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The Homeboy Way

The Homeboy Stories that Touched Our Hearts with Shirley Torres and Hector Verdugo

Dec 24, 2025 · 26 min · Season 1 · Episode 14 · 62.6 MB
0:00-26:03

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For decades, the team at Homeboy Industries has stood witness to a quiet revolution. Lives are rewritten not through force, judgment, or programs alone, but through the slow, steady practice of kinship.

In this episode, Tom Vozzo is joined by Hector Verdugo and Shirley Torres to reflect on the stories that have shaped them as much as the people living them. Day after day, people walk into Homeboy carrying the invisible: trauma that shaped them, systems that failed them, and identities formed in survival mode. Over time, through consistency, humor, honesty, frustration, and grace, those same individuals discover the possibility of becoming someone they were never allowed to be.

The three reflect on the privilege of walking alongside that transformation, not as saviors or fixers, but as fellow travelers who are changed in the process. At Homeboy, stories are not trophies or statistics. They are teachers. They stretch us, soften us, call us forward, and remind us that everyone is still becoming.

Key Takeaways

  • "Exquisite Mutuality" is the Secret Sauce

    Transformation at Homeboy is never a one-way street. It is a reciprocal relationship.

  • Kinship, Not Curriculum, Creates Transformation

    Love, not lectures, is what shifts shame, fear, or survival instincts into openness and trust.

  • Judgment Doesn’t Grow People; Gentleness Does

    A butchered tree still grows back; sometimes the most important thing is simply letting go.

  • Love That Shows Up Unasked

    When someone calls from federal prison to comfort you in grief, that’s God in work boots.

  • Mutual Healing Is the Secret Sauce

    No one here is “saving” anyone; everyone is being changed, challenged, raised, and restored.

In This Episode:

  • 00:00 – Introduction

  • 00:29 – The power of stories

  • 01:37 – Joanna: anger, armor, and the road to law school

  • 03:39 – Parole, board meetings, and unseen burdens

  • 05:14 – Humor, respect, and breaking the ice

  • 07:32 – Mutual raising in community

  • 09:20 – Shirley’s story coming to Homeboy as a kid

  • 10:52 – Loss, grief, and the surprise phone call that healed

  • 13:05 – Unconditional love within the Homeboy culture

  • 13:53 – Luis "Coloso," Butchered Trees, and Letting Go of Control

  • 16:38 – Addiction, mental health, and spiritual bypassing

  • 18:07 – Angelo: from hoodie to hope

  • 20:11 – How do you measure transformation without metrics?

  • 23:51 – Choosing compassion when someone is “difficult”

  • 24:57 – Times Square, armor, and becoming nine again

  • 25:48 – Closing reflections on patience and second chances

Notable Quotes

  • “ I've had sort of my big life moments here and one of those moments was losing my dad and I think about how Homeboy showed up for me.” — Shirley [09:37]

  • “ A place like Homeboy is all about the exquisite mutuality.” — Shirley [11:59]

  • “It’s just love and seeing you, saying 'Hi, I see you,' and then eventually putting your arm around them." — Hector [19:44]

Resources and Links

Homeboy Industries

Homeboy Media 

Hector Verdugo

Shirley Torres

Thomas Vozzo

Credits:

Hosted by: Tom Vozzo

Produced by: Podify, and Alexa Rousso and Melody Carter of Homeboy Media