WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:02.359 You know, we spend a lot of time on this show 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:04.879 talking about how information spreads. Oh, definitely. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Like we talk about viral trends, best -selling 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.880 books, basically how history gets written and 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:13.900 codified for everyone. Right. But I want to start 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:16.460 today with, well, the exact opposite of that. 00:00:16.539 --> 00:00:19.679 I want to talk about how things just... disappear. 00:00:19.739 --> 00:00:23.019 Ah, the fragility of memory. I mean, yeah, it's 00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:26.660 a concept that haunts historians and archivists 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:29.339 alike. Exactly. Because, you know, we have this 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:31.579 modern assumption, maybe it's arrogance, honestly, 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:34.679 that because we live in the digital age, everything 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:36.719 is permanent. We think if it happened, it's recorded 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.579 somewhere. Right. If it's recorded, it's saved 00:00:38.579 --> 00:00:41.350 on a server forever. But today's source material 00:00:41.350 --> 00:00:44.109 proves that it's just completely false. It is 00:00:44.109 --> 00:00:46.850 entirely false. In fact, we are looking at a 00:00:46.850 --> 00:00:49.549 digital artifact that is actively decomposing 00:00:49.549 --> 00:00:51.670 right in front of us. We really are. For this 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:54.509 deep dive, we aren't looking at a polished biography 00:00:54.509 --> 00:00:58.009 or like a stack of academic papers. We are conducting 00:00:58.009 --> 00:01:00.170 what feels like an archaeological dig into a 00:01:00.170 --> 00:01:02.630 single Wikipedia page. A very fragile Wikipedia 00:01:02.630 --> 00:01:05.730 page. Yeah, a page that is literally fighting 00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:09.109 for its life. It's the entry for a Mexican singer 00:01:09.109 --> 00:01:12.150 and actor named Jose Venegas, better known by 00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:15.480 his stage name. El Bronco. El Bronco, which frankly 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:18.040 is just a top tier nickname. I love it. It has 00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:20.500 a great ring to it. It really does. But right 00:01:20.500 --> 00:01:23.599 now, if you go to his page, you aren't greeted 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:26.359 by a detailed biography or a timeline of his 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:29.040 life. You are greeted by these massive, aggressive 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:32.000 warning banners. Yes, the dreaded Wikipedia warning 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.239 boxes. Exactly. They say things like, uh, this 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:38.879 article has multiple issues or the notability 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:41.579 of the subject is unclear. And my personal favorite. 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:44.739 Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 00:01:45.019 --> 00:01:47.280 It's the digital equivalent of a condemnation 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:49.180 notice on a building. I mean, the Internet is 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:51.480 deciding in real time whether this man's life 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.900 is actually worth remembering or if he should 00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:57.079 just be swept into the dustbin of data. So that 00:01:57.079 --> 00:01:59.120 is our mission today. We are going to look at 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.739 the life of Jose Albranco Venegas. We'll get 00:02:01.739 --> 00:02:04.219 into his music, his wild film career involving, 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:06.750 honestly. Aliens and bullfighters. Quite the 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:09.110 combination. Right. And we'll look at the mysterious 00:02:09.110 --> 00:02:11.810 confrontation that supposedly destroyed his career. 00:02:12.409 --> 00:02:14.990 But we're also asking a bigger question for you 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:17.810 to think about. Who gets to decide who matters? 00:02:18.509 --> 00:02:20.909 It's fundamentally a question of gatekeeping. 00:02:21.650 --> 00:02:24.250 Because Jose Venegas was a public figure. He 00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:27.210 released albums. He was in movies. But according 00:02:27.210 --> 00:02:29.389 to the strict guidelines of the modern Internet, 00:02:29.610 --> 00:02:32.610 he is on the verge of being classified as completely 00:02:32.610 --> 00:02:34.969 trivial. Well, not on our watch. For the next 00:02:34.969 --> 00:02:37.610 20 minutes or so, Jose Venegas is notable. I 00:02:37.610 --> 00:02:39.770 like that. Let's start at the beginning. Who 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:42.330 was this guy before he was just a digital ghost? 00:02:42.669 --> 00:02:44.969 Well, to understand El Bronco, we have to go 00:02:44.969 --> 00:02:47.270 back to the mid -20th century. He was actually 00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:50.050 born Jose Montano in San Buenaventura, which 00:02:50.050 --> 00:02:51.849 is a town in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. 00:02:52.349 --> 00:02:54.409 And the source mentions he moved to Mexico City, 00:02:54.590 --> 00:02:57.810 quote, in order to pursue his talent. I want 00:02:57.810 --> 00:02:59.909 to pause on that dynamic for a second, because 00:02:59.909 --> 00:03:01.870 for a listener who doesn't know the geography 00:03:01.870 --> 00:03:04.789 or the era, that's not just a casual move, is 00:03:04.789 --> 00:03:07.289 it? No, not at all. You really have to understand 00:03:07.289 --> 00:03:09.849 the centralization of culture in Mexico at that 00:03:09.849 --> 00:03:13.569 time. In the 1940s and 50s, Mexico City was the 00:03:13.569 --> 00:03:16.169 absolute center of the Spanish -speaking entertainment 00:03:16.169 --> 00:03:19.259 world. It was basically Hollywood, Nashville 00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:21.780 and Broadway all stacked on top of each other. 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:24.139 Wow. So staying in Chihuahua just wasn't an option 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:26.159 if you actually wanted to be a star. Exactly. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:28.400 If you stayed in the provinces, you know, you 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:31.159 were a local curiosity. If you went to the capital, 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:33.939 you were entering the golden age of Mexican cinema 00:03:33.939 --> 00:03:36.840 and music. It was a high stakes environment where 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:38.699 thousands of people were trying to do exactly 00:03:38.699 --> 00:03:40.439 what he was doing. And he didn't just change 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:43.419 his location. He changed his identity. He drops 00:03:43.419 --> 00:03:46.699 Montaño and becomes Jose Venegas. El Bronco. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:49.340 Yes. Let's unpack that name for a second. El 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:52.000 Bronco. It is a fascinating choice of branding, 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:54.120 really. To me, it sounds aggressive. It sounds 00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:56.159 like a fighter, like someone you definitely do 00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:58.800 not want to spill a drink on at a bar. It does, 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.479 but there is some nuance there, too. In Spanish, 00:04:02.659 --> 00:04:05.099 Bronco often refers to a horse that hasn't been 00:04:05.099 --> 00:04:07.580 broken. Oh, interesting. Yeah, it implies something 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:11.400 wild, rough, untamed. But it's also used to describe 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.740 a person who is gruff or unpolished. So he wasn't 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:16.560 trying to be the Prince Charming type at all. 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:19.160 He wasn't the polished gentleman in the tuxedo. 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.240 Definitely not. And that aligns perfectly with 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:23.860 the genre of music he was singing. He was a ranchera 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:26.680 singer. Can you define ranchera for us? I think 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:28.639 people might have a vague idea. Maybe they just 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:31.379 think of mariachi bands. But what is the emotional 00:04:31.379 --> 00:04:34.399 core of it? Think of ranchera as the Mexican 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.300 equivalent of the blues or really old school 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:40.680 country music. Oh, OK. It's rural. It's working 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:43.300 class and it is incredibly emotional. It deals 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:46.720 with love, patriotism and nature, but usually 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.800 from a perspective of dramatic suffering or machismo. 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:52.920 So calling yourself El Bronco in that specific 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:56.519 world is a signal. It says, I am raw. I'm authentic. 00:04:56.680 --> 00:04:59.100 I haven't been polished by the big city. Precisely. 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:01.079 He was the guy with the dust still on his boots. 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:04.079 He was selling an image of toughness that was 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.639 very appealing to audiences at the time. Let's 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:08.579 look at the evidence of that persona. The source 00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:10.899 lists his discography, and the album is self 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:14.459 -titled El Bronco. And the track list is, well, 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:16.579 it's not exactly party music. No, it is heavy 00:05:16.579 --> 00:05:18.839 stuff. I'm looking at these titles. There's Flor 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:22.439 Silvestre, which means wildflower, and Paloma 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:25.600 Sin Nido. Dove without a nest. That is a very 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.439 specific lonely image. A dove without a nest. 00:05:28.540 --> 00:05:30.680 It's a classic trope of the genre, honestly. 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:34.259 The bird that has nowhere to land. It signifies 00:05:34.259 --> 00:05:37.480 wandering, a lack of belonging, a sort of existential 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:39.920 homelessness. It's really about being adrift 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.339 in the world. Man. And then you have track nine, 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.509 sufrendo a sola. Suffering alone. I mean, you 00:05:45.509 --> 00:05:47.930 can just picture the scene, the spotlight, the 00:05:47.930 --> 00:05:50.990 tequila bottle, the pure anguish. It's very dramatic. 00:05:51.290 --> 00:05:53.470 It's performative suffering, though. In Ranchera, 00:05:53.589 --> 00:05:55.769 the ability to express deep pain is a virtue. 00:05:56.310 --> 00:05:58.670 If you can sing about suffering alone and actually 00:05:58.670 --> 00:06:01.110 make the audience feel it, you're a star. Because 00:06:01.110 --> 00:06:03.189 it validates the listener's own struggles. Right, 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:05.089 right. Well, my favorite title on this list, 00:06:05.149 --> 00:06:06.689 and I actually start to look up the cultural 00:06:06.689 --> 00:06:08.910 context for this because I just love the phrasing 00:06:08.910 --> 00:06:12.529 so much, is track number two, No Soy Monadita 00:06:12.529 --> 00:06:16.720 de Oro. Ah, yes. I am not a gold coin. It sounds 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:20.060 so strange in English. I am not a gold coin. 00:06:20.339 --> 00:06:21.800 Like, obviously, you aren't a coin. You're a 00:06:21.800 --> 00:06:25.540 human man. But the full idiom is I am not a gold 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:27.839 coin to be liked by everyone. That's correct. 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:30.779 It is a defiant statement of self -worth. Think 00:06:30.779 --> 00:06:33.540 about it. Everyone likes a gold coin. A gold 00:06:33.540 --> 00:06:36.459 coin is universally welcome. No one refuses it. 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:38.220 Yeah, that makes sense. By saying you aren't 00:06:38.220 --> 00:06:41.110 one, you're saying I am who I am. Take it or 00:06:41.110 --> 00:06:43.750 leave it. I am not here to please you. That fits 00:06:43.750 --> 00:06:46.589 the El Bronco nickname so perfectly. It's almost 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:48.649 punk rock. It's basically saying, I don't care 00:06:48.649 --> 00:06:50.930 about your approval. It does suggest a strong 00:06:50.930 --> 00:06:53.889 rebellious streak. And honestly, it might give 00:06:53.889 --> 00:06:55.850 us a clue as to why his career ended the way 00:06:55.850 --> 00:06:57.529 it did. This wasn't a guy who was willing to 00:06:57.529 --> 00:06:59.449 bend the knee or play nice just to get ahead 00:06:59.449 --> 00:07:01.250 in the industry. We will definitely get to that 00:07:01.250 --> 00:07:03.430 career -ending explosion in a minute. But we 00:07:03.430 --> 00:07:05.490 have to talk about his film career first. Because 00:07:05.490 --> 00:07:07.910 if you think his music sounds serious and brooding, 00:07:08.089 --> 00:07:12.000 his movie choices are, well, Chaotic? Eclectic 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.439 is a polite word for it, but chaotic is probably 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.079 more accurate. The timeline starts in 1951 with 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:20.420 a film called Si Usted No Puede, Yo Si. If you 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:23.660 can't, I can. Again, the confidence. It matches 00:07:23.660 --> 00:07:26.519 the Abbotten, not a gold coin energy perfectly. 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:28.860 Totally. And he works consistently through the 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:33.699 50s. But I want to zero in on 1956. This year 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.300 just seems to be a microcosm of pop culture at 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:39.850 the time. First, He's in Dos Novias para un Torero. 00:07:40.089 --> 00:07:42.269 Two Girlfriends for a Bullfighter. Which sounds 00:07:42.269 --> 00:07:44.470 like a standard romantic comedy setup. Probably 00:07:44.470 --> 00:07:46.209 a lot of misunderstanding, slamming doors, that 00:07:46.209 --> 00:07:48.810 sort of thing. But then in that exact same year, 00:07:48.949 --> 00:07:52.470 he stars in Los Platillos Voladores. The Flying 00:07:52.470 --> 00:07:55.949 Saucers. Oh, Bronco versus the Aliens. I desperately 00:07:55.949 --> 00:07:58.689 need to see this movie. It is a wonderful example 00:07:58.689 --> 00:08:01.189 of how the Mexican film industry operated back 00:08:01.189 --> 00:08:03.290 then. They were incredibly responsive to global 00:08:03.290 --> 00:08:05.610 trends. In the mid -50s, you know, the U .S. 00:08:05.610 --> 00:08:08.360 was obsessed with Roswell, UFO. and sci -fi. 00:08:08.459 --> 00:08:10.620 Right, the whole atomic age thing. Exactly. So 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.000 Mexican cinema said, okay, let's do that, but 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:15.180 let's put our cowboys and ranchera singers right 00:08:15.180 --> 00:08:16.759 in the middle of it. It sounds ridiculous now, 00:08:16.939 --> 00:08:19.399 but was this considered like a B -movie thing 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:21.740 back then, or was this mainstream? No, it was 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:24.860 mainstream popular entertainment. It wasn't high 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:27.939 art, sure, but it wasn't hidden away either. 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:30.800 These were big crowd pleasers. The fact that 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:32.820 Venegas was in this movie means he was viable. 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:34.860 He was part of the machine. He was trusted to 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:37.539 carry a role in a trend -chasing film. He was 00:08:37.539 --> 00:08:40.179 also in Kalindo Cha -Cha -Cha in 1955. Right. 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:42.159 So he could do the cowboy thing, the sci -fi 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:44.960 comedy thing, and the dance musical thing. He 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:47.539 was a working actor in a booming industry. He 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:49.740 actually had range. And the source says his best 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:53.019 -known role came a decade later, in 1966, playing 00:08:53.019 --> 00:08:56.740 a character named Epicmenu Zuniga in La Valentina. 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:58.559 So if you look at the data points, you see a 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:01.840 clear trajectory, a 1951 start. Busy through 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.220 the 50s. A big role in 66. By all accounts, this 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:07.559 is a success story. Small town kid makes it into 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:09.720 the big city. He's actually doing it. And then 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:12.279 the record scratches. The source material takes 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:14.860 a very dark turn here. It's one sentence. One 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.960 single sentence that completely pivots the entire 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.299 narrative of this guy's life. It says his career 00:09:20.299 --> 00:09:22.419 continued until an alleged confrontation with 00:09:22.419 --> 00:09:24.840 Pedro Infante stooped his career. There is a 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:27.820 typo in the original Wikipedia text there. Stooped 00:09:27.820 --> 00:09:30.259 instead of stopped. But the message is violent. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.019 His career hit a brick wall. We need to provide 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:35.659 some context here for you listening. If you didn't 00:09:35.659 --> 00:09:37.940 grow up in Mexico, you might not know who Pedro 00:09:37.940 --> 00:09:40.779 Infante is. Is this like getting into a fight 00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:43.940 with, say, Frank Sinatra? Sinatra is a good comparison, 00:09:43.980 --> 00:09:45.899 but even that might be underselling it a little. 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:49.039 Pedro Infante was the Elvis, the Sinatra, and 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:51.600 the James Dean of Mexico combined. Wow. He was 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.200 known as the idol of Guamucho. He wasn't just 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:56.620 a celebrity. He was the national avatar of Mexican 00:09:56.620 --> 00:09:59.240 masculinity and charm. He could do no wrong. 00:09:59.379 --> 00:10:02.539 So if you are Jose Venegas, if you are El Bronco, 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:04.480 the guy who says I am not a gold coin and you 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.519 get into a confrontation with that guy. You are 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:09.419 fighting God, essentially. In the studio system 00:10:09.419 --> 00:10:12.759 of that era, power was extremely concentrated. 00:10:13.419 --> 00:10:16.379 If Infante didn't like you or if you disrespected 00:10:16.379 --> 00:10:18.500 him, the doors would simply close. Producers 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:20.820 wouldn't touch you. Directors wouldn't cast you. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 But here is where this deep dive gets tricky. 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:25.840 I was looking at the dates and something just 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.450 doesn't add up. The source says this confrontation 00:10:28.450 --> 00:10:31.570 stopped his career. But when did Pedro Infante 00:10:31.570 --> 00:10:34.389 actually die? Pedro Infante died in a tragic 00:10:34.389 --> 00:10:38.049 plane crash in April 1957. It was a massive national 00:10:38.049 --> 00:10:40.809 tragedy. The whole country went into deep mourning. 00:10:41.230 --> 00:10:44.230 Okay, so Infante dies in 57. But Venegas' best 00:10:44.230 --> 00:10:47.090 -known role in La Valentina is listed as 1966. 00:10:47.830 --> 00:10:50.710 That is nine years later. It is a glaring discrepancy, 00:10:50.730 --> 00:10:53.169 isn't it? How do we resolve this? How can a fight 00:10:53.169 --> 00:10:55.250 with a man who has been dead for nine years stop 00:10:55.250 --> 00:10:58.399 your career? There are a few possibilities, and 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:00.019 this is where we have to read between the lines 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:02.539 of a very fragmented history. Possibility one 00:11:02.539 --> 00:11:04.860 is that the confrontation happened in the mid 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:08.620 -50s, maybe around 1956. Venegas was blacklisted, 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:10.860 but La Valentina was a project that was either 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.840 filmed much earlier and released later, or he 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.080 managed to scrape by with one last roll before 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:18.100 the industry fully shut him out. That's possible. 00:11:18.179 --> 00:11:20.240 I mean, movies sit on shelves sometimes. Or maybe 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:21.899 he had an ironclad contract they couldn't break 00:11:21.899 --> 00:11:25.929 until 66. Right. Possibility two is that the 00:11:25.929 --> 00:11:28.110 confrontation wasn't just a physical fight that 00:11:28.110 --> 00:11:30.529 happened once and was over. Maybe it was a longstanding 00:11:30.529 --> 00:11:34.250 feud. Oh, like bad blood. Yes. Yeah. Even after 00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:37.629 Infante died, his producers, his friends, the 00:11:37.629 --> 00:11:40.309 studio heads, they remained fiercely loyal to 00:11:40.309 --> 00:11:42.809 his memory. If you were the guy who insulted 00:11:42.809 --> 00:11:45.730 the late, great Pedro Infante, you're still an 00:11:45.730 --> 00:11:48.169 outcast. That feels very plausible. The gold 00:11:48.169 --> 00:11:51.559 coin attitude again. If Venegas refused to mourn 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:54.000 or refused to apologize even after Infante was 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.200 gone, he would be a total pariah. Exactly. Infante's 00:11:57.200 --> 00:11:59.379 death essentially sainthooded him. You don't 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:01.279 speak ill of the dead, especially when the dead 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:03.919 is the national idol. If El Bronco kept being 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:05.980 Bronco about it, he would have been ostracized. 00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:08.019 And I guess possibility three is that the Wikipedia 00:12:08.019 --> 00:12:10.460 page is just wrong. Which brings us back to the 00:12:10.460 --> 00:12:13.019 reliability of our single source. Right. We are 00:12:13.019 --> 00:12:15.379 basing this entire analysis on a text that is 00:12:15.379 --> 00:12:18.019 actively flagged for unclear notability. It is 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:20.139 entirely possible that the person who wrote this 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:22.840 conflated rumors, got the dates completely wrong, 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:25.299 or is just repeating a family legend that isn't 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:27.440 historically accurate at all. But even if the 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:30.659 dates are fuzzy, the core narrative is what survives. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.799 The story being told is that El Bronco was too 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:36.019 wild for the system. He clashed with the king 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:38.700 and he lost. It's so frustrating that the source 00:12:38.700 --> 00:12:41.240 just says alleged confrontation and gives zero 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:45.059 details. Was it over a woman? A song? A parking 00:12:45.059 --> 00:12:47.720 spot? We have no idea. We don't. And that void 00:12:47.720 --> 00:12:51.179 is exactly where history disappears. If no one 00:12:51.179 --> 00:12:54.019 wrote it down in a newspaper in 1956 and the 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:56.340 people in the room are dead, that truth is just 00:12:56.340 --> 00:12:58.919 gone. It doesn't exist anymore. Which brings 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:01.899 us to the final and I think most important part 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:04.620 of this deep dive, the struggle for existence. 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:06.740 We aren't just talking about his career ending 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:08.779 in the 60s. We are talking about his memory ending 00:13:08.779 --> 00:13:10.879 right now. Yes. Let's go back to those warning 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:13.559 banners at the top of the page. Article has multiple 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:16.039 issues. To a Wikipedia editor, those banners 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:18.460 are just standard quality control. But to the 00:13:18.460 --> 00:13:20.720 legacy of Jose Venegas, they are basically a 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:23.259 death threat. They really are. Wikipedia has 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:26.320 a core policy called notability. To have a page, 00:13:26.379 --> 00:13:28.559 you must have significant coverage in reliable 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:30.779 secondary sources. And what does our source list 00:13:30.779 --> 00:13:33.620 for references? That's the problem. It lists 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:36.840 IMDB, which is just a user -generated database, 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.919 not a biography, and one single link to an article 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:41.759 about the firmament of Chihuahuan popular song. 00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:44.629 That's it. That is the only thread holding him 00:13:44.629 --> 00:13:47.769 to the digital world. So because he was famous 00:13:47.769 --> 00:13:50.509 in the 1950s in Mexico, maybe the magazines from 00:13:50.509 --> 00:13:52.590 that era just haven't been digitized yet, or 00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:54.629 the newspapers are rotting in a basement somewhere 00:13:54.629 --> 00:13:57.190 in Chihuahua, he's not notable. According to 00:13:57.190 --> 00:13:59.769 the algorithm of history we use today, no, he 00:13:59.769 --> 00:14:03.169 isn't. And the warning explicitly says, if notability 00:14:03.169 --> 00:14:05.769 cannot be shown, the article is likely to be 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:08.590 merged, redirected. Or deleted. Deleted. If you 00:14:08.590 --> 00:14:12.330 hit delete on this page, for 99 .9 % of the human 00:14:12.330 --> 00:14:15.529 population, Jose Venegas never existed. That 00:14:15.529 --> 00:14:17.549 is genuinely terrifying. It's Orwellian. It's 00:14:17.549 --> 00:14:18.789 like Back to the Future where the guy starts 00:14:18.789 --> 00:14:20.549 fading out of the photograph. It highlights a 00:14:20.549 --> 00:14:23.389 major flaw in how we preserve culture. History 00:14:23.389 --> 00:14:26.210 is written by the winners, yes. But in the digital 00:14:26.210 --> 00:14:29.769 age, history is written by the documented. If 00:14:29.769 --> 00:14:32.370 you were a Bronco, a supporting player, a working 00:14:32.370 --> 00:14:34.389 class singer, a guy who didn't have a dedicated 00:14:34.389 --> 00:14:37.129 biographer, you're incredibly vulnerable to being 00:14:37.129 --> 00:14:39.490 erased. It makes you wonder how much we've already 00:14:39.490 --> 00:14:43.049 lost. How many El Broncos were there in the 1920s 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:46.230 or the 1890s who just evaporated? Thousands. 00:14:46.909 --> 00:14:49.710 Maybe millions. Culture isn't just the peaks. 00:14:49.909 --> 00:14:52.090 You can't understand the Himalayas by only looking 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:54.370 at the tip of Mount Everest. To understand the 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:56.850 golden age of Mexican cinema, you need Pedro 00:14:56.850 --> 00:15:00.769 Infante, yes. But you also need... The guys fighting 00:15:00.769 --> 00:15:03.090 the aliens. You need the guys singing about suffering 00:15:03.090 --> 00:15:06.090 alone. They are the texture of the world. They 00:15:06.090 --> 00:15:08.929 are the soil that the stars grow out of. So in 00:15:08.929 --> 00:15:11.169 a weird way, us sitting here talking about this 00:15:11.169 --> 00:15:14.110 today, this is an act of preservation? I'd like 00:15:14.110 --> 00:15:16.990 to think so. Oh. We are witnessing him. We are 00:15:16.990 --> 00:15:19.149 acknowledging that he was here. We are putting 00:15:19.149 --> 00:15:21.629 his name back into the audio record. So let's 00:15:21.629 --> 00:15:23.990 recap the life of Jose Albranco Venegas just 00:15:23.990 --> 00:15:26.210 to cement it one last time for everyone listening. 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:28.899 Born in Chihuahua. A classic striver. Moved to 00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:31.100 the big city, reinvented himself as the wild 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:33.779 one. Recorded songs that actively rejected the 00:15:33.779 --> 00:15:36.720 need to be liked. I am not a gold coin. Acted 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:38.740 in over a decade of films ranging from standard 00:15:38.740 --> 00:15:41.700 musicals to sci -fi comedies about flying saucers. 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:45.080 And then, allegedly... stood toe to toe with 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:47.840 the biggest legend in Mexico, Pedro Infante, 00:15:48.019 --> 00:15:50.679 and paid the ultimate professional price for 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.179 it. And finally, today, he is fighting a battle 00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:55.919 against the delete button. It is a dramatic arc 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.139 worthy of a movie itself. It really is. You know, 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:01.120 we started this by talking about how fragile 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:03.519 fame is, but I think the takeaway for me isn't 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:05.159 just about famous people. It's about the people 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:07.830 around us right now. What do you mean by that? 00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:10.110 Well, if a guy who is in movies and released 00:16:10.110 --> 00:16:12.549 full albums can be on the verge of being completely 00:16:12.549 --> 00:16:14.590 deleted, what about our neighbors? What about 00:16:14.590 --> 00:16:16.850 our grandparents? We assume that because we have 00:16:16.850 --> 00:16:19.870 iPhones, everything is saved. But the actual 00:16:19.870 --> 00:16:22.850 stories, the context, that isn't saved automatically. 00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:25.730 That's a great point. The data is saved. The 00:16:25.730 --> 00:16:28.750 photos are in the cloud. But the story of why 00:16:28.750 --> 00:16:31.629 that fight happened, or why they chose to leave 00:16:31.629 --> 00:16:33.970 their hometown in the first place, that is only 00:16:33.970 --> 00:16:36.409 saved if someone actually tells it. So here is 00:16:36.409 --> 00:16:38.549 my challenge to you listening. Don't let the 00:16:38.549 --> 00:16:41.009 Broncos in your life get deleted. There is probably 00:16:41.009 --> 00:16:44.029 someone you know, an uncle, a co -worker, a neighbor, 00:16:44.149 --> 00:16:47.470 who has a story as wild as fighting aliens or 00:16:47.470 --> 00:16:49.629 feuding with a superstar. But they just haven't 00:16:49.629 --> 00:16:52.149 written it down. Exactly. Ask them. Record it. 00:16:52.309 --> 00:16:54.789 Because if you don't, the notability guidelines 00:16:54.789 --> 00:16:57.009 of the universe might just wipe it out entirely. 00:16:57.330 --> 00:16:59.149 And we will be left with a history that is only 00:16:59.149 --> 00:17:01.929 made of gold coins. And honestly, that would 00:17:01.929 --> 00:17:04.269 be a very boring history. I completely agree. 00:17:04.529 --> 00:17:06.869 The scratches and the dents are where the real 00:17:06.869 --> 00:17:09.029 character is. Thanks for helping us dig this 00:17:09.029 --> 00:17:11.690 one up today. My pleasure. And to Jose Fenegas, 00:17:11.769 --> 00:17:15.549 wherever you are, we see you. You're notable 00:17:15.549 --> 00:17:17.849 to us. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive, 00:17:17.930 --> 00:17:19.279 everyone. See you next time.