Meet Danny Gee

From the barrios to the wrestling ring…

He went from the barrios to the wrestling ring; Meet Danny Garcia or some of you might know him by Danny Gee. Danny Gee is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico but at the age of 12 his mother and he moved to El Cerro Mission, New Mexico, but at the age of 17 he started to act out in school so his mother sent him off to live with his father who at the time lived with Danny’s grandparents back in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At the age of 17, Danny was a freshman in High school, and lived in a neighborhood called Martinez Town aka BMT that was known for the Chicanos to live in; at that time Danny wasn’t claiming any side or gang. Danny took the same route to school every day and would see other high school kids that possibly were already in the gang. Eventually, over time Danny started to become friends with those same kids and it became a routine to hang out with them.

Albuquerque, NM is very unique to the natives. People who are not from there might say that the city is really big, but those from there would say differently. “Albuquerque is a big city but yet everyone knows everyone.” Albuquerque in people’s minds that are not from the city would automatically think of the show, “Breaking Bad”, but that’s not totally what the city is known for. The reality of Albuquerque is that it’s not always glamorous just like any other city. There are homicides every day, a huge Meth and Fentanyl drug problem and gang violence is a huge part of the city.

I asked Danny, “Do you believe that the stuff occurring in the city influences the young generation today to go down the wrong path?”. Danny said, “Really, really depends, gangs usually follow in your family's footsteps.” He doesn’t believe gangs have a huge influence on kids because they are more influenced by what they see in music videos that they watch on YouTube and other things they see on the internet. Today’s youth is just trying to keep up and follow trends.

But in Danny’s case, he wasn’t following in his family's footsteps; none of his family members were in gangs. Danny started to get into gang life when he relocated to Albuquerque, attended high school, and started hanging out with the kids from the neighborhood. Over time Danny became more relentless and those kids eventually grew on him and he started to hang out with them, and go places after schools such as the park and fair. After hanging out with them over time it created a “family bond”.

“Do you feel that if you didn’t live in that neighborhood you still would’ve gone down that path that you took?” Danny said, “No, no because I’ve been really big into sports. So if the kids in the neighborhood were wanting to play football, basketball, or soccer I don’t think I would’ve.” he also stated it depends on the person because growing up Danny has always loved gangster movies. While he grew up liked to watch ScarFace, Friday, and Menace to Society.

At the age of 17, Danny was a freshman in High School, he was having a difficult time advancing to the next level. Danny didn’t care much about his grades, so he didn’t do his homework. His main priority was gangbanging so he would ditch class or not even attend at all. He wanted to go to the park and just sell drugs. He then finally attempted to retry and pick up his work sophomore year, but during registration, he got into it with a Mexican gang so from there he couldn’t go back so the next option that he turned to was an alternative High School, called “School on Wheels'’. They would encourage you to get a full-time work job, but you would go to school for only three hours a day. The school on wheels had counselors but they would go pop in randomly to check on you while you're working. They would just check to make sure you're doing a good but your job would correspond with the school work. Danny said that’s what saved him because he was so far back.

“Was it often that you guys got beef with other Latin Gangs?” Danny said there isn’t just a Latin Gang, it’s either a Chicano or Mexican Gang. I asked him to break down the two and he said Chicano’s are American raised Latinos with Mexican descents but raised speaking English and Mexicans are typically from Mexico that come from a Spanish speaking household. Throughout the city, at any High School, you’d come across one of the biggest Gangs called Jarritos Mara Villa aka JMV so the Chicanos were way outnumbered but that made them click with other allies due to them being way outnumbered. It was often that the “Chicanos and Mexicans would get into it because in High School you always had to be beefing with someone because if you're just gangbanging to just be gangbanging you’ll be walking in a circle.”

Danny’s closest time to serving jail was being held in a holding cell for questioning on sales, which he was held for 16 hours at age 17. Danny used to sell crack and conduct his business at the park. He was always cautious but one day on July 4th his friends were getting ready to go out to a party Danny was addicted to sales but on that particular day, he didn’t want to leave because he was making sales like crazy. He remembered just selling rock after rock back to back. He remembers that day there was a photographer taking pictures at the park but later he found out that it was an undercover cop and captured everything that was going on but Danny was never charged with anything because he had a method that you never kept the drugs on you for times like that. He would put in a candy wrapper or juice box and it was on the opposite side of the park but he knew how much there was at all times so he could keep his sales going. One day they ended up running a sting and brought a few of his homies and others that had nothing to do with it. Danny was a juvenile at the time and they kept questioning him and tried to have him rat others out but he had to keep it gangster and not say anything. At that time Danny didn’t see juvenile hall too badly, he saw it as a time he could go visit other homes that are locked up in there for a while and catch up.

I asked Danny, “What’s your point of view on today’s generation in Gangs?” Danny said, he believes it’s more ego and he doesn’t believe it's neighborhood vs neighborhood or sides vs sides. He believes it's just a group of people looking for trouble. A Lot of gangs today are super lowkey, they aren’t like back in the day when all the homies would kick it at the park for hours. Today’s youth in gangs have an ego, they don’t want to look soft. “They want to look hard as fuck like those hard mother fucker on the internet with pistols, like the dude with 10 dudes behind him all strapped up.” Danny also said ego is super sensitive because nobody wants to look like a punk and be caught without a gun. Danny believes it’s more an attention thing. Peer pressure is a big thing with today’s generation, they don’t want to look like they aren’t a “down motherfucker”.

What made Danny want to change is when he started to see his homies die. One that made him want to turn his life around was his best friend AJ. Danny and AJ would always be together from going to parties together to playing sports and spending the night at each other's home. AJ always had gold chains and rings and was well dressed but one day AJ was at a party and a group of guys wanted to rob him of all his goods but he didn’t want to give it to them so they ended up shooting him and killing him. The next day a guy was going to work and came across AJ’s body on the side of a house.

Danny has just matured over time; he never left the gang or dropped out. He still talks to all his friends and kicks it from time to time. Danny is proud of his neighborhood and where he came from. Danny is grinding with his Girlfriend and they are always by each other's side. He is also a Pro Wrestler part-time and a full-time Trainer for a Customer Service call center.

Danny Gee’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannygee505/

Danny Gee’s story about how Pro Wrestling saved his life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QGvJp8ZhpY

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