ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 6.09.13
PLAN OF ATTACK! “Oñate is vain,” Mr. Nez intoned, as he adjusted the display of a power point presentation projected on a large posterboard screen behind him. “It’s a weakness we will … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 5.12.13
MOTHER DAY REDUX. “All aboard!” The van was running and ready to leave for the Mother’s Day picnic. The other zombies quartered at the secret Joshua Tree military training camp who were going to … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 5.05.13
CAMP HASCAWALLA “Listen up! Everything you are going to learn in the next few weeks is a matter of life and death. YOUR life and death. We’ll soon be heading for the Oñate compound --pay attention … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 4.28.13
THE WORSE DAY OF MY LIFE. At seven on the dot there was a group of about eight of us sitting around a large conference table in room 27 of the secret Mano Poderosa underground laboratory under the … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 4.06.13
KING OF TEXCOCO. The news that Mr. Nez, leader of the La Familia band of zombies, was indeed the legendary Aztec poet King Nezahualcoyotl was stunning. It made Pearl and I devoted students of “The … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 2.10.13
OLVERA UNDERGROUND. No sooner had I stepped through the doorway into Mr. Nez’s cavernous zombie hide-out hidden under Olvera Street than I heard a familiar voice. “Lazaro!” It was Pearl … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 1.14.13
THE WATCH The meeting of La Familia, the secret society of Zombies, began with Mrs. Falcón rising from her seat to address the gathering. There were two hundred of us there. She took a moment to … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 12.23.12
MORE REVELATIONS. Mr. Neza led us down a dark hallway to another door. He opened it and led Pearl and I down steep steps. At the bottom was a long corridor. But this corridor was much more fancy. … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 12.09.12
MORE REVELATIONS. Pearl and I stood for a long silent moment in front of the One Hundred building at Wilson High. Around us a few students walked by, on their way to their Mexican American normal … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 11.05.12
WHY SHOULD ZOMBIES VOTE? I learned the importance of voting when I was sixteen years old and I accompanied my mom to her swearing in as a United States citizen. For months ‘ama had been studying … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 10.14.12 “IN SEARCH OF THE HAND”
Mom grounded me for a month after she got me out of jail. As a fifteen-year-old zombie it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I was already a loner, used to being by myself. It’s not like I missed hanging out … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 10.08.12 “MY JAIL CELL”
WHAT I FOUND IN MY JAIL CELL. We arrived at the Northeast Police station on San Fernando Road and the two police officers walked me, still handcuffed, into the station. The cops were talking about … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 8.26.12 “TATTOOS, SCIENCE FICTION AND ME”
By the middle of my first year at Lincoln Middle School, the buzz was all about tattoos. I was in the seventh grade then and everyone seemed to have them--gang boys, study boys, nerd boys and, yes, … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 7.29.12 “MY FIRST CAMPING TRIP”
Several weeks after I joined the Boy Scouts, Mr. Brown, our Scoutmaster, announced that we were going to go on our first week-end camping trip at the Boy Scout camp in Big Bear. My first camping trip … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 7.16.12 “WHAT I LEARNED FROM CLASSICAL MUSIC”
I got my first library card at the Benjamin Franklin library on East First Street in Boyle Heights. Then we moved to Lincoln Heights–nearby but a whole new neighborhood. One of the first things I did … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 7.02.12 “A ZOMBIE FOURTH OF JULY”
I never really appreciated the Fourth of July until I was 11 years old. That’s when my teacher, Mrs, Rosewell, invited me to her home in South Pasadena for a bar-b-que dinner, to meet her two kids, … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 6.24.12 “MY ZOMBIE ROLE MODEL”
When I was 13 I became acutely aware of the need to have a zombie role model. By then my mom had moved us from the run-down house in Boyle Heights. The house was infested with cockroaches (which I … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 6.03.12 “LUNCH AT SCHOOL”
Pearl González giving me back my dollar bill and telling me that she didn’t need money to be my friend made me realize, in my eight year old mind, that perhaps romance was not out of the … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 5.20.12 “MY CUMPLEANOS PARTY – NOT”
As I may have mentioned before, it’s not easy being a Mexican and a Zombie. It’s caused me to be a bit of a loner–not out of preference, mind you, just kind of the way things turned out. I think it … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 1.28.14 “THE RAID”
THE RAID. We left the secret La Familia zombie training camp at Joshua Tree at two in the morning. Filomino Brancos, our combat trainer, estimated that the drive to the Oñate zombie compound at Big … [Read more...]
ZOMBIE MEX DIARIES 1.19.14 “WHO IS MY FATHER?”
WHO IS MY FATHER? It took a moment for me to realize that I had collapsed onto a chair in the main cabin of the secret Joshua Tree zombie training camp. The impact of seeing Juan de Oñate’s photo … [Read more...]