{"id":1963319,"date":"2023-07-03T13:55:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T17:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gods-children-are-not-for-sale-an-interview-with-eduardo-verastegui-about-his-new-film-sound-of-freedom\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T13:57:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T17:57:29","slug":"gods-children-are-not-for-sale-an-interview-with-eduardo-verastegui-about-his-new-film-sound-of-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gods-children-are-not-for-sale-an-interview-with-eduardo-verastegui-about-his-new-film-sound-of-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Eduardo Verastegui on his film &#8216;Sound Of Freedom&#8217;: God&#8217;s children are priceless, not commodities for sale."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgods-children-are-not-for-sale-an-interview-with-eduardo-verastegui-about-his-new-film-sound-of-freedom%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1963319&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Sound of Freedom: A Powerful Film Shedding Light on Child Trafficking<\/h2>\n<p><em>The following is a transcript excerpt from a special edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/podcasts\/morning-wire\/sound-of-freedom-7-3-23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Morning Wire<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Child trafficking remains a very real problem on both sides of the border. Now Angel Studios brings us \u201cSound of Freedom,\u201d a film which tells the true story of federal agent Tim Ballard who rescues a young boy from child traffickers in Colombia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>JOHN:<\/b> Joining us now is Eduardo Verastegui, one of the film\u2019s producers and stars, who plays a key role. Eduardo, thanks for joining us. First, you\u2019ve had a massively successful career as an actor in Mexico \u2013 for the sake of our American audience, would you give us a little background on what you\u2019ve done leading up to your role in producing and starring in \u201cSound of Freedom?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>EDUARDO:<\/b> Well, I started my career when I was 18, almost 19 years-old. I\u2019m from a very small town in northern Mexico called Xicot\u00e9ncatl, Tamaulipas. This is in northern Mexico below Texas. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer, so I went to law school, but I was not passionate about being a lawyer. So when I was 18, I left college after two semesters, and I moved to Mexico City to pursue my dream. I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be a singer. So I started singing in a boy band for three and a half years and we became a very successful, touring all over Mexico and Latin America. After three and a half years singing with that boy band, I left music because I wanted to start an acting career. And at that time, if you wanted to make a living as an actor, you didn\u2019t have so many options. You either do soap operas \u2026 or soap operas. And that\u2019s what I did for almost three and a half years too. After that, I moved to Miami to record my first solo album in Spanish. And one day I was flying from Miami to Los Angeles with my manager and I met someone, who was sitting next to my manager on the plane, and he happens to be the VP for casting directors at 20th Century Fox. To make a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-survival-guide-for-conservatives-during-the-biden-years\/\" title=\"A Survival Guide for Conservatives During the Biden Years\">long story short<\/a>, he invites me to do an audition for a film. I did the audition and I got the part in a movie called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0323572\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chasing Papi<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After that movie, it was 10 years of working really hard \u2014 music, soap operas, and music again. Finally, that big dream that I had when I was very young of one day moving to Hollywood and making my first American film in English \u2014 it was a big dream \u2014 and now I was doing it with agents and managers and publicists and lawyers and 20 people working with me. It was the American dream. But then, on the one hand, I thought I had everything, but on the other hand, I had nothing. I was very empty. Something was missing in my life, I was not happy and I was very confused because I didn\u2019t know what was missing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then, meeting my English teacher, Jasmine, she not only taught me English, she not only helped me with my auditions and with my accent. She also went deeper than that. She started using this Socratic method, asking me questions like, <i>Eduardo, what is the purpose of your life? What do you wanna gain in your life? And why? How are you using your talents? Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution? Do you realize that very few times do you see Latinos having an opportunity of being heroes, \u2014 but not like Superman or Spider-Man \u2014 but the everyday hero, the man who comes to this country to work really hard. Men of integrity, virtuous men. And Latina women as well, reduced to objects, sex symbols. You know, who, who are you, Eduardo, who is your family?<\/i> And I answered, well, my family is everything to me. I have three younger sisters and they\u2019re the best part of the family \u2014 my sisters and my mother. They are the heart of the family. They\u2019re full of wisdom. They\u2019re beautiful. They\u2019re smart. Okay, she said, so let me ask you one more time: <i>The media influences how people think. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?<\/i><\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s when I realized that I was part of the problem. So I made a promise to God and to my parents that I will never work again in anything that will offend my faith, my family, or my Latino culture. And after I made the promise, brother, I ended up not working for four years and I lost everything. Everything. But you know, I gained everything that really matters in life. But I was tired of waiting for a role that would portray a man as a real man. Until someone advised me, <em>Eduardo, you\u2019re gonna be waiting forever. Why don\u2019t you become a producer so you can have the power to control the message?<\/em> And that\u2019s how \u2014 with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm1920049\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alejandro Monteverde<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm2053925\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leo Severino<\/a>, the three of us \u2014 we started this production company. We had one goal: Let\u2019s make movies that matter \u2014 movies that, when people see them in theaters, they will leave the theater not only entertained, but hopefully wanting to love more, wanting to forgive more, wanting to complain less, wanting to become the best. The best version of themselves, because art has the power to change people\u2019s lives for good or for bad. And the first fruit of that mission was a little film that has changed the lives of so many people, it won at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006, and changed my own life, a movie called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0482463\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bella<\/a>.\u201d It was the first movie that I produced in my life. And after that, we did \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1810683\/?ref_=nm_knf_t_3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Little Boy<\/a>.\u201d And after that, eight years ago, I met Tim Ballard, an American hero.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/podcasts\/morning-wire\/sound-of-freedom-7-3-23\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>LISTEN: Hear the full Morning Wire Interview with Eduardo Verastegui.<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<p><b>JOHN:<\/b> This film is powerful and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gods-children-are-not-for-sale-an-interview-with-eduardo-verastegui-about-his-new-film-sound-of-freedom\/\" title=\"Interview with Eduardo Verastegui on his film 'Sound Of Freedom': God's children are priceless, not commodities for sale.\">inspiring \u2013 offering hope<\/a> and direction. But it\u2019s obviously a very difficult topic. Why did you take on this particular project?<\/p>\n<p><b>EDUARDO:<\/b> Well, I\u2019m always looking for projects, but somehow this project found us. We were in Los Angeles, California, when we met Tim Ballard, a true American hero, and he introduced us to his friends \u2013 ex-FBI agents, CIA agents, ex-Navy Seals. These guys travel around the world undercover, rescuing children who are kidnapped for sex exploitation. And when they explained to us the details of what these children are going through, the pain that they\u2019re going through, the suffering, I was very inspired by meeting heroes like them. But I was depressed. I couldn\u2019t sleep for days, it was horrible, it was like a nightmare. And I couldn\u2019t look the other way. I couldn\u2019t remain silent. And Alejandro and I, we said, well, we have a weapon of mass instruction and inspiration: film, movies. Movies can move people \u2013 we can make a movie. I asked Ballard, <i>okay, so this is a global problem, right?<\/i> And he said, yes, especially in the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. is the number one consumer of child sex in the world and Mexico is the number one provider. So I asked him, <i>how come if the United States is the most powerful country in the world, you have the intelligence, you have the army, the police, you have the technology, you have everything. How come we don\u2019t finish this problem?<\/i> And he said to me, <i>because it\u2019s not a priority. And we are not the solution, Eduardo. I can be the solution for one child and of course, if I save one child, you save the world. Thank God we have been able to save and to rescue many children, thousands of children, but this is beyond us. It\u2019s too big.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re talking about millions of children that are kidnapped for sexual exploitation. These kids are being raped 10 to 15 times a day for many years. We need a movement. And I believe that this movie can start this movement. The number one and most important step is to raise awareness, because if people don\u2019t know that this problem exists, they cannot be part of the solution in the first place. So we need to tell people through this movement that this is real, this is happening here, next door \u2014 everywhere, schools everywhere. And if we put enough pressure from the media, from our society to the government, we can turn this into a priority \u2013 and then, and only then, I have no doubt that by working together we can end this terrible reality.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s when I decided to stop everything that I was doing in my life at the time so I can dedicate my life to ending child trafficking. I made a promise to God that I will dedicate everything to join this army of brave people who are not afraid to raise their voices, to defend those who [don\u2019t] have a voice, who defend those who can[not] defend themselves. That\u2019s my motivation. Let\u2019s protect every child. God\u2019s children are not for sale.<\/p>\n<p><b>JOHN:<\/b> Now, this is a film that took several years to get to audiences, with a lot of roadblocks. Can you tell us about some of those challenges \u2013 what made making this film so difficult?<\/p>\n<p><b>EDUARDO:<\/b> Well, everything was difficult from day one. When I shared the idea with my friends and some investors, <em>okay, this is next<\/em>, they said, <i>Why? Why this one? This is too dangerous, this is too dangerous.<\/i> I said, <i>yes, it is very dangerous, but it\u2019s more dangerous not to do it in the long term. And what if this is your son? What if this is your daughter?<\/i> And I dream that one day we don\u2019t have to rescue any more children because this thing is over. It doesn\u2019t exist anymore, but we need to start now. <i>What do you mean it\u2019s too dangerous, man? Come on, we need to do this<\/i>. But right there, it was rejection from people that I went to, knocking on their doors asking them for support.<i> No, we don\u2019t wanna get involved in this.<\/i> So there were obstacles, but thank God, we knocked on the doors of the right people who said yes, even though it was months of many nos \u2013 <i>no, no, no, we\u2019re not gonna support this.<\/i> Finally, someone says yes. You can never give up when you are working on a project that is designed to save lives. This is a calling. This is a mission. This is so profound. So, finally we raised the funds and we made the movie. We went to Colombia because this is a true story. When I asked him, Ballard, I said, <i>it\u2019s very hard to make a movie about you because you need a hundred episodes \u2014 but this is a two-hour film. So tell me, what\u2019s the most difficult rescue mission you\u2019ve ever done in your life? <\/i>And he told Alejandro and me: Cartagena, Colombia, the first one. It was very dangerous. It was very difficult, but it was very successful because at the end, the kids are crying with tears in their eyes, singing, and celebrating their freedom. It was like this beautiful sound of freedom. And that\u2019s when we look at each other, Alejandro and I, okay, that\u2019s the movie and that\u2019s the title. So after we finished the movie, it was five years of work, then every studio passed. We went to Netflix, we went to Amazon. I didn\u2019t know why, but they said, <i>this is not for us, this is not a good business for us.<\/i> But this is not about business, this is about saving lives, saving children. This is the greatest evil. I mean, there\u2019s nothing more evil than this. What do you mean this is not for us? The kids cannot wait any longer. I need to do something.<\/p>\n<p>So I started doing this tour in Mexico where I asked each governor from each state to host a private screening for leaders of that state and then after the film we invited the media too, and the press and leaders of that state. And then we signed an agreement, a commitment to end child trafficking in that state. And that\u2019s how I survived with this movie. It was two years of tours all over Mexico, until finally, I was praying for an angel to come to rescue this movie. And guess what? Angel Studios came and rescued this film. And because of them, now millions of people will see this film. Now, there is going to be an opening on July 4th. What a symbolic day, because it\u2019s Independence Day, right? We\u2019re celebrating freedom. And yes, we should with one hand, but with another hand we should bring freedom back to those children who are not free right now.<\/p>\n<p><b>JOHN:<\/b> Well Eduardo, thank you so much for joining us and for all the work you\u2019ve done raising awareness for this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-house-just-passed-a-major-defense-bill-heres-whats-in-it\/\" title=\"The House Just Passed A Major Defense Bill: Here\u2019s What\u2019s In It\">extremely important issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>EDUARDO:<\/b> God bless you, brother. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><b>JOHN:<\/b> That was \u201cSound of Freedom\u201d producer and star Eduardo Verastegui and this has been a special edition of Morning Wire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Morning Wire shares a transcript excerpt from a special edition. Child trafficking persists as a significant issue on both sides of the border. Angel Studios presents &#8220;Sound of Freedom,&#8221; a film depicting federal agent Tim Ballard&#8217;s heroic rescue of a young boy from child traffickers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":1963320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1963319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1963319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1963320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1963319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1963319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1963319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}