Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing
Posted: 31 Aug 2010, 19:56
by kikibalt
Las Piscas
Part Two
1952
By Frank Baltazar
On a Friday in late April, after getting of work, Manuel and Jose stopped at Chuy's Bar for some beers, as they sat at the bar drinking a beer, Manuel said to Jose.
“Jose, Lupe is talking about going to the piscas again”.
“Manuel, we don't need to go, we have good jobs at the glass factory, why go and work so hard for so little money?” said Jose.
“Jose, Lupe wants to go because her mother, the viejita Ana, wants to go, Claims that she was a campesina back in her youth.
“Si, Manuel, the viejita also claims that she rode with Poncho Villa and that Villa had an eye for her, esta loca!, Manuel”.
“Si, I know she is crazy, Jose, but Lupe has a good point, she says the kids are growing up and soon will be out of the house and that we can make this like a family vacation”
“Family vacation? Por favor!, Manuel, that's crazy, getting down on your knees, picking plums of the ground, you call that a vacation?, but I might be nuts too, because I'll talk to Elsa about it”.
Next day as they were having huevo ranchero's for breakfast, Jose told Elsa what Manuel had said.
“Good idea, Jose, I would like to go again, it's been, what?, five years since we went?, Maybe my mamacita would like to go too”
“Esa bruja?, you know, Elsa, that she don't like me”.
“Cabron!, don't call my mamacita a witch, and it's not that she don't like you, she just thinks that I could have done better”.
“ A la chingada!, okay, we'll go, you talk to la bruja, and if she wants to go, we'll take her”.
Monday at work, Jose, told Manuel that he had talk to Elsa and that they had agree to go, providing that he didn't lose his job at the factory.
“We didn't lose our jobs in '47, did we?, lets go talk to the foreman” said Manuel
They found the foreman, Pedro Gomez, napping in the lunch room.
“Pedro, we need to talk to you” said Jose.
“Si?” said Pedro as he opened one eye.
“We need to take vacation time” Manuel and Jose said in unity.
“What are you two loco's up to now?” ask Pedro
“We want to take the families on a long vacation, Pedro” said Manuel
“How much time do you need?”
“About two months” said Jose looking down at the floor.
“And you want me to save you your jobs, right?”
“Well, si, if you would be so kind” said Manuel
“Go ahead, I can use a two month vacation from you two loco's, good luck” said Pedro.
, never sitting up or opening both eyes.
“Why didn't you tell him we are going to las piscas?' Jose ask Manuel as they walked out of the lunch room.
“The pendejo don't need to know where we are going or what we are doing, how come you didn't tell him?”. Manuel laughed.
Two weeks later the two families got together for a barbecue at Legg Lake in South El Monte. Jose and Manuel got all the kids together to tell them about their plans for a “vacation”.
“Guys, the two families are going on a vacation together this year” said Jose.
Jose's sixteen year old son, Johnny, he was not Juan anymore, wanted to know where they were going.
“Where are we going, pops? Hawaii or maybe Cancun?, can I take my girlfriend?, I would love to go to either place”
Jose looks at Manuel, Elsa, Lupe and the two abuelitas, and rolls his eyes.
“No, mijo, we're going to the las piscas, remember how much fun you had in '47?”
“That's not a vacation, that's work” said Manuel's seventeen year old son, Tony.
“Ya! That's right, it's work” said Rudy, Jose's fourteen year old son.
“Look who's talking, you hardly worked in '47, Rudy, and pops bought you a bike” said Rudy's twelve year old brother Luis.
“Ya! But the bike was stolen two months after I got it, and pops didn't buy me another one”
“Well, if you work hard this year maybe you'll get a new bike” said Jose to Rudy
“These youngster don't know what hard work is, I remember back in '09 when I was a campesina, we used to work day and night, all for the revolucion”
“Si, we heard that story before, Dona Ana, and how Poncho Villa had eyes for you” said Abuelita Juana to Abuelita Ana as they sip on some Patron.
“He did Juana, but you know how men are, only interested in one thing, I told him No”
By the time the barbecue was over, it was settled, they were going to the piscas.
They would be leaving on the second Saturday of July.
Manuel had sold the '38 Ford flat bed truck he drove in '47, now he was driving a '46 Ford station wagon, Juan was driving his own car this year, that being a '40 Chevy pick up truck. After both getting their vehicles serviced the first week of July they were ready to go.
The Second Saturday Of July
The second Saturday of July finally arrived. Manuel, his family and their dog, Perro, drove to Jose's house, where they found Jose and his family ready to go.
“Compa, we'll take Highway 99, just like we did in '47, is that okay?” said Manuel
“Si, that's okay by me. Compa, can my mother in law, the bruja, ride with you? Jose asked Manuel
“Why?”
“She doesn't want to ride in the back of the truck, she wants to ride in front with Elsa and me and all she does is talk about Elsa's old boyfriend, el Huero, about the nice cars and home that he has”
“Jose, I wish I could help you, but I got suegra problem's too, all the viejita want's to talk about is how she was a campesina back in the days of Poncho Villa and how Villa would make eyes at her, you keep your suegra and I'll keep mine” laugh Manuel.
On The Road To Paradise
The two car caravan got a late start on the road to what las viejitas kept calling paradise.
“When we get there I'm going show you young whipper-snapper's what it means to be a campesina” Dona Ana said to Manuel's kids as they travel up Highway 99.
Going up the Ridge Route, Juan's '40 Chevy truck got hot, they had to stop to let it cool down, once it cooled down it ran great, so did Manuel's '46 Ford station wagon.
It was late night when they got to Highway 152, they stopped in Los Banos to get some coffee so Manuel and Juan could stay awake. As the adults sat on the counter sipping coffee, the viejitas to no one's surprise slip shots of brandy in their coffee,. The kids found a jukebox with some R & B records from the late '40's to the latest ones, they kept putting nickles into the machine, listening to Lloyd Price, Fats Domino and Wynonie Harris.
“There they go again, listening to that junke, don't know what's going to become of this generation, I remember back in my youth. We didn't listen to chingadas's”
“Yes, we know Dona Ana, you listened to good music” said Manuel to his suegra as he rolled his eyes.
Back on the road, they drove over the Pacheco Pass, they arrived in Hollister at 3:AM, still had seven miles to get to Tres Tinos, where Carmen and Enrique Perez with their daughter Ruth waited for them with huevo con chorizo, hot coffee, for breakfast .
Enrique and Carmen with Ruth would drive into the fields on a 1929 Ford Model A pick up truck and sell raspado to the campesinos on hot days, and everyday was a hot day.
Enrique was a big man, who weighted close to three hundred pounds, the suspension on the left side of the Model A was broken, so when he got behind the wheel, the truck would lean over to the left side. People wonder how he could even get behind the wheel.
“Are you still selling shave ice cones to the campesinos” asked Jose as he ate breakfast at the Perez's dinner table.
“Si, la gente need something cold in these hot days of summer, you know” said Enrique
“I hear you all are going to be working in Paicines, that's a good ranch to work at, they have nice little houses, they do have a big one that is saved for big families, maybe if you all stick together you can get the big house” Enrique said to Jose and Manuel.
“Si, that a good idea, Enrique” said Lupe.
“Thanks a lot Enrique, Carmen, Ruth for your kindness, now we will get to Paicines and get settled in” said Jose.
“Jose, Manuel, tell the foreman, his name is Harry Williams, that I said to give you the big house” said Enrique.
“Thanks, we will” said Manuel.
Paradise
(Paicines)
The families drove the six miles to Paicines right after sun up. Jose and Manuel went looking for the foreman, Harry Williams, they found him opening the general store, which he owned. The store also had the local Post Office.
“Mr. Williams, I'm Manuel Fernandez and this is Juan Garcia, we are here to work the harvest, Enrique Perez said that if; we, the two families; stuck together we could get the big house” said Manuel.
“Yes, if the families are big enough, you can have the big house” said Mr. Williams
“No house is big enough with the that bruja around, el Huero,! she says” mumble Juan.
Drawing a blank stare from Mr. Williams.
"Sorry" said Juan.
“Okay, its settled, twelve people and a dog is big enough for the big house, now lets open you an account here at the store, you buy your provisions here and at the end of the harvest we settle up” said Mr. Williams.
After opening their accounts, Juan and Manuel walked back to check the house, as they walked, Manuel said to Juan.
“A la chingada, compa, they get you coming and going, que no?.
“Si, but what are you going to do?, we are here now” said Juan.
Manuel and Juan got back to their familia's and told them the good news, they would be sharing the big house, Juan and Elsa would have a room , as would Manuel and Lupe, the girls would share one room, the boys and Perro would share another, the viejcitas would share a room, with their brandy or Patron, or what ever the drink of the day was.
They still had a week before the start of the harvest, so Manuel and Juan set out to meet the familia's that were already in camp.
There were the The Cruz's, Victor and Josie and their two sons, Frankie and Raymond, ages seventeen and fifteen, respectively.
The Gonzalez's, Jesus and Yolanda and their two daughters, Lisa and Carol, ages, seventeen and sixteen respectively.
The Ramirez's, Hector and Irma, their son Eddie and daughter Dolores. Ages 17 and 15, respectively.
And the Hernandez's, Isido and Hilda, their son, Danny, daughters, Linda and Rosemary, ages, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, respectively.
As Manuel and Juan walked around the camp they found Hector Ramirez working on his car. After introducing themselves, they ask what was wrong with the car,
“Got a broken piston, and now everybody in camp is calling me El Piston” said Ramirez.
They left “El Piston” to walk and meet some more people. As they were walking, they saw a man with two teenage girl's by his side arguing with two teenage boys, they were able to hear some of the argument.
“I told you boys to leave my daughters alone, I don't want them associating with boys like you, you boys will not amount to anything in life, you will always be working the piscas” said Jesus Gonzalez. He told the girls, Lisa and Carol, who were crying to get inside the house.
Juan and Manuel walked up to the boys and asked what the problem was.
“Pinche viejo, he thinks his daughters are too good for us” said Frankie Cruz
“Just wait til tonight, the girls will sneak out the window when the pinche viejo and his pinche vieja are asleep” said Danny Hernandez.
At night, the teenagers would play records and dance outside, close by the common bathrooms, the boys and girls would pair of to dance to Lloyd Price's “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, a record that they would play over and over again.
“Is that the only record they have?” Isido Hernandez would ask, as he drank a beer.
Most of the adults, except Jesus and Yolanda Gonzalez, would be outside drinking beer, the Gonzalez's and their daughters would stay indoors.
Around eleven PM the music would stop, everyone would go inside and go to bed, except Frankie Cruz and Danny Hernandez, they would go behind the general store with a few beers and wait for Lisa and Carol Gonzalez.
While they were waiting for the girls. Frankie told Danny about shooting a deer two weeks before, said he and some friends went out late one night into the orchards, blinded the deer with the car headlights as it was eating plums, shot it, put the deer in the car, took it to an abandon farm house where they dressed the deer and divided the venison.
“Divided the what!?” asked Danny.
“The deer meat, pendejo, “venison” that's what its called” answered Frankie
“Anyway, Danny, this is what I been thinking about doing, shooting deer and selling the venison here at this camp and also other camps, you want in? We can make spending money, but you know that its illegal and if we get caught we can be thrown in jail and get a big fine”. Frankie also told Danny about how last year as he and a friend were hunting for deer en El Gavilan, they ran into a bracero camp, one of the bracero told Frankie and his friend how nice things were at the camp, but for the lack of women. Frankie told Danny how he and his friend took care of that problem for the bracero's. They went to Watsonville, picked up some of the street walkers and took them to the bracero's. Everybody was a happy camper.
“Lets do it, the deer, not the street walkers” said Danny as Lisa and Carol Gonzalez walked up. Frankie and Lisa went one way, Danny and Carol another.
Two nights later Frankie and Danny go out and bag a deer, dress him at the abandon farm house and the next day went out to sell the venison, went to the Paicines camp first where they sold meat to everybody but Jesus Gonzalez and Hector 'El Piston” Ramirez, Gonzalez and Ramirez told Frankie and Danny.
“We don't need to buy from you pendejo's, we can go get our own deer”,
Three nights later they did get their own deer, they also got arrested, seems like they decided to dress the deer right on the spot where they shot it, the game warden snuck up on them and busted them.
“Los pendejo's were dressing the deer right where they shot it, now they have to pay a thousand dollar fine, they are lucky they didn't get any jail time. Now, their familia's are going to have to work all summer just to pay the fine's. I don't know about piston, but Gonzalez? serves him right”. Said Frankie Cruz to Danny Hernandez.
“Frankie, I don't want to shoot deer anymore, I don't want to hurt mi familia” Danny said to Frankie.
“I'm with you on that, Danny, I too don't want to hurt the familia”
El Italiano
On Sunday morning Juan and Manuel and their families went to church in Tres Pinos, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, after Mass ,on their way back to the ranch Dona Ana spotted a sign “Chili's”.
“stop Manuel, lets buy some chili and we'll have chili verde tonight” said Dona Ana.
Manuel pull into a gravel road with Jose right behind him, they stopped in front of a barn, as a man came out to meet them, he spoke with a heavy Italian accent.
“We want to buy green chili's” said Dona Ana.
After selling them the chili's, he asked them if they would like a glass of vino. He didn't have to ask the viejcitas twice, in unity they said yes, he invited them into his wine cellar where the viejcitas had a couple of glasses of red wine, he said he made his own vino and that they could stop anytime for a glass or two. On the way back to the car, Dona Ana said to Juana.
“Did you see the way he kept looking at me?, he was giving me the eye”.
“Vieja loca, every man she meets is giving her the eye” Manuel said to Juan.
“I heard what you said, Manuel, you better not say it again” said Lupe.
Every two days or so las viejcitas would ask Manuel if he would let Tony drive them to see el Italiano, he would and they would always come back tipsy.
Boys Night Out
After being on their hands and knees picking plums for two weeks the boys were in need of some fun. On a Friday night, Frankie Cruz borrowed the family car, a '48 four door Mercury, to hit the town for that much needed fun. The boys, Tony Fernandez, Johnny Garcia, Danny Hernandez, Eddie Ramirez, Frankie and Raymond Cruz, found a dance at the one high school in town, Hollister High School, where they were quickly thrown out, they were told.
“We don't want no pachuco's here”.
“Why do they call us pachuco?, don't they know that this is 1952 and that there is no more pachuco's, man! this not 1941” Said Tony Fernandez.
“Tony, this town is ten year behind times, did you hear the music they were playing at the dance?, Glenn Miller, can you believe that?, where is Lawdy Miss Clawdy? ” said Eddie Ramirez.
Frankie Cruz wanted to score some beer, which in a wide open town like Hollister, was not hard to do. Frankie told Raymond that since he didn't drink he would drive, the boys jumped in the car as Raymond got behind the wheel. Raymond was only fifteen years old and it was not everyday that he was allowed to get behind the wheel, as the boys drank beer he drove the thirteen miles from Paicines to Hollister four times. With most of the boys either asleep or passed out from drinking beer Raymond parked the car in front of their little house at three AM, Sunday, the boys having woken up all went their respective homes.
At nine AM, abuelita Juana went to wake Tony, Johnny, Rudy and Luis up, she walks in the boys room and starts yelling.
“Pinche perro thew up in the boys room!”
Not knowing that her grandson Johnny had vomited from drinking too much beer and that Perro had nothing to do with the mess on the floor.
That afternoon Victor Cruz went to start the Mercury, the engine wouldn't turn, seems like Raymond drove the car without oil and burned the engine.
Frankie and Lisa
It was early September, as days had turned into weeks, the harvest was just a week away from being finished, Frankie Cruz needed to talk to his dad, Victor Cruz.
“Dad, I need some money”
“What do you need money for at this time?, mijo”
“Lisa is pregnant, and we want to go to Reno to get married before her old man finds out, we don't want to get killed!, pops”
Victor Cruz went to see Harry Williams, asked for a five hundred dollar advance on his pay.
“Mijo, I got some money from Mr. Williams, but you don't need to go to Reno, you and Lisa became of age since we started the harvest, right? you can get married at the church in Tres Pinos, I'll talk to Lisa's father, if its alright with you”
“I'll talk to Lisa and see what she says”
It was agreed that all three would talk to Jesus and Yolanda Gonzalez, it was also agreed not to say anything about Lisa being pregnant.
“Jesus and Yolanda, my son Frankie would like to talk to you” Victor Cruz said to the Gonzalez.'s
“Mr. and Mrs. Gonzalez, we are here to tell you that Lisa and I are getting married and would like your blessing” said Frankie
“Is that right? You, a plum picker, asking my blessing to married my daughter?”
“Dad, with all due respect, you are a picker too, are you saying that mom shouldn't have married you? Said Lisa.
“But mija, our days were different, you see, these are different times”.
“Jesus, I married you when my father said you were not good enough for me, remember that? So I'm asking you, as your wife and Lisa's mother to give this young people your blessing, just like I'm going to do” said Yolanda Gonzalez .
Jesus Gonzalez looked at his wife.
“Si vieja, I remember your father well, too well!” Jesus laughed
Jesus walked up to Lisa and Frankie and gave them a big abrazo.
“Welcome to the family, mijo, you both have my blessings” Jesus said to Frankie and Lisa as he hugged them both.
Arrangements were made for a quick wedding at the church in Tres Pinos, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. The good looking couple were attended by maid of honor, Carol Gonzalez and best man, Danny Hernandez. A reception for all the Paicines campesinos was held at Bolado Park. The Italiano was invited to bring some vino, which he did, sitting at a table with the viejictas , he felt Ana playing footies with him.
End of Harvest
With the end of the harvest, the families at Paicines were ready to get on with the rest of their lifes.
The Hernandez's, would go back to the San Fernando Valley.
The Ramirez's, “El Piston”, with a thousand dollars less would go back to Jimtown.
The Gonzalez's, with also a thousand dollars less, but with a new son in the family would go back to El Monte.
The Cruz's had decided against going back to Southern California and instead would go to San Jose.
Frankie and Lisa Cruz would make their home in Hollister.
Juan and Manuel would go back to working at the glass factory.
Elsa and Lupe would again go to being housewives.
Rudy and Luis would get new bikes.
The viejicitas. Ana would keep on seeing men making eyes at her. Juana would keep on talking about el Huero. Both would keep on drinking.
Perro would go on been a faithful companion.
