An unexpected event turns Suave’s world on its head, and Suave seems ready to throw it all away. He feels violated, and it triggers a response from Suave we’ve never seen before. As he grows increasingly agitated and isolated from everyone around him, Suave’s actions put everything that he has built at risk.Season 2 of Suave was made possible by The Mellon Foundation. Mellon makes grants to support the visionaries and communities that unlock the power of the arts and humanities to help connect us all. More at mellon.org. Want to support our independent journalism? Join Futuro+ for exclusive episodes, sneak peaks and behind-the-scenes chisme on Suave and all our podcasts. www.futuromediagroup.org/joinplus.
Chapter 1: What is the background and premise of Suave Season 2?
From Futuro Studios, this is Suave. I'm Julieta Martinelli. In 2017, David Luis Suave Gonzalez was released from prison after 31 years serving a life sentence without parole. He was one of thousands of juvenile lifers granted a second chance at life. This is a story about life after incarceration and the search for the true meaning of freedom. This is season two. Today's episode, the car drama.
Suave?
Yeah.
What is going on? Like, seriously, I don't know. I mean, you tell me it's an emergency.
Did you speak to the weather?
No, I did not. Oh, okay. So today I'm getting things ready for a trip. And then I get this call from Suave. And yeah, he had texted me earlier. He said that we needed to talk. He said it was an emergency. Right. I remember you told me and you showed me a picture and it looked it looked like they had sideswiped you.
So Suave tells me that a neighbor had backed up into his car while parking on the street a few weeks ago. And I don't think it's very serious, right? Like I think he maybe needed a new bumper, a fender. And Suave tells me he decided to handle the repairs himself since his neighbor didn't have insurance and he just wanted to resolve the whole thing.
Shortly after this happened, Suavez says he was at a justice reform event in Philly, and he was talking about what happened with a woman. She's an activist who was also formerly incarcerated, and he just knew her casually from these kind of events. Suavez says the woman told him that her boyfriend worked at a body shop and that he could fix his car on the side for pretty cheap.
They came picking up the following Monday.
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Chapter 2: What happened with Suave's car and his neighbor?
And not long after that, something strange happens.
Yeah. So Suave gets a strange message from a judge that he doesn't know, saying, I don't think they intended to steal your car. The judge also tells Suave that they don't know where the car or the woman is.
The judge writes that the woman is, quote, having a mental breakdown, and I do not want her to go back to jail, which is what will happen if you report this now.
Suave tells me that the woman who allegedly took his car had been helping that judge reach voters during their election campaign. And there's a video on the woman's Instagram actually telling people to vote for that judge. So Suave is already upset that he doesn't even know where his car is. And now, I mean, no, no, he does not take this text message well at all.
I'm like, fuck this, I'm filing a police report. This is going to blow up in their faces, big time.
So he calls the police and reports his car stolen. Over the next few days, Suave and I talk on the phone often. Are you there?
Yeah.
What's been going on?
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Chapter 3: How did Suave discover his car was missing and what was the judge's involvement?
Well, they still haven't found my car.
As time passes and there's no news about the car, I start to hear an edge in Suave's voice.
If I wasn't on parole and probation, I'd be fucking somebody up. That's the real truth. I'm not in the street no more. I'm a fucking regular citizen. Been working hard. I don't fuck with nobody. I don't mess around with nobody. I mind my business. I help where I can help. Why would you want to do this to me? I'm not a pussy. I'm not a pussy at all.
What make you think you could try me and I'm not going to react? Because if I get triggered, somebody's going to get hurt. Not fake hurt, real hurt. At this point, I don't give a fuck who go to jail or not. Because at the end of the day, I have no sympathy. I have no loyalty to these people.
I have never heard Suave talk like this before, like with this tone. And Suave saying these particular things about people getting hurt. I'm like, what?
Yeah, I agree with you. I think it was kind of shocking to hear him say that he doesn't care if people get locked up. Just because Suave, to me, is kind of like the epitome of someone who actually does give a fuck. You know, somebody who's dedicated so much of his life to getting people out of prison. Someone who actually really believes in second chances.
I mean, it is not an easy thing to hear, right? But also, the idea that his car might have been stolen by someone that he knows and trusts, by someone in the reform space that he's in, I mean, I think this hits him hard. And then I think it hits doubly hard for him that this judge is basically telling him, wait, don't do anything about this. Just keep waiting.
Now, that's hard, but at the same time, I'm kind of looking at Suave like, seriously, all of this, like over a car?
Good morning, Suave. How are you doing, bro?
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Chapter 4: Why is Suave so emotionally triggered by the car situation?
Wait, wait, what do you mean?
I'm going public. That's what I mean. I'm going public.
Let the chips fall where they fall.
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1.
Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm going public. I let the chips fall where they fall.
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Chapter 5: What does Suave mean by 'going public' with his story?
How did we go from a car theft to Suave saying he's ready to die for this? For a car? I mean, I just don't understand. Before you do anything, we need to have a conversation just so we understand what is happening, the team. Are you in agreement with that? Yeah. Okay.
So we decide to throw an emergency meeting. At that time, I was actually on the first vacation that I'd taken in years, camping somewhere in the middle of the desert. So I drove an hour just for a tiny bit of signal. Eventually, all of our team's faces pop up on my Zoom screen.
This is happening in Suave's life right now, while we are in the middle of producing Suave Season 2. I mean, Suave is a very public person. He's about to do this publicly all over his social media.
So, Suave, you are certain then that you will be taking action to come public on this in the next 24 hours?
That's Maria Garcia, Futuros executive editor.
Well, let me say this, right? I appreciate the conversation from the bottom of my heart, but I'm only doing this because Maria asked me not to go public at the time I wanted to go to. At the end of the day, I'm going to defend myself regardless of what the circumstances may be. If I got to go back to prison, fuck it. That's what it's going to be. I'm not no nut. I'm not no sucker.
I'm none of that. I'm none of the above.
So what do you think it's going to look like when you go public?
I'm using everything I got. I'm using my Facebook, Instagram, everything. Trust me, it's going to be a shitstorm for somebody. See, because at this point, it's not even about a fucking car no more. It's not even about a car.
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Chapter 6: How is Suave planning to use social media to address the car theft?
I mean, I understand what you're saying, but you're wrong. To say that I'm desperate? What am I desperate for? I'm not desperate. I'm not desperate. I know what I'm doing. I'm not desperate. I know I'm dealing with motherfuckers. They don't want to lose their seat in the beds. Fuck them. What, I'm supposed to be scared? I'm supposed to let them run over me?
I'm supposed to just say, hey, do whatever you want with Swag? I'm not doing that shit.
One of her newer production assistants cuts in to offer some words of advice.
I think, sorry, like what I'm hearing is that... It backfires instantly. Making decisions in this state of mind is sometimes not the best thing because... What state of mind?
You know what? Anyway, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Sorry. Sorry for interrupting.
Then Suave disappears. The next couple days are honestly pretty rough. I hurry back home to Atlanta. And the whole time, I'm just thinking about Suave.
And, you know... I hate this motherly instinct thing, especially when it comes to Suave. But this is for real one of those times where I really wish that he would share his location with me or that I just had another way of calling someone to just check in on him because I'm freaking out.
Yeah, and I can't get a hold of him either. But I know that he said that he'd be dropping those posts soon. So I set a notification alert on my phone. And I just wait. It's not long before I get an alert. I run to Instagram, and there it is. Suave's first public post regarding his car. I click on the video.
Stop believing these people when they come into our communities begging for a vote.
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Chapter 7: What are the concerns of Suave's team regarding his public actions?
Just a few hours later, all of Suave's posts about the car situation are completely wiped from his Instagram account. The next day, I finally get on the phone with Suave. And his story is different. I wanted to know what happened after you posted the stuff.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going crazy now. I just went through, brought on them. I went on every social platform. I'm about to get some ads on Instagram that run 24 hours a day. Tomorrow is Friday. When I wake up Monday morning, right, because I already paid for them ads, I'm releasing everything.
The next time we talk, it's clear to me that the negative responses from some of the folks in the movement have really gotten under his skin.
A lot of advocates are like, bro, man, we need on the bench. I need my car. To them, it's nothing. To me, it's everything. You're blowing this up about a car. It's my fucking car, goddammit. What the fuck are y'all talking about?
I just want to make sure that all the work that you've done isn't undone. That's my only concern.
Listen, at this point, it don't matter if I get the car back or not. It don't matter. See, because now y'all triggering me to be the motherfucker that I always was. A real nasty motherfucker. Now you've seen that nasty part and y'all don't like it. I'm not the only one that's going to take a loss. That's why I was fucking pissed when Maria called that meeting.
Talking about, I understand your mental health. Man, get the fuck out of here. You don't know my fucking mental health.
I know that, you know, we were talking about you potentially applying, like, you know, for a pardon or something next year.
I'm not even thinking about that, Julieta. I'll be honest with you. At this point, I'm not even thinking about that.
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Chapter 8: How did Suave's social media posts impact his reputation and what happened next?
I want to be supportive, but at the same time, he's saying things that are very concerning. If you don't mind, I want to try to call him one more time today. Well, maybe I should try calling him. You should. You should.
Things are tense, but I ask him if it's okay that I schedule a meeting with him and everybody else on the team so that we can at least try and resolve things or at least get an answer as to why he's trying to quit. Suave accepts.
Suave, just let me know if you can hear me. Yeah, I can hear you. My heart is breaking because of everything that's happened in your life over the last month. I just wanted to say.
I just want to express myself. I appreciate you and everybody else. I really do. Thank you for your words. You know, I don't know how much fucking time I'm going to be alive or whatever the fuck. I really don't. You know, and that's nothing to get spooky about. It's just what it is. I get frustrated because I'm very institutionalized. I need to have a structure.
When I don't have a structure in my life, I feel like I'm fucking going downhill with shit. Seriously. It's none of y'all fault. It's nobody's fault. It's just how I'm feeling. Like, fuck it.
He calls me that night. I don't record our conversation, but he basically says that he changed his mind and he never really wanted to quit.
But that cryptic thing he said in the meeting, I don't know how much time I'm going to be alive. I mean, what is he thinking of doing? And again, it sounds like he's ready to throw everything, everything away, even life itself.
Over the winter holidays, the Futuro office is closed. Everything is on pause. Until a couple of days after Christmas, when I get a text message from Suave. I call him immediately.
Suave?
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