How to Get an Elon Musk Generator
The last time I was at Plaza Mariachi, I saw a guy eat fire. So when I got a tip that the Hispanic Family Foundation officed out of there and was handing out the mythical Musk generators gifted to the state, I wanted to go see for myself.
Plaza Mariachi has been in the news recently. The DOJ recently sentenced its founder, used car salesman Mark Janbakhsh, to 42 months in federal prison for inflating the value of cars on his lot and lying under oath. He also founded the HFF.
I had heard rumors, seen Facebook posts, and ingested all kinds of “information” about how, where, and to whom the generators were being distributed.
Rumors swirled. Some denied their existence entirely, others poo-pooed Musk for offering a pittance of his overall wealth, and still more claimed the whole thing was just the latest spotting of the reptilian spine of the city as generators were shuttled off to member organizations and distributed on specious grounds.
On Reddit, one user wrote, “The only ‘evidence’ i can find of this appears to be a Tennessean article about a TWEET from Bill Lee saying thank you to him.”
A Facebook video claimed that Hispanics on Nolensville were taking the generators and selling them on Facebook marketplace. “What a disgrace to the Latino community!” lamented the voiceover (in Spanish).
I couldn’t verify that generators were being sold fresh off the pallet on Facebook marketplace, and that rumor seemed to outpace their distribution. A spokesperson for the OEM revealed that, yesterday morning, the city had accepted 276 generators and distributed about 100 of them through the VOAD.
The Musk generators arrived by truck on Monday, went to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, which handed them off to the Nashville Office of Emergency Management, which then distributed them through the Voluntary Organizations Active in a Disaster coalition to "those who needed them."
VOAD member groups include national organizations like the Red Cross and Goodwill, and local organizations like Conexion Americas, Operation Stand Down, and the Hispanic Family Foundation.
Until yesterday afternoon, the VOAD intake form didn’t include a request for a “generator,” so it was unclear how one might get their hands on one. Messaging was opaque, and inquiries to both the OEM and the VOAD pushed me back towards the intake form.
All this left me wondering if it was possible to obtain one? So with a hot lead, a buddy and I went to check out the plaza.
The first thing we saw on walking in was a push cart stacked to the ceiling with Generac GP3600s, the same generators in Governor Lee’s post thanking Musk for the donation. Older black and hispanic women were gathered around them as an HFF employee parceled them out. Some said they had been waiting for three hours in the cavernous plaza.
From there, it was fairly easy to secure one. The VOAD form required all manner of personal information, and language in an OEM statement yesterday made it clear that generators would be prioritized based on "safety, vulnerability, and urgency" to be determined by the partner VOAD organizations.
But all my buddy had to do was fill out a Google Form and sign a sheet of paper indicating his zip code. We went and got some food while he waited to be called on to watch a safety video about how you shouldn’t run the thing indoors. Over by our table, there was a massive stage setup we were later to learn was set up for Mexican Bingo later that evening.
After five minutes, an old lady came out and beckoned him to the office to watch the video. Soon after, he walked back out with a brand new Musk-donated Generac GP3600.
Neither of us needed the generator, so we drove over to an apartment complex whose power had been out for the past ten days and gave it to a woman over there.