What I remember most is that my parents had a few albums we listened to over and over: Lucha Villa singing El Gallo de Oro, Jose Alfredo Jimenez – Exitos de Oro, The 5^th Dimension – Age of Aquarius, Gladys Knight and the Pips – Midnight Train to Georgia, and the sound track to Hair, aka the “American Tribal Musical”.  But, my favorite (and still the king in my book) was Santana – Black Magic Woman. 

The music of my youth was another factor that helped shaped my life.  Some came and went, some stayed.  But much should be rediscovered if for nothing else, but to help kids today (such as my 17-year-old daughter) that self expression is not something new and to celebrate our diversity. 

Today, my favorites are mostly from the 80s and 90s, when I was really paying attention.  If I know they lyrics of a song, you know it's got to be an "oldie".  My playlist has Pink Floyd, Queen, Sting, Beatles and such.  I get nostalgic with Foreigner, Rush, KISS, Sabbath (and it's weird to see Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne with their kids on reality shows).  I've found some cool bands along the way.  I like Latin Rap and Hip Hop en Español.  One of my new favorites is from Central Texas and reminds me a lot of Santana: Los Lonely Boys. My daughter's introduced me to a bunch more and her taste is "eclectic" as well, from Cake to Death Cab for Cutie, Sublime to She Wants Revenge.  Some I get, some I don't.  But, it's all good and it the list keeps evolving.  But, nearly 40 years later, Santana is still The Man!  Top

6.15.08  FATHER'S DAY: TRIBUTE FROM A CLONE

Today, because Father's Day is tomorrow, this blog is about my Dad.  I think it provides a little insight into why I love my Dad (and tells you a little about me too).  

This weekend is Father’s Day. We should celebrate our Dads every day because without your Dad you wouldn’t be here, but it’s a bit unrealistic.Think about it, if you got an ugly-ass tie every day wouldn’t it get old really fast? Plus, my Mom and Dad had five kids.Where would put all those ties? In any case and in all seriousness, I just wanted to write a little bit about my Dad because I do love him and appreciate him very much.(Even though he doesn’t have a computer and will probably NEVER see this.) 

My Dad is a special guy.  When I was born he was only 16 years old!  (My Mom was 14, but that’s a different story for another day.) Can you imagine?  You just finished 10^th grade.  It’s finally summer and you’re SUPPOSED to be obsessed with baseball and being able to drive and wondering if your acne will ever clear up and when will you START dating and figuring out what you want to be when you grow up. Instead, my Dad was dealing with getting a job, finding some place for his family to live, feeding a kid, changing diapers and keeping your new wife’s big brothers don’t beat the crap out of you for getting her in that situation.

Living through the stigma back then was also tough. Edinburg was (and still is) a small town.  Having a kid at 16 isn’t like it is today in many places.  You don’t just drop your kid off at the high school daycare and go about your business.  My parents had a tough time socially.  But… they did it.  My Dad took responsibility and did right by my Mom. They survived and thrived.

I learned many lessons from my Dad that I’m trying to pass on to my own child, my daughter.  Dad taught me that it’s important to live by the laws of man and even more important to live by the laws of God.  He taught me to be kind to every person you meet and treat everyone with respect.  He taught me that no one was either above or beneath anyone else and that every person can be both your teacher AND your student.  He also taught me that no one is perfect, we all have our flaws and vices and sometimes they get the better of us, but as long as we don’t give up, we haven’t failed.  He also taught me that having a sense of humor usually makes all of those “lessons” above a little easier to live by.  I’m not going to go on and on about it.  My Dad is a simple guy, no frills needed or wanted. 

My Dad is a short, average-looking guy, with a funny little moustache, a corny sense of humor and a huge heart. Nothing fancy. If you ever see the two of us together, you’ll see that I’m his clone. And, I’m OK with that.  If you ever see my Dad – Eddie Cantú Sr. – tell him you read this and remind him how much he's loved.  Happy Father’s Day to all father’s out there.  Top.

6.9.08  MEMORIAL DAY FISHING FOR POCHISMO 

Fishing and cultural identity. Read on, it works. 

Memorial Day weekend, I didn’t write in my blog because I went fishing.  Not the kind of “gone fishing” that you put on your door or computer as a message that you’re out, don’t look for me, I’ll be back whenever.  I really went fishing.  It was a family thing, a“Guy Trip’s”.  (Yes, Latinos do guy trips and yes, we fish.  It’s not just for Bubbas anymore. No offense Bubba.)

There were eight of us on this Guy’s Trip: my brother and his young son, two of our Tios, one of my Tio’s son and his soon-to-be son-in-law (we think) and the already-son-in-law of my other Tio.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, the point is, there were eight of us.  And, besides the fact that my brother’s fifth grade son out-fished us all, it was a great trip. 

We met in Corpus, rented two boats and fished for speckled trout out in the bay.  Anything related to the water is awesome and fishing is just a huge bonus.  But, the thing that I enjoyed the most was the company… AND, what it meant to me in terms of sharing time with my family and getting a better understanding of how THEY feel about our ethnic roots.

Contrary to popular opinion, except for me, most Hispanics don’t just sit around talking about what it means to be Hispanic.  But, because it WAS me, I forced the issue.  We were in boats, where were they going to go?  I wasn’t surprised by the responses, but I was a bit in awe of the diversity of perspectives that exist even within my own family, even about being Pocho. 

Two Boats, Three Generations, Lots of Fish, But No Boxes

There were three generations in those boats and no two opinions were alike. When analyzing our conversation (yes I do that all the time, ask my wife), it was hard to put them into nice neat little boxes (I try to do that all the time too). 

I tried the “generational distance” box; you know the number of generations from the first one in the family to cross the border.  You’d think my Tios would have the same opinions since they’re both the 2nd generation in our family born here, they’re brothers, they’re only two or three years apart and they both grew up in the same household.  Both left the Valley right after high school and both are near retirement age (actually a bit on the other side but who’s counting).  But, they're very different.  One spent most of his life living on the border as a cop and the other in Houston as a banker.  Very different perspectives on life and living. But, I think the thing they did agree on is that Pocho is NOT a great thing to be proud of. Growing up, in their world, being Pocho was bad (Even though they understood what I was trying to say.). 

The next group included me and my brother, the son-in-law and the “maybe” son-in-law-to-be.  (By the way, he’s a “non-Hispanic” and we gave him all kinds of grief throughout the trip for being ‘White”, even though we're all "White" and he is a great guy.  Welcome to the family!).  We are all around the 40s.  We all grew up on the border, all college-educated, all doing well professionally.  But again, no one box. In that generation we had a doctor, two engineers and a marketer all with different opinions on everything from favorite car brands to Barack vs. Hillary to fishing styles.  (The White guy was the only one of us that didn’t suck.) Still, at least, I think my “peers” clearly understood about being Pocho and feeling caught between cultures.  Pocho Y Proud resonated with them so I had some hope.

The last two on the trip really had boxes all their own. (I guess I did end up with boxes even though they’re not quite square.) My cousin, who recently moved from Houston to San Antonio, was definitely on his own attitudinally, being single, independent and a bit of a rebel (he even rode to Corpus with his “cool” shaved head and “bad ass” motorcycle.  (I love that guy, but what a punk! Showing off his youth, spirit and all that.) He gets the Pocho reference and it doesn’t bother him, but he’s not into labels.  Whatever, dude.

Finally, there’s my nephew.  He just wants to catch fish… and play soccer, and basketball and football and baseball and did you see the Spurs? He likes the Celtics and wants to see Coby play them.  And did you see the last Astros game? But he likes the Cubbies too and maybe it’s their year.  Get it?  Again, no neat little box.

I try to write with neat little box endings that have some conclusion, but the only thing I can surmise from this experience is that in my job every day, I spend a lot of time trying to put people, MY people, in these boxes to help understand them and to help my clients understand them so that then, we can sell stuff to them, but it’s not that easy.  It may work on a macro level, but we really need to think about people, OUR people and EVERYBODY’s people as individuals.  Even Pochos.  It’s not a box.  But, I STILL think it can be a rallying cry.  That’s more meaningful, more powerful.  So, I’ll keep writing.  But maybe I’ll keep my stories a little shorter.  I’ll try. Top.

5.19.08  POCHOS FAMOSOS!

Three POCHOS that changed my life (or at least the way I think about it). Orale!

Cheech Marin – was one of the originals and the first Latino that got my attention that wasn’t related to me.  Born in South Central L.A., he’s actually third-generation U.S. born.  If you remember the 60s, you probably remember him from his Cheech and Chong stoner days.  If you’re my daughter’s age, he’s the guy from Spy Kids or the voice of the Hyena in Lion King. These references make light of his astounding career, but you get my point, he's been around. 

What you might now know is that he’s very active in the promotion of Chicano heritage.  He started the Latino Laugh Festival and brought national light to our culture and to individuals within our culture that had talent and promise. He’s been recognized by the Imagen Foundation, worked with the National Council of La Raza, received the Legacy Award for Arts Advocacy from the Smithsonian Latino Center and he’s probably THE largest collector of Chicano art in the U.S…. or anywhere.  Cheech Marin showed me that you can “make it” as a Latino being who you are, being true to yourself.  And, through humor you can survive the barrio, become successful and not forget your obligation to the community.    

George Lopez – was also born in Los Angeles of Mexican-ancestry.  Of course you know him from his stand up comedy and his show, “The George Lopez Show”.  His humor (in my humble opinion) did something no one else’s did: it related to ME and my life.  Not everyone can identify with his humor.  You have to be Latino.  You have to be of Mexican ancestry.  And, it helps if you grew up along the border.  Then, you really get his stuff.   George was the first person outside of the Valley (the Rio Grande Valley, not Frank Zappa’s “Valley Girl” Valley) that made me think that this Pocho culture (it didn’t have a label back then) was something that a lot of people shared. If you ever go to one of his concerts, you’ll see what I’m talking about.  

The last George Lopez show I went to was in ’07 at the Erwin Center here on U.T. campus in Austin.  We walked in about half an hour before the show was to start and I thought I was at a family reunion.  I’m telling you it was all Raza.  I though someone had driven a fleet of busses from Brownsville to McAllen thru San Anto, picking up every homie and his old lady along the way.  Our people are not generally the kind to attend events en masse (unless they’re giving away prizes) because we don’t always feel like we fit in. At least not me. Seeing and feeling the excitement and emotion that filled the air was great! It was unique because I wasn’t home in the Valley where Hispanics are 90% of the population and you see this every day.  I was in Austin.  It was uplifting.  George Lopez showed me there are a lot of Pochos out there like me out there and it felt like a good thing. 

Carlos Mencia – was actually born in Honduras, although he grew up in East L.A.  So, as he says on his show, “Mind of Mencia”, he’s a Honduran Mexican.  Carlos has worked with our agency, LatinWorks, on a couple of Super Bowl ads for Bud-Light: one in 2007 and one this year, 2008.  While the primary objective of the ads were to sell beer by reinforcing Bud-Light’s image leadership position in the mindset of 21 to 34-year-old beer drinker (I think that’s almost verbatim from the brief), the context of the spots was extremely controversial: immigration.  In these ads, Carlos teaches immigrants how to speak English by showing them how to order a Bud-Light.  We launched this campaign at a time when elected officials were having a difficult time deciding whether to go to the massive expense of building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico or just let the Minutemen shoot them as they crossed.  The topic was hot.  In addition, both were in English. Both won awards.  And, both were hilarious and edgy. 

Carlos Mencia was perfect because he appeals to our bilingual/English-only Hispanic target as well as to the General Market.  He takes humor to a totally different level.  He uses his experiences as a Latino in the U.S. to shed lights on the irony and hypocrisy of race and ethnic relations in the U.S.  He uses words that are taboo, things you don’t say in polite company.  Whites can’t dance.  Blacks only like fried chicken.  Asians can’t drive.  And, Hispanics don’t barbecue because the beans will fall through the grill. No one and no topic is safe. Mencia is about as irreverent as anyone can be.

He’s offensive. He makes you feel uncomfortable. Whether you’re White or Black or Brown or Gay or a Little Person or a Dee-Dee-Dee, he makes you laugh your ass off.  And, he makes you think.  At least he made me think. I think that it’s important to talk about these issues: of how we get along, of how we treat each other, of what this world is and of what we want it to be.  Because, if we don’t talk, then we won’t understand, we won’t act and nothing will change.  Actually, what I mean to say is that things already ARE changing and we just need to manage the change so that the outcome is positive.  Like I’ve said before, social evolution is inevitable.  What do you want the result to be?

Finally, before anyone sends me any comments that Lopez and Mencia have been at odds regarding intellectual property (you know what I'm talking about), I don't care.  That's between them.  I'm just taking what I've learned from their experiences, only the best that helps me, and moving forward with that.  If it helps you, great.  Either way, let me know.  Top

5.12.08  ¿Que Pasa, Why the Blog?

Today's blog is an intro and explanation of why this site exists. As always, feel free to send comments or questions.

What's a Pocho? Pocho is a term used for generations to negatively describe people of Mexican ancestry born in the U.S. (It even says so on Wikipedia!) Pocho is a slur accusing us of becoming gringos, half-breeds, coconuts that have lost their culture. Pochos are not really Mexican to those born, educated and affluent in Mexico. (Focus on affluent.) Until recently, neither were we fully embraced by the U.S. Anglo culture. (Not to sound too radically “Chicano”, that’s how it was when I was a kid.) Pochos are people caught between two cultures. At least we used to be.

The definition of Pocho has a lot to do with language preference. We’re Hispanic (Yes, I used Hispanic and Latino interchangeably but that’s a different topic altogether. Wait for it.), but our language usage is not black or white, Spanish OR English. We use both to different degrees, in different ways, and often even in the same sentence. Pochos have gained notoriety for saying things like, “Hold on Lupe, voy ir a parkiar la troka”. Or sometimes, “Listen Fred, tu eres un menso.” Mixing Spanish and English in one breath, using words, like parkiar and troka which aren’t in any dictionary. People on both sides of the border are offended by the "bastardization" of both languages. But, on the border, it works.

I'm not saying that poor language skills are what defines Pochos. It's just an example (maybe a bad one) of the cultural evolution that is taking place. Being Pocho is about blending and not just accepting the result, but celebrating it. It's inevitable and it should be a good thing.

Why Proud? Because we should be! And, because our time has come. Today it is cool to be Latino. And, thanks to the miracle of retro-acculturation, even those of us that have been in the U.S. since before the U.S. came to US (Yes, we DO remember the Alamo.), we can now happily reclaim our Hispanicity. Today, of the 45-plus million Hispanics in the U.S. (that can be counted), about 60% were born in the U.S. Some are still more comfortable with Spanish, others speak only English; and, the vast majority speak some of both. Hispanics, and Hispanic marketing efforts, have been largely defined by language preference. But, being Hispanic isn't about language, it's about culture and THAT is what unites us.

I'm Pocho Y Proud. I was born here and grew up speaking mostly English (except to my grandparents and other elders - another article.). I felt caught, trapped, between two cultures that had no place for me. I made it through the "brown is down" days. And, I'm still proud of who I am. Even more importantly, I believe there are millions of other Pochos like me out there. Regardless of our language preference, we’re proud to celebrate the 4^th of July AND the 16 de Septiembre. (I would have added Cinco de Mayo but EVERYBODY celebrates that except in Mexico).  We call our Mom for Mother’s Day on both May 10^th AND the 2nd Sunday in May. We feast at Thanksgiving AND pray at Christmas (or sometimes Hanukkah). We're proud because are not the divide between two worlds, we are the bridge! We don’t HAVE to choose one culture versus another. We can have BOTH. We CAN be both American and Mexican or Puerto Rican or Cuban or Columbian or Guatemalan or WHATEVER. In the 2010 Census, we're going to check all kinds of boxes. And, THAT's what will define us.

Why Pochos are important for the future. Today’s Pocho is more than just the new Cajun. Pocho is today’s Latino reality. Pocho is the future. We're a big piece of the market. In a time of recession, we're a HUGE piece of the potential for growth. The Pocho market represents opportunity. MY concept of the new Pocho-nality is confident, positive, the best combination of both cultures, an upwardly-mobile mover that fits in everywhere! It's who we are. And, by the way, Hispanics are not the only ones affected by this evolution. Just the fact that anyone in Minnesota can accurately pronounce Chipotle also blows my mind. (Again, another future article.)  Top