“De Jure Ain’t De Facto” creators, Kesler Cervantes and Yoana Ontiveros, never expected the rapid success of their new podcast. What started as an idea from passionate history buffs evolved into a fun and witty way to think about the past. Current Nevada college students from UNLV and CSN, Yoana Ontiveros and Kesler Cervantes, are proving that law was never the reality. With their new podcast, “De Jure Ain’t De Facto,” they debunk the written rules of society.
“De jure” means the law and “de facto” is the matter of fact. Their hope is to start a conversation and spread awareness about how the people interpreted the law through history and court cases.
The two have completed their first season of their podcast and are currently posting their second. Throughout these 14 episodes, they have talked about people suing over pants, sex discrimination in Alabama and the birthing bunnies hoax. By talking about these events, it will shine light on how the people, instead of the written rule, shaped history.
“Yoana and I had a history teacher together back in highschool that talked about how ‘de jure’ is not ‘de facto,” Cervantes said. “We asked her what that meant, and it always stuck with us and it became a big inspiration to the start of our podcast.”
After high school, Ontiveros and Cervantes continued to stay close friends. The two gained a lot of experience talking about politics and the law through college and through their jobs.
“I worked at Senator’s Jackie Rosen’s office,” Ontiveros said. “Kesler and I also went to the same high school where we did school debates about the U.S. government in our AP government class called ‘We The People.’”
Although Cervantes developed a strong interest in politics and law in high school, her connection with the topics grew stronger after she graduated.
“After high school I got a job at Gary Fales’s law firm,” Cervantes said. “I was about to almost become a paralegal, but I didn’t want that for my career.”
This podcast is the first that the partners have done together. When they first started, they had no thoughts about competing with existing podcasts for ideas. Ontiveros and Cervantes only considered what they already wanted to do.
At first, the podcast was a floating idea between the two for a while. When they started the podcast, they had no idea how much the startup would cost.
“We thought that the start of our podcast would cost little to free,” Ontiveros said. “We had no idea that the cost would be tons just to publish on Spotify and Apple Podcast, and also our website.”
The podcast continues to grow as they publish more episodes. The two are hopeful for what the attraction will bring to their podcast in the future.
“We hope to reach out to more viewers and possibly find different ways to bring our content to our listeners by branching out,” Cervantes said. “The only direction to go for our podcast is up.”
Listen to De Jure Ain’t De Facto on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or their website.
