Urban Onramps

Tijuanero

(I’m about to spill the family beans)

I’ve been cackling at Nacho Libre for the past 20 hours. As I watched the movie I had a sense that I had been to the particular cultural space that is depicted (lower class Mexico). Throughout my life I’ve known people who act like characters in the movie - literally. Then, a memory: My brother and I, at some early age, would use the term “Tijuanero” as a putdown. A Tijuanero is simply someone who is from Tijuana, or acts like someone from Tijuana. We meant to say you are jacked up, busted, ugly, poorer than poor, country in a city way - anything negative we could think of. Since we were from America, Chicanos, we thought ourselves better than people from TJ. We were just being mean kids who perpetuated stereotypes. Thing is, our sister Yolanda (who was raising us, a single parent more or less) would get really angry with us when she heard us using the term. It was improper, to be sure, but there was another edge Yolanda had. When Yoli was a child, our mother put her into a Tijuana orphanage, temporarily, because it was too much for our mother to cross the border and get her affairs in order in Los Angeles and care for my sister. Perhaps it was a common practice to leave your child in an orphanage for a couple of weeks while you handled business; I’m not sure. After 3-4 weeks our mother (Felisa) returned for Yoli and took her back to Los Angeles. I don’t know if Yoli was traumatized by the experience, or simply felt scared and lonely during those weeks which must have seemed like months. Yoli therefore had great sympathy for the thousands (tens of thousands?) of lonely little children in Mexican orphanages. That’s where her anger over the word Tijuanero came from. So I was watching Nacho Libre and it takes place in a Mexican orphanage, and the main character is himself an orphan. The stark surroundings, the bunk beds, the outdoor group activities with the beautiful mountains in the background - I’ve visited Mexican orphanages throughout my life, mostly with missions groups, and those images from the movie resonate. Well, all of that came back to me in the midst of out-loud cackles and chuckles and phone calls to my brother, who could truly appreciate the whole experience.

You know, people laud me for having achieved many things despite growing up without a father or a mother. But the real hero is Yolanda. She was also without father and mother by the time she was 20. But she also had full legal custody of three younger siblings. She still went on to graduate from Occidental College with a BA in Math, earned an MBA from USC, and raised three children/siblings who graduated from Pomona College, Azusa Pacific University, and Stanford University. Yeah, she’s the real hero. So the day I was honored at The White House with an award from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, she was there. The good folks at HSF knew Yoli’s role in my life and were more than happy to accommodate her. Here she is with President Bush, October 2002. There I am in the background.

posted Jan 24, 2008, 4:42pm by Rodolpho Carrasco