After coming to this area to work for Tesla for a few years, Gallo Chingon realized he no longer was fit for the rat race. One of the many occupations and hobbies he now pursues is as host of the podcast Sucias Are My Favorite, a NSFW show about the kink community. Chingon has found a groove focusing on learning new things, being creative, and is pondering jumping into a van.
Our Town Reno reporter Richard Bednarski recently sat down with Chingon at the Reynolds School of Journalism to talk about how he landed in Reno, what his name means, and to learn more about his life philosophy.
Richard Bednarski:
Gallo, can you tell me a little bit about your background, where are you from? How did you end up in Reno and a little bit about who you are?
Gallo Chingon:
I'm originally from Texas, from Houston. I was living in San Antonio when I got recruited to come out to Tesla, or I like to say suckered, but that's more of a personal issue. And since then I have just been doing content creation, but on my own. I had a YouTube channel and now I'm sticking to a podcast that I got and loving it out here in Reno so far.
Richard Bednarski
Gallo Chingon roughly translates as a tough uncompromising rooster. Can you tell me how you got that name and what it means to you?
Gallo Chingon
Actually the name came through roller derby and the reason I go by it is now more of an inside joke. I picked it up from a group of longboard garage, bombing group friends. We'd go to a parking garage, dive down in longboards, what not, got the nickname there. Because I had a Mohawk and it carried over into roller derby. And as I introduced myself, Oh, Hey my name is Gallo, blah, blah, blah.
Richard Bednarski
A unique story for a unique name. So you came to Reno for work, how did you fall into your comfort zone here in Reno?
Gallo Chingon
I made quick friends with some guys at work and every Wednesday morning was our Friday night, So we'd go out to breakfast, hang out there and then we'd get together Friday afternoon and we would try one new restaurant per week. So in doing that, you'd meet more people, make new friends and Reno is a very, very open and friendly town. It reminds you of like small towns in Texas where, you know, everybody's friendly, even though most people aren't from Reno. It's interesting how friendly people become here. I think it's just, just what Reno is.
Richard Bednarski
So what's your favorite restaurant?
Gallo Chingon
I would say either Betos, right here, up here, 5th street. It's a good little Mexican restaurant and another place is Butcher’s Kitchen Char-B-Que. They've got the best brisket in town, which has taken me three years to find because most of the barbecue places here are Carolina style, which is pork and I'm a fan of beef, which is a Texas specialty.
Richard Bednarski
And so you have your own podcast, what is it about and what are your goals with that podcast?
Gallo Chingon
So it's a NSFW podcast, it started off with me being in the kink community and some issues I don't want to discuss about here. So the goal is to bring a little bit more attention to the kink community. That it's not what you so much see in mainstream media especially with 50 shades of gray. That's like the worst thing that's happened to the kink community, insofar as abusing or not listening to save words. And with that at the same time, even though I have to click-baity or controversial topics, my whole goal is to let everyone know we're all human, regardless of our identity or labels, we identify ourselves as human. And we should try to connect there, even if we're on the left, on the right of the political spectrum, we can, we still should strive to see a middle ground.
Richard Bednarski
What following or what are your subscribers like? Is it, is it up and coming?
Gallo Chingon
Yeah, it's brand new. I've only had about little over a dozen episodes right now. Most of them are friends that are in the kink community.
Richard Bednarski
Do you plan to maintain that podcast indefinitely?
Gallo Chingon
There was an awesome study that says most podcasts end before the seventh episode, so I've already broken past that, I'm at 13 or 14 now. Looking forward to doing more, got plenty scheduled and I've got a YouTube channel that I'd live stream on, which essentially keeps me accountable to keep doing it. So I don't see myself stopping because that one passion I've kept steady with.
Richard Bednarski
I've definitely learned consistency is the way to go. You are a self-described Renaissance man, you dabble in a little bit of everything and have a variety of hobbies and everything from building mechanical keyboards and to knitting, so out of all of the hobbies that you have, which one is your favorite and what do you like most about having a variety of hobbies?
Gallo Chingon
One, it keeps me from being bored. So a lot of times a lot of my friends will ask me, Hey, have you seen this or that on whatever streaming service and more often than not, I'll say no. And because I'd rather stay busy doing things with my hands, that's tangible or even intangible like coding or scripts just to make my life easier. That's truly just wanting to learn more on my own and that's easier now, especially with YouTube where you can learn or a skill share or any other place that if you want to learn something, there's really no excuse to not learn right.
Richard Bednarski
Gallo can you tell me about a time where you have nearly died? I understand that there's been a handful of cases like this.
Gallo Chingon
My earliest memory of me nearly dying or drowning, I was about four or five years old. My mom was cleaning a rich lady's house. She had a creek or river, I don't know what the definition of one or the other is, but it was about 12 feet wide. There was a four foot pier off the back of the house and I distinctly felt like someone pushed me into the water. I knew how to swim since I was an infant, but it's just being caught off guard, I remember thrashing. And at some point I remember hearing in my head an adult voice, calm down, breathe, climb out. That was the first time the most recent was a motorcycle accident where it was a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler with no helmet. We were both doing about 35 miles an hour. And there's been held at gunpoint, mugged, held at knifepoint, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Richard Bednarski
Are you scared of water at this point?
Gallo Chingon
No, I still go swimming. I still love it. Because of that, from that early age, I came to the realization, especially being in and around drive-by shootings in the nineties, I realized by the time I was 10 or 11, that life is cheap and I didn't expect to live past 20 for some reason. I had in my mind that I wasn't gonna be of drinking age. So since that point I realized I live life to the fullest because I'm not going to get tomorrow. There's no guarantee that I'll have tomorrow. So that's also the influence of me just being so varied and trying so many things because tomorrow might not come.
Richard Bednarski
I understand you experienced houselessness at one point. Can you talk about that experience and how it was for you?
Gallo Chingon
So the first time it was my own dumb fault. I ran away from home when I was 17, my father and I didn't get along. So I was couch surfing a lot with high school classmates or other seniors or with my aunts. And I would probably spend two to three nights a month in my car just to not overstay my welcome someplace. But the most recent one was about 10 years ago when I got through that divorce. A miscommunication with the ex-wife, I thought she was going to be paying for or finish paying for the truck. She did not and it got repossessed. I lost my job. And one thing led to another, just steamrolled. And I ended up being homeless for about seven weeks. Luckily I still had a bank card. So all the money that I was panhandling, I just put into a bank account and about four or five weeks in, I made friends with some other homeless people. And one guy was actually squatting in a house that was his legally, but he just didn't pay bills or taxes. So he's just essentially waiting for them to get kicked him out. But luckily we just had a roof over our head for a while. And from there I was able to save up enough to be able to get an apartment, a shower and get back on my feet again.
Richard Bednarski
That's a good story to hear and it shows how it only takes one thing to make anyone be out on the streets and lose their home and be houseless. So with that said, what are your thoughts on the current house situation here in Reno?
Gallo Chingon
So coming from Houston, I've seen more houseless, homeless on the streets there than I have here. It doesn't seem they're as aggressive as I've seen in other places about asking for money. They're usually chill or just have their signs, but I have seen people where they'll bang on your window. If you're at a stop light and try to get your attention, Hey, don't ignore me or be more aggressive. And here it doesn't seem as bad to me, but maybe as a local or someone's been here longer, it might seem it's, it's a bigger problem or a bigger issue as far as the inconvenience of having them around or having to see them. And I get that this is more of a tourist city, so it detracts or taints or stains that shine that you'd want to bring people in. But at the same time, you know, you're going to have that everywhere. It's not simply an issue one or two issues that happen to you. It could be an untreated mental illness that they can't cope with owning or upkeeping a home or an apartment.
Richard Bednarski
I don't know if you're aware of the new CARES Campus that the City and the County are putting in down at the Governor's Bowl.
Gallo Chingon
Yes. I didn't know it was at Governor's Bowl, but I do remember whenever I drove by Fourth street, every now and again, I was seeing a tent where they were feeding them about a year or two years ago. It was a little before COVID started like that winter. I recall seeing that tent go up. So I liked seeing that they are not being as bad as other cities are just like, hurting them off to another location that they're trying to help them. And at the same time, there are those people that just don't want the help that they're just having that bitterness or resentment in general to the normal world. But you know, I think it would also help. I don't know if they're got anything else going on to help treat the mental health aspect of it, but I do like that at least they're addressing the issue and treating it more civilly than a criminal offense there.
Richard Bednarski
What is your favorite thing about living here?
Gallo Chingon
I like all the variety of things that you can do pre-COVID. I loved all the festivals that we'd have from things. Memorial day to labor day, give or take. Hopefully now that we're gonna open up in June, those will start coming back. But at the same time is that you can make a friend anywhere you go pretty much. There's plenty of groups, Facebook, group meetups. So whatever hobby you have, you can just say I'm into salsa dancing, or I want to learn a language and just type in Reno and whatever your interest is. And you'll find a group and you can meet up. I don't know how open they are now, but at least you can find some type of new community, new home when you get here.
Richard Bednarski
Do you see Reno as your permanent home?
Gallo Chingon
Yes and no. I think it would probably be my home base. I'm considering going or doing the van life, just traveling around, living in a van. The rat race just no longer appeals to me. I'm not staying in a high, well paying job because I need the money. I want to be able to have more experiences than just sitting at home, watching TV. The only thing I miss is TexMex food and a couple others like restaurants from Texas, but I try to go back at least twice a year for that.
Richard Bednarski
And lastly, what message do you want to tell the community of Reno?
Gallo Chingon
We're all human. Just, you know, regardless of how you see yourself or whatever your political views, if you see someone post something on social media or you meet someone in person, don't have that attitude of, well, if you don't agree with me, then you can unfriend me. Why don't you try to meet in the middle at least try to understand your friend, because like I said, we're all human.