Thursday, March 7, 2024

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF CHATO HADN'T ASKED

D.A.R.

Chato had just been released on parole from a five-year stint at Huntsville and was back in Browntown.

Over time, he ran into the woman he had been seeing when he had been nabbed by the drug-sniffing dogs at the Sarita checkpoint with a few kilos of coke tucked in a section PVC pipe taped inside the engine compartment of his car.

A plea bargain had been struck by his court-appointed attorneys and Chato had gone off to the pen.

He had kept in touch with her over that time, and more than once when he was released had tried to find out where he stood among the suitors he was sure had been sniffing around his jaina (honey) cuando se fue pal rancho. She and Chato had known each other since their days at Brownsville High School, way back in the late 1960s.

It was the days of the chucos and he was un bato de la Medina de la Southmost. They had met at Mrs. Ferraez's English class, where she would try to explain to him how poetry worked.

One afternoon when they were having some 16-ounce Naturals con un pollito under the mesquite of her back yard, he pressed for an answer.

"Chavela, will you tell me the truth?" he asked her. "Has there been anyone else? I will understand. Sabes que te quiero un chingo. Y tu como me quieres?

She sighed and looked at him with some impatience.

"Ay, Chato, she sighed. "How do I love you? Let me count the gueys (ways)."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chat is a loser. Only one among the gueyes. I bet he doesn't measure up!

Anonymous said...

They were all losers than, los idiotas del southmost comensando con el gato y acavando cn barrel, el mas cagapalos era el estupido de truman y su compadre. Y la 410 nunca pudo hacer nada. El juanio nomas no. el west no traiva nada y las prietas nunca se metia, el ramireno y la moralla nunca se olia, los gringos menos bola de miedosos traivan a su mama a peliar hahahahaha!....

more to come:

Anonymous said...

Cholos were from East L.A. and no where else. If you were not in east LA and you saw a cholo you saw a wanna beee.

Anonymous said...

Che chon

Anonymous said...

Come of it, you pessimist commenters. I am sure even Mrs. Farraez is laughing in her final resting place when she read this, knowing that someone from the Medina Gang had actually learned the 1st line of a poem she had us memorize - Medina, Parra, Murrilla,
421, Villa verde, Las Prietas. She taught all of them regardless of their status and she was well respected by all her students because she did. We need to learn to enjoy
stories like this in place of having to hear about the corrpuption of our so-called
educated leaders. Keep these stories coming, Juan, and may I ask if you have gathered all these stories and had them published as a book. I am sure it would be a best-seller

Maybe someone could interpret the vanacular language used at that time and maybe somneone can tell me where the workd bebelech came from and what is means when someone used to say, Me, vale wilson!" Who and why Wilson?

Hay te wacho, cucaracho! Shina tus calcos, fuma tus fragos!

Anonymous said...

Only one comment from post 8:32 and I mean no ill will and love the story you told but Mrs Farraez could not have taught everybody you mentioned they are in different school zones and if she did, she did a good job.... good story keep em coming...

a quote only we used, hay te wacho gacho, nel pastel, pasa la biria, chinga-oo, pirujo/a, jefita, wachale, no seas gacho, voy pal escuelin and many many more print them if you know them let us know and reminisce. los wacho later carnales

Anonymous said...

March 8, 2024 at 6:40 AM

Que uvole?

What you wrote esta bien bule. Lo que escribo es la pura neta...and well you have to remember "para pendejo no se esudia."

How about when a woman was a lot bigger than her man " ese es mucho hamon para esos huevos."

These are the ones that I can recall.

Anonymous said...

aqui hay mucha perica:

trucha vato, ponte clavo, orale guey, wachale, el taconazo, ruca, picale, no seas perica, estule, there are still lots more sigele vato!

Anonymous said...

¿Qué onda? /¿Qué pedo? No mames, Chingar, Que padre, A huevo!,Hay Bronca, ese chavo, era un ruco

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Ferraez was teaching at BHS in the early 70's and they guys were at the only high school in the city. La Porter was not even born yet. Her red hair could be seen when she walked down the crowded halls of the new BHS and everyone made sure to greet her because they knew she would respond with a bow of her head to her side and give us that Ferraez smile. Those were the teachers we were privileged to have and learn from and we say many who actually enjoyed going to her class, as strict as she was, because we all she cared about all of us. So did Ofelia de la Garza, Glayds Odekerken, Katherine Celeya, Elizabeth Putegnat, Hazel Green and even Mrs. Stell our principal. If only all the teachers of today were like the teachers we had - except for 2 that had no business in the classroom at Cummings. Remembering each one of them brings a special thought about each one of them and us as students who respected our teachers.

Anonymous said...

March 8, 2024 at 8:24 PM

Sounds like you didn't like hispanic teachers at all. The Hispanic teachers I had at the old HS were great and when I move to TSC as a student, some were already teaching there. I put any of them against any white teacher today and yesterday. I say it like it is and I am not racist. Bad teachers come in all colors but those are few. In all of my years as a student I only had ONE bad teacher and he was white and was in HS. A science teacher.

Anonymous said...

that pic looks like Beto, oooops beto is gringo only during voting time he turns into a cholo

Anonymous said...

Teachers off again, this time spring break one week, it was easter break another week off, MLK another week off, turkey day another week off, xmas one week off, new years another week off. plus summer 3 MONTHS OFF PAID!!! they only work 180 DAYS a year la tienen hecha las mamonas. plus their bithday off a week, plus vacation time 2 weeks, toilet training 2 weeks. learn to teacher training 1 week, gossip one week off, another week AND THEY WORK ONLY 3 TO 5 HOURS A DAY, A DAY, just because they can do so. they work ONLY 180 DAYS A YEAR!!!!! WOW

WHEN IS ALL THIS MAMASON GONNA STOP WHEN WE STOP PAYING PROPERTY TAXES?

WHEN WHEN BOLA DE MAMONAS/ES...

papi ya te vas a trabajar? si mijito yo trabajo todo el ano(12 months a year). 8 hours por dia 6 dias a la semana, mijito.

mami are you going to work? No not today I have a week off for toilet training, I only work 180 days a year. tomorrow we will go to las vegas and spent some of thos tax monies I got from the poor sonsos that pay property taxes hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

TRUE STORY

rita