About

Welcome to my blog, Chicago USA: Tall Tales from the Windy City. In this blog I talk about various topics that interest me. I really don’t have much to say, but I attempt to say it eloquently. Click on the links on the right to access other pages on my website.

These are the categories for this blog and a brief explanation.

Chicago

I love Chicago! Here are some of my personal observations about my beloved and fair city. For better or worse, Chicago is a microcosm of the world. People from all over the world visit Chicago and live in Chicago. In Chicago, you can learn about most of the world’s cultures because of all our foreign residents. Traveling through Chicago’s neighborhoods is like taking a world tour. I’ve travelled all over the world without ever leaving Chicago.

Lecciones

I will include an occasional Spanish lesson in this blog. I also discuss my wonderful, sometimes humorous, adventures in teaching College Spanish. Yes, teaching college Spanish is always exciting and fun. If you have a question about Spanish grammar, send me an e-mail with your question, problem, etc. I would like to help Spanish students in any way possible. I love teaching Spanish and I always have fun during class. I have also had some funny incidents occur during class about which I blog. I hope you enjoy your Spanish class, too. ¡Buena suerte!

Life

Sometimes life’s setbacks require a little common sense! Unfortunately, Life doesn’t come with guarantees and the owner’s manual contains many errors. I will discuss some Aha! and DUH!! moments that I’ve encountered in my daily life. I have had my share of both! But hopefully, I have become a little wiser because of these moments. You must remember to live and enjoy life! Don’t let life get in the way of living. The reason I use the symbol of yin and yang is because I’ve been greatly influenced by Chinese philosophy ever since I saw the TV show Kung Fu as a teenager. I can honestly say that this program profoundly changed my life.

Mexicans

This category discusses current and relevant issues dealing with Mexican culture and how it affects culture and politics in the U.S. If you read the blog, you will discover why I call it Mexicans and not something else. “Mexicans” is the most precise word I could find because it’s at once all-encompassing and simultaneously vague when describing people of that ancestry regardless of their geographical location or political affiliation. I was conceived in Mexico, but I was born and raised in the U.S. of A. Ever the eternal optimist, I embody the best of both worlds. I have lived in Chicago most of my life. However, it’s like I never stopped being Mexican. You can take a Mexican out of Mexico, but you can’t take Mexico out of a Mexican. This describes most Mexicans living in the United States. We try to stay well-grounded in both worlds. I almost used the Monarch butterfly as the logo for the Mexicans category since it travels freely between both Mexico and the U.S., as do many Mexicans. The red pepper is representative of Mexicans.

If you would like to comment on any of the blog entries, you are most welcome. I will not censor you even if I disagree with you if you follow the normal, civil Internet protocol. Feel free to e-mail me: ChicagoUSA@live.com.

Humorously yours,
David Diego Rodríguez, Ph.D.
(aka Dr. D, aka DDR)