Jesse Lagos

Jesse Lagos, to no fault of his own, was born in Los Angeles, California. ::Insert gasp from Montana:: While there is a slight stigma with the sudden influx of out of staters coming to Bozeman; Jesse empathizes with those transplants. “It’s one of those situations where you don’t realize you were born in the wrong area until you stumble upon a place that allows you to feel as though you belong; Bozeman is that place for me.” Jesse grew up going to the beach although it wasn’t until he made it to Bozeman that he discovered his love for the mountains. That is the beginning of Jesse Discovers (JD).

JD was created by Jesse Lagos and as mentioned he got his start on the West Coast. Despite being born in the states, Jesse recalls most of his early childhood spent in Mexico. His Father had migrated from a region known as Sinaloa where most of his Father’s family resided. He grew up on dirt roads, trips to the beach with fresh seafood, and home made tortillas. This only lasted until about age five when grade school was due to start.

School started a bit rough for Jesse being that his English was not up to par at the time. As a result, he got to repeat the first grade, developed a speech impediment, and enrolled into a program known as English as a Second Language (ESL) to help set up the foundation for success moving forward. The speech impediment really came from nervous energy having to speak in English yet not knowing how to form the sentences. The repeated year and ESL programming allowed him to catch up and move onto the next grade. He’s not sure if he had a natural liking to school or his bad first year made understanding the material all the easier as he became a straight A student from there through the rest of Elementary and Middle School. Interests diverted from there.

Through a series of fortunate events Jesse found himself going from public school to auditioning and being accepted into the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. It’s here that he learned an appreciation for theatre. His schooling consisted of academia in the morning and arts in the afternoon. Jesse attributes a tremendous amount of growth to this time in his life. While he was training to become a performer he also found himself converting and being a part of the Christian church.

Catholicism is huge in the Mexican culture and Jesse grew up having completed catechism and attending Sunday mass. However, as silly as this may sound, he found himself going to a non-denominational church service where they had modern music-along the lines of everyday pop songs. Jesse was sold. The relatable music made for an easily digestible message and as he grew older and began to process the death of his Father it was exactly what he needed.

TBD...