I'M STILL SOMEWHAT BASED OUT OF SAN ANTONIO.... ONLY TWO MONTHS LEFT AND I'LL BE IN HOUSTON AFTER THAT, HITTING AUSTIN WHEN I CAN!
I'LL BE PASSING THROUGH EL PASO/JUAREZ THEN I HIT ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO.....TUCSON & PHOENIX, ARIZONA, THEN I'LL BE IN CALIFAS.....THEN ON TO MEXICO!!
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GENTE DE
BOYLE HEIGHTS EN EAST LOS Y
SEGUNDO BARRIO EN EL PASO, TEJAS:
ALERTA!!!!
PLEASE VISIT & SUPPORT THE TWO SITES AT
THE BOTTOM OF THIS SECTION!!!!
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OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER
Please be aware that this is not a 'fan' page.
This page was created to share with you the progress of our work!
Help us get in touch with our elders to record an almost gone era!
This page was created to seek out people who can put me in touch with their relatives and friends who were Pachucos or Pachucas during the 1930's and/or 1940's for a oral history project that will one day soon be a book. This page was also created with the intent of reaching out to those who are interested in the oral history that comes from the Mexicano/Mexicana/Xicano/Xicana perspective as well as the knowledge our recent elders share with us concerning their past.
So with that being said....Welcome to the circle....
Q RIFA LA PACHUCADA CARNALES Y CARNALAS!!!
CUALLI TONALLI!
My name is Alejandro . I am originally from El Paso, Tejas. I created this site to spread the word of a project that I, along with the help of some friends and family, have been working on for the past 3 years to write a book as well as film a video documentary. I'm using MySpace since it could be a very effective way of reaching our gente quickly and more effectively. I am asking for help.
Jesus 'Chuy' Villa
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua 1945
Courtesy of Familia Villa, El Paso, Tejas
For the past 3 years I have been collecting research, and interviewing men & women who were pachucos or pachucas during the 1930's and 1940's through-out the Southwestern US and Mexico (Cd Juarez, so far). I want to collect the oral histories of our people from that era to one day soon put them in print (a book). The format for this book will consist of a single chapter for each person I am able to interview. These chapters will be grouped by state each person is located in. The first half of the book will be the Southwest u.s. and the second half will be Mexico. I have to mention that I got the idea for the format from "The Good War," a book by Studs Terkel. This book is a collection of the oral histories of people on the home front during world war II. What is interesting about the book, are the three accounts (accounts by two witnesses and one by a victim) of the military riots in Los Angeles during June 1943. This week-long riot involved military personnel (army, navy, marines) and civilians who attacked Mexican youth that sported the 'zoot-suit' and who were deemed 'unpatriotic'. This event is popularly called The Zoot Suit Riots.
DON TOSTI AKA 'EL TOSTADO' Y PACHUCO BOOGIE
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PLEASE CHECK OUT THE
VIDEO SECTION FOR MORE!!
Originally, this was my brother's idea. He thought it would be cool to put out a 'Pachuco-Slang Dictionary' to collect words we had learned that were neither English or Spanish. I thought it was a good idea. Being from the El Paso-Juarez area we grew up speaking and learning a lot of the 'eh-slang.' "Why not," I thought. We'd collect all these words before they fell through the cracks and disappeared forever. These were words only older people seemed to be using. When I began to do some research on that subject, I discovered that several books of that type already existed. I didn't feel like I hit a wall, because at the bottom of it all I still asked, "Where do these words come from and why did the pachucos and pachucas immerse themselves in this dialect?"
Courtesy of Niko Centino
Santa Brutas, Califas
At the same time, I came across a lot of research on 'pachucos' and 'pachucas' or the zoot-suit 'phenomenon' that became popular among Mexican youth during the 1930's & 1940's. Some of the authors were very biased against the youth, and sometimes degrading towards them in their social commentaries. Not all of it was negative though. Some of the research I came across was written by college students or professors who seemed to be looking into the box from the outside-in and never stepping inside. A few of these books seemed so long winded on the subject that the spirit of what 'pachuquismo' is, seemed to get lost somewhere along the way. I could not find what I was looking for in the books that approached the subject from a sociological / psychological point of view. I'm sure a lot of these college students or professors had only the best intentions while completing their thesis, but again, the spirit was lost somewhere.
A man I interviewed in Ciudad Juarez told me,
"La verdad se encuentra en la escuela de las calles."
Great revelations come in the simplest of lines....
I decided, 'Why not interview the people themselves who lived during those times so that they can tell us what it was like?'. I won't mess with having to read through pages of 'research' and go straight to the sources: the ex-pachucos and pachucas, as well as people familiar with the culture that witnissed it. For a book like this I felt that these people would be the actual authors and I and my friends: the messengers. I set up a toll-free number, printed up flyers, and began walking the streets of the older barrios in various cities: El Westside in San Antonio; El Eastside(Diablo), El Segundo Barrio, Barracas, Calavera in El Paso, Texas; El Eastside y La Loma Linda in Austin Tejas; La Chaveña, Bella Vista, y el Barrio Alto in Cd. Juarez Chih. Mexico, 'El Barrio Viejo' in Tucson, Arizona, and various places in San Diego, Los Angeles(too many to name), and San Bernardino, California. I know there are a lot of places I need to go where I haven't been yet!
Two Brothers: A Pachuco and a Soldado
This is a perfect example of the opposite ends of the
spectrum during the WWII era.
Nick Mireles and Demacio Mireles
Houston, Tejas early 1940's
Courtesy of Willie Rodriguez y Familia, Houston, Texas
Anyone who can help in any way is encouraged to get in touch with me. Whether you can provide information of any kind, if you know of anyone that I might be able to interview, or even if you would like to inquire on the progress of the project; feel free to get in touch. If you would like a copy of the flyer, contact me through myspace and I can e-mail it to you. In english and spanish. PLACES WHERE I NEED HELP!!I need help in HOUSTON!!!, Tejas (Magnolia, El Crisol, Segundo Barrio, etc.); South Tejas (Falfurrias, San Benito, Weslaco, Crystal City, Uvalde, Laredo, etc.); I NEED CONTACTS OR LEADS IN SAN ANTONIO!! (I've been walking the streets of El Westside and still nothing there!); Albuquereque, New Mexico(Sawmill neigborhood, otros barrios?); ARIZONA (the entire state!!!); CALIFORNIA (I have several interviews that I have planned, but I would like more people to interview.) I am looking for people in Mexico as well!!! I will be translating this site in Spanish to reach our people throughout Mexico.
NECESITIO AYUDA EN MEXICO!!
FAVOR DE LEER EL 'BLOG' EN ESPAÑOL.
QUE ONDA CON LAS PACHUCAS??!!
Gracias a Florent de 40's Family en Francia
Most of the people I have interviewed are males. I have interviewed very few females because most of them are not willing to talk (at least the ones I met). If you have a tia or abuela who was a pachuca during the 1930's or 1940's please get in touch with me if she is willing to be interviewed. ALSO...My friend Ernesto Rios in Califas is filming a documentary on Pachucas. See my blog on him for contact information!! We are both racing against time and need your help!!
I am also searching for photographs to print in the book. People lend them to me, I scan them, and return them to the owner. What is a book without photos, especially one on this subject? Boring, no?
If you know of someone I can interview, lead me in their direction!
TLAZOHKAMATI,
FOR YOUR SUPPORT, YOUR ADDS, AND YOUR TIME!!!
-ALE
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WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON OUR LANDS.....
ONLY THE APPEARANCE HAS CHANGED.
LIVING HERE BEFORE 1492....
PUT ON THE TACUCHE IN 1942!
AQUI ESTAMOS Y NO NOS VAMOS!!
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ALL EPT AND EAST LOS GENTE, TRUCHA!!!
SEGUNDO BARRIO AND BOYLE HEIGHTS:
UNDER THREAT OF DEMOLITION!!!
IF YOU CURRENTLY LIVE IN ONE OF THESE COMMUNITIES, OR HAVE LIVED IN ONE OF THESE COMMUNITIES, IF YOU HAVE FAMILIA IN ONE OF THESE BARRIOS....
THEN YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!
I urge you to show your support!! Please hit up the following sites to become informed on how you can help stop the cities' redevelopment plans which includes removing people from their communities in order to build strip malls and condos for so-called high income people!!!
THE END RESULT IS ALWAYS THE SAME:
When the city gets its greedy way:
The poor and elderly are DISPLACED from a community that allowed them to survive financially to ANOTHER that will be more expensive AND far from their resources. Those who accept the city's cheap bribe offer AND owned their house in the community destined for demolition will now be paying rent elsewhere or will not have even half the amount needed for a down-payment on another house.
SEGUNDO BARRIO REZIZTE!!!!
