Ode to u

It is hard to describe , but I am going to try.

My feelings for you and how they have never changed.

I know that we met when I was really young but feel that with age my love for you has only grown stronger.

When I was younger I did not know how to appreciate you or the things that you did for me and in my young age I chose others over you.

I guess my mind was on other things and I was not able to fully appreciate you.

I did not realize that you were the light that shone on the path to my future.

When I was younger in City Terrace, u saved me...u helped me...u took me away from the pain and the sorrow and the difficulties of growing up.

With you I became strong and learned how to stand up for myself and no let anyone look down on me or belittle me.

U made it all go away...u helped me let it all out....you ...sometimes even let me take it out on you...like a punching bag....

YOu let me do things to you that I would not do to anyone else...I needed the release and you were always there waiting..even if I let someone else borrow you.or if I left you out in the rain..your were always there...even when I would go downhill....or threw you across the street....you were always there waiting....ready.

I remember how tight you were when I first started to ride you and after the many years you loosened up and so did I , you and I became one and we could do and conquer anything and everything...in my old age I miss you and wish I could caress the concave of your tail and ride you like I did when I was younger, I wish I could grind your trucks and tap your tail like I did back then, flipping you and landing on you and grabbing you when I threw you up in the air.

God, I miss my skateboard.....it is the fountain of youth.

EvilChavo Out

sk8 or die

Boarders|Taking advantage of a great opportunity

Huero was a young guy that had alot of questions.

He also came to City Terrace Illegaly from Mexico D.F. In barrientos.

He was short and really skinny and had his hair long in the back and sides..kind of like a mullet but not so business if you know what I mean?

He was a friend of a friend of my stepdad and because apparently we were a boarding house he stayed with us for a few months.

He liked Def Leppard alot....alot.... he only had a gym bag filled with the few possessions that he brought with him from Mexico, it included some def leppard tapes.

He was wearing some boots that looked like leather uggs...but they were standard issue for all the guys came from there...it is as if someone told them that if they came to the US they had to wear these boots.

Which were cool but did not look like anything that we wore in East Los...

I figured we should not go with his look of a rocker with his preshrunk heavy metal 501'S and Def Leppard shirt and I let him borrow some of my gear for crossing the border, let him borrow my docs and a Janes Addiction Shirt and we both talked out bands as we walked down the line.

I told him to take out his just purchased birth certificate and id when he got to the border agent and to not mess with his pockets or fiddle with it until he was right in front of the border Agent, I told him to just relax talk to me and that we would be split up anyways as we walked down the line, so to not freak out when that happened.

I told him to always go with the flow and not cause any back up of delays and to not look for me after we split up because we wanted it to look like we just met in the line and got to talking about bands.

He came up to the border agent a few people ahead of me and was asked if he was a U.S. Citizen....He said " Yes" The border agent asked him for his documents and he took them out of his pocket and handed them to the agent....the agent asked him if he was from Los Angeles and he said "Yes" the border agent without looking at the documents he was just handed by Huero let him pass....We were lucky that day...."Def Leppard" and "Yes" were some of the only words besides "Thank you "that he knew.

He did good for himself, found a job a week into moving in with us and asked all kinds of questions on how to get around ,started taking the bus everywhere, bought a car, paid rent to my mom and stepdad and started taking classes to learn english...then saved up his money , learned english and moved out to a place of his own....got married, had kids fixed his legal status and made a good life for himself and his family, never got rid of the almost mullet hair cut, no matter how much we made fun of it :)

Evilchavo Out.

Boarders|Living with strangers

When I was a teenager, My stepdad started having friends of his come in from Mexico often.

They would live with us from time to time and some would stay for long periods of time and other would last only a little while.

All of my Stepdad's friends were from DF (Distrito Federal) in the main city in Mexico.

All of them had some kind of Nickname...all except for my Stepdad.

I have been over there a few times and it is unlike anyplace I have ever been to....the best way to describe it to me ....would be like in the movie..."Man On Fire"

They lived in Barrientos, which is not a rich neighborhood by any means and is filled with selfmade homes with huge gates in front of the courtyard and walls made of cement.

Anyways on our first trip I met all of them.....there was lobo, quico, largo, beto, pelon, etc...etc....

A few months after that they started coming in.

One the first boarders that we had was a guy by the name of Lobo...he was called lobo because when they were at a bonfire.....he was drinking and fell in the fire...he burned his face and arms and it left scars all over his face....so they called him Lobo.

He was into heavy metal and played really good guitar, but after a few days of staying at our house and not being able to find any work he asked my stepdad for a loan and went back to Mexico.

I saw this happen many times after that ....people would spend all kinds of money on a coyote and then come to stay with us til they got back on their feet and they would get cage fever...after a few days.

They would get nervous because they thought that they were going to get arrested and sent back home...I also think that they were just bored. Where they were from....everything was action....no sitting around and waiting and I think that they needed to be moving.

The first time I went to Df with my family, all we did was move...get there....on a taxi.....hungry? go get some food....go to the tortilla place to get tortillas...go to the butcher for meat....go to get the refills for the envases of coke or pepsi and the chelas also....

We went everywhere walking or on the combi (Taxi) or bus and Subway....gotta stay on your feet...no lagging behind or you get left behind...all action...no stopping....

Huge difference from City Terrace....come in...go in the car..go get get everything at the carniceria....have a bbq....eat and sit and watch tv....

after that go to sleep...wake up...eat breakfast...watch tv....was really boring compared to the high pace life that they lived in DF....you did not just sit around and watch tv....you would go hang out with your friend....help your friends with this or that....go hustle....nonstop all day...everyday....

Lobo came back a few times....but would always go back within a week of staying with us...He stopped trying because no one would lend him the money to come back over.

I tried to help him by teaching him english and the way to be but after a while I could tell that he was just humoring me and I just let him do his thing.

Other boarders took advantage of the opportunity and made a good life for themselves in the us.

So it was not all sad news for the boarders.

Evilchavo Out.

ON the road again|Finding Therapy in the lines of the asphalt roadway

I love road trips.

It is like therapy for me, all problems fade away on the road.

All that matters is whats in front of you.

This trip will be a short one that will lead us from our Almost Laveen residence and put us in San Diego with maybe a drive by thru my old neighborhood (City Terrace).

It is bittersweet like always.

Nothing good usually comes without the bad, we would rather take this kind of trip without any extra stuff to deal with but life does not work that way.

Maybe we will stop and get some tacos at King Taco or sopes at La Estrella.

Ride from Here to San Diego Thru the 8 then to la and back thru the 10....Fun

I will have my phone with me so if you know any good places to eat in San Diego or on our way to San Diego Post em (Never been down the 8 so not sure about what's out there).....I will only be there Sunday.

I have been there often but not lately and always ate in Tj ....Al Pastor Tacos ..........yum :]

No Trip to Tj this time though.

Evilchavo Out.

Living up to my roots|Someday I hope to be just like him.

I always knew that my grandpa was a good person.

I knew my aunt Marcela and she was completely different than anyone that I was around and if he was anything like her then I knew that he would be cool.

I met my grandpa in Mexico when I was about 3, I don't remember any of it...just from stories.

This is one of the stories that my mom likes to tell , My mom called me Chavita in those days. My Grampa called me Duraznito (because I was always red cheeked from running around all day)

"When Chavita was young he was a little chubby ball and when we went to Mexico my Dad(My grampa) had the local shoemaker make him some custom "saca Jicamas" pointy charro boots after that went back to the ranch."

"Since he had his pointy boots I guess dad(My Grampa) thought that it was a good idea to put Chavita on a goat and he was so big that the poor goat could not carry his weight and just went flop and was crying and crying and all Chavita wanted to do was ride it....He kept on telling it to go....but the poor Chivo.....couldn't.

( I like that story, my grandpa made me custom boots ;)

I saw my Grampa a few more times after that.

(at my brothers baptism...Saint Lucy's church)

(from left to right) my Aunt, my Moms,My Brother,My Grampa,Evilchavo,My Grandma, My Aunt.)

I did not see my grampa often...he lived in Villa Corona Jalisco and Culiacan Sinaloa....and because my mom was broke and had no green card...we did not have the opportunity to go see him until amnesty was given and we were free to travel to Mexico again.

My Grandpa came to the us for my brothers baptism (see pic above) and one other time to get some treatment for his sinuses...he got really sick that last time and did not come back until he had to get his sinuses operated on.

I was lucky enough to be with my grampa in my teens when I needed him most....I was lost in my head and needed someone to look up to....my Stepdad was gradually getting worse and my mom was not working and depressed...

He was a great person....in Villa Corona everyone kept saying I looked like him when he was my age....everyone shook his hand... as we walked the dirt roads to the center of town where the older men would sit at park benches eating peanuts by the sack full by the church in the middle of the town square where the boys would walk one way and the girls the opposite in a ritual that had been happening in that little town for years and years and years.

In Culiacan....we would make our rounds....my Grampa , My brother and me....would wake up early and go take vegetables to the butcher....then he would give us meat in trade...go to the store to get sodas and chips for us.....he would give them fruits and vegetables in trade.

My Grampa owned a refresceria (it was like a Jamba Juice way before Jamba juice existed) in the main mercado in Culiacan....he had been there for many many years so everyone loved him and our family.He owned a farm (Which he called " El Campito") which was down the road from where they found Chalino Sanchez dead....The campito was in culiacan also and that is were he grew all the vegetables and fruits for the refresceria.

"The Campito" sat on 4 acres at the edge of Culiacan and my Grampa originally bought the 2 acre lot bare and then added the other 2 acres as they became available. My Grampa would walk us around his farm and show us the trees that he planted and the vegetables and fruits and would tell us how to care for them and what he did to make them grow as well as they did.

"The Campito" was his pride and joy..He loved it there....we would go on the weekends or after work and BBQ ....He had what looked like a garage with a covered patio on the side and under the covered patio was the grill made out of concrete that he would cook us all food on.

The Garage part of it stored all the tables and chairs that we would set up under the covered patio while he cooked...He would always feed the dogs first because they took care of his property he would say....so they always would get two big fat raw steaks before my grampa would start cooking...always making sure cut out a piece or raw meat for himself to chew on while he cooked.

He would always talk to his workers with respect and at "The Campito" They lived at the edge of the property and took care of everything when my grampa and the family where away in Villa Corona....they had homes that my Grampa built and gave them....real homes with water and electricity and full size bedrooms. He never asked them to do anything....it was as if they just wanted to help him and did and I never saw my Grampa tell them what to do or how to do it.

He was a man of respect...not just because he was respected but because everything he did he did with respect...when he talked to people he looked them in the eye without judgement...when he gave he gave wholeheartedly.....

Some of his ex workers became lawyers and doctors....and he put them thru school...he asked them for two things....no making trouble and good grades.

I try to live my life this way....I don't always succeed but at least I know what to live up to.

Evilchavo Out.