Spiky Bugger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Messages
- 6,213
...that would be the description for me.
At one point a few years ago, I mentioned to my shrink (this was while Mom was dying) about going to a birthday party for a family member...who had rented out an entire upscale, olden times La Cienega Blvd in Beverly Hills restaurant...to celebrate his 90th birthday with a couple hundred of his closest friends and relatives. And Mariachis. Ya' gotta have mariachis.
Later, when that relative died, I encountered another "long lost cousin" at tbe luncheon after the funeral. Because so many Mexicans name their kids after the same ancestors...and because I hadn't seen her since she was a kid...it finally dawned on me WHICH Joe was her dad...General Joe, of course. Because he enlisted in the Army as a private, so he might as well do a good job, right? He retired as a general.
Then another "cousin" was the judge sitting on one locally famous case and one internationally famous case...so that came up.
My shrink asked, "They didn't get the memo? You come from a family where Mexican-Americans, who in the 1920s and 1930s were expected to make it to sixth or eighth grade at best and go home and have babies and work on the farm, decided to ignore all of the rules and expectations and just excel at what they wanted to do?"
Yup.
It never occurred to us back then to blame any failure on being Mexican-American. One cousin, also a judge, at my Mom's funeral said, "you couldn't blame failure on being Mexican...not when EVERYBODY AROUND YOU was also Mexican. You just had to cop out and say, 'Well...I was drunk at tbe time,' or provide some other logical reason for your screw up." Besides, it must have been "some other kind of Mexican " that people objected to. Not US!! LOL
SO...this week on the PBS American Masters show, we have yet another cousin who didn't know his place. My mom spent much of her summer vacations visting these cousins. When they all went to the movies, they headed toward the left side rear and Mom went a little closer, in the center. Older cousins ran up to her and said, "the Mexicans have to sit over there." Mom replied, "I'm from Los Angeles, not Mexico," and sat her entitled ass down. (Mom was never Mexican-American...she was always "an American of Mexican descent.) The cousins joined her. I like to think she inspired some of them.
But the inspiration went both ways.
First...the reason for this...if you are into 20th Century history, architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, photography or even uppity Mexican-Americans...here's another cousin, from that theater, who overachieved:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/pedro-e-guerrero/preview/3985/
But in case this guy isn't enough...his parents...Pedro and Rosauro...made some damned good beans and tamales and started selling them to cowboys when the rodeo was in town. But you know...Rosauro is a difficult pronounciation for non-Spanish speakers. So...you ever heard of their little company...Rosarita Mexican Foods?
See what I mean? When you come from a family like this...you either make it big, or you are just another underachieving Mexican-American...like me.
BTW, when I bought a copy of Pete's (the guy in the PBS special) last book for my mom, I sent it took him for an autograph. Because I'm a bit if a hoarder of family crap, I sent along a copy of a letter his dad wrote in the 1910s, hitting on a young lady (before Pedro met Rosauro) as a thank you. Pete LOVED IT and sent me a thank you letter including an invitation to use his name to get into Frank Lloyd Wright sites for free! So even the underachieving relative can visit the finer things in life. LOL!!
If you are doing nuthin', watch the show. He went from an absolute dirt poor existence to being a highly sought after Mad Men era photographer ... (Of course, like the rest of us, he expressed his opinion and got unpopular for quite a while.). (Family trait.)
At one point a few years ago, I mentioned to my shrink (this was while Mom was dying) about going to a birthday party for a family member...who had rented out an entire upscale, olden times La Cienega Blvd in Beverly Hills restaurant...to celebrate his 90th birthday with a couple hundred of his closest friends and relatives. And Mariachis. Ya' gotta have mariachis.
Later, when that relative died, I encountered another "long lost cousin" at tbe luncheon after the funeral. Because so many Mexicans name their kids after the same ancestors...and because I hadn't seen her since she was a kid...it finally dawned on me WHICH Joe was her dad...General Joe, of course. Because he enlisted in the Army as a private, so he might as well do a good job, right? He retired as a general.
Then another "cousin" was the judge sitting on one locally famous case and one internationally famous case...so that came up.
My shrink asked, "They didn't get the memo? You come from a family where Mexican-Americans, who in the 1920s and 1930s were expected to make it to sixth or eighth grade at best and go home and have babies and work on the farm, decided to ignore all of the rules and expectations and just excel at what they wanted to do?"
Yup.
It never occurred to us back then to blame any failure on being Mexican-American. One cousin, also a judge, at my Mom's funeral said, "you couldn't blame failure on being Mexican...not when EVERYBODY AROUND YOU was also Mexican. You just had to cop out and say, 'Well...I was drunk at tbe time,' or provide some other logical reason for your screw up." Besides, it must have been "some other kind of Mexican " that people objected to. Not US!! LOL
SO...this week on the PBS American Masters show, we have yet another cousin who didn't know his place. My mom spent much of her summer vacations visting these cousins. When they all went to the movies, they headed toward the left side rear and Mom went a little closer, in the center. Older cousins ran up to her and said, "the Mexicans have to sit over there." Mom replied, "I'm from Los Angeles, not Mexico," and sat her entitled ass down. (Mom was never Mexican-American...she was always "an American of Mexican descent.) The cousins joined her. I like to think she inspired some of them.
But the inspiration went both ways.
First...the reason for this...if you are into 20th Century history, architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, photography or even uppity Mexican-Americans...here's another cousin, from that theater, who overachieved:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/pedro-e-guerrero/preview/3985/
But in case this guy isn't enough...his parents...Pedro and Rosauro...made some damned good beans and tamales and started selling them to cowboys when the rodeo was in town. But you know...Rosauro is a difficult pronounciation for non-Spanish speakers. So...you ever heard of their little company...Rosarita Mexican Foods?
See what I mean? When you come from a family like this...you either make it big, or you are just another underachieving Mexican-American...like me.
BTW, when I bought a copy of Pete's (the guy in the PBS special) last book for my mom, I sent it took him for an autograph. Because I'm a bit if a hoarder of family crap, I sent along a copy of a letter his dad wrote in the 1910s, hitting on a young lady (before Pedro met Rosauro) as a thank you. Pete LOVED IT and sent me a thank you letter including an invitation to use his name to get into Frank Lloyd Wright sites for free! So even the underachieving relative can visit the finer things in life. LOL!!
If you are doing nuthin', watch the show. He went from an absolute dirt poor existence to being a highly sought after Mad Men era photographer ... (Of course, like the rest of us, he expressed his opinion and got unpopular for quite a while.). (Family trait.)
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