Menudo

Yes

... by their dad, and he did also rape, uh, one of the Menudos.

Um-

Yes

Ash Ruiz, such an incredible, incredible person.

He was actually in Menudo when he was younger.

And that's a whole other podcast.

His story is just amazing.

At nine, he began appearing in television commercials.

Before long, he started trying to earn a place in Menudo, the Puerto Rican boy band that had become a phenomenon throughout Latin America.

Ricky auditioned and was rejected because he was too short.

Then he auditioned again, still too short.

The third time, his persistence and maybe a few inches of height helped carry him through.

In 1984, at 12 years old, Ricky Martin joined Menudo.

By the following morning, he was leaving for the band's base in Orlando and beginning a life that barely resembled childhood.

I remember Menudo from Saturday morning TV when I was a kid.

Um, he's not doing a lot of the negotiating with Russia, Ukraine, and I- I, right, with the Iranians, that, you know, basically a lot of that's been done by Witkoff or by Kushner, occasionally JD Vance, which is actually kind of what you'd figure the s- the Secretary of State would be doing a lot of, but maybe he's got so many other things.

Um, all, you know, uh, uh, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, member of Menudo, um, all of these different roles that he's required to...

Dancing with the Stars, um, all the, all the other roles that Marco Rubio pl- no. Um, I think Rubio undoubtedly is, I'm actually just gonna say the all-star of the Trump cabinet so far in his presidency.

He's the all-star team, uh, because he handles so many of these different roles all at once.

Oh, this is, this is a front.

Or it's like that's where, like, the retired members of Menudo, like the over 14 Menudo people go.

Right.

[laughs] I get chased.

Like, he's up...

Yeah, he's up to, to go to the, uh, what do they call it? The sa- the Menudo sanctuary.

[laughs]

He was visiting some people at the Menudo sanctuary, and he needs to, he needs to tie it into something.

And in the letter, Eric was talking about how scared he was about his dad and detailed some of the abuse that he was experiencing.

Then in 2023, Roy Rosello, who was a member of the boy band Menudo, came forward sharing the abuse that he received from Jose Menendez, who was like kind of working like their band manager.

And when Roy was just like a teenager, he was abused by Jose, and he wrote out this whole statement, everything, shared everything, and it was awful.

And this just further added credibility to the abuse claims.