tomorrow i'm off to dallas.
not to mourn the fallen mavericks, but to finally acquaint myself with joseph's stomping grounds.
back in april, when i heard news of the dallas megamarch, i couldn't believe that dallas was home to 500,000 latinos who would march for immigrant rights. while the numbers surprised me, i imagined the latinos in dallas to be recent immigrants.
then i met joseph, who is a sixth generation dallas chicano. SIXTH generation.
his speech has a hint of drawl, and he says things like, "you *know* he had a come-to-jesus talk with her!" come to jesus? clearly he lives in the bible belt.
he is polite the way you imagine southerners to be, all "sir" and "ma'am" to strangers.
and he loves tejano music. while you hear other guys his age bumping hip hop in their cars, when joseph turns on his engine, it is puro tejano blaring through the speakers. little joe y la familia, ruben ramos, etc. etc.
joseph is texan AND tejano. and he has invested himself in documenting chicano dallas history. both the history of the community and the history of his family.
he has been educating me about dallas. not the dallas i've seen on television--mostly stereotypes of big trucks, big hair, and rich oil barons--but a dallas that is home to raza. several generations of them.
and, of course, a dallas that is home to joseph.
@>-->>---
3 comments:
I had a similar experience with Houston... I had this stereotype of big red pickup trucks and ignorant rednecks listening to country music, and then I actually went there and it wasn't like that at all... it was full of culture and diversity. I had a great time and learned to never judge a city based on TV stereotypes.
Sadly, Dallas lives up to all its stereotypes, or so the tourists who wore cowboy hats would like to believe.
Hey vatos and vatonas, Chicana author Christine Granados will be in Dallas next month. I've posted info on her visit at www.plumafront.blogspot.com
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