RE: brushing shoulders with Holden Caulfield?

Jim, I never pictured you in a Brady Bunch World. I know about Cholos and
gangs but I also know about the care of Cattle; Thank God I didn't grow up
in southern California.

I have seen examples of this teenage angst in my youth that you guys are
talking about but it was extremely rare among the guys I grew up with. We
knew who are families were back 14 to 17 generations, we knew where we fit
in our Plebe and we knew that we could be what we wanted. We were
surrounded by a sea of family and friends that might as well of have been
family. I have many great memories of doing many things with my friends and
cousins but I also have just as many memories of doing things with my
parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, great uncles and great aunts and
the same relatives of my friend's family. There were malls built in 1961
and 1965 but they had little influence on us teenagers back then.

We grew up not estranged from our parents nor our heritage nor our families,
we speak Spanish because it is our language. I like you am a Coyote (half
breed) but my father (a gringo) grew up in New Mexico and spoke Spanish as
well. It seems (I didn't see the show) that what these teenagers lack is
purpose grounded in the past, present and future. I don't have cable but
the show seemed like something that I would have found interesting also.

Sometimes I get the feeling that I am the only guy on this list that does
not relate much to Holden, I find him interesting because he is the guy
that I frequently run into in my excursions into the list's world. On this
list, I am realizing that I am the tourista or aguereno.
Daniel

I'm thinking Scottie had a bit of a point, but I think there's more to be
said. I wrote the following back in 1996 -- it's a description of life in a
So. Ca. subdivision. Very middle class, all the same angst you see in
Holden and I assume the kid in the HBO special:
http://www.towerofbabel.com/sections/ourmaninhavana/ourmanfromutopia/
I think the real issue is...why are we so surprised that a rich kid is
unhappy? Do we really think money would do it for us?
Jim
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Received on Wed Oct 29 11:10:07 2003