
After serving time, this cook now serves the night owls of Anchorage | INDIE ALASKA
Season 13 Episode 6 | 3m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
Ricky Vazquez is not letting his past define him.
Ricky Vazquez is a proud Puerto Rican who rarely slows down. After spending almost a decade in incarcerated, he doesn't like to get bored. These days he prefers the adrenaline of the busy Saturday night rush at one of Anchorage's most beloved historic taverns.

After serving time, this cook now serves the night owls of Anchorage | INDIE ALASKA
Season 13 Episode 6 | 3m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
Ricky Vazquez is a proud Puerto Rican who rarely slows down. After spending almost a decade in incarcerated, he doesn't like to get bored. These days he prefers the adrenaline of the busy Saturday night rush at one of Anchorage's most beloved historic taverns.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipI can hear them like, oh, look how fast he works.
And he's slammed right now, And hearing them say that inspires me more because it's like a challenge.
Oh, look how fast he is.
So I try to go faster.
Slice of cheese please.
Well right now I'm a cook.
I get to serve all the drunk people of Anchorage.
Thanks to God.
Yes, I love it because I get stuck.
When I don't, I have nothing to do.
So I get bored, you know what I mean?
I like to be just moving all the time.
24 00:00:37,124 --> 00:00:38,258 That's why I like to work and be in the kitchen.
Because I try to keep my mind occupied all the time.
So I don't go back to what I used to be.
I was 17.
I went to prison.
I was in prison for eight years.
In Puerto Rico to be in prison is really, really scary.
I've been to prison up here and it's scary too.
But over there, there's a lot of gangs.
I saw three people get murdered in prison.
43 00:01:20,584 --> 00:01:22,185 It was bad.
And then when you hear from your families, they're just talking about what happened.
Problems.
We can't do this.
We can't do that.
And you're stuck.
So you feel even worse because what can you do?
You're locked up.
You can't do nothing.
That's why you have to keep your mind occupied, because if not, you have too much time to think.
I had way too much time to think.
Eight years in prison.
Only thing you can do is think.
What else can you do?
I did a lot of exercise.
And then I worked in the kitchen.
So I would go to school, and after I get out of school, that's where I graduated too, was in prison, I would go to work.
That's where I started in the kitchen was when I was in prison.
So I decided that when I got out, I wanted to do something.
You know I mean?
So I decided to get a kitchen.
So that's how I got to Koots.
And that's what keeps me in Alaska.
It took me eight years in there about thinking of all the bad things I did, which took me now to be a better person.
And not only I say it, a lot of people say it.
My family says it, my mom says it.
My kids say it.
I love it.
Always.
Life is always hard.
It's the way you guide yourself through it.
It's all on you.
I went to prison for selling weed.
Now weed is legal.
So it's like, what the hell?
You know?
I mean, it doesn't make sense, but it makes you learn about life.
You ain't going to learn by being mad.
I can't blame nobody.
So who?
Be mad at who?
You can't be mad at yourself.
Life continues.
Pass the page.
Keep going.
Don't look back.
That's the only thing because if you look back, you're going back.
It's a lesson in life.
That's all it is.