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Commissioner Raquel Regalado and her dad, Mayor Tomas Regalado, delve into their family's history in radio and tv in Miami, as well as their respective emergence in local politics. The conversation explores the Regalado family's deep-rooted connection to media and politics, highlighting their experiences in journalism, interviews with prominent political figures, and the impact of personal challenges on their political aspirations. The discussion emphasizes the importance of community engagement and the family's legacy in public service.
Hello. I'm Tomas Regalado. And
Raquel Regalado:I'm Raquel Regalado.
Tomas Regalado:And today, we will continue with the story of the Regalado, especially on the political life of this family. Welcome back. Everybody said no I'm so busy working and so and I said guys we have to have to participate. You have to understand that you have different ways to save money and not pay taxes. I mean everybody say reduce by taxes but I mean file an application for homes that exemption.
Tomas Regalado:Right. And then the your taxes will be reduced. It's like, you know, I wish I'd win the lottery. Buy a ticket. Yeah.
Raquel Regalado:Right. Right. Well, you're doing an amazing job. So, dad, I wanna talk a little bit about our relationship because one of the
Tomas Regalado:things that we're gonna be doing in
Raquel Regalado:this podcast is talking about a lot of different topics. And, you know, I've always said it. I won the lottery of birth. You're, like, the best dad in the world, but you're also my favorite person. So it's not just that you're my dad.
Raquel Regalado:You and I are actually great friends. You're my neighbor.
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:Yes. You're my neighbor. And we talk all the time and we see each other all the time. And we've always been like this. It's not like a new thing.
Raquel Regalado:We've always been two peas in a pod.
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:Right?
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:So I made you some cookies because this is what you used to make me for breakfast when mom wasn't around.
Tomas Regalado:No cookies.
Raquel Regalado:So yeah. So my dad would let me eat cookies.
Tomas Regalado:And by the way and by the way, something that I should admit When you were growing and Tommy were growing, I traveled a lot. Yes. And and your mom will take you everywhere and anywhere to your
Raquel Regalado:But I was always a difficult child.
Tomas Regalado:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then and then she start traveling doing international things.
Raquel Regalado:And I work with her.
Tomas Regalado:And sometimes you went with her, so you learn the trade of journalism and international reporting. But but when when she was traveling, you you know, I used to I used to do what she want let me do Including cookies for breakfast. Including cooking for breakfast or including taking you and Tommy to a movie that that was x rated and when when she came back, I said
Raquel Regalado:Yeah. This is a funny story. So so my dad loves movies. We used to go to the movies all the time, but then when mom wasn't around, you really didn't have like, you just took us to see
Tomas Regalado:the right Yeah. Like, action movie.
Raquel Regalado:Yeah. Action movies. Right. So the first one that was, like, traumatic was you took us to see Jaws. Yes.
Raquel Regalado:You took us to Jaws, and then you took us to keep the skating to the beach the next day. The worst one is my dad took us to see the best little whorehouse in Texas. I told us not to tell my mom. And then fast forward, one day I see Dolly Parton on TV, and I'm like, what is she doing on television?
Tomas Regalado:You took her to see little or the little horror at this, the the house or anything.
Raquel Regalado:Oh, but I but I I still did. I I still love Dolly Parton. But you also, you know, you took us how many times did you well, we won't even get into Disney and how many times you guys took us to Disney, but how many times
Tomas Regalado:did get because your mom and I work and they Even do the remote. You we used to do remote shows from this day.
Raquel Regalado:As kids, we used to go, like, once a month.
Tomas Regalado:Once a month.
Raquel Regalado:You're insane in the seventies and eighties.
Tomas Regalado:At the time, Disney will hire a radio station in Miami to promote Disney in Orlando, and they will pay the station for us to go there. We'll get in a hotel and and broadcast from there, interview
Raquel Regalado:So one of the to the broadcast, and then the other one will take us to Right.
Tomas Regalado:To the park. To the park.
Raquel Regalado:Yes. But you also took us a million times to the Kennedy Space Center
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:Because we were obsessed. And even though you get dizzy, you cannot get on a boat, you cannot get on a merry-go-round, You are dizzy looking at it. Was. You applied for the astronaut program so that we could get a behind the scenes look at the Kennedy Space Center. So could you tell us the story of
Tomas Regalado:Yeah.
Raquel Regalado:There was a become an astronaut.
Tomas Regalado:NASA NASA came out NASA came out with several programs. Teacher on the space.
Raquel Regalado:Right. The Challenger does that.
Tomas Regalado:And journalist in a space. So the qualifications to be a journalist in a space was you gotta at least be bilingual. Check. Check. Right.
Tomas Regalado:You got to be fit physically at that time. Check. Not now. Yeah. I never said that I got dizzy but you you got to understand the news and be able to report the news by every and all mediums meaning radio and TV because you have to broadcast from space.
Tomas Regalado:Well, the fact of the matter, the bottom line is that I made the cut to the 100 then, and I made another cut and they gave me a diploma. Well, let's go. They let us go and like see. Yeah. I see they have they hide the sheets.
Raquel Regalado:Listen. I thought you were the coolest person on the planet at that moment.
Tomas Regalado:But then the challenger Yes.
Raquel Regalado:And the challenger disaster happened.
Tomas Regalado:The challenger happened. Krista McCaffle was the was the teacher that died in in that space. Tragedy. It was tragic. And and then it was sent.
Tomas Regalado:So I never got to prove if if I got busy on the on a on a spaceship.
Raquel Regalado:But you're an amazing dad, and you always were supporting us in in all of these things. Now Bella and Sevas think that you're the coolest because you were on ballers. Can you tell us about your episode of that my kids are obsessed with?
Tomas Regalado:Yeah. Yeah. Ballers was Andy Garcia. I I knew him since he he was beginning his career. He's he's he's an iconic person for the Cuban American community.
Tomas Regalado:So Andy Garcia were writing a script about a restaurant that was opening on the Miami River And so they said, let's get the mayor to do
Raquel Regalado:So you were on Ballers as the mayor of the City
Tomas Regalado:Of Miami? The mayor of the city of mayor of the City Of Miami. Was the mayor of the City Of Miami. So it it they told me the producer went to city hall mayor we would like to buy we got the rock you know who is the owner of the restaurant and the bad guy is our friend Andy Garcia and you you will have to cut the ribbon and do the restaurant and whatever So everything was okay and I said well how long would that take? No that would take maybe I don't know maybe three or four hours.
Tomas Regalado:Okay we'll go to the river. We were we were to the river next to Casablanca and they had all these people sitting and drinking on on the on the table. They're all, you know, actors, know, like I said, by filming HBO, filming ballers and all that. So one scene said they started filming and the rock said well thank you for coming to the opening of my new restaurant I wanna thank my friend, the mayor of Miami, Tomas Regalado, for coming here on this special date. And I stood up and said, thank you very much.
Tomas Regalado:And the directors are cut. Cut. Why? You cannot talk. If you talk, we have to pay you.
Tomas Regalado:So you cannot talk. Just wave. Just wave.
Raquel Regalado:Hey. We just watched you do in the office. He mentions your name.
Tomas Regalado:So but we spend ten hours. No. No. We gotta do it again.
Raquel Regalado:And save us. Watch this episode, like, 10,000,000 times. It's like it's a No. Just
Tomas Regalado:just just wave. Remember, mayor, don't talk. No. Don't don't talk. But but as as ballers continue be filmed in Miami.
Tomas Regalado:I spoke to Andy Garcia and he said we're leaving to Georgia.
Raquel Regalado:Yes because of
Tomas Regalado:the We're living to Georgia. The state of Florida doesn't have any more film credits.
Raquel Regalado:Credits. Yeah.
Tomas Regalado:We're taking all the production Burning notice.
Raquel Regalado:To That happened with
Tomas Regalado:Burning next to City Hall.
Raquel Regalado:Yeah. I have it with burn notice.
Tomas Regalado:In my in my office in City Hall, I saw Bernardo's being filmed in the old Dinner Quay Auditorium where they filmed and I see the people running over the boat and shooting an old doc.
Raquel Regalado:But I will I will say, and we have talked about the my two favorite things that you've done. The first is escape from Havana. So you were a Peter Pan
Tomas Regalado:Yeah.
Raquel Regalado:For a very, very long time.
Tomas Regalado:It was an m b n n MSNBC. MSNBC documentary.
Raquel Regalado:So you didn't talk about Peter Pan for a very long time. When Abuelo and Abuela were alive, you never spoke about Peter Pan.
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:And then I heard that they were doing this documentary. I submitted your information without telling you. I took the pictures. I took everything. They picked you to be in the documentary.
Raquel Regalado:But at the time
Tomas Regalado:Because I was a mayor. That was
Raquel Regalado:Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
Raquel Regalado:Well, for I submitted it before. Yep. But by the time they got to you, you were the mayor of Miami.
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:And and you were in that movie. Can you tell us about that documentary? Because it really is amazing. And it's such a gift to my kids, you know, and to our family because it tells your story out at the Peter Pan.
Tomas Regalado:But Raquel, the problem is that first of all, we don't have that many people here with historic memory.
Raquel Regalado:Agree.
Tomas Regalado:Everybody everybody do not remember how many thousands of Cubans went through the Freedom Tower.
Raquel Regalado:We're changing that now. We're turning it into
Tomas Regalado:Hopefully. Yeah. You're about time. Everyone do not remember that the Miami Marine Stadium was the site for Our Lady of Charity
Raquel Regalado:Yes.
Tomas Regalado:Yearly man.
Raquel Regalado:We'll do an episode. His fourth child is the Miami
Tomas Regalado:The the Miami Marine Stadium that, unfortunately, the city of Miami have forgotten. But but anyway but anyway and and I think that it's important because some people, the bad people, like like the the people that do not want to admit that immigrants can do better, that that that we had a city that was a dormant village and it became a world metropolis. It's because of the Cuban American immigration and then the Central American and then the Dominican and and and all those immigration. And they're trying to rewrite the story. So it is it is it is important to have a documentary like that the work work very well done.
Tomas Regalado:They have done several. They have written books but they have
Raquel Regalado:We've done a lot of Peter Pan movies. There's there's been a lot Exposition, Peter Pan one, Peter Pan two. Really amazing the work that's been done to capture that era. And all of the people
Tomas Regalado:Actually actually, now in October, the the board of directors of the big fight club, which is an iconic It is. To be a part of Miami history.
Raquel Regalado:You didn't dance at quinces.
Tomas Regalado:It was Isabella did.
Raquel Regalado:Yes. Isabella's quince will have to be fought. But Isabella honored our Miami traditions.
Tomas Regalado:Yeah. Isabella is the
Raquel Regalado:My quince is not so much. I didn't have a quince. It's another story another
Tomas Regalado:Neither do I, but but but that's okay. We were poor at that time. But anyway, they have their have an event in in October to award their for the first time a special price recognition to two Peter Pan that they think are part of the the modern Miami history, it's Willie Chirino and myself.
Raquel Regalado:Yes. Yes.
Tomas Regalado:And so so really he's Peter Pan. And There's a
Raquel Regalado:lot of amazing Peter Pan. You know? Like Albers. There's like a lot
Tomas Regalado:of Max Albers.
Raquel Regalado:Yeah. There's a lot
Tomas Regalado:of amazing Mando Colina. Mando Colina.
Raquel Regalado:There's a few that not so amazing, but that, like, we'll say, like, 95%.
Tomas Regalado:No. No. But but but they're they're most of them.
Raquel Regalado:Yes. But so the other thing, what I think is the coolest is you were a Jeopardy question.
Tomas Regalado:Oh, yeah.
Raquel Regalado:Yeah. That was honestly, like yes. As a nerd, when you I was watching Jeopardy and you were
Tomas Regalado:Yeah. And and it just happened random random. No. They didn't know. Random We're just while watching.
Raquel Regalado:Watching Jeopardy, and and the, you know, the the answer, you know, was Thomas Regalado, and the question was Cuban born mayor of the city of Miami. Yes. And they got it right.
Tomas Regalado:But they got it right.
Raquel Regalado:They got it right. We were like, oh my god. You're a Jeopardy question.
Tomas Regalado:No. But the question was, who is Thomas Regalado? Right. Who is Tomas And some lady said, he was Cuban born mayor of the city of Boenyemi. Right.
Tomas Regalado:They didn't pay anything to me, did they?
Raquel Regalado:Did he? We didn't even know about it. No. Like, you always wonder, like, how do people become Jeopardy questions? Like, they don't call you.
Raquel Regalado:They don't They don't call you. You're just watching Jeopardy one day, and you are the Jeopardy quote. So I always thought that was, like, the the coolest thing. Well, dad, you know, you and I get to work together now. We worked together before when I was on the school board and you were the mayor.
Tomas Regalado:We did
Raquel Regalado:a lot of things together.
Tomas Regalado:Right.
Raquel Regalado:And now obviously we both get to go to the same place. We're both at government center and we do a lot of things together. You are my best friend. You're an amazing father. And if you weren't my father, you would be my best friend.
Raquel Regalado:And I think this podcast is gonna be a lot of fun. We're gonna talk about a lot of different things that you and I share in common. And a lot of things, you know, we've also disagreed on things. I sued you once, you know?
Tomas Regalado:Yeah. The city of Miami. Yeah. Yeah. You'll sue me.
Tomas Regalado:Right. But that's okay. I agree with you. He agreed
Raquel Regalado:with me. I he did agree with me, but but I but I did sue you. We always tell people that joke. But, you know, when when we talk about the the work that I'm doing and the work that I've done, you know, I always tell everyone, you have been an amazing role model and you've really shown me how one person can really change the face of our community. So I wanna thank you for that.
Raquel Regalado:I wanna welcome everyone. We're going be doing more of these. We're going to be talking about a lot of cool things. So we hope that you will join us.
Tomas Regalado:Thank you.
Raquel Regalado:And with that, you know, get your cookie, dad.
Tomas Regalado:Thank you.
Raquel Regalado:You get your cookie. See you next time.