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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…
Anécdotas

OTRO CUMPLEAÑOS. ESTA VEZ ES EL 77.

IMAGEN: Autoretrato. Dibujo a pluma y tinta. Miércoles, 19 de julio de 2023. Frisco, Texas Hoy es mi cumpleaños. Acabo de llegar a los 77 años. Es un día especial. Puedes llamarme viejo si quieres, y no me ofenderé. Porque es verdad. Estoy viejo. Pero me queda algo de fuego por dentro, y en muchos sentidos, todavía queda leña por quemar. Algunas cosas ya no funcionan igual que antes, pero otras sí. Te contaré más…

“Aunque eran gente de rancho, acostumbrada a aguantar los castigos del medio ambiente, el asedio del inclemente invierno cachanilla era otra cosa. El frío era inaguantable. Cada noche dormían en un lugar diferente, generalmente en rincones detrás de edificios en donde buscaban protección contra el gélido invierno.”

Start Here / Empieza con "La Leyenda de Don José"
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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
Border TalesColumns

You’re No Tex-Mex

NOTE: I wrote this story back in 2006. It's all fiction, except for Fuel City. They have good tacos there. Just like back home. IMAGES borrowed from the Fuel City website.   The middle-aged man had only been in Dallas for a couple of weeks, but had already been longing for the Mexico City type tacos he was used to buying at the place where he last lived. After inquiring with a few folks that…
Pedro Chavez
December 8, 2015
AnécdotasEspañol

Las Cosas de Sonia Flynn

FOTO reciente de Sonia Flynn, sacada de su muro en Facebook.   Desde la primera vez que hablé con Sonia Flynn me di cuenta que traía su casta de personas preparadas, que tenía su buena enseñanza. Hablaba con confianza en sí misma y mostraba sin presumir su inteligencia. Se notaba también su don de mando. Me cayó bien esa Sonia. No sé por qué, pero siempre me han caído bien las mujeres entronas, siempre y…
Pedro Chavez
December 6, 2015
ColumnsPolitics

The Lure for Cheap Labor

PHOTO: Mexican worker in the service industry. Getty Images.   There are tons of Americans that complain about the undocumented immigrants and their presence in this country. They want them to go back to where they came from. Basically, they want to get rid of the masses of people doing the work most folks in our affluent nation won’t do, the cheap labor that fattens the bottom lines of a great chunk of corporate America.…
Pedro Chavez
December 4, 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
EspañolMi Mexicali

Los Tacos al Vapor de León Gómez

Foto de Irene y León Gómez proporcionada por Juana Gómez.   Antes de que se hicieran en moto o en carro las entregas de pizza y otros tipos de comida a domicilio, en nuestros pueblos esa comodidad ya existía. Especialmente en mi terruño, en Mexicali, donde un despiadado calorón azota a la región por casi medio año y un cruel invierno la castiga igualmente por varios meses. No cabe duda, ese clima inclemente ha sido…
Pedro Chavez
November 29, 2015