:07]:
I would take the 41 bus to the 2 train or the 5 to Atlantic and then transfer to the, the D train or the M during that time, you know, any of those to 79th Street, New Utrecht Avenue. That was the stop. So, but being that the trains weren't working, we had to get on the bus.
Tony Ortiz [01:09:31]:
Did they say the trains weren't working? Or you guys like went in and waited for one?
Janet Velez [01:09:35]:
I forgot. Um, I, I believe it was one of the teachers or one of the security guards at our school that, that warned us that there was no trains running at the time, um, and that our best bet to getting home was to get on a bus. So I know that when we got to the bus stop, it, it didn't even look like a bus stop. It just looked The entire street was covered with people and buses weren't stopping and they were just passing by us.
Tony Ortiz [01:10:11]:
Were they full or empty?
Janet Velez [01:10:13]:
Some were full, some were empty. Everyone just looked confused. There were a lot of adults there and we could see the smoke and the debris from from the, uh, the towers falling in our area.
Speaker J [01:10:30]:
Damn.
Janet Velez [01:10:30]:
And when I, I started seeing that, and slowly it was like hitting me, like something serious is going on, but we didn't know, you know, how serious it was. We somehow got a, uh, got into a bus, and, um, as soon as I got home— it was a long bus ride home— but as soon as we got home Um, I just remember opening the door and seeing my oldest sister Rosemary sitting on the couch.
Tony Ortiz [01:10:58]:
So you wanted to go into your house instead of Diva's house?
Janet Velez [01:10:59]:
Yeah, I just went to my house because, uh, Diva lived around the corner.
Raul Azurdia [01:11:03]:
Okay.
Janet Velez [01:11:03]:
So, um, we just knew that we had to get home.
Tony Ortiz [01:11:06]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:11:06]:
So, um, when I went home, I saw my oldest sister Rosemary sitting on the couch watching TV and just crying. And as soon as she saw me, She ran to me and gave me a hug, and she was just like, it's so horrible, Janet. And that's when I saw it on TV, and they just were showing how, um—
Tony Ortiz [01:11:31]:
Like the coverage of what happened?
Janet Velez [01:11:32]:
Yeah, the coverage of the, the building, of the people falling, and, uh, the plane. Oh, it was just— and that's when it hit me, like, oh my goodness, like something serious happens, where so many people, like, are dying and are injured. And so I was just— I, at that point, I just was kind of shocked, and I didn't know what to feel. And I just had, like, a flood of emotions and thoughts of, oh my God, is my family okay? Like, that's when it became real to me. And I was like, okay. And so me and my sister started planning out, where's Michael? Where's Rosa? Where's my sister? Where's my brother? Where's my, my mom, my dad, my aunts?
Tony Ortiz [01:12:22]:
Nobody else was home at that time?
Janet Velez [01:12:23]:
No one else was home. It was just us. So we decided— and our phones weren't working— and so when we decided to, um, to go to the corner payphone and try to reach some, some of our family members, and as we went to the payphone, pay phones, we're like trying to call, and it was just like—
Tony Ortiz [01:12:43]:
Damn, that's something else that you don't, you don't see much anymore.
David Ortiz [01:12:46]:
Oh, pay phones were great.
Tony Ortiz [01:12:47]:
That's true, I forgot about that.
Janet Velez [01:12:49]:
They were everywhere, and now they're practically nowhere that you can really find them. And every here and there in the subway I see them.
Tony Ortiz [01:12:57]:
But yeah, for younger listeners, those were phones that were in the street that you put a quarter in and you could use like a landline.
Janet Velez [01:13:04]:
Public phones. phone booths.
Raul Azurdia [01:13:07]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:13:07]:
They don't have that anymore. So, um, and when— so while we were calling, I happened to look across the street and I saw this, um, this morena walking, and she was covered in ashes and, uh, and dust, and her face, it just looked dead. And that's when I think that, that, that image of seeing her and seeing like just her looking lost and confused and zoned out, that bothered me so much cuz it just looked like she saw something horrible and, um, and unimaginable. And we couldn't, you know, we couldn't figure it out cuz we're just seeing what we're seeing on TV and we weren't even there. So—
David Ortiz [01:13:58]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:13:59]:
Um, I just, I, my sister was on the phone speaking to, I, I believe it was my dad. Um, just to make sure he was okay cuz he worked out in the city. And at that time I had no concept of where exactly the World Trade Center was compared to my dad's job in Harlem, you know?
Tony Ortiz [01:14:18]:
Yeah, true.
Janet Velez [01:14:19]:
So I didn't know the difference. I just knew it was in the city and I wanted to make sure my dad was okay.
Tony Ortiz [01:14:23]:
That's how I was with, with David. Like, I knew he worked in the city, but I didn't know where or how close or whatever.
Janet Velez [01:14:27]:
Yeah, exactly. So, um, after that, I, I don't remember really much of the rest of the day. I just knew that everyone that, um, all of my family were safe, and that's kind of what mattered to me. But just the images on television, um, just over and over, like, over Yeah. It was just like days and weeks after. Um, that really bothered me. And I, um, and I just, I remember going, um, coming home from school that, that week, later on in that week or the previous week or after. And, um, just remembering a guy reading the newspaper and you just see the Twin Towers and the smoke and he's just reading.
Janet Velez [01:15:16]:
And then he just breaks down.
Tony Ortiz [01:15:17]:
Like on the COVID of the paper?
Janet Velez [01:15:18]:
Yeah. On the COVID of the paper. And he just breaks down and starts sobbing on the 2 train, like a few stops before the last stop, uncontrollably. And that just sent out like a ripple effect of sobs throughout the entire cart.
Jacey Pascasio [01:15:34]:
Damn.
Janet Velez [01:15:35]:
It was like no one was saying anything and you just heard cries.
Tony Ortiz [01:15:38]:
And like everybody knew what it was about.
Janet Velez [01:15:40]:
Yeah, exactly. And, and in my school, my school is, pretty diverse, even though it was in a very white neighborhood. We had a lot of— we had whites, blacks, Hispanics, and we also had a lot of Arabs, which were, you know, it wasn't— it never seemed like a racist school until that happened.
Tony Ortiz [01:16:05]:
Then everybody started turning on people.
Janet Velez [01:16:08]:
And then everyone who was friends with some— one of the Arab kids like just completely blocked them off. And we had to have— 'cause there were a lot of students who had parents and uncles who worked at the World Trade Center, and so they all lost a lot of— there were a lot of students who lost. So they had to send—
David Ortiz [01:16:31]:
Wow.
Janet Velez [01:16:32]:
Therapists into our school, and we had like therapy sessions during class. for the following month. And during that class, they allowed students to express themselves. And there were a lot of, like, of the Arab kids who were just saying how sad and hurt they are by the events and also by how people have been treating them in the school and in their neighborhoods.
Tony Ortiz [01:17:00]:
Because they had absolutely nothing to do with it, but— Like Arabs as a whole, they got the brunt of like everything.
Janet Velez [01:17:05]:
Exactly.
Tony Ortiz [01:17:06]:
Even to this day, like, yep, people always like look twice.
Janet Velez [01:17:09]:
And it was that, that really bothered me, just to see the, the separation. And all of a sudden it just became, you know, they became segregated.
Tony Ortiz [01:17:20]:
And that was like the beginning of the divide.
Janet Velez [01:17:22]:
Yeah. And we were all like friends with them, every, you know, everyone was friends and everybody was friendly, and then they were just, you know, sad because everyone started treating them differently. And then people were voicing their opinions about how they feel, what they— with what they think, or, um, it was just— it was a hard time because I was still trying to understand fully what exactly happened. And then also dealing, even though I wasn't physically there, like, you still— Like we were still impacted by the events that happened, you know.
Tony Ortiz [01:17:59]:
It was like our city, you know.
Janet Velez [01:18:00]:
Yeah, exactly. It happened to us. And I remember I wrote a poem. I don't— I have it somewhere. Yeah, after I—
David Ortiz [01:18:08]:
I—
Janet Velez [01:18:08]:
because it just bothered me so much and I didn't understand what was going on and I didn't understand why, um, why we were attacked and why were people so angry, you know.
Tony Ortiz [01:18:18]:
If you find it, let me know. And if you want, I'll read it. Like a podcast or whatever.
Jacey Pascasio [01:18:21]:
Okay.
Jacey Pascasio [01:18:22]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:18:22]:
Um, it might be a little, it might be, it might be a little religious.
Speaker M [01:18:27]:
Yeah.
Janet Velez [01:18:28]:
Because I, you know, I was like, what was I? I was, it's like 16, 17, somewhere around there. Yeah. So I just had started going to church and pro God and, you know, so I was like very much into all of that, but I was at the same time completely confused.
Tony Ortiz [01:18:46]:
Lost and looking for direction.
Janet Velez [01:18:47]:
Yeah. Exactly, and that really didn't help, you know?
Speaker J [01:18:52]:
No.
Janet Velez [01:18:52]:
So that time was just very dreary and sad because, and for the few years even after that, because it was just like every, even till now, every year they play the memorial. And I was getting it from in school, in the neighborhood, in church, you know, everybody was talking about it 'cause one of the ladies, the last survivors, that they pulled out of the rubbish, she went to my church.
Tony Ortiz [01:19:20]:
Oh damn.
Janet Velez [01:19:20]:
And so she was sharing her story and she was on TV and all of that stuff. And so we were constantly—
Tony Ortiz [01:19:28]:
What kind of things would she say about it?
Janet Velez [01:19:31]:
She was, you know, she, that experience for her was how, what brought her to church and made her, began her journey, like, seeking God and seeking Jesus because there was— she said that there was a voice there when she was— I think, I believe she was going down because she worked in the World Trade and she was going down the stairs when the tower fell. And it was just silence and she was there for hours. And then there was someone there, I believe she said his name was Michael, who was talking to her and holding her hand throughout the whole thing and saying that we're gonna get you out.
Tony Ortiz [01:20:20]:
She was trapped?
Janet Velez [01:20:20]:
She was trapped under the rubble. And she said that she heard a voice saying someone was gonna— she was talking to someone and saying— and he was just encouraging her to keep holding on, that she's gonna get out. They're gonna definitely get her out. And they actually did get her out. When she got out, she was asking for, for the guy, and they're like, there was nobody here. Like, you know, we just got here. There was no one else here.
Jacey Pascasio [01:20:49]:
Damn.
Janet Velez [01:20:50]:
And because of that, that got her to start going to church. So it was everywhere. Like, no matter where we were going, I heard stories for, for years about what happened at 9/11 and how it affected them, how, you know, so it was just, I don't, you know, I, I think it's a very sad time and it was also very disturbing at the same time. So I really don't like to think about it. Like everyone talks about sharing 9/11 stories, like, oh man, I was alive.
Tony Ortiz [01:21:26]:
Sorry.
Jacey Pascasio [01:21:26]:
Sorry.
Tony Ortiz [01:21:27]:
Sorry for asking you to do this.
Janet Velez [01:21:29]:
No, no, no, no, it's fine. I mean, I'm just saying like now, you know, it's been years, so it's like easier to talk about. But during that time, I just felt like a lot of people were just using it as like a podium just to speak.
Tony Ortiz [01:21:42]:
Plus it was like everywhere.
Speaker L [01:21:44]:
Everywhere.
Tony Ortiz [01:21:44]:
Like inundated with it, like all around 24/7.
Janet Velez [01:21:47]:
Yeah. You know, so, you know, that's kind of where I was and what I was experiencing during that time, you know?
Tony Ortiz [01:21:54]:
All right.
Tony Ortiz [01:21:55]:
Cool, thank you very much.
Janet Velez [01:21:56]:
No problem.
Tony Ortiz [01:22:02]:
Ya estamos grabando.
Tony Ortiz [01:22:04]:
So Judy Rosa, no, okay, excuse me, Asurdia.
Tony Ortiz [01:22:12]:
Judy Asurdia, so dime, ¿a dónde tú estabas when 9/11 happened?
Elaine Almonte [01:22:18]:
Bueno, ese día yo recuerdo que me levanté temprano, llamé a mi mamá que vivía aquí en Queens. Yo vivía en ese entonces en Toms River, New Jersey, y la llamé para saludarle, saber cómo se encontraba. Estaba hablando con ella en el teléfono y me dice, Oh, Judy, espérate un momento que tengo otra llamada de mi hermana que me llama de Massachusetts.
Tony Ortiz [01:22:47]:
Y ella, tú dices, ella estaba enferma.
Elaine Almonte [01:22:49]:
Sí, en ese tiempo ya estaba enferma. Yo la llamé para saber cómo ella estaba, cómo había amanecido, porque le dieron su quimioterapia el lunes. Yo recuerdo que ese día era martes y me dice, espérate un momento que tengo otra llamada. Y yo le dije, ok. Contestó y Luego pasó como 2 minutos y me dice, ay, Judy, por la noticia que pasó algo aquí en New York, en Manhattan. Y yo le dije, guau, ¿qué pasó? Dice, me dijeron que parece que hubo, no sé, un accidente, un avión se estrelló con la Torre Gemela. Bueno, yo Puse la noticia. Cuando yo prendí el televisor, totalmente quedé confundida, no sabía qué estaba pasando.
Elaine Almonte [01:23:51]:
Me dio un dolor tan grande porque yo pensaba que era mentira, que era como una película, un sueño, una pesadilla. Yo dije, guau, ¿qué estará pasando?
Speaker M [01:24:00]:
Todo el mundo estaba como en shock.
Elaine Almonte [01:24:02]:
Yo quedé, guau, no puedo creer esto. Bueno, me senté a ver la noticia. Cuando yo estaba viendo la noticia, luego veo el segundo avión que viene y se estrella con la otra torre. Yo digo, no, pero ¿qué será lo que está pasando? Yo pensaba que era un accidente, pero ya el segundo, y ahí todo el mundo se dio cuenta. Ahí yo dije, no, algo tiene que estar, eso no puede ser un accidente, eso es a propósito. Bueno, yo estaba sola en la casa. Lo que hice fue que me monté en mi carro y salí de la casa porque tenía miedo, porque dijeron que había otro avión que estaba desaparecido y no sabía a dónde iba. Y yo dije, oh my God, yo sé que yo estaba en New Jersey, pero a la vez me sentía cerca de New York también.
Elaine Almonte [01:24:55]:
Yo dije, uno nunca sabe. Cuando yo salí afuera, que me monté en el carro, veo que hay un helicóptero Y yo dije, no, Dios mío, no puede ser que esto se va a estrellar aquí también. Porque uno cuando pasa algo así no sabe cómo reaccionar. Lamentablemente eso fue algo que en mi vida, yo primera vez que escuché que fue un atento, un atentado de terrorismo.
Zoila Ortiz [01:25:25]:
De terrorismo.
Elaine Almonte [01:25:27]:
Uno no le pasa por la mente eso. Fue algo nuevo para mí y me imagino que para todo el mundo en ese tiempo.
Tony Ortiz [01:25:37]:
Uno no hallaba qué pensar.
Elaine Almonte [01:25:39]:
Cuando, cuando eso, cuando eso pasó, que yo vi que esos dos aviones se estrellaron contra la torre, me dolió. Pero cuando esas torres se colapsaron, fue como que Me puse a llorar histéricamente porque fue algo que yo crecí viendo desde pequeña. Acabaron, lo destruyeron. Y saber que había tanta gente ahí trabajando y uno sin poder hacer nada por ayudar, eso fue algo terrible.
Tony Ortiz [01:26:17]:
¿Tú la viste?
Elaine Almonte [01:26:19]:
Colapsar. Después que tú saliste de casa, Cuando yo me di una vuelta, volví de regreso a la casa, puse el televisor y todo, porque yo salí a llamar a mis familiares, ya estaba intentando comunicarme con mi mamá de nuevo, no pude.
Speaker M [01:26:38]:
No entraban.
Elaine Almonte [01:26:39]:
Porque no había, no había señales. Traté de llamar a la gente que yo conocía, a ver si estaban bien, que vivía en Nueva York, y no me pude de comunicar con nadie. Regresé a la casa, puse el televisor y ahí comencé. Se decía que no iba a pasar nada, que todo iba a estar bien, pero después cuando la primera torre colapsó, eso fue otro impacto. Ahí yo dije, wow, es terrible. Y después La segunda, eso fue algo increíble.
Tony Ortiz [01:27:19]:
Ya después de eso era nada más, like the rest of the, todos los días después de eso era nada más de eso.
Elaine Almonte [01:27:26]:
Yeah, just talking about that.
Jacey Pascasio [01:27:28]:
Yeah.
Elaine Almonte [01:27:29]:
Pero así es.
Tony Ortiz [01:27:31]:
Bueno, thank you very mucho.
Elaine Almonte [01:27:35]:
No hay problema.
Raul Azurdia [01:27:41]:
So, Raul. What's up, Tony? Thanks for having me on your podcast.
Tony Ortiz [01:27:45]:
Anytime.
Tony Ortiz [01:27:45]:
Thanks for being on the podcast.
Speaker N [01:27:48]:
Where—
Tony Ortiz [01:27:48]:
what do you remember from 9/11 and where were you when you heard?
Raul Azurdia [01:27:53]:
Well, the day that the event happened, I don't remember much, but I remember how— the one thing I remember clearly about the day that I'll never forget is how I found out it happened. So I don't remember exactly what I was doing, but I was driving with one of my ex-girlfriends. I was driving somewhere. I can't tell you where. But the thing that stuck to my head on that day, we was driving normal down the street. And all of a sudden, this, what I thought at the time, some crazy lady ran out the house flapping her hands. And it's like asking for help.
Tony Ortiz [01:28:35]:
So in Queens, right?
Raul Azurdia [01:28:37]:
In Queens, yeah, yeah. I live in Queens. So this lady runs out and she's like calling out for help. So I'm like, I pull over, lower my window to see what happened. Maybe, I don't know, something was happening in her house. And this lady's screaming like, oh my God, something's wrong. Come inside, come inside. Talking about like, let's go inside and watch TV.
Raul Azurdia [01:28:59]:
What the fuck? And my girlfriend's like, what the fuck? She's looking at this girl like she's nuts, but she was like an older lady. So, I'm like, what's going on? And she's like, no, because the towers, there's a fire. And at that time, the car that I had, I was big into music and hooking up a car. So, my car had TVs in every— in the front, the back.
Tony Ortiz [01:29:19]:
Like the Fast and the Furious days?
Raul Azurdia [01:29:21]:
Yeah. I had, I think it was like 5 TVs. TVs in that car. But anyway, so I put the TV on in my car and the lady's there just looking at me like I'm crazy. I'm like, I could see TV right here.
Tony Ortiz [01:29:32]:
Uh-huh.
Raul Azurdia [01:29:33]:
And as soon as I put the TV on, I see the towers are on fire. The Twin Towers were smoking. I'm like, oh, shit. What happened? I have to go to work that day and I work downtown Manhattan. So I'm like, I don't know. I have to go back home, try to call the job and see what's going on because I work in security. So, somebody has to be there in case some big event happens. So, I'm like, oh my God, how am I going to get to work? Do I have to leave earlier? Because I did the night shift.
Raul Azurdia [01:30:05]:
So, I'm like, do they need me to come in now? I have to go back home. So, me and my girlfriend, you know, I told my girlfriend, I forget where we're going, but I'm like, forget about that. I have to go to work.
Jacey Pascasio [01:30:16]:
Yeah, yeah.
Raul Azurdia [01:30:16]:
I turned around.
Raul Azurdia [01:30:16]:
By the time I got home, And I turned the TV at home, the towers, one of them already fell.
Tony Ortiz [01:30:21]:
Damn.
Raul Azurdia [01:30:22]:
And then everybody's calling or trying to call because it's very sporadic, right? No lines, whatever.
Tony Ortiz [01:30:29]:
All the cell phones are fucked up.
Raul Azurdia [01:30:30]:
All the cell phones are fucked up. I don't know, at the time my job had like a 2-way pager and that was working. It's like the old BlackBerry, right? 2-way pagers.
Tony Ortiz [01:30:42]:
Because that shit was like on a different signal or something.
Raul Azurdia [01:30:45]:
Analog lines, whatever. So that was the only thing that was getting communications to and from work at that time. So the job was sending messages like, we need you to come in.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:00]:
And it was somebody else that was already there?
Raul Azurdia [01:31:02]:
That was already there at work. Yeah. So when I used to work, there was 24 hours a day, 2 shifts. So when that happened, I was like, there's no way trains are running. So I put the news on. The second tower comes down, I'm like, holy, this is terrorism. So I'm like, there's no way. They're saying everything shut down, no in or out traffic from the city.
Raul Azurdia [01:31:29]:
So I'm not going to work. So that's out of the question.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:33]:
Yeah, sure.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:33]:
Because they stopped trains. I think they closed the bridges.
Raul Azurdia [01:31:37]:
Everything. Only emergency service to the city.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:41]:
And even the people were— they were letting people out of the city walking because my brother was there and he had to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.
Raul Azurdia [01:31:47]:
Just walking.
Tony Ortiz [01:31:48]:
But nobody could get back in?
Raul Azurdia [01:31:50]:
No bridge or tunnels. Yeah, so I was pretty much stuck. So at work, the, the, the job became a 24-hour shift. So the people that were there, they had to stay on that day. They 24 hours into the next shift, which was me and another guy, could make it in. So I was there the next morning.
Tony Ortiz [01:32:15]:
The next morning you were able to go to work?
Raul Azurdia [01:32:16]:
The next morning, yeah. I was able to walk into work.
Tony Ortiz [01:32:21]:
How close were you to it?
Raul Azurdia [01:32:23]:
I want to say—
Tony Ortiz [01:32:24]:
A couple miles?
Raul Azurdia [01:32:26]:
No, 15 blocks.
Raul Azurdia [01:32:28]:
Damn.
Raul Azurdia [01:32:29]:
From my building, I could see the Twin Towers. Walking distance, 15 minutes.
Tony Ortiz [01:32:34]:
How was it like when you went to work in the morning?
Raul Azurdia [01:32:36]:
The next day?
Tony Ortiz [01:32:37]:
Like a lot of ambulances, fire trucks, cops around?
Raul Azurdia [01:32:40]:
No, creepy, man.
Tony Ortiz [01:32:40]:
Or just like empty?
Raul Azurdia [01:32:41]:
Silent, empty. The next morning was— the only thing I remember is the smell. 2 things, right? So I don't remember much that day that it happened. I remember how I knew because the lady, right? So that stuck in my head. The next day, getting to work, the train was running into the city one stop and then everything was walking distance. So my train to Chinatown, Essex Street, the J line, and then from Essex it was a walk all the way down to the South Ferry.
Tony Ortiz [01:33:14]:
Damn.
Raul Azurdia [01:33:16]:
So, and it's only like, it was only like critical personnel they were allowing in. So you had to have like some type of ID, to walk into downtown, to the zone.
Zoila Ortiz [01:33:27]:
Fuck.
Raul Azurdia [01:33:29]:
So the thing I remember the next day, apart from being stuck at work for a whole day, was— you know, the city's always busy, right?
Tony Ortiz [01:33:37]:
Yeah.
Raul Azurdia [01:33:38]:
No matter what time. It was solitude, just quiet. At the time, no more ambulances running up and down because everything happened already.
Speaker J [01:33:46]:
Yeah.
Raul Azurdia [01:33:47]:
Ground Zero was totally closed, so you couldn't even go near it. Everywhere else, walking was just dead quiet. The smell was bad. Yeah. It was like funky, like barbecue smell when you cook meat. It was fucked up.
David Ortiz [01:34:08]:
Fuck.
Raul Azurdia [01:34:08]:
And the floor.
Tony Ortiz [01:34:10]:
That was probably just like bodies.
Raul Azurdia [01:34:13]:
Well, it's still foggy, right? Because the next day the top was still burning. So it was just a smell of like—
David Ortiz [01:34:19]:
Wow.
Raul Azurdia [01:34:20]:
Like a barbecue smell, you know, you put things to burn and the coal smells, you know. I can't say it was like human flesh or I don't know how that smells.
Tony Ortiz [01:34:30]:
That was definitely part of it.
Raul Azurdia [01:34:30]:
Yeah, but I don't know. So I can't tell you how it smells like, but it was just like a barbecue smell, like a funky smell.
Tony Ortiz [01:34:38]:
Damn.
Raul Azurdia [01:34:40]:
And the other thing is the floor was white. So it's, you know, I, we knew it was ashes. Yeah, like, you know, debris, right? Not human ashes, but just ashes in general. The concrete was the cloud of smoke when, you know, blanketed everything, right?
Tony Ortiz [01:34:56]:
Yeah, I remember that.
Raul Azurdia [01:34:58]:
But the weird part about it though, the shit, the thing that I remember the most was that they were like constantly washing it, right? So there was like the sanitation trucks that clean up the street cleaning shit with water, right? So everything was wet, but it was still white. So as much as they try to brush it, it wouldn't come off. Oh, I don't know how it was like baked into the ground.
Speaker N [01:35:21]:
Wow.
Raul Azurdia [01:35:22]:
All like gray. So when you— as you walk, by the time we got to work, your feet were like, oh, oh wait, oh, what? The sole, if it was so gray, not white, gray. It was like a powder Yeah, but it was caked on. It wasn't like you could sweep it. You didn't sweep it off. It was just baked into the floor. It was like that for a good month.
Tony Ortiz [01:35:45]:
In all the buildings and all that shit?
Raul Azurdia [01:35:46]:
Everything.
Speaker M [01:35:47]:
Everything?
Raul Azurdia [01:35:48]:
Everything was like— but the floor was—
Jacey Pascasio [01:35:52]:
Wow.
Raul Azurdia [01:35:53]:
I started work doing basically nothing.
Jacey Pascasio [01:35:55]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:35:57]:
Just being on watch just in case.
Raul Azurdia [01:35:59]:
Yeah, phone call. Oh, because they used like that, like regular power lines? Yeah, the following days everything was like coming back. Cell phones started working and everything.
Speaker M [01:36:10]:
Yeah.
Raul Azurdia [01:36:12]:
Yeah, but that's the only things I remember. How I found out that the towers were like on fire or whatever, because of that lady that came out.
Tony Ortiz [01:36:20]:
Anybody remember that shit? Running in the middle of the street.
Raul Azurdia [01:36:23]:
And then, um, well, some lady just telling you, come inside the house, come inside the house.
Tony Ortiz [01:36:28]:
Screaming in the middle of the street and then saying, hey, come watch TV with me.
Raul Azurdia [01:36:30]:
Yeah, it was like, no, thank you. But because we didn't know, you know? And the next day, getting to work, that smell with the quietness, it was eerie, it was empty. Like people walking and there was cops on every corner. That way you go and you can't go that way, go this way.
Tony Ortiz [01:36:50]:
It was like the whole city was in shock.
Raul Azurdia [01:36:52]:
Yeah, you had to walk down. But you'd be surprised, there's a lot of people going to work. The next day because they needed to go. Like these people, like engineers, those people had to stay in the building.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:02]:
Yeah.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:03]:
Um, but the security people, they were stuck there. Like I remember my building, the security supervisor, he lived there for like 3 weeks. He never went home.
Tony Ortiz [01:37:14]:
Wow.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:15]:
Because if he went home, it was like, who else was going to make it in?
Tony Ortiz [01:37:20]:
Yeah, once he was like covering everybody else that couldn't make it.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:22]:
You know. And believe it or not, you know, people say like the workers, but where I worked was 85th Broad, like 3 or 4 blocks going towards the west side, left, left, something city.
Janet Velez [01:37:37]:
Mm-hmm.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:38]:
I forget. Some rich people, you know, condos and stuff like that. Those people all went left homeless. They have money, so they probably went somewhere else, but maybe they didn't, right? That whole condominium was deemed unsafe. They emptied it out.
Tony Ortiz [01:37:52]:
Damn.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:52]:
So everybody that lives in that neighborhood, most of them are wealthy, but—
Tony Ortiz [01:37:56]:
That's like put them somewhere else.
Raul Azurdia [01:37:58]:
Somewhere else, yeah. There was a lady that worked with us that she stayed living at work, but she was like a big shot, so they took care of her, whatever. But she stood at the building when there was nobody working there, but she lived in the neighborhood. She stood there for like 2 weeks.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:17]:
Damn.
Raul Azurdia [01:38:18]:
She couldn't even go home and shower. So our building had water, heat, I mean, AC and all that stuff. Or heat, I don't remember, whatever it was. So she was better off at work than at her condo because she didn't have a second home or whatever.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:34]:
That's crazy.
Raul Azurdia [01:38:34]:
So she was stuck at work for like a month until they deemed her apartment safe.
Janet Velez [01:38:39]:
Fuck.
Raul Azurdia [01:38:40]:
Yeah, it's 2 days that were crazy, man.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:42]:
Hell yeah.
Raul Azurdia [01:38:43]:
But that's, you know, out of everything that happened, those 2 things was like, that's what sticks to me. You know, the rest is history, but those 2 events like marked 9/11, man.
Tony Ortiz [01:38:59]:
They stayed with you.
Raul Azurdia [01:39:01]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:01]:
Damn, man.
Speaker M [01:39:02]:
That's dope, bro.
Raul Azurdia [01:39:02]:
Thank you.
Raul Azurdia [01:39:03]:
All right, cool, man.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:09]:
All right, babe. So where were you on 9/11?
Zoila Ortiz [01:39:13]:
I was in gym class.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:17]:
In Richmond Hill High School where we both went.
Zoila Ortiz [01:39:18]:
Richmond Hill, yes, please.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:19]:
Where we went.
Zoila Ortiz [01:39:21]:
Back in the days.
Speaker N [01:39:22]:
Oh.
Zoila Ortiz [01:39:22]:
I was 17 years old. Beautiful.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:27]:
You're still beautiful, babe.
Zoila Ortiz [01:39:28]:
Thanks. But yeah, I remember I was in gym class and we were doing stretches or something on the floor.
Tony Ortiz [01:39:37]:
Butterfly stretch?
Zoila Ortiz [01:39:38]:
I think so, something like that. And then one of the teachers came into the gym and told the teacher that was teaching us that something was going on. But we, at that point, we didn't know anything. We just, you know, knew— we thought a helicopter had gone into Twin Towers.
Tony Ortiz [01:40:02]:
Yeah, that's what we thought too.
Zoila Ortiz [01:40:04]:
Yeah, that was like an accident, you know, like, you know, the tourists, helicopters. We didn't have any information. Yeah, just that something happened and we were allowed to go home, which was a good thing.
Tony Ortiz [01:40:18]:
No, after the first one we were allowed to go home right away. After the first, uh, plane, like when he went in?
Zoila Ortiz [01:40:25]:
I don't know if it was the first. When I got home Already both of the—
Tony Ortiz [01:40:32]:
Yeah, both of the— yeah. What happened when they— he hit for the first place? The first plane came in and then the teacher came in to tell your teacher while you guys were doing stretches, and then like what happened immediately after that?
Zoila Ortiz [01:40:45]:
I don't know if it was while the, you know, when the first one was hit. I just know that a teacher went into— okay, a regular teacher went into the gym and told the gym teacher that something was going on and that we were allowed to go home because, you know, we weren't like fully into the information yet. But we were allowed to go home. And since I live like close by to Richmond Hill—
Speaker M [01:41:14]:
How close?
Zoila Ortiz [01:41:15]:
2 blocks. So we just went walking. I went walking home. And my mom was watching the news when I got home, and she was like, can you believe this? This is crazy.
Tony Ortiz [01:41:31]:
Oh, so entonces with Judy's— Julia habló con Carmen while she was home, and then you came home like probably like right after?
Zoila Ortiz [01:41:42]:
Probably after that, yeah, cuz I used to come home more early anyways with the early schedule. Yeah. I had the morning schedule, so it was like from 9 to 1, I think, or 8 to 1.
Tony Ortiz [01:41:53]:
Yeah.
Zoila Ortiz [01:41:54]:
Or 8 to 12.
Tony Ortiz [01:41:55]:
I used to have that too. I think it was like 12:30 or something like that. Yeah, it was.
Zoila Ortiz [01:41:58]:
That was for either they let us go early.
Raul Azurdia [01:42:03]:
Oh yeah.
Zoila Ortiz [01:42:03]:
Or because I don't remember that much.
Speaker M [01:42:05]:
Yeah.
Zoila Ortiz [01:42:05]:
Either they let us go early or I was already, you know, due to go home because I think gym class was like the last They probably cut the class short and let you guys— Yeah, and let us leave early. Oh, and my dad, he was working in Manhattan, so I was like, I wonder if he saw anything or if he's okay. But we didn't have any information yet. We didn't know what was going on. We just knew that the, the Twin Towers were on fire and nothing had happened yet.
Tony Ortiz [01:42:38]:
By the time you got home, you saw your mom watching the news and she was like, oh my God, can you see what's happening. And then at that point, yeah, both planes hit, right?
Zoila Ortiz [01:42:45]:
Yeah, both of them were hit already. And but like, seriously, I just didn't know what was going on. I was like, okay, you know, they were hit, but they hadn't like collapsed yet. So we were still like, okay, something happened in Manhattan. Yeah, you know. And my mom was like, go get your little sister to school. And I went to PS 90, which was like a couple of blocks away. And when I got there, there was a huge line full of parents and—
Tony Ortiz [01:43:21]:
Parents going to pick up their kids.
Zoila Ortiz [01:43:23]:
All the parents went to pick up their kids. And I was just waiting there until they let us all get whoever we wanted to pick up.
Tony Ortiz [01:43:33]:
They were letting all the kids out.
Zoila Ortiz [01:43:34]:
And all the kids were coming out of the classrooms. And I remember that in the news they were saying that a plane, like they didn't know where a plane was. So we were all looking every time a plane passed us by, or we thought that it was gonna fall on us or something.
Tony Ortiz [01:43:54]:
Everybody was like scared and not knowing what was going on.
Zoila Ortiz [01:43:58]:
We didn't have any information. We didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what a terrorist attack was. then. And, you know, they just kept repeating the same thing in the news. They didn't give anything different. So we were like confused.
Tony Ortiz [01:44:13]:
They didn't even have any new information yet?
Zoila Ortiz [01:44:15]:
Yeah, they didn't know what was going on either. And then after that is when, when we got home, and then that's when like I found out that they had collapsed.
Tony Ortiz [01:44:28]:
But you picked up your little sister. You got her, you got JC, and then you took her home. And at that point, did your— had your mom spoken to your dad? Or nobody has still spoken to, to your dad?
Zoila Ortiz [01:44:42]:
Nobody has spoken to my dad. My dad was a cab driver in Manhattan. We didn't hear anything, but we didn't know it was like— I don't know if I probably didn't think it was that bad, like that big of a deal. We didn't know, like, we didn't know what's— well, I didn't know, like, being a teenager, I just didn't think it was that severe of a case. I don't know, it was weird.
Jacey Pascasio [01:45:14]:
Yeah. But—
Tony Ortiz [01:45:15]:
And then when you guys got home and just—
Zoila Ortiz [01:45:18]:
Yeah, I don't remember really exactly how it went. You know how it all happened? Because they had already collapsed when I got home, and then my mom told me to pick up, um, my little sister. But that—
Tony Ortiz [01:45:36]:
no, but when—
Zoila Ortiz [01:45:37]:
because I got— I remember that I got home like a little bit after like 10, probably.
Tony Ortiz [01:45:47]:
Like 12 something.
Zoila Ortiz [01:45:48]:
It must have been. I don't remember what happened really.
Jacey Pascasio [01:45:50]:
Uh-huh.
Tony Ortiz [01:45:51]:
But when you got home first, they were still—
Zoila Ortiz [01:45:54]:
I remember, like, I remember things. I remember my mom watching the news, like sitting in the living room watching the news. But I— and I remember like the smoke coming out of the— but remember that they were like repeating the same thing. I don't remember if it already had collapsed.
Tony Ortiz [01:46:11]:
And they were just repeating.
Zoila Ortiz [01:46:12]:
And they were just repeating like the same visual, you know, like, so I don't remember exactly how it went, but—
Tony Ortiz [01:46:19]:
Yeah, after you had JC, by the time you got back home, they were—
Zoila Ortiz [01:46:22]:
Probably after I got JC, I already had collapsed already. And, but we didn't— I don't know, I just didn't— I thought it was like, like surreal, like, nah, not a big deal. It's okay. Like, they were telling us that it was okay, that nothing was Didn't want anybody to freak out.
Tony Ortiz [01:46:41]:
Yeah.
Zoila Ortiz [01:46:41]:
Nobody to get alarmed when we didn't hear anything about my dad yet, but we probably didn't think that it was— my mom probably thought that it was bad.
Tony Ortiz [01:46:52]:
Well, she was keeping it together.
David Ortiz [01:46:53]:
She was.
Zoila Ortiz [01:46:54]:
Yeah. So we wouldn't freak out.
Tony Ortiz [01:46:58]:
But, and then, cause I don't know.
Zoila Ortiz [01:47:00]:
I don't even remember when we heard of, I think my dad called my mom. Like from the base? No, Judy?
Elaine Almonte [01:47:09]:
I don't remember.
Zoila Ortiz [01:47:11]:
He called her and he said that he was okay. Then we were all okay. You know, because he was like the main thing because he was close to the Twin Towers.
Tony Ortiz [01:47:25]:
Thank you very much.
Zoila Ortiz [01:47:27]:
You're welcome very much.
Tony Ortiz [01:47:33]:
Hello, Elaine.
Tony Ortiz [01:47:37]:
All right, so where were you exactly when, when you first heard about 9/11, like when the planes hit?
David Ortiz [01:47:47]:
Well, when I first heard that something had happened in New York like that, it was during the home period of my high school.
Tony Ortiz [01:47:56]:
How old were you?
David Ortiz [01:48:00]:
15. So they basically put it over the loudspeaker, you know, for us to stay where we were, not to switch classes, and that we would be having to call our parents to pick us up.
Speaker M [01:48:14]:
From homeroom?
David Ortiz [01:48:16]:
From, yeah, from where we were.
Tony Ortiz [01:48:18]:
Now when that happened, that was like after like the first plane, or yeah, after like both of them hit?
Speaker M [01:48:23]:
Do you remember?
David Ortiz [01:48:23]:
Both of them. Yeah. And we tried to look out the windows, the few windows we had in our classroom, to see if we could see smoke, because we had heard like you could see smoke from miles away. But I guess it was mainly like in Brooklyn, because from Queens you couldn't see anything.
Tony Ortiz [01:48:38]:
And you were where? What high school?
David Ortiz [01:48:40]:
I went to Thomas Edison Technical Vocational High School. But at the time, actually, all our parents were in DR because they had gone to a memorial for my grandmother that had passed on 9/11, but the year prior.
Jacey Pascasio [01:48:55]:
Yeah.
David Ortiz [01:48:55]:
So actually, my friend's mom picked me up and I ended up going to her house. And a bunch of our cousins, we all kind of like spoke over the phone, we started calling each other, we were all worried 'cause we're like, none of our parents are here, what do we do? Are they gonna be able to fly back in? Are they gonna stop all flights? 'Cause they were all like literally over there for the anniversary of their— of my grandma's death. So all the cousins were just kind of like on our own with either one parent or just no parents.
Tony Ortiz [01:49:29]:
And how was it— how was it like initially, like when you first heard, like getting in touch with people? Or like actually, how long did it take after first hearing when they told you that you guys were gonna have to wait and your parents were gonna pick you up and stuff like that? Like, how, how much time elapsed between then and when you guys like actually left the school?
David Ortiz [01:49:49]:
I want to say, um, maybe 2 hours had passed because even though we got to call our parents, like, not everyone could just come out of their job to come pick us up. Some people had to just like stay in school and wait for like a friend of a friend or somebody to pick them up. So it wasn't long, and then we went. I went to my friend's house and I was just there with her and her parents and just trying to get in touch with my mom in DR.
Tony Ortiz [01:50:16]:
And it was tough for like phones to like go through, right?
David Ortiz [01:50:19]:
Yeah, phone calls are like blocked. They sounded busy.
Jacey Pascasio [01:50:24]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:50:25]:
And like in school during like those 2 hours, it was like school wasn't really happening, right? It was just like everybody was just there and like waiting for time to pass type of thing?
David Ortiz [01:50:34]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:50:35]:
It wasn't like math class as usual, you know?
David Ortiz [01:50:37]:
No, not at all. Everyone was just kind of like talking to each other, something that never happens during class. They were like giving us permission to talk instead of like saying stay quiet. Like they just knew that we had to express ourselves and try to like deal with what had happened. At the time, I didn't think anyone in my classroom was affected directly. Like they didn't have parents or friends or family that were in there. So nobody was like hysterical crying. But we were all just kind of like in shock.
Tony Ortiz [01:51:03]:
And yeah, even the teachers, like, at that time, like, they didn't know what the hell was going on. They were like, yeah, figure things out themselves.
David Ortiz [01:51:09]:
Exactly. Just kind of like waiting to hear from like what the mayor was up to and what he was gonna do, or Giuliani at the time.
Tony Ortiz [01:51:17]:
Then when you went to your friend's house, like, how was that? It was just like— because I remember like when I got home finally after like when we heard We were just like watching the TV, watching the news. Every single channel was, you know, it was like the same exact thing.
David Ortiz [01:51:35]:
You know, I don't remember watching TV actually.
Tony Ortiz [01:51:39]:
Do you remember like what you did, like when you went to your friend's house?
David Ortiz [01:51:42]:
We were just in her room listening to music. We didn't turn on the radio or anything like that, I guess.
Tony Ortiz [01:51:49]:
You just like CDs or whatever?
David Ortiz [01:51:52]:
Carried on like as normal as possible.
Tony Ortiz [01:51:55]:
Like a regular, like a 15-year-old teenager.
David Ortiz [01:51:58]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:51:58]:
But then do you remember, was there a point where you realized like, oh shit, like thing, you know, like something would really, something serious went down?
David Ortiz [01:52:08]:
Well, yeah, it was serious because it was the Twin Towers. And I remember like thinking sometimes during like half days at school, we would like not go home and we'd go into the city actually. Remember March 21st, 12th? That was like this restaurant that was kind of like, remember, we would—
Tony Ortiz [01:52:25]:
The outside, it was like, it looked like, like junk kind of.
David Ortiz [01:52:28]:
Yeah, like, like planets and things. And we would go into the city, we'd just take the train to 42nd Street. We'd be there, chill all day. We'd walk from like 42nd Street down to like downtown Brooklyn. I mean, not downtown Brooklyn, downtown Manhattan. And I was just thinking like, imagine we had gone to one of those like places that we would go to, and it would have happened to us, but thankfully it didn't. But it was so random on a Tuesday, and sometimes we'd be out in the city just trying to have a good day because we were like off from school or whatever. And to think it could have happened to anyone that was just on their way to work or just crossing by because they worked across the street, you know, it just sucks.
Tony Ortiz [01:53:09]:
It's crazy.
David Ortiz [01:53:11]:
I actually work right now with someone who's also one of the last survivors. that they pulled out. She wrote a book about—
Speaker L [01:53:17]:
She was there?
David Ortiz [01:53:18]:
She was there. She worked there and she was— came down with the building and she was trapped. And she was one of the— she was the last person that came out.
Raul Azurdia [01:53:29]:
Oh, wow.
David Ortiz [01:53:29]:
That they pulled her out. And she wrote a book and it's called Angel in the Rubble. But the angel is not her. Like, she's not referring to herself. She legit was Talking about— in the book, she talks about how there was someone there with her, trapped also. But she couldn't see them, but she could hear them. And it turns out that there was nobody. So it's kind of like a— I don't know if you want to call it God or an angel or something, or maybe it was a firefighter that then passed away.
David Ortiz [01:54:01]:
Who knows? But somebody was there saying, we're going to be OK. We're safe now. Someone's going to find her. Yeah, someone's going to find us.
Zoila Ortiz [01:54:08]:
And she—
Tony Ortiz [01:54:08]:
What's her name?
David Ortiz [01:54:09]:
Janelle is her name.
Tony Ortiz [01:54:11]:
Damn, that's cool.
David Ortiz [01:54:12]:
And she got married, and afterward, um, like, she was here illegally. She's from Trinidad, and she was so worried because when they found her and they started like asking her for her paperwork and all this stuff, like, eventually, like, to get her name because she was the last survivor and it was like a big thing. And she was just kind of scared to even speak up because she was there, like, she worked for the Port Authority, but as a contractor, like as a kind of like on a temp agency kind of basis. So she was afraid she was gonna lose her job and all this stuff, but they actually paid for her wedding. Bride.com or like something like that paid for her wedding. She got to write a book, like she was on CNN, I think.
Tony Ortiz [01:54:58]:
Wow, that's crazy.
David Ortiz [01:54:58]:
Back in the day, yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:54:59]:
That's a sick story.
David Ortiz [01:55:00]:
And she works like 4 cubicles from me. She's been with the Port Authority for like 25 years now.
Tony Ortiz [01:55:08]:
I have a coworker that actually, she told me her husband worked at the Twin Towers when it happened. And like that day, the night before, he was there like super late. And because of that, he was going into work late the next day because he wound up like getting stuck at work, like extra work or whatever. He took like the, like a later shift the next day, and that one of his like close friends, coworkers, he had an alarm that was like an A and B type of alarm. And when he like, he set alarm A when he was gonna go into the, into the office early, and alarm B when he was gonna go into the office late. And sin querer, by mistake, he pressed alarm B when he was supposed to press alarm A.
Zoila Ortiz [01:55:50]:
Oh.
Tony Ortiz [01:55:51]:
And he was supposed to be there, but then he pressed alarm B by mistake, and he was like pissed when he woke up.
Tony Ortiz [01:55:56]:
He was like, oh my God, I'm so late to work.
Tony Ortiz [01:55:57]:
I was supposed to be there early. And then he turns on the news and stuff like that and he found out that like 9/11 happened.
David Ortiz [01:56:03]:
That's crazy.
Tony Ortiz [01:56:03]:
It's just like a lot of sick stories like that.
David Ortiz [01:56:07]:
And also when you hear about all the people that came to help afterwards, like they just, they didn't leave the building. Like they would come out, but they'd go back in. That's kind of crazy. Like to have that kind of like courage to go back in.
Tony Ortiz [01:56:17]:
In and out, in and out.
Elaine Almonte [01:56:19]:
Yeah.
David Ortiz [01:56:20]:
Yeah. A lot of firefighters died that day. There's this famous guy, I forgot his name, um, the guy from Forrest Gump that he's like one of the people on the Bubba Gump Shrimp, skinny one.
Tony Ortiz [01:56:32]:
Bubba?
David Ortiz [01:56:33]:
No.
Raul Azurdia [01:56:33]:
Lieutenant Dan?
David Ortiz [01:56:34]:
No, wait, is it? No, not Lieutenant Dan. Anyway, he's like an ex-firefighter or something like that. He's famous. He's an actor and he volunteered days after it. When I read that, I was like, oh crap. Everyone was like, just like had a connection with the loss, even if they weren't here.
Tony Ortiz [01:56:51]:
Anything else you remember around that time?
David Ortiz [01:56:55]:
No, well, we actually— when we came back to school, they had us write like— they gave us all like a pre-printed handout that said like how we felt about 9/11. Like you could write a poem or just like an essay or whatever.
Tony Ortiz [01:57:07]:
To express yourself.
David Ortiz [01:57:08]:
Yeah, and we all wrote something and that was it.
Tony Ortiz [01:57:11]:
You remember what you wrote?
David Ortiz [01:57:14]:
Yeah, I wrote like a cheesy poem. Some of it rhymed. But yeah, I have it somewhere tucked away because I throw— I haven't thrown away any like paper that I've ever been— that I've ever written or has been given to me. I have it at home in my— under my bed.
Tony Ortiz [01:57:28]:
And you recently wrote a post about 9/11, you said, right?
David Ortiz [01:57:31]:
Yes, I went to visit the 9/11 Museum, which I didn't do it when they first opened, when like the rush and everyone was going. I just went randomly because on Tuesdays they have a free— you can get free tickets because It happened on Tuesday, September 11th. So every Tuesday you can go online and print out a free ticket. They have a limited number of tickets, obviously, so just try to do that early. So we went because my friend had free tickets. Wasn't like I was actually trying to go because I didn't even know what to expect. 9/11 Museum, like—
Tony Ortiz [01:58:01]:
Yeah, I went once too. It was kind of like, it was like eerie. It was interesting but eerie at the same time.
David Ortiz [01:58:05]:
Like, it's not something that I was like dying to go see. But then I was like, let me just check it out. So, and I actually was really touched by it. I was really touched by it.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:15]:
And that's why you wrote the post?
David Ortiz [01:58:16]:
Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:16]:
Like afterwards?
David Ortiz [01:58:17]:
Mm-hmm.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:19]:
Interesting.
David Ortiz [01:58:20]:
Yes.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:21]:
And anybody who's interested can see your post at—
David Ortiz [01:58:24]:
Yes, on Facebook.
Janet Velez [01:58:26]:
On Facebook?
David Ortiz [01:58:27]:
Yes, I'll try to send you the link.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:29]:
Yeah, I'll link to it like in the episode notes.
David Ortiz [01:58:31]:
Mm-hmm.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:32]:
Thank you very much.
David Ortiz [01:58:33]:
Appreciate it.
Jacey Pascasio [01:58:35]:
Thank you.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:37]:
All right, so 9/11.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:41]:
You and me went to high school together.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:43]:
You're my best friend, and I know that the occurrence of 9/11 changed like the trajectory of your life, technically.
Tony Ortiz [01:58:55]:
Um, not that you wouldn't have wound up joining the Army anyway, But that's something that you've told me was one of the reasons why you decided to join the Army.
Tony Ortiz [01:59:05]:
So what this episode is, is like I told you before, is a bunch of people just saying where they were when 9/11 actually happened, where they were when they first heard. And that's it. Where were you?
Speaker J [01:59:17]:
Just to start us off, what's a cool way of holding the mic? I know when they rap they cover half the mic or hold it bottom, or how is it? Like hold it? That sounds pretty good. All right, cool. No, I've always been patriotic, but I signed up to the military before 9/11 happened. Actually, a month before, me and Abby went to— my cousin Abby Gonzalez— went to go sign up to the Army. It's something I always wanted to do.
Tony Ortiz [01:59:41]:
Before it happened?
Speaker J [01:59:42]:
Yeah, before. Yeah, we signed up in August. I knew I wanted it since I was a kid. And at 16, I went to the recruiting— no, 16, 17. Yeah, 17 years old. I went to the recruiting station, and I needed a signature from my parent.
Tony Ortiz [01:59:56]:
You went to the one on Leopards?
Speaker J [01:59:57]:
Yeah, Leopards and Liberty, yeah, right by that banging Halal truck. So I went over there, and the guy promised me that I could go home every weekend and fucking—
Tony Ortiz [02:00:07]:
The world.
Speaker J [02:00:08]:
Yeah, everything. I could take a helicopter straight from my room straight to Brooklyn, to Queens, and everything is all nice and dandy, and I could take vacations whenever I want, whatever. And my mom was like, heck no. I'm sorry, my dad was like, heck no. You're not gonna do that. He never wanted me to work, and let alone fucking go to the military. So I had to get my mom to sign the waiver.
Tony Ortiz [02:00:29]:
How'd your mom feel about it, like when you told her?
Speaker J [02:00:31]:
She always supported me and everything. Everything since I was 15 years old, I started packing bags with her brother who had a pizza restaurant at the Western Beef there at Metropolitan. And I used to go with him. He used to open up the restaurant and then I used to help him set up. Like, like 4:30 in the morning, 5 o'clock in the morning. And after we set up, when the supermarket opened at 7, I would just go straight to the cashier's line and start packing bags. So I've always, you know, she's always supported me in that when my father didn't want to. Anywho.
Tony Ortiz [02:00:59]:
Because your pops wanted you— wanted to like provide for you and he didn't want you to like—
Speaker J [02:01:03]:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that old Dominican mentality. So anyway, but I, I knew I always wanted it. I always wanted to be in the military. I always wanted to shoot guns. I wanted to be a cop, you know, all that. all that good stuff. And so I signed.
Speaker J [02:01:15]:
So I went. And he said no. And my mom said yes, and she signed. And that was in August. That's when Javi had graduated too from high school. He didn't know what to do. He was at his house not doing anything. And he was just like, all right, Steven's doing it.
Speaker J [02:01:27]:
Let me do it too. So we both went to the military base there at Last Exit on the Verrazano, on the Belt Parkway by the Verrazano. And we signed up to the military.
Tony Ortiz [02:01:38]:
What year was that? What is this app? You sign up first, you go to that recruiting thing, right? On Lefferts?
Speaker J [02:01:41]:
Yeah, go to the Lefferts and then they settle your paperwork. You take the ASVAB test and you pass that and—
Tony Ortiz [02:01:47]:
What is that?
Tony Ortiz [02:01:47]:
That's like—
Speaker J [02:01:48]:
It's a military test. No, it's a written— no, it's actually on a computer. It's a computer test and that basically puts you in what position you're gonna like, depending on your score, on what job they place you in the military. There's over like 1,000 jobs from like cook to nuclear fucking plant technician or whatever the heck.
Tony Ortiz [02:02:07]:
It was like the infantry.
Speaker J [02:02:08]:
Yeah, that's where you get infantry, artillery, car mechanic, or whatever. The test is actually designed to put you where you fit in in the military.
Tony Ortiz [02:02:15]:
I remember you and Avi used to argue about the king of battle versus the queen of battle or some shit like that.
Speaker J [02:02:21]:
Yeah, me and him, we're best friends, brothers, but we always argue about everything. And he was infantry, which is the queen of battle. And no, but this is not— I mean, this is a fact, but obviously he makes fun of it. And artillery is the king of battle. We go and we destroy everything. So he signed up to— I actually wanted to jump out of airplanes. And the job they had jumping out of airplanes was artillery, which is a 13 Bravo in the Army, which is an artillery crewman. And your job is to deal with these 119ers and these 198 howitzers.
Speaker J [02:02:56]:
you know, put a miss— put a round in it and, you know, and send steel downrange. And then, you know, so it was pretty cool. I was like, shit, I'm gonna be jumping out of airplanes and blowing shit up. Why not? Sign me up. So I signed up. And then, uh, so me and Abby signed up. That was August, the beginning, or I think it was middle, middle of August. I know the summer was ending when we signed up.
Speaker J [02:03:15]:
And then we start school again, which is, I think, what, the last week of August that we started, or the first week?
Tony Ortiz [02:03:19]:
Yeah, something like that.
Tony Ortiz [02:03:20]:
Last week of August.
Speaker J [02:03:21]:
I remember I was smarter than you. I think I started first. Because I had 3 classes in my senior year. When you went to school, 9 to 5? Yeah, look at— Yeah, no, 11:30, something like that. I used to get out of class.
Tony Ortiz [02:03:32]:
Because I didn't like gym, and I wound up having like 3 gym classes my senior year. Nothing to do with smart, but—
Speaker J [02:03:37]:
By the way, Tony was the smarter one. I jumped from freshman to junior within 3 years. I was a knucklehead my first 2 years, and then I met this girl, and she switched my life around, and I started going to to John Adams, to night school, summer school. And I did it like within a year. I got all my credits back. And like my senior year actually worked out. I had like 3 classes.
Tony Ortiz [02:03:57]:
Yeah, I remember that shit. You used to leave when I was like coming in.
Speaker J [02:04:00]:
Going in. Anywho, so, um, so yeah, so 9/11.
Tony Ortiz [02:04:06]:
Um, where were you like when, when you first heard the news? When you first heard that there was like something going on?
Speaker J [02:04:11]:
I think I was in Mr. Setron's class. I think it was a math class.
Tony Ortiz [02:04:14]:
I remember Mr. Truong was our biology teacher.
Speaker J [02:04:17]:
Okay. Because I had my freshman biology. Something— I know he was goofy with white hair.
Tony Ortiz [02:04:20]:
He was in science, yeah.
Speaker J [02:04:21]:
Yeah, I know it was science or math, one of the two. But I remember, I think it was in his— I was in his class and I took a pass to go to the bathroom, go to the restroom, come back. And while I'm coming back, somebody screams through the hallway, yo, did you hear that the, the towers got hit? Like, what? Like, yeah, yeah, they got hit, but it's probably one of these rich motherfuckers, you know, with a helicopter or something.
Tony Ortiz [02:04:38]:
Oh shit, yeah.
Speaker J [02:04:39]:
So then I go back to class and I said, hey, Mr. Such-and-such, did you hear what happened? He said, yeah, we heard. Sit down. The principal's going to speak now, or something like that. Like an announcement was coming, commencing something, I don't know. And then we got the news that the second plane hit. And they were like, oh shit, it's a terrorist attack. He said, everybody stay put, everybody stay put.
Speaker J [02:05:02]:
We're probably going to go on lockdown. Right there, I freaking put my bags in my book bag, and I remember going out the back door. A bunch of us did. We went down the stairs, and I was like, let me get the fuck out of this school before it gets shut down, and then I can't leave till like—
Tony Ortiz [02:05:15]:
And then you're stuck inside.
Speaker J [02:05:16]:
Yeah, exactly, for like a couple hours or even the next day. I really didn't call anybody because I didn't have anybody that worked in the city. My father was a bodeguero. My mom was not— my mom wasn't even working at the time. I think she used to help my dad out. Elaine was in Thomas Edison. I really didn't have any family.
Tony Ortiz [02:05:33]:
Thomas Edison was in Brooklyn, right?
Speaker J [02:05:34]:
No, no, that's Queens. That's, uh, by Jamaica Estates around there. Oh yeah, they're good with like, um, mechanics and electricians. Yeah, around there. Yeah, they have a specialty in that. And so I don't really have people— I wasn't really worried about people that, you know, like close family members that were there. But, you know, of course, you know, you worried about the other, other people's family members. But I don't remember calling anybody like, you know, did you get out the building?
Jacey Pascasio [02:05:56]:
Were you there?
Speaker J [02:05:56]:
This and that. I think Vicente— I called the only thing— the only person I called was Vicente, Javi's brother. 'Cause I know he worked in the city. He had to do something with the, like, MTA or something like that. And I know he worked in the city. I don't know what street, but I just called him anyway. You know, he said he was good.
Tony Ortiz [02:06:10]:
And it actually went through?
Speaker M [02:06:11]:
Like, the phone calls?
Tony Ortiz [02:06:12]:
'Cause I remember, like—
Speaker J [02:06:13]:
No, no. I remember I couldn't even call my mom.
Tony Ortiz [02:06:15]:
You had to call, like, crazy, like crazy, like crazy.
Speaker M [02:06:17]:
I was calling—
Tony Ortiz [02:06:17]:
And see if maybe something goes through.
Speaker J [02:06:18]:
Yeah, I remember I kept calling. I kept calling and I couldn't. And then when I got home, I called from the house phone, from the landline, and I was able to get through. And, you know, everybody was safe. My parents were in Brooklyn. I was in Queens, Elaine was in Queens, you know, everybody was good. Yeah, and that was that. And then we turn on the TV and we see all this shit that's happening.
Speaker J [02:06:36]:
You know, I didn't get to see it until I got home. You know, everything was just like hearsay in the school. And, you know, walking home, I remember walking home. I used to live on 101st Street and our high school was on 113th Street, so it was only 12 blocks down the subway line, Jamaica Ave. And we went home and then I started seeing that and I was like, what the fuck? And I was like, wow, like, I know what awaits me. I know, um, I had just signed up.
Jacey Pascasio [02:06:59]:
You had just signed up.
Speaker J [02:06:59]:
I had just signed up because the reason I signed up early was because I wanted— I didn't want to waste any time. And I wanted— I knew what I wanted. I didn't want to waste any time. Like, I planned, like, I go to the military now, I'll be out by the time I'm 21, you know, become a cop. That's when you be— when you could become a cop at 21, 22 years old. You know, I always had that timeline of, you know, who I wanted to be at what time. And, um, so I knew what awaited me. I said, fuck, man, I'm gonna put on these boots and these fatigues and, you know, and go fight these motherfuckers.
Tony Ortiz [02:07:27]:
And like, that emboldened you more?
Tony Ortiz [02:07:30]:
Like, you wanted—
Tony Ortiz [02:07:31]:
like, it pushed you more to like wanna—
Speaker J [02:07:33]:
Yeah, I was hyped. And everybody— when I remember going to basic training, um, everybody was hyped.
Tony Ortiz [02:07:39]:
Like, you know, like everybody was like gung-ho about it as opposed to like being like, ah, fuck, uh, what did I do? Just get myself into—
Tony Ortiz [02:07:46]:
I don't want to be in this.
Speaker J [02:07:46]:
Our class was like probably like 400 or 500 people, you know, about 3/4 of the class, you know, were dying to put on those boots and, you know, and those desert fatigues and go— and those desert BDUs and, you know, and go overseas to the Middle East and fight these guys. You know, you have the other class that just signed up, you know, to get the GI Bill and take the benefits, and, you know, they couldn't get a job, so they signed up to the Army. But the majority—
Tony Ortiz [02:08:07]:
People that do it like for money and benefits.
Tony Ortiz [02:08:08]:
Exactly.
Tony Ortiz [02:08:08]:
As opposed to defending the nation.
Speaker J [02:08:10]:
People do it for the country and, you know, and values. And patriotism. We were hyped. I remember working out hard. The drill sergeants used to tell us, listen, we train you hard. You might not even get to your command. You might get out of here, and they might tell you, listen, you're shipped out. So we were already mentally prepared 6 months prior.
Tony Ortiz [02:08:29]:
You're shipped out straight to war.
Speaker J [02:08:31]:
Exactly. Yeah.
Tony Ortiz [02:08:33]:
How was that? That must have been like a mindfuck.
Speaker J [02:08:36]:
No, no, no. To me, it wasn't. I actually wanted it. The reason you train for 6 months, get 5 hours of sleep, You know, all the folding the sheets and the push-ups and all that military discipline they teach you, they almost like— You want to apply it. Exactly, exactly. You want to apply it. You want to go out there and fight and send rounds downrange. And that's exactly what happened.
Speaker J [02:09:01]:
I remember I got stationed to the 82nd Airborne in North Carolina. As soon as they got there— Fort Bragg.
Tony Ortiz [02:09:05]:
Shout out to Fort Bragg. I remember visiting you there when you were there.
Speaker J [02:09:08]:
Yeah, Fayetteville. That's when we saw 8 Mile. Yeah, yeah, we saw you, man, over there.
Tony Ortiz [02:09:12]:
I saw it for the second time. I saw it there. The first time I went with my brother and his boy Jeff. I remember we went when it came out, we saw it, and then shortly after that, I went to South Carolina— to North Carolina with your sister and your pops and your uncle.
Speaker J [02:09:27]:
Yeah, and we were sitting in the back in the Greyhound and you stood.
Tony Ortiz [02:09:29]:
Yeah, hell yeah. And then we were having like so much fun like that weekend. I was like, ah, fuck it, let me stay longer.
Speaker J [02:09:35]:
We started getting— we started hitting all those Southern joints like Sonic's and, yeah, yeah, all those chicken and waffle spots and stuff like that. All the stuff you see in the BET videos.
Tony Ortiz [02:09:43]:
Hell yeah, it was so much fun, yo.
Speaker J [02:09:46]:
So yeah, it was great. Um, yeah, definitely, it was a big, you know, first time we actually hung out after like all the whole academy and everything like that in the AIT. Um, so yeah, so we went, uh, you know, it was great. As soon as we got there, they said, listen, don't even unpack, we have military orders for you guys to go down And I remember that, and I remember going, you know, I got assigned my room. I left everything in my duffel bags. It was like 3 duffel bags, I remember, you know, big, almost as tall as me, 5'6 by the way. Um, I remember just taking out like my underwear and socks and t-shirts, you know, the basic things that I'm gonna need, because I'm like, why the hell am I gonna pack all this shit, you know, to, you know, head out again?
Tony Ortiz [02:10:23]:
Where was basic training?
Speaker J [02:10:24]:
Was in Fort Bragg, right?
Tony Ortiz [02:10:26]:
Oklahoma.
Tony Ortiz [02:10:26]:
In Oklahoma. And then you were stationed In like Fort Bragg?
Speaker J [02:10:30]:
Yeah, I was in Oklahoma first for 6 months, and then after that I got sent to, uh, for 3 weeks to Georgia and Fort Benning for airborne training. And from airborne training, I had, um, I had a week off. I remember taking the Greyhound up there, man. You picked me up at the bus terminal.
Tony Ortiz [02:10:44]:
With Esmeralda and Christy.
Speaker J [02:10:44]:
Yeah, exactly. I was pissed off because somebody stole my PlayStation from my bag.
Speaker M [02:10:47]:
Yeah, I remember.
Speaker J [02:10:48]:
You remember that?
Raul Azurdia [02:10:48]:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker J [02:10:49]:
You were like out there.
Tony Ortiz [02:10:50]:
I remember there was something going on. I forgot what it was though. I forgot it was the PlayStation thing.
Speaker J [02:10:53]:
Yeah, somebody robbed my PlayStation on the way. Um, and we chilled for a week and then I got back to North Carolina and, uh, right there and we got sent out.
Speaker M [02:11:02]:
Sick.
Speaker J [02:11:02]:
Yeah, it was cool.
Tony Ortiz [02:11:05]:
But yeah, that was— that's, that's pretty much it. I just want like, obviously the whole Army experience and stuff like that, that's like, uh, that's a whole podcast in and of itself. I just wanted to do like, uh, where you were when I— when you first heard of 9/11 and, uh, like your experience with that.
Speaker J [02:11:19]:
Yeah, rest in peace. So all those souls lost and, uh, always remembered, never forgotten.
Speaker M [02:11:25]:
Absolutely.
Tony Ortiz [02:11:25]:
Thanks, man.
Tony Ortiz [02:11:26]:
Appreciate it.
Speaker J [02:11:27]:
No doubt.
Tony Ortiz [02:11:31]:
The 3rd plane that was in play that day was American Airlines Flight 77, which left out of an airport near Washington, D.C. This was the plane that later crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37. Those are all the interviews that I have for you guys today. And throughout the episode, in my conversation, you may have picked up on where I was during 9/11, but in case you didn't, I'm gonna share it with you here now before we get to the housekeeping portion of the episode. I was 17 years old and in high school. I went to Richmond Hill High School in Here in Queens, and many schools are overpopulated, especially in, in bigger cities. Richmond Hill is one of them. A way to combat the overpopulation was that the schoolyard was converted into classroom trailers.
Tony Ortiz [02:12:33]:
So it was literally like a trailer, like, you know, those like home trailers that you would see. Or like trailers that, you know, some people live in. Or, uh, just picture like an 18-wheeler, like the, the cargo trailer that it pulls in the back. One of those container-looking things turned into a classroom, and they were actually pretty nice because, you know, they were new. When the first plane hit, I was actually in my history class, which happened to be Uh, in the trailers. Now, the cool thing about the trailers also was that instead of, you know, being confined, uh, within the building, uh, when you had a class in the trailers, you would have to, you know, exit the building and you would be outside basically while you walk to, to your next class in the trailers. And back then I used to smoke cigarettes and stuff thinking I'm cool and just meet up with friends and smoke some cigarettes and before going to class, go to class late, and, and stuff like that. So we would look forward to transitioning between building and trailer.
Tony Ortiz [02:13:42]:
But anyway, I was in my history class and a teacher comes in and tells our teacher that a plane hit the, the Twin Towers, or one of the towers rather. And we didn't think much of it, honestly. The, you know, based on the Uh, both teachers and their demeanor and reaction, we pretty much all wrote it off as, you know, some— somebody taking flight lessons and, you know, in one of those little planes or maybe a helicopter may have clipped the building or the side of a building or something like that. And we pretty much wrote it off. And continued with the lesson. Then about 15 minutes later, the same professor comes in again, the same teacher, and he tells our teacher that another plane hit the Twin Towers. At that point, everybody's mood changed. You know, we were kids, 17 years old, but we knew something was up.
Tony Ortiz [02:14:52]:
And we, going off, at least for me personally, reading off, playing off of my teacher, basically, the oh shit expression came over his face. At that point, he flat out told us that this must be a terrorist attack. And I'm not sure I remember exactly if he said terrorist attack or just attack, but he did state that this must be an attack. And if anyone has family that worked in the city, to feel free to leave class now and go outside and try to get in touch with them, uh, because something was going down. And that's pretty much exactly what I did. And I left, walked out of the trailer, and, you know, like a bunch of other people did, and started making my way home. While trying to call my brother, which I knew worked in the city, but I wasn't exactly sure where or how far away he was from the World Trade, thinking the worst and just focusing on trying to get home. And I didn't live that far from the school, but I had to take the, the bus to get there.
Tony Ortiz [02:16:10]:
And if not, it would be a pretty lengthy walk, but a doable walk. You know, I would do it sometimes, like hanging out after school type of thing, you know, killing time, and walk home instead of taking the bus. But I walked along towards home trying to get in touch with my brother, calling, calling, and there was no signal. No calls were going through. And I don't remember getting on the bus, but I must have eventually. Then I got home where I believe my father was there already. And if not, then he got there shortly after I did. And we continued to try to get in touch with my brother.
Tony Ortiz [02:16:45]:
And eventually, I don't remember, I don't remember which one of us, but one of us obviously did. And he was walking the Brooklyn Bridge, as you guys heard earlier when I interviewed him, out of the city. And my father and I drove down Atlantic. And, you know, there were just droves of people, you know, cars picking up their significant others and loved ones and family members and friends the same exact way as we were. And we met up with them and picked them up, then went home. And that's where I was and my personal experience with exactly where I was during 9/11.
David Ortiz [02:17:28]:
Thank you.
Tony Ortiz [02:17:30]:
Like I said in the intro, I think it's important that we continue to share these stories with each other. And if you guys wanna share yours with me and the rest of the Spun Today community, or listeners rather, feel free to do so. Reach out to me through the website at spuntoday.com through the contact page, or just email me at spuntoday@gmail.com. If you like, I'll even share your stories on a future episode of the podcast. That said, let's do some housekeeping and see if we can keep the lights on.
Speaker L [02:18:08]:
What's up folks, Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few ways you can help support the show. You can support the Spun Today podcast financially by going to spuntoday.com/support. There you will find a couple different ways that you can do just that, some of which will actually not even cost you a dime, such as using my Amazon affiliate link. When you go to spun2date.com/support, you'll see my affiliate link to Amazon. Click on it and it will take you to Amazon's website where you can do your shopping like normal. This will not cost you anything extra, but Amazon will pay me for driving traffic to their website.
Speaker L [02:18:49]:
If you'd like to support the podcast more directly, you can do so by becoming a patron at spuntoday.com/support. You'll also find my Patreon link. This is where creators such as myself can be paid directly by patrons like you. You can either make a one-time donation or schedule recurring donations if you so choose. There are also different tiers of support, and depending on which you decide to go with, you'll also receive some perks in return. Such as early access to content, free digital copies of my books, free bookmarks, etc. That is again by supporting via my Patreon link available at sponsorday.com/support. Similar to Patreon, at that same location, you'll also find my Ko-fi link as well as my Buy Me a Coffee link.
Speaker L [02:19:34]:
They work very similar to Patreon and are different ways that you can help support the show financially. And last but certainly not least, you have the good old-fashioned PayPal donation button. Any which way that you choose to support is greatly appreciated. It all helps me do more of what I love, which is writing and podcasting. Again, go to spuntoday.com/support. You can also support the Spun Today podcast by rating and reviewing the show wherever it is that you're listening to this episode. I'd really appreciate it because it really does help. Also, follow me on all socials, @SpunToday on X, formerly known as Twitter, @SpunToday on Instagram and @SpunToday on YouTube, where you'll not only find the full-length episodes of the podcast, but also chopped up clips and additional content.
Speaker L [02:20:23]:
And of course, you can follow the Facebook page at facebook.com/SpunToday. Another way you can help support the Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to spuntoday.com/support And clicking on the banner for Stitch Fix. Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch Fix works is pretty cool. I use it and I've never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile, you'll put in all the sizes for your clothes, as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear. It's really simple and intuitive to set up. They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option on if you would wear something or not.
Speaker L [02:21:06]:
And you get to select all the brands that you already are used to wearing. With this information, their thousands of passionate trendsetting stylists will curate a Stitch Fix box for you. They'll send you 5 items that you get to preview before they mail it to you, and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they'll replace it with something else. And if so, they'll mail it to you absolutely for free. You can try everything on. you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep. Then you can use that $25 credit that I mentioned towards your purchase of those items.
Speaker L [02:21:40]:
Again, to freshen up your wardrobe and also support the Spun Today podcast, go to spuntoday.com/support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your $25 credit.
Tony Ortiz [02:21:53]:
Do you want to start your own podcast? Have a great show idea that you want to get out into the masses but don't know quite how to get it from your head out into the world?
Speaker L [02:22:02]:
Well, here's how.
Tony Ortiz [02:22:04]:
Use the podcast host Libsyn. That's who I use to bring the Spun Today podcast to you, and now you can use them the same way. Using the promo code SPUN, S-P-U-N, you can open up your Libsyn account today and get 2 months of free podcast hosting. Here's how it works. Once you record your show, you upload it to your Libsyn account where you can fill in your episode notes, upload your podcast art, and schedule when you want your episodes to release. Once you do that, Libsyn will take care of the rest. They'll distribute your show to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all the other podcatchers that you choose instantaneously and seamlessly. Again, go to Libsyn.com and use the promo code SPUN, S-P-U-N, to get 2 months free, or use the affiliate link that's in the episode notes.
Tony Ortiz [02:22:58]:
Again, that's libsyn.com, promo code SPUN. Take that great podcast idea from out of your head and put it out into the world.
Tony Ortiz [02:23:07]:
And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams.
Tony Ortiz [02:23:15]:
Thanks for listening. I love you, Aiden.
Jacey Pascasio [02:23:31]:
I love you, Daddy.
Tony Ortiz [02:23:34]:
I love you, Grayson.
Tony Ortiz [02:23:36]:
I love you, Daddy.