Jesse Saenz, whose life was shaped by rough days in Las Vegas and Redlands, has created an elite club underneath the Miami Heat's arena.
. Protest was so much in his blood, John named his only son after the Argentine revolutionary, Che Guevara.
Jesse was staying in an apartment with Ignacio up the road from the middle school. Che knew him back then as “a little thuggish” 13-year-old. Broad shoulders and a boulder for a neck. But, when he was around him and his father, Che said, Jesse was like a different person. He just needed a push in the right direction, somebody who would look him in the eye everyday and tell him that he mattered.
He went to see Jesse’s mother. He knew his grandmother. “She was a nice old lady,” he said. “But she couldn’t take care of Jesse. They were very, very low income and grew up [in the ] very, very, very hard part of North Las Vegas.” The change wasn’t the easiest. Jesse was fighting when he could, almost getting kicked out of school. John still couldn’t keep Jesse away from the life he left. Bad intentions can be difficult to break. As time passed, John’s methods weren’t working.“Jesse was more hotheaded,” Che said. “… I was a negotiator compared to him. He always wanted to throw down.”Redlands was a culture shock. Months before their move, Jesse was crackin’ skulls and stealing bikes.
He looked up for a second from his seat in the Miami arena, renewed, and peered at the banners swaying atop the rafters. He breathed deeply and tapped his heart with his index finger.Jesse always admired John’s love of cool cars. He wanted one just like him. For a few months he worked at an Audi dealership, working finance in the back. He called Che and told him he needed a change, somewhere to stay, maybe a new job.The money was good but he wanted more. Money in the desert wasn’t in cars.
He was 22, embarrassing himself for the sake of our richest and most famous, but for some reason, he said he felt like he finally had arrived. He was beginning to wonder how he would maintain his new workload. He wasn’t going to stop as long as he could. It was the first real cash he’d ever made. Even if it debilitated him, day by crippling day. It got to the point where Jesse was working six days a week, in a slow month. Fifteen-hour days on average.
The city needed something different, somewhere safe for Louisianans to sip their daiquiris and hoot and holler in peace. He ditched his nice abode and low humidity in Nevada for a single room in the swampy Budget Inn in nearby Bossier, where he lived without family or a workable kitchen for a year.He had to hire marketing staff from a pool of sales associates who worked at Dillard’s department stores. He negotiated fees for big acts with middle men and duffle bag boys from out the bayou.
“Going from Vegas to Shreveport is more than night and day,” Jesse said. “Vegas was corporate. Shreveport was the streets. That dictated who went on, who performed, who got what spot out there. … Luckily, nobody got hurt.”
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