Featured Image Credit: PBS
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity
Katherine Sidnell
While Danny Trejo is well known for his on-screen roles, the actor knew very little of his own family's history.
Thanks to an appearance on PSB’s Finding Your Roots, the Spy Kids actor has finally been able to understand a little more about his heritage.
In a tear-jerking moment, Trejo revealed that the recent revelations about his past ‘could have changed his life'.
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“I’m just overwhelmed. You have to understand, growing up, I had three alternatives. I could either be a laborer or a gangster or an informant," the actor explained.
"To learn this, I honestly believe that I think this history could’ve changed my whole family’s life."
The Californian-born actor was raised in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angles by his Mexican American parents.
However, the home was far from a loving one with Trejo being subject to intense physical abuse from his father, who also banned his mother from the family home.
Isolated from his mother and with few roles around him, the Spy Kids actor soon fell into a life of gang crime aided by his uncle Gilbert.
“My uncle Gilbert, who was for lack of a better word a drug dealer, he never complained so I kind of gravitated towards that," Trejo told host Henry Louis Gates during the episode.
His past soon caught up with and Trejo battled with heroin addiction, fuelled by the robberies he committed as a gang member.
After a stint in prison, the actor would get sober and even caught the eye of a casting director during visit to a Hollywood set.
The unlikely incident launched Trejo’s career, with the actor trying to put his difficult past behind him.
Now 78-years-old, he has discovered that his father’s family moved to the US in 1918 with his great grandfather, Cirilo Garay, eventually settling in San Antonio and owning a grocery store.
The biggest shock though was from his mother’s side, who became wealthy ranch owners in San José del Cabo, after emigrating from Mexico in 1904.
His maternal great grandfather owned an estimated 4,337 acres and was a ‘serious landowner’.
Upon hearing the news, Trejo couldn’t believe that his family had such an incredible back story.
“It’s just amazing. I’ve got history!“ he exclaimed with excitement.
Ironically, Trejo has been a huge fan of the area and hadn't realised the connection to his own heritage. He even holidayed regularly in the area.
“Just knowing when I went down to Cabo San Lucas, my family owned some of that land,” he said tearfully.
"I think it's shined a light on who I am on, where I come from and who I come from...I'm really proud of the whole deal."
The actor was clearly touched by the news and has vowed to continue the research after the show.