Chicago Auto Show


2008 Chicago Auto Show

My father always loved going to the Chicago Auto Show every year. He would go several times each year and he would always take my brothers, sister, and me the first time he went. He always managed to get free tickets either through work or some promotional event. Somehow, he always found free tickets and took us every year.

When I was older, he would go with just me so we could take our time and really look at all the cars. He loved looking at the cars and we loved collecting bags and bags full of automobile literature, pamphlets, key chains, and anything else they gave away there. My father was a mechanic at Curtiss Candy, so he loved to show off his knowledge of all things mechanical while we were at the auto show. So if they had a motor displaying the internal parts, my father would explain how the internal combustion engine worked. My brothers weren’t all that interested in his explanations, but I always tried to learn something new everytime we went to the auto show.

My father always fantasized about owning all the latest expensive sports cars. He would always insist that we sit inside the car, behind the wheel. Then, he would explain all the features of the car, as if he were a car salesman. My favorite part of the show was the celebrities who made appearances. They were so accessible to everyone. Usually all the Chicago sports teams such as the White Sox, the Bulls, the Bears, the Blackhawks, and the Cubs sent a few players to represent them. I don’t really remember exactly who specifically showed up, but I do remember that if you waited long enough after their presentation, you could walk right up to them, shake their hand, and talk to them. We would always wait to meet the celebrities, but I was too shy to actually talk to them. I was content with shaking their hand and standing close enough to listen to them talk to others. The only Chicago player I really remember meeting there was Walter Payton. I also remember meeting Jesse Owens who came every year. He was always so patient just standing there waiting for everyone who wanted to greet him.

And long after the auto show was over, we still had our bags of automotive literature to entertain us well into the summer.

DDR

Immaculate Heart of Mary


Immaculate Heart of Mary, Chicago, Illinois

There is this little Mexican church built in the Spanish Mission style in the Back of the Yards on the corner of 45th and Ashland. When I didn’t attend mass at Holy Cross Church, I went to Immaculate Heart of Mary where all the masses were in Spanish instead of Latin. I liked following the prayers in Spanish in the missal. I always wanted to learn Spanish formally, but this was as close as I got.

There used to be a rectory right on the corner when I was little, but it’s gone now. They added an addition to the back of the church where they put a baptismal font and my sister Delia and brother Joseph were baptized there. That was the only church that I saw at that time that had a crying room for the children in the back of all the pews. We never went in the crying room even though we belonged there on some Sundays because of our behavior.

Sometimes my brothers and I would start poking in each other behind my father’s back, and slowly intensify our physical agression until my father would scold us and finally hit us. And if we still continued, my father wouldn’t threaten to really hit us when we returned home. Of course, my father never hit us for anything, but he was a very devout Catholic and he thought we should listen to mass with our undivided attention. So once he threatened to hit us, he would follow through with it once we returned home. We really dreaded the trip home knowing that our father would hit us.

They had a social center in the middle of the block where we would sometimes go after school to play boardgames and basketball. I was an altar boy at Holy Cross Church, but not at Immaculate Heart. When a friend of the family got married, she asked the pastor of Immaculate Heart if my brother Tato and I could be her altar boys. This was the first time that we served in another church, but somehow, we managed to wing it. My favorite part about this parish was their annual carnival. Not so much because of the rides, but because of the Mexican food that they served. I went to the carnival every year, for every day of the carnival. My favorite drink there was atole. I just loved drinking it. And when I had drunk too much, I would stand next to stand that sold it and just inhale deeply so I could continue enjoying this atole.

DDR

Handouts


Students taking a Spanish exam.

I just finished typing up a handout for my Spanish class. I mainly put verb conjugations for whatever tense we studied in class and other pertinent grammatical lessons from the chapter that will appear on the exam. Whenever I make up these handouts, I always wonder why students ask me for them in the first place. All the information in the handout is already in the textbook.

I never needed any handouts when I studied for exams. If fact, when I make up the handout, I pretend that I’m a student studying for the exam, and I leaf throught the textbook in looking for things that might be on the exam. But for some unknown reason, students like to have the handout to study for the exam.

One student told me that she liked the handout so she could study on the train. I suppose that’s better than lugging around a textbook. But if the students study for exams, I’m all for passing out handouts. I think that the reason students want the handout is because they feel that it gives them an advantage.

Well, in this age of computers and video games, everyone wants to know how to beat the game, and to that end, a lot of players resort to cheats they find on the Internet. I think this is how my handout functions, as a sort of cheat to do better on the exam.

Well, as long as the students study and they do well on the exam, I’m happy to make up the handout for them. It’s not like I give them the answers. In fact, I put as much information as possible into that handout. Feel free to look at these handouts. The links are located at:

Spanish Study Guides

Buena suerte.

DDR

Matilde


Mi abuelita y tía Matilde

My tía Matilde came to Chicago as part of the package deal when my abuelita came for eye surgery. Tía Matilde also needed surgery, so she came from México to have surgery on her ears. I’m not sure what exactly was wrong with her ears, but she was otherwise healthy.

My aunt was very young when she came, and she liked living in Chicago. She loved listening to pop music on the radio and she bought all the records by her favorite singer, Rick Nelson. She went wild when listening to his music.

What I remember most about my tía Matilde was how she did laundry. We, my parents, my three brothers, my abuelita, my tía Matilde, and me, all lived in a small four-room apartment. We had a washer and dryer in the kitchen next to the sink. When my parents were at work, tía Matilde would do all the laundry in the house, every handkerchief and sock. She would search everywhere in the apartment for dirty clothes. She found dirty clothes where I would never even think of looking. She just had to make sure that every last item of dirty clothing was clean when she was done doing the laundry. And so, when all the dirty clothes were in the washer, and there was a little room in the tub for more clothes, she would start taking off her clothes right at the washer and start putting them in the washer. She would be standing in the kitchen wearing nothing but her bra and panties, proud of the fact that all the dirty clothes in the house were now washed, obviously oblivious to my presence.

Back then, we always seemed to be either at home or at Cook County Hospital taking either my abuelita or tía Matilde to the doctors there. Anyway, my tía Matilde, who would undress at the washer, was very shy with the doctors when they asked her to disrobe. The day of her surgery, she refused to undress and refused to put on the hospital gown because it had no back to it.

I still remember her telling this story when she returned from her surgery. She absolutely refused to undress for the nurses and doctors. She thought she had won her battle, but after the surgery, she woke up in her hospital bed and immediately realized that she was completely naked! Whenever she told this story, she always sounded so shocked that this could have happened to her despite her precautions. She didn’t even remember when or why she lost consciousness. She always wondered who managed to see her naked. She would blush every time she told the story.  She was truly traumatized by this experience!

She eventually went back to México with my abuelita.

DDR

Abuelita


Mi abuelita en México.

I remember when my abuelita came to live with us in Chicago back in the 1960s. I liked having my grandmother living with us because she used to take care of me when both my parents went to work. She even protected me from my mother when she hit me a little too hard or a little too long.

I remember once for homework in the first grade I was supposed to read aloud from our reader to one of my parents. My father wasn’t home, so I went to my mother. She said she was too tired from work to help me do my homework. I told her that all she had to do was listen to me read. The reader was quite simple: “See David. See Ann.” And so on. I didn’t even know that much English at the time.

Anyway, my mother didn’t want to be bothered by me. I kept begging her to listen to me. Finally, my abuelita said that I should read to her. I wasn’t sure if she could help me to read this book. At first, I hesitated because not only did she not know English, but she was also blind. One of the reasons she came to Chicago was to get eye surgery.

DDR