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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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ColumnsPolitics

Letter to President Barack Obama

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama addresses supporters in Golden, Colorado, on September 16, 2008. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) Dear Mr. President: I am sure you still have a lot on your plate as you approach the final year of your presidency. Some of it, I hope, has to do with the stuff you promised when we the people elected you to run our country in 2008. There’s other stuff, for sure, and more of…
Pedro Chavez
November 8, 2015
AnécdotasEspañol

Valiosas Pepitas de Oro las del Camino

IMAGEN: Pepitas de oro (foto propiedad de iStock, derechos pagados).   Las vidas de casi todos nosotros están llenas de valores y sabiduría, de mecanismos que nos guían y nos ayudan a sacarle jugo a lo que se debe aprovechar y a discernir entre lo malo y lo bueno. Es un verdadero tesoro ese entendimiento, esa enseñanza, esa sagacidad que uno va recogiendo en el andar, conforme uno crece o, a veces, cuando uno da…
Pedro Chavez
November 4, 2015
ColumnsStories

Joyful Distractions While Learning English

IMAGE: Scene from the opera “The Marriage of Figaro.” Cherubino (partially hiding), Sussana and Count Almaviva. Author of watercolor unknown.   It’s tough to learn a second language when you’re older. That happened to me when I came from Mexicali and to America. I was only sixteen then, still young, but when it came to picking up a foreign tongue with ease, I was already too old. Except for our sister Amanda, who was seventeen, the younger boys…
Pedro Chavez
November 3, 2015
EspañolGlobalización

Pinta Bien el Futuro Mexicano

IMAGEN: Centro de la ciudad, Monterrey, Nuevo León (Getty Images).   Sin contar los grandes brotes de discordia que tuvimos en el siglo diecinueve y durante las primeras cuatros décadas del siglo veinte, los gringos y nosotros nos llevamos más o menos bien. No diría que nos queremos montones, así como hermanos, o ni siquiera como primos, pero sí que nos respetamos y en cierta forma, medio oculta, ambos apreciamos lo que cada lado ofrece.…
Pedro Chavez
October 31, 2015
ColumnsPolitics

2007 Message for Hillary, Barack

BAGHDAD, IRAQ: A group of US Army First Armoured Division soldiers survey the scene where a car bomb exploded in front of a hotel killing at least four people on January 28, 2004. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) NOTE: I wrote the following column sometime in July or August of 2007, and emailed it to Keven Ann Willey, who headed the editorial board at the Dallas Morning News. I was trying to land a gig…
Pedro Chavez
October 29, 2015
ColumnsPolitics

About Hypocrites and Loose Talk

It’s getting crazy out there in the presidential campaign trail. Then again, it always gets crazy. It happens every four years. You hear a lot of gobbledygook. Candidates talk about this and that and about how they’re different from the others bidding for the keys to the White House. Some call themselves outsiders, non-politicians. Yeah, right. And another thing, they also flaunt their empty promises and vow to change government for the better. “Yeah, that’s…
Pedro Chavez
October 16, 2015
ColumnsPolitics

We Are Still a Pretty Good Team

  We both go way back. Mexicans and Americans. My ancestors had been on this continent much before Americans arrived. Mine were centuries-old civilizations that were eventually conquered by the Spaniards. The pilgrims, the most notable forebears of today’s America, were fed up people, most of them seeking religious freedom and a home on pristine land. Those pioneers settled in North America some four hundred years ago. While the pilgrims were busy running their colonies,…
Pedro Chavez
October 14, 2015