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The Trek North: Part Six

PHOTO: Fig tree like the ones in Figarden in 1962. Getty Images.   Working as a helper on a fig-picking tractor did a lot for me. More than anything, I felt good about getting a check each week. Every Saturday I would ask my father to take me to the small store in Figarden so I could cash it. I usually bought a soda and an apple turnover, sometimes other things. One had to buy…
Pedro Chavez
January 16, 2016
ColumnsStories

A Christmas Present

Photo provided by Getty Images.   NOTE: I wrote the following poem some years ago. I go back to it every Christmas, read it, and I kind of like it every time I read it again. It’s a simple poem. I want to share it with you just in case you might kind of like it too. By the way, y’all have a merry Christmas, you heah (I’ve lived in Texas for more than twelve…
Pedro Chavez
December 21, 2015
ColumnsStories

The Trek North: Part Five

Tractor in an orchard. Getty Images.   On the same day that we started working picking figs by hand, I was offered a chance to become a helper on a contraption that swept up the figs off the ground. It was late afternoon when a man working for the grower came looking for me at the orchard where several members of our family and myself were still learning the ropes of our job. The man…
Pedro Chavez
December 16, 2015
ColumnsStories

We’ve Come a Long Way. Maybe.

IMAGE: Poster for the film "Nacho Libre" by Jared Hess, featuring actor Jack Black.   NOTE: Wrote this column in June 2006. Repeating it here on my blog. Much of it still applies. My first reaction to Nacho Libre, Jared Hess’ big screen parody of Mexican wrestling, was: “There we go again.” Making fun of Mexicans, I sadly concluded, hasn’t been forgotten in America. After watching Jack Black – the film’s leading actor – in…
Pedro Chavez
December 14, 2015
ColumnsStories

The Trek North: Part Four

PHOTO: Fig tree with fruit. Getty Images.   It felt good having a place to stay and knowing that soon we were going to also have food to eat. We selected the house that was next to the entrance of the camp. They were all the same, though. It had an elevated large bedroom with a wooden floor and a small room with a dirt floor and open windows that served as a kitchen. It had…
Pedro Chavez
December 9, 2015
ColumnsStories

The Trek North: Part Three

PHOTO: Figs on a tree branch, similar to the ones we picked in Figarden, California. Getty Images.     It took about an hour to get to Delano after leaving Bakersfield. We were all hungry, but for some reason food no longer mattered much, especially for those of us that were older. We wanted to find work. The local farm employment office gave us the name and address of a Mexican labor contractor that needed…
Pedro Chavez
December 1, 2015
ColumnsStories

The Art and Times of Bob Kilcullen

PHOTO: Taken during 1965 Chicago Bears training camp at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. NOTE: This is the introduction to Bob Kilcullen’s biography, a book still waiting to be published. Bob is an artist who is still drawing and painting. He was a defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears for about nine years. He played for George Halas and was part of the 1963 Chicago Bears world champion team.   Bob Kilcullen was a hyperactive child, filled…
Pedro Chavez
November 30, 2015
ColumnsStories

The Trek North: Part Two

IMAGE: Oil pumps, similar to the ones we encountered in Oildale. Getty Images.   Once we had our permanent resident visas, our mother wanted to leave right away for the United States. Our father wanted to wait. It was in August, a time when he had plenty work. He thought it would be best to save some money before embarking on the trip north. Our mother felt differently and said that not much would be…
Pedro Chavez
November 24, 2015
ColumnsStories

The Trek North: Part One

IMAGE: Local passport photo of our mother and the first five of us. Left to right: Amanda, Rosa Carmina, our mother Lydia, Julio César (in her arms), Armando, and me (Pedro).   There was no triple wall 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…
Pedro Chavez
November 19, 2015
ColumnsStories

English Language Lessons at the Workplace

PHOTO: Train crossing near United Sheet Metal Company in Stockton, California, off Charter Way. Getty Images.   Once I got the basics at school, the best place for me to learn English was at the workplace. I had plenty language immersion there. I did it while picking almonds in Lodi, in northern California, and later at H.H. Robertson Company, in the Port of Stockton, in late summer of 1963. But I learned the most at…
Pedro Chavez
November 18, 2015