Alex and the Hobo: A Chicano Life and Story

Preface

Preface We have written this book for the people of Antonito and for anyone with an interest in a good story. We present one man’s view of history in his work of fiction and in his account of how he wrote about his experiences . Readers from Antonito who occupy a different position in the social structure may have another view of their town. We hope they will have the chance to add their own stories to this one. For readers from other places, we aim to convey what it meant to grow up as a Spanish-speaking boy in a railroad town in a corner of the Southwest. Our joint writing project came about when we met in Joe Taylor’s secondhand shop on Antonito’s Main Street in 1998. Joe Taylor tells and writes stories about the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. Since our first meeting, we have had many conversations about stories as expressions of ethnic identity. We explored the meaning of ethnic similarities and differences by first discussing our own ethnic heritage. We have fathers with Anglo-Saxon surnames and mothers with Spanish surnames. One of our first discoveries was just how paternal surnames yield misleading impressions of ethnic identity. Anastacio Taylor and Richard Taggart were different in many ways, not the least of which was their language. Anastacio could not speak English, and Richard could not speak Spanish. When discussing our mothers, we recognized the enormous difference between the words “Mexicana/o” and “Mexican.” Joe Taylor’s mother, Beatriz Mondragón, was a “Mexicana,” a Spanish speaker born and raised in the Southwest, but not a Mexican. The term “Mexican” when uttered by an English-speaking Anglo-Saxon is an insult tantamount to a racial slur in the San Luis Valley. Jim Taggart’s mother, Carmen de xi Lara, was a Mexican national who was born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and a Canadian mother, and she immigrated to the United States in 1911. Always proud but sometimes ambivalent about her national heritage, she did not consider the term “Mexican” to be offensive. We found stories a way to organize and convey experience across ethnic lines, particularly if placed in their historical and cultural context . We present one of Joe Taylor’s most autobiographical written stories in the first part of this book. In the second part, he recalls how he wrote out of his experience. This is based on many hours of recorded conversations in Spanish and English. Jim Taggart edited, translated, and organized Joe Taylor’s spoken words, and Joe Taylor read and offered suggestions for further revision. Scholars interested in how we edited and translated our conversations may write Jim Taggart for copies of the original transcriptions. We included only the English translations of conversations in Spanish to reduce the length and cost of this book and because we are still working on the best way to represent the Antonito dialect of spoken Spanish. Scholars will find in our appendix a lightly edited transcription and translation of a conversation in Spanish with a woman we call Juana. Her words are crucial for our argument. We have woven our words together with the help of several people who supported our project, read earlier drafts of our book, and made constructive suggestions for revision. Mary Romero and Kathy Figgen introduced Carole Counihan and Jim Taggart to the San Luis Valley. Leonard Velazquez read an early draft of our book and gave us encouragement when we needed it most. Phil Jaramillo told us how to keep the reader’s attention on what really matters. Carole Counihan combed through two drafts and pointed out, with her fine editorial skill, rough transitions and places where readers needed more signposts . Miguel Díaz Barriga gave us excellent suggestions on how to organize more effectively the chapters following Joe Taylor’s story. A second reviewer encouraged us to be very precise with our facts and our use of languages, Spanish as well as English. Beatrice Taggart once again contributed her great artistic skill, this time by making the map of the San Luis Valley. We owe special thanks to Theresa May for ALEX AND THE HOBO xii PREFACE her faith in our project and her support over the years. Funds from the Lewis Audrenreid Professorship in History and Archaeology at Franklin and Marshall College generously supported all phases of this project. We thank manuscript...