Southern California born and raised. Ethan graduated high school and walked straight into the Great Recession — and spent years struggling to find work. The doors that were supposed to open didn’t. So he did what he had to do: he got a job flipping burgers at McDonald’s, and he stayed there for years while he figured out the rest.

He put himself through school the hard way. Two Associates degrees from a community college. Then a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Los Angeles — earned while working, while in debt, while dealing with two hernias he carried for years because that’s what you do when medical bills aren’t a line item, they’re a crisis. He finally landed his first office job just as the pandemic started — and kept a small business running through it when everyone else was still figuring out Zoom. That is not a liability. That is a qualification.

Ethan is an artist, a musician, a game developer, and a writer. He creates because he has to. He built his own platform, his own audience, his own career — without a label, without a publisher, without a network handing him doors. He knocked. He built his own.

Washington keeps sending people who’ve never worried about a medical bill, never worked a service job, never lived paycheck to paycheck. Ethan has done all three. A Real American isn’t a bumper sticker. It’s a life lived. Vote Ethan Avila for President.