Every year my grandmother and grandfather would take road trips to Mexico. San Felipe, Baja California on the Sea of Cortez was a favored spot.
My great-great grandmother Matilde Vizcarra Tellez, Los Angeles, circa early 1930s.
Such mystery behind her small smile.
Opening scene and theme song to Meatballs
I never knew kids who went away to summer camp. I saw it in movies and the concept seemed so foreign to me, or actually I felt foreign to it.
Are you ready for the summer?
My Great-Grandfather Zacarias Tellez Jr. and his documentation
In case you think what’s happening in Arizona is something new, I’d like to share this small bit of my family history with you. As cliche as it is to say, those who do not know history are destined to repeat it. Or is it those that know history remember how to repeat it?
In the early 1900s my great-grandfather Zacarias Tellez Jr. along with his parents and siblings traveled from Arizona to Cananea, Sonora, MX to work in the copper mines. It was a fortuitous journey. It is where he met and married my great-grandmother Matilde. However, returning from one of his trips to Cananea, a strange thing happened…
I found this clipping in one of my grandmother’s photobooks. It’s about my great aunt Anita and her son Richard, my mother’s cousin.
In honor of my Grandfather Atanasio aka Grandpa Tony who was a topic of conversation today. He hardly looks grandfather-y in this photo!
Teens and novelty photos, does anyone remember the good times? The concept of a Hollywood jail is a peculiar one, I don’t quite understand the appeal. A novelty photo on a stuffed donkey, now that I understand. Despite the kitsch, their faces say so much, too much.
In this photo: my mother, some of her cousins from Mexico and a very young future Silver Lake optometrist.
Jessie Tellez Garcia (1922-2008)
For natives of Los Angeles, rain is exciting. We don’t have many seasonal changes. Wind and water for a couple months a year remind us of the circular movement of life, even if our nature isn’t as obviously dramatic as in other places. In a few days, when the sun starts to shine, the air will be filled with the energy of millions of sprouting seeds as they begin their new lives. We revel in the fleeting greenery they bring to our usual beige surroundings, our lives once again full of color.
On the second anniversary of my Grandmother’s passing, I think of these things. I still miss her terribly but she is always with me in my dreams and in my memories.
I’ve been listening to lots of Arthur Russell lately. His piece Another Thought is a perfect match for the mood of the day.
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Listen here for Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals 1974 Vol. 1
More on Arthur Russell’s disco projects coming this week!
Esthela, 1936
This photo is of my Grandmother Jessie’s cousin, Esthela. She sent her this photo from Sonora, with a sweet inscription on the reverse. There is something about her eyes, they look very much like my grandmother’s. They are knowing.
I came across this 8 1/2 x 11 photo of my mother while helping her clean the house the other day.
I hope she doesn’t mind me secretly spiriting it away for use on this blog. It’s such a lovely image, she reminds me of Anna Karina or I think Anna Karina has always reminded me of my mother. No one in my family reminds me of Serge Gainsbourg, that’s probably a good thing.
Perhaps it’s the size of the photo or the starlet affectation of her pose that inspired the joke note to my father (her boyfriend at the time) written on the reverse. Or maybe every young woman that grows up within sight of the Hollywood sign harbors a secret desire to be famous.
