The sirens, chaos and fear of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires are ingrained in actor Richard Cabral, whose Altadena home was one of thousands of structures destroyed by the deadly Eaton Fire.
The neighborhood went dark. Electrical towers exploded “like a bomb.” Smoke clouds moved “with the wind” the morning after. A man tried to fight flames with a water hose. A Mexican couple stood in front of their burned home, holding each other.
“This was a night the spirits of the land had been waiting for, to replenish itself the way it did for thousands of years,” Cabral, 42, recalls in a new short film memorializing the fires that erupted Jan. 7. “Los Angeles was burning.”
Most of the confirmed deaths occurred on the neighborhood’s west side — where many Black and brown families lived, including Cabral.
Cabral, who was raised in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, says the devastation and uneven response to the fire felt painfully familiar. A former gang member, Cabral recalls being treated a certain way because of how he looked. It was about “protecting your neighborhood because no one was protecting it for you,” he said.
One year later, Cabral hopes his short film “FUEGO” will force the public to remember the lives lost, the neighborhoods damaged and the families seeking to rebuild. A trailer is out and the film will be publicly released at a later date.
In the black-and-white film, Cabral recites lyrics of poetry he wrote days after the fires erupted. They filmed in Altadena a few months later, showing charred cars and blocks of houses burned to the ground. Photos of the fire, taken by Adrian Villalobos-Cabral – his son – appear in color. Cabral, who identifies with Native American spirituality, recalls praying that the “fire spirits spare me and my family and our worldly possessions.”
The film documents how Cabral first learned his neighborhood was on fire and culminates with a message of hope. “Animo,” he repeats. The word, he notes, signifies strength, “the power to fight on.” Being from East LA and Boyle Heights gave him resilience, Cabral said.
Cabral moved past a life of crime and achieved success in Hollywood. He received an Emmy nomination in 2015 for the role of Henry Tontz in ABC’s drama “American Crime.” His career — which includes playing Johnny “Coco” Cruz in “Mayans M.C.” — exposed him to places outside of his Eastside upbringing.
In Altadena, Cabral found sanctuary. He and his family lived there for seven years, surrounded by trees and mountains. Bears were a common sight. “The energy of nature just lets your mind quiet down for a little bit,” he said.
“That was everything for a little East LA boy,” said Cabral, a father of four. “For my children, it was safe. It was everything. That’s part of the story, right? This thing that I worked so hard for, and to get there, and then it’s gone.”
Cabral and his family lived on the west side of Altadena, “where all the Black and brown folks were at,” he said. Cabral said he had recently sold his Altadena house and was renting the home destroyed by the fire. All but one of the 19 people confirmed dead in the Eaton fire were on the west side, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We were abandoned,” Cabral said.
For Cabral, it was hard not to question God after turning his life around, and in turn, losing their family home and possessions. The actor has contended with a history of generational trauma and incarceration. He said his family has been involved in gangs since the 1970s in Boyle Heights.
“I became what I needed to be … and this is what you do to me?” Cabral recalled thinking. “It’s like, what now?”
Being a father and a husband grounded him, Cabral said. He got married to his partner, Debra Moore Muñoz, six months after the fires. He took care of his mental health. He spent time in Joshua Tree and Mexico in San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas. He coped through his art, therapy, and spirituality. Cabral said he and his family also got by through support and generosity from people all over LA.
“It made me soften up,” he said. “We found love all over the city.”
“Now I see it’s a blessing,” Cabral said. “Once you accept what happened and you surrender to what happens … you realize what you really do need.”
“We’re a society of accumulation,” he said.
Cabral plans to submit his film to a series of festivals. He wants to hold a private screening for it in LA. He recently finished filming a thriller with Diego Luna and Tenoch Huerta about the 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege in Huntsville, Texas.
Eventually, Cabral envisions living in Mexico. “That’s our happy place,” he said.
“LA is where I was born and raised. My kids will be here … so we’ll always be connected,” Cabral said. “But I think what the fire showed me is, it’s time to move on. LA is beautiful, but there’s a lot of other beautiful places in the world, also.”
“The most important thing that I have in store is healing, love and rebuilding,” Cabral added. “Not rebuilding, physically, rebuilding who we are.”