Category

Stories

ColumnsStories

Me and my Writing. Just do it, Pedro.

Sometimes I feel like Walt Stack, the legendary 80-year-old runner featured in a 1988 Nike’s “Just Do It” TV commercial. Not that I can run like Walt. Or that I ever could. But there’s something that he had that I also have. I call it “ganas.” He probably called it willpower. At age 77, I still have that resolve, that desire to get stuff done. And a determination to continue to follow my dreams, which…
Pedro Chavez
July 28, 2023
ColumnsStories

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY. IT’S 77 THIS TIME.

IMAGE: Self-portrait. Pen and ink drawing. Wednesday, July 19, 2023. Frisco, Texas Today is my birthday. Just turned 77. It’s a special day. You can call me an old goat if you want, and I won’t be offended. Because it’s true. I’m up there in age. But there’s some fire left in me, and in many ways, I still got it. Some stuff doesn’t work the same, but other stuff does. I’ll tell you more…
Pedro Chavez
July 19, 2023
ColumnsStories

Another Sister’s Gone

It’s been a little over two months since we lost Amanda, the oldest in our clan. It was an unexpected passing. She was at the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time. The vehicle she was driving was hit by an oncoming car whose driver had lost control after suffering a heart seizure. It was a sad end to a wonderful life and a tragic end for a sister who sometimes played mom when we…
Pedro Chavez
July 7, 2023
ColumnsStories

Amanda, the Eldest in Our Clan

There’s a good reason for writing something about Amanda, our sister and oldest offspring in our clan, who was born in Mexicali many years ago. On May 4, 1945, for those who prefer exactness. And on Lerdo Avenue. “Amanda manda,” said the priest as he baptized her. It was an opportune rhyming one-liner but also a foretold certainty, meaning that she’d be in charge. I was not present at that ceremony since I was not…
Pedro Chavez
April 23, 2023
ColumnsStories

The Legacy of a Great Boricua

He was called The Baby Bull. His dad was The Bull. They were from La Isla del Encanto, from the island of the enchantment, meaning Puerto Rico. They both played baseball professionally. The son eventually played in the Majors; the dad only played in the island. His father didn’t get a chance to play in the Big Leagues because he was Black. Though he was good, really good. He had a chance to play in…
Pedro Chavez
December 4, 2022
ColumnsStories

THE MEXICALI BEES

Back in the early 1940s, when the last big insect war was still raging, dragonflies, cicadas, butterflies and other flying insects from north of the border visited the Mexicali Valley to recruit bees from that Mexican agricultural region. They came with offers of great pay and extraordinary work benefits, unmatched then on either side of the border. They explained to the Mexicali bees that their expertise was needed to help pollinate the farm fields in…
Pedro Chavez
November 30, 2022
ColumnsStories

ODINA, A TUSCAN JEWEL

Unlike Rome, only one road leads to Odina, an agriturismo haven in Tuscany, just a few kilometers south of Florence. We were there recently. Us two and our two kids and their spouses. We had a ball, the six of us. We took a private shuttle to get there from Firenze, making a two-hour-plus stop at Siena for lunch and to take in the sights. Stefano the driver was accommodating, stopping here and there to…
Pedro Chavez
October 24, 2022
ColumnsStories

The Novel Coronavirus, a Threat That We Must Defeat

IMAGE: Ultra-structural morphology of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Image created by CDC, the Center for Disease Control. BACK IN THE FIFTIES, when I was just a kid living in Mexicali, I used to read lots of comic books. I read a few from Mexican publishers, like El Santo, La Familia Burrónand others, but most were from across the border, from the United States. I read the Spanish language versions of those magazines. I no longer remember most…
Pedro Chavez
April 20, 2020
Border TalesColumnsMexicaliNovelsStoriesUncategorized

Unscripted Journey: Our Trek North

IMAGE: Some of us with our mother in a photo taken for a local crossing permit. Circa 1950s. There were no triple walls then, in 1962, the year we crossed the border between Mexicali and Calexico in our way to a place that promised us a better future. Triple walls are abundant now in myriad spots along the geopolitical line that defines where Mexico begins and the United States ends. And vice versa. There was…
Pedro Chavez
March 29, 2020
ColumnsStories

Ginger and Bella

PHOTO: Ginger (in the back) and Bella inside Amanda’s car.   The dog in the back of the photo is Ginger; the other one is Bella. The last time I saw them was this past September, when we visited my sister Amanda in northern California. Ginger was already suffering from the usual aches and throes brought about by old age. Bella was still a young pup. I saw Ginger for the first time in late…
Pedro Chavez
December 24, 2017