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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 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
Border TalesColumns

Food for Thought: The Guard at the Border

NOTE: Wrote this fictionalized story in May 2006, as part of Border Tales, a crazy idea I had then about making fun of some news items. It’s all fiction, written just for fun. (PHOTO: U.S. Mexico border area at Big Bend National Park, looking south from the Texas side. Getty Images).   The tall man was wearing a camouflaged uniform, similar to those worn by American soldiers in Iraq. He was carrying what looked like…
Pedro Chavez
November 23, 2015
Border TalesColumns

Workers Needed at DiGiorgio Farms

NOTE: This is part of the Border Tales series fiction stories. It was written in jest in May 2006, the year of the last real attempt by Congress to reform the nation's immigration laws. Just trying to make a point and have fun at the same time. It was never published before. Image of Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego.   The President hated the idea of meeting with Frank DiGiorgio at the Hotel Del, but…
Pedro Chavez
November 20, 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
AnécdotasEspañol

Los Billetes en el Vaso Tienen Su Historia

IMAGEN: El vaso con los billetes que he guardado a través de los años.   No soy supersticioso ni creo en otras cosas por el estilo. Sin embargo, tiendo guardar ciertos objetos como recordatorios de sucesos que me han ocurrido en el andar de la vida. Uno de ésos es un vaso de vidrio con varios billetes enrollados y atiborrados en dicho recipiente. Los he venido guardando desde hace años. Ese vaso ha andado por…
Pedro Chavez
November 15, 2015
EspañolMi Mexicali

Mi Abrasadora Tierra Cachanilla

IMAGEN: La que fue la escuela Cuauhtémoc en la avenida Madero, Mexicali, B.C.   Soy de Mexicali, pero ahora vivo en el norte de Texas, en Frisco, para ser exacto. Ya llevo más de doce años por estos rumbos. Este estado, el de la estrella solitaria, está lleno de paisanos mexicanos, la mayoría norteños o guanajuatenses. Los que provienen del norte son generalmente de un puñado de estados: de Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Durango y…
Pedro Chavez
November 9, 2015