Wristbands??...SWEET!

you know you really do not need to be a chicano.

your talent to write in the common vernacular transcends
cultural baggage.

than again people like you mean that razateca is a grand
experiment in genetic parlance. say what?

i think the experience of mestizaje of being a north american
is very dynamic. i always yield cultural authority to the first
people. the predators are such cowards and continue to be.

oh well, i like the way chavez stood up to juan carlos, apenas un rej.

i'm struggling to understand some of your points. for one thing, i'm not sure i can relate to your definition of "chicano," because mine isn't one where i am forced to be one. nor is it one where i can really choose not to be one. that is, to me, a "xicano" is an american of mexican descent, and specifically a politically aware one. i can choose not to be politically aware, but my blood is my blood. and i owe it to my blood to pay attention to the history there, and i owe it to my familia and my antepasados and to myself to not deny what i am and who i am.

and i hope i'm wrong, but are you saying that those who write in the cause of advancing xicano/a awareness, tradition, and rights do so because they are trapped into it by inability to write better English?

finally my talent to write would be with me no matter what language i was taught primarily from birth. it has nothing to do with....cultural baggage, and in fact, i have been deprived of the language that forged even my birth name, and that my father spoke in my youth. and i dont feel "Free from baggage" because of it. in fact, i went to classes for almost a year not too long ago just to lay down some solid Spanish.

OH and gracias. for the compliment. on mi escritura. :)

dos centos, it just occurred to me you may have been riffing on the odd "handcuffs" line here. dunno. if so, very funny. )

Haha, I think I followed the opposite trend and tried to take as few yearbook pictures as possible.

Wonderful story, 'mano. For some reason you look as if your collar should be popped.

senor estimado,

i apologize for typing what comes into my head. that gut level reaction to your prose. the iranians just banded marquez garcia for his work. i really do not care for marquez but he is important.

i just ment to comment on your prose as transcending any particular ethnic family or cause. if i were browsing around i would read your work in the abstract sense and find it complex and interesting. i guess i am saying you have options, you can choose to express indignation at being in the grinding wheels of empire as being part of a profound people or whatever.

i think you could easily teach creative writing at a college level.

the dilemma of being a people caught between two civilizations is a very difficult
position. not to mention that ugly reality that one civilization is deeming the other as little more than a burro and a illegal.

beyond this reply i can only humbly say that i was suggesting that honing your writing talent may lead to something that embraces a greater humanity.

which in turn returns to your original premise of being part of a pueblo unido.

than again who really cares about 'el pueblo unido' than another complex .xicano.

jeje. you are funny.

thank you. i very much appreciate what you are saying.

and i hope i can bring that quality even to writing that focuses "only" on ethnic causes, as well as other issues.

Emma's blouse....made me clutch my heart. Lord, the clothes of the 80's, my high school years as well.

You all could not be cuter, by the way. I know that's not the point of this post - and I loved reading the actual post as well - but seriously...don't post super cute pictures if you don't want me to fawn over the cuteness.

now joan. a real leader (er...treasurer) stands up for what's right. lovin'. and fawnin'.

thanks amiga :)

Hell yeah on the 80s Joan. The photo looks like a million people I knew.
I had Hannah's hair -- and Emma's blouse, in lavender. Damn I loved that shirt.(Scary, isn't it?)

And ditto on Nez as a cute freshmen. I bet it was the alligator that made you "cool" though. Likely the eyes that caused the crushes though.

Where you auditioning for Menudo?

Cue the music!

Rafael had the best comment. You do look very Menudo there.

rafa cracked me up with that comment.

Excellent choice of accompaniment for this post, Kai! Goes so well with Nez's cute pic.

for some stupid f**kin reason, kai's video link made me a bit weepy. wtf. misty eyed over a surreal gaggle of skateboarding Nelson lookalikes. no more pre-dawn YouTube.

Yes now I heart Rafael, too. Menudo. Indeed.

And Kai! That song was what they played for us seniors when they showed us a slide show of pics from our years together, right before graduation. So corny - way too on the nose, people! - and yet I got weepy back then, too. Even though I hated high school and technically some of the crying was from relief...Still I just knew I would never see most or possibly any of them again. (I was right.) And some of them I'd known since kindergarten.

*sigh* I goddamn HATED the 80's when I was in them, but I have such a soft spot for some of it now. Nez what the hell!!! I come here to curse and growl about stuff and get a good laugh sometimes, not get all sentimental about Princess Di's devastating effect on fashion! :-P

P.S. I also had my own brief stint with Chuck-type glasses. And no kidding, with all the shit I ever got into growing up, when I look back, the only thing I have that indignant "Where were my parents!?" feeling about is that they let me leave the house like that.

i feel your pain, joan. on the sentimental aggravation reflex.

you know its funny. mimi mentioned me being hip becuz of my izod shirt. but nobody was wearing those shirts upstate new york in 1984. that was a holdover from miami beach, where the style had been big for a while. i think i only had it because it was a hand-me-down from somewhere i don't remember. i used to get hand-me-downs, even being oldest of my brothers. it was embarrassing, but i would feel better once we moved. then i didn't have to fantasize that someone might stop me on the street and humiliate me by pointing out that i was wearing their old clothes.

so i'm just saying! mimi, dont let that snazzy shirt fool you! i don't think it was having a huge effect on my high school status. but who knows.

wait til you see my actual class picture from that school. the individual shot. jeje. the clothes i chose to wear. oh, memory lane. what a fun and crazy walk it be.

button up that shirt, young man! :)

So, this must have been right *before* the Hammer pants/KidFrost faze--I can kinda see it coming with the wristbands. hmmm. and then there were those shirts that changed color when they got hot. Hypercolor? something like that. regardless, yes, very cute Nez.

and what is up with the girls? It is like they don't have necks? maybe they were hiding hickies? prolly not.

For some reason, I feel bad for Chuck. I hope he is not reading about you calling him a geek (bigtime at that). It's okay Chucky, high school was hard on everybody!

*I think that immigrants can be Xican@s. You don't have to be American, do you? I tell my Mexican national friends to claim collective ownership of the term and, everytime I say this, they are really happy to know that they can be Xican@ too.

well i think i like your definition of Xicano better.

if chuck bristles at calling me a geek, he'll have to balance it with my calling him an inspiration to me years later.