South el Monte to La Roma (DF)....

I have a tio who I love, almost all the time! He knows more about Chicano/a history and Los Angeles than I do. To make matter worse el tio can dance  TODO! Yes,  TO-DO.

When I was an undergrad at UCLA and told him I was taking Chicano/a studies classes he quizzed me on Luis Valdez... After answering correctly he told me he was part of el teatro campesino...

Lesson learned: el tio lived what I was studying...

Years later when I told el tio that I was earning/writing my masters on La crisis de los 1980s, he recited an immense amount of jokes from the era... luckly, I knew most of them...

When I told el tio I was going to New York to study Mexico he smiled and said, "Sobrino, y por que no te vas a Mexico?" (damn... good question...)

The summer between year 1 and 2 at a carne asada con el otro tio in Pico Rivers el Tio asked "a ver Sobrino, que estudias, QU-E estudias?" 

I humbly replied, "bueno tio, la 'migration'." I was surprised when he said "ese es mi sorbrino. por eso te quiero cabron." With a measure of self-assurance and confidence I began to tell him about my project. It was going well until he asked me if had read La Vida inutil de Pito Perez... Shit! Damn it! I not only had not read the damn book, but had never EVEN HEARD of it... El Tio walked away, got in his car and drove away... 30 minutes later he came back with La Vida inutil de Pito Perez, a copy from the 1950s. The book was originally published in the late 1930s by a Mexican author. Its a great story about a poet who pays a migrant in DRINK to tell him stories about his experiences...

I'm in Mexico City... Just returned from having drinks with Froylan Enciso, Diego Flores Magon, and Daniel Hernandez articulating a transnational project: A Mexico-Chicano/a intellectual/artistic project (more to come on that). After a long night, I return to my residence (Froylan/Guillermo's spot) to find that the novel was written NEXT DOOR!. 

If thats not the circle of life (think lion king). If that not South El Monte-Mexico City. If thats not Chicano-Mexicano connection... Bueno you get it. Shit works itself out. There is a master plan, well at least a transnational one.