Donal Logue, who co-wrote the memoir, described Trejo as having “tremendous spiritual equanimity” — a phrase that captures something real about the quality that Trejo’s public presence consistently projects. It is not serenity in the sense of distance from difficulty. It is the specific kind of stability that comes from having survived things that could have destroyed you, made a decision about how to live, and then lived that way for long enough that the decision has become the thing you are rather than the thing you are trying to be.
Patricia Rae, an actress who worked with Trejo, described him as “humble, very into causes, and very much a humanitarian.” The description is consistent across the range of people who have worked with him, known him, or documented his community work. The word “humble” is interesting in the context of someone whose face is on merchandise and who has appeared in hundreds of films. The humility appears to be genuine and to co-exist with professional success in a way that genuine humility, when it is genuine, often does.
## The Spreading Story and What It Established
The news of the Sylmar rescue spread quickly after August 8, 2019. The story was reported by ABC7 in Los Angeles, which had the on-scene footage and the interview with Trejo at the scene. It was picked up by Reuters, by Good Morning America, by Global News in Canada, by outlets in the United Kingdom and Australia and beyond. By the standards of that particular news cycle, it was a story that traveled.