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We know she's watching.
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We're gonna prove her.
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Yes, you taught us well.
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And later, Les Legend Luis Guzman will share the hood that
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forms him can do it real people cooking that we are our way up
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Laugh like your finger is good cause we're about to see what
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It's and I'm in the lower East side NYC at Casa De.
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It's an iconic neighborhood spot that's been making authentic
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Puerto Rican food forever.
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What's good in your hood is what happens when you put your life
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story on a plate and then share it with the world.
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And today we're in the city of Hustlers NYC in the Lower East
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side to meet a family that has brought joy to their community
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At the center of the Lower East side is this tiny five table
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restaurant that's been sharing its home cooked meals since
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And if you're from Puerto Rico, chances are you've visited
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Casa De on the lower East side.
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This place is synonymous with Puerto Rican food in New York
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And the uncommon ingredient is love and lots of it here's a
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place where you can actually taste it.
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This place reminds me of my grandmother in Puerto Rico when
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I come over here to eat because it's the only place left in Manhattan
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that you can find good authentic Puerto Rican food.
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Since passing, the police has been passed on to a new generation
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aiming to keep her legacy alive.
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She came to New York from Puerto Rico back in the early seventies
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she opened her first restaurant in the same area on the corner
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And then we moved over to this side and we've been here since
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She had her routine 4 a.m. was the shower, do her prayer.
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Of course, she lived right above and she was here at five o'clock
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Well, my mom was a person that felt that everyone that came
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to the business should at least with or without money, have
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a great meal and that's what really kept her going.
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Most of the people here, you just, you know, they're from the
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neighborhood, you know.
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So it's like you're eating with your family.
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Our best sellers are chicken are next.
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Our who are supposed to pork.
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And then we got a and then we got a on the, the, we got a lot of good
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What makes art history chicken so amazing family secret.
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I can't say, I can't say honestly, but I must just put it this
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A lot of love and a lot of passion and respectively, you just
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always know how much to put Mama Adela, a mother figure to the
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neighborhood and a pillar for generations has left a void
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When she first passed, it took me like four days to come back
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Her passing was very hard, but I'm not gonna get emotional
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But I, I miss her when I spent that morning with her.
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I had breakfast with her.
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I helped out with a, she even gave me the phone and said, take
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I'm like, OK, it's so weird and she ended up having a stroke
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here that same morning, but I was here till the end.
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So I started with her and I ended with her.
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She was the quintessential cooking for the neighborhood
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A heavy torch proudly being carried by the family.
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Ok, guys don't go anywhere because when we come back, we're
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gonna learn how to put the fun in Ma Fungo.
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OK, guys, I'm in the kitchen with, she's gonna teach us how
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to make my favorite Puerto Rican dish of all time.
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Step one is taking, cutting them and we're gonna throw them
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We'll fry them at 3 50.
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Just test it to make sure that they're done.
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So what do you just make sure they're nice and soft on the inside
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that tells us they're done.
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Now you're gonna take the and we're gonna throw them into the
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and the important question is what's in the, oh, that's garlic
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Yeah, I saw, I saw some spices, some spices and a little bit
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And we start, we start to smash once it's smashed, we take our
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fresh pork and the crackling and we add it with a little bit
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Then we take it and we mold it and this is how the molding happens
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This is the sauce we use.
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It's from the and we use it to pour it over the and give it that
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So I call it because to me it's like it's soupy and when you pour
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it on top, it adds that little bit of liquid against the crunchiness
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Do you like to take a little bit of the and dip it in the or do you
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I prefer dipping it.
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I'm gonna do it that way.
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You guys do it right.
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There's so much garlic.
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Like I said, the crunchiness of the chiron which let me just
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exacerbate that situation.
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Super flavorful that melts in your mouth.
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The crunchiness of the the sauce.
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You guys, I would like to bathe in this one day pro tip.
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This food will make you extremely sleepy because it's so good
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You wanna continue eating after you're full.
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So a piece of advice from yours, truly make sure you get some
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of the, I used to take out, we used to go to the library, take
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out reading books on books.
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So one day my grandma was like, hey, come over, I'll teach you
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how to do it from there.
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That's where my passion for cooking came from.
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But she always told me when you're cooking, just cook with
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Because at the end of the day, who was always gonna come back
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for the food and love you cooking with love and passion and
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you put your hard work into that one meal.
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So I went to college, I went to Johnson and Wells University
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in Providence, Rhode Island.
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And I studied there for five years and I came out recently with
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my bachelor's in food service management in New York.
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My grandmother, hopefully she's looking down, she's smiling
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so it's always good coming up next.
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The challenge casa de is the type of restaurant that's a dying
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breed in neighborhoods that are quickly changing by an influx
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of new residents and businesses.
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It's a place where the food is at the center and at the core of
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the ingredients is family and love.
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A love that makes for the ultimate spice.
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Now today's challenge, you have to make a dish that is nuwave
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Oh Yeah, I'm up for the challenge.
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I'm thinking I'm starting a sandwich sounds like you know
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it's not traditional, something can't go wrong.
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Um It's gonna be a fake version of from my own twis.
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So this will be the of the sandwich.
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A little bit of mayo ketchup, lettuce got some tomatoes.
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Now, this is the only twist on it.
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I'm adding sweet plantains.
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So it's like double block.
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You got double blocking, you got the crispy ones as well as
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That's gonna be crazy, crazy.
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I think my grandma is gonna be proud.
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So let me get a little cut right here.
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The lo lo I gotta get down to the floor to try it.
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What can I dip it in the sun like you were doing?
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I'm gonna just dip it.
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You why you put this on the menu?
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You are, you are uh let's get it.
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This is the, what's good in your hood sandwich?
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The les is a better place because of mama.
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Her plates made with love have fed generations of artists
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musicians, activists and everyday neighborhood folks
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all who she treated like family.
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When the five Puerto Rican nationalists were released from
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prison after serving 27 years for fighting for the liberation
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The first place we brought them to was for more insight on Casa
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de in the neighborhood.
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I broke bread with native Les Son and New York legend Luis Guzman
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So look, people just so you see this is how you do it, you go,
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you dunk, you look, you go and you know what this is right here
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The best part of life, not the best part of life, baby.
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That is, I wanna see more of the neighborhood honey.
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What we need to do is dance.
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The lower East side or as warmly called by its Puerto Rican
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residents is part of a bigger shift happening in New York City
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This part of the neighborhood from Avenue A to the FDR, from
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the street to 14th Street, we call this because we gave ourselves
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in this neighborhood an identity.
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This neighborhood always had a spirit about itself.
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You know, we had the best black parties, man.
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Uh We used to have block parties and which is a nice street Avenue
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C it's traditionally been an immigrant working class neighborhood
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that quickly began gentrifying in the mid two thousands,
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prompting the National Trust for historic preservation
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to place the neighborhood on their list of America's most
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It's been a struggle but it's been a worthwhile struggle because
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again, we fought real hard to keep the wild community, what's
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left of it intact, you know, and like I said, we became the the
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warriors for this neighborhood, right to die.
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You know, that's who we are.
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That's beautiful, amazing.
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What is the festival?
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It's like a block fair, a street fair and it starts from here
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all the way down to 12th street.
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They bring in um vendors, they bring in music.
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And every year we do our own.
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This year was a little bit extra special because they were
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dedicating it to a and they presented her with this amazing
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big head sculpture that was done of her.
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And then they took it through the whole lower East side and
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then they ended up in a park and they had her in front of a big
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So it was out, I'm going to dedicate my heart and soul to make
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sure that this restaurant continues its location.
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And what we started out to do, which was feeding people.
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We're pushing and we know she's watching, but we're pushing
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further to keep it going because that's our strongest point
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We're gonna prove her.
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You taught us well, the generations that pave the way the,
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that raise our families and in turn our communities, the sacrifices
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And the years spent sharing conversations over food and simple
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Like the proud Puerto Rican flags flying in Casa A is a true
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symbol of a changing neighborhood full of stories that unite
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us through a common denominator family and love.
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Thank you so much to the familia and of course to Luis Guzman
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for talking to me about the Les and everything that is and that's
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next time on what's good in your hood.
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We're heading to Miami where we'll dive into a neighborhood
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seafood icon with 305 native a.
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