G2G Chapter 1 (Part 1): Born in Bogotá, Raised in Queens

· Six1Trey · G2G

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G2G Chapter 1 thumbnail: Bogotá, raised in Queens. Supreme Team territory.

In Part 1 of G2G — From Gangster to Ger Chapter 1, Ariel Hanasi reads 23 minutes of his own book: three generations of hustle, a Queens childhood surrounded by things no child should recognise, and the night his family had to disappear. Woven through it are four Torah Blueprint moments, where a verse is laid over a memory.

These notes follow the video's chapters. Text in quotation blocks is Ariel's own words from the video, with timestamps.

Family roots (0:45)

"I was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on April 23, 1982, as Thayron Manuel Suárez Ruiz." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (0:45)

T-Bone, Hueso, Spanish Ty: "On the streets, names were everything: masks, shields, identities that shifted with the chaos." Today, he says, he is Ariel Hanasi.

His grandfather Avraham, a barber, was shot in the head (or, in another version of the story, shot himself), leaving his grandmother Lilia to raise eight children and pushing her into bigger hustles. When he asked her to tell the whole story for this book, she refused. So he made a promise instead: "I want this book to be as real and true as I can make it."

My father: Manolo (3:04)

José Manolo Suárez: "a triple OG, a hippie, a ladies' man, a smooth talker, as slick as they come." Drafted into the Colombian army, he never served a day. He sold fake exemption cards instead, then moved into guns, ammunition and Colombia's early underworld. The grandmother still won't talk about it.

"And here's what I've learned about secrets: they don't die. They sleep until Hashem decides it's time for them to wake up." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (5:17)

My mother, "La Mona", and the Queens years (5:54)

A free spirit who lasted three or four years with Manolo. "And here's where life started to rhyme: like father, like son": the dance floors, the motorcycles, the near-fatal crash. In Queens, the clothes were fresh (Sergio Tacchini tracksuits) and the hunger was real. Ariel and his little brother David ate lettuce sandwiches, or bread and ketchup, alone for days.

"This is raw, and uncut, and the absolute truth, so help me G-d." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (9:49)

The move to America (9:54)

He was four when the family landed in Jackson Heights. On his grandmother's table: triple-beam scales and hundreds of little baggies.

"'What are those?' I asked. 'Elephant eggs,' she told me." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (10:46)

They were drugs. Then César, the gold-chained man who treated him like a grandson, was shot in the head in Queens: "That was the curse hanging over us: both grandfathers murdered the same way."

Quote card: "Born in Bogotá, raised in Queens, baptized in cocaine scales and bloodshed." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Chapter 1

Torah Blueprint: Yeshayahu 5:20 and Daniel 2:22 (12:06)

הוֹי הָאֹמְרִים לָרַע טוֹב וְלַטּוֹב רָע שָׂמִים חֹשֶׁךְ לְאוֹר וְאוֹר לְחֹשֶׁךְ "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness." (Yeshayahu 5:20)

"In Queens, I thought cocaine was elephant eggs. In Torah, truth is truth and lies are lies." Hashem protected him then, he says, but the lie would catch up with him later.

הוּא גָּלֵא עַמִּיקָתָא וּמְסַתְּרָתָא יָדַע מָה בַחֲשׁוֹכָא וּנְהוֹרָא עִמֵּהּ שְׁרֵא "He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him." (Daniel 2:22)

"There's no hiding from Heaven." Even the secrets his grandmother keeps, he says, "are preserved for judgment or redemption."

Jamaica, Queens: the dead end where childhood ended (12:42)

A one-story house on a dead-end street by Baisley Park, in South Ozone Park. "But that dead end wasn't peaceful. It was strategic." The boys collected the little red caps scattered on the ground and clipped them onto their LEGO builds as "power packs". Years later he learned they were crack vials: "We were standing on it. Playing with it. Growing up inside it."

"I didn't know the name then, but this was Supreme Team territory." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (14:33)

A limo ride to school and five dollars for candy taught him early that "access buys loyalty, and money buys silence." When his bike was stolen, his father drove him block to block, let the kids see the gun, and got it back. "That was my hero." Only later did he see how protection had fused with fear.

Torah Blueprint: Mishlei 14:12 (18:45)

יֵשׁ דֶּרֶךְ יָשָׁר לִפְנֵי־אִישׁ וְאַחֲרִיתָהּ דַּרְכֵי־מָוֶת "There's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." (Mishlei 14:12)

"Torah later taught me that feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (19:00)

The war you didn't see (19:05)

As an adult reading RICO indictments, the dates lined up with his memories: Colombian suppliers robbed and killed in the park he walked past. "That was my childhood geography." Then came the day the house was torn apart, with nothing taken.

Quote card: "That's how you know it wasn't a robbery. It was a message." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Chapter 1

Bags packed without warning, no goodbyes. Baldwin, Freeport, Hempstead: Long Island. "I had been pulled out of a war zone before I ever knew I was in one."

Torah Blueprint: Devarim 19:3 (22:49)

תָּכִין לְךָ הַדֶּרֶךְ וְשִׁלַּשְׁתָּ אֶת־גְּבוּל אַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר יַנְחִילְךָ ה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ וְהָיָה לָנוּס שָׁמָּה כָּל־רֹצֵחַ "You shall prepare roads for yourself… so that any killer may flee there." (Devarim 19:3)

"Long Island was my city of refuge. Not holy. Not peaceful. But far enough." — Ariel Hanasi, G2G Ch. 1 (23:05)

Keep going

Part 2 continues on Long Island: new streets, same blueprint. If you're new, start with Episode 0: My Story Did Not Start When I Found Torah.