Ignacio “Nacho” Medina wants to tell his side of the story about when he killed a man in a South Gate driveway back in 1998 — but not for the reason you might think. He doesn’t want to make an excuse for his actions, nor is he interested in vindication or forgiveness. Nacho wants to inspire others who are facing similar demons to seek help, to keep others from making the same mistake when their anger is bottled up inside.
“The truth is that I was angry enough and enraged enough that I took someone’s life,” said Nacho. “I just want to make clear that this is the consequence of when you don’t properly grieve.”
Nacho was released from prison on May 8, 2021, after spending 23 years in custody. Since his release, he has been busy. Nacho currently works on an internship with Cal State Los Angeles, a weekly project with students at the USC Gould School of Law, a podcast, a part-time job as a production assistant, and two film projects—one documentary and one narrative short that he wrote.
The short titled “Will I Be Ready?” will be filmed in the very same driveway where his life was forever changed. Anchoring the project is a poem that Nacho wrote while in prison. He is now very much in touch with his emotions, but it’s taken him a lot of work to get here.
Nacho lost his father to a heroin overdose when he was just nine years old. Looking back on his youth, he now realizes that he had bottled up a lot of his emotions to the point that it became dangerous.
“I was disconnected because I missed my father,” said Nacho. “I was angry that I didn’t have a father, and I took it out on everybody.”
In “Will I Be Ready?,” Nacho explores the themes of loss and forgiveness through illustrations of all five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression…
“And in the end, acceptance being when he sees the wife and the son of the man’s life he took away, and he is ready to face them,” he said.
Nacho keeps himself so busy because he is constantly contending with the loss of the last 23 years. No time for idleness. He’s trying to catch up.
“When I see another 42-year-old man with a family and with their own home and living a meaningful life, I just wonder, ‘man, why don’t I have that?’,” he said. “I have to grieve.”
Producing this film is a part of Nacho’s grieving process. He is currently raising funds to produce his short. He has recently started a GoFundMe campaign. Donors will receive recognition in the film’s closing credits.
