An Old School Chicano Christmas Story

The capirotada was smelling so

good as I little Frankie, lay in

front of the old gas heater. My

cousin Rudy was in his room with

his girlfriend, Miss fakeness, doing

whatever two unsupervised teens

do behind closed doors.

 

The tamales were steaming, in the

a big pot, and the atole was almost

ready under the watchful eye of

abluela, who was also keeping

one eye on abuelo, who had one

eye on the newspaper and one eye

on the neighbors hot young wife.

 

The Christmas tree was up, thanks

to Uncle Louie, and two of his cholo

buddies who spent three hours and a

case of beer putting up the two-foot

imitation Christmas tree. I guess

that’s called Raza, engineering.

 

Later, my Tios from Mexico

arrived along with my five cousins

and my favorite cousin Juanito, who

is also six years old. Abuela, went

into Rudy’s room because he wasn’t

answering her. He then came

running out with his pants hanging

around his knees and his ruca

right behind him with abuela in hot

pursuit, yelling cochinos!!!

 

After dinner, my Uncle Ray from

Texas decided to tell us kids a story.

It was about the true story of Santa

and how he did not use reindeer

anymore. He told us, that he came

on Christmas driving a killer

lowrider, and dressed up like an

old school pachuco!  

 

He also said that Santa’s real name

was Pepe and that he would bring us

all kinds of candies and presents on

Christmas day. The story was just

getting interesting, when I heard

Uncle Louie whispering to his cholo

buddies to put their boots on,

because it Texas it gets really deep!

 

The only thing I can figure out, was

that Uncle Louie was talking about

the floods on the news. Oh well,

one thing is for sure, me and Juanito

are going to be checking out every

low-rider that comes by the house,

from now until Christmas day.

Especially, if its driven by an old

Chuco named Pepe Claus!

.

Frank Solis Copyright 2020

All Rights Reserved