Friday, November 5, 2010

My Life (if i was a Russian Thug)


This is a drawing of my life insipired by Russian jail tattoos. Each drawing represents a title, or a an event in a persons life. Decipher them all and win a prize! Dasvidanya Komrades!

"El Maco" And His Guns

In 1966, Jalisco state was shocked at a burst of violence in a remote corner of the state. What happened in hills surrounding the ranch of La Atrevida shocked many, such violence was unheard of.

Six Mexican Federal Judicial Police Officers were ambushed and killed in the woods. One by one, sniped by an armed farmer who refused a federal order from Guadalajara to turn in his assault rifle. One of those agents was the first husband of my cousins tia, who left behind a 1 year old daughter.

"El Maco" was a rugged mountain man. People were scared of him but he kept to himself. He owned a rifle, several handguns and a his beloved assault rifle which he used for hunting on occasions. This didnt sit well with authorities.

On January 30th , 1966, Five Policia Rural del Estado agents were sent from Guadalajara to the town of Guachinango to provide security for the Fiestas celebrated in honor of the Virgin of la Candelaria, her day being February 2nd. On that day they told El Maco to relinquish his guns, but he refused.

"Captain, If you want to disarm me, you better make sure im dead first" was El Maco's response.

Several miles down the road in La Atrevida, the Judicial Police officers went to arrest El Maco. El Maco already lay in wait, among the bushes and trees surrounding the ranch.

Witnesses say he lay hidden in a deep ravine and with his telescope he opened fire on the Judiciales once he had them in view. One by one he sniped them in the head with incredible aim. The rest of the Judiciales fired back and repelled the agression but all their bullets missed him.

Six Judiciales lay dead and El Maco fled.

Since its been so long since the ambush at La Atrevida happened, people made stuff up about the event and rumors abound.

The end of this story had a crazy but unlikely twist. El Maco was never arrested, but rather being the "brave" campesino that he was, he placed his rifle into a burlap bag and he went to the Judicial Police Headquarters in Guadalajara and turned himself in.

"I am El Maco, im the man who killed all those Judiciales in La Atrevida".

Rather than arrest him, the Federal Judicial Police force in Guadalajara offered him a job. A man with such balls and good aim, they needed him on their side.

The Official Version of events was as followed.

Seven Judicial Police Officers from Guadalajara but stationed in the village of Atenguillo, down the road from Guachinango, went to the town of San Martin Hidalgo, near Ameca to collect their pay. There they received the order to head to Guachinango to provide security for the annual fiesta.

The night of January 29th, 1966, they spent the night in Ameca and would head to Guachinango the next morning. A few miles before reaching the dirt road that led to the town off the main highway, right near La Atrevida ranch, they saw several men walking who were visibly armed.

The Judicial Police officers stopped their truck in order to question the men as to why they were armed and if they had permits for their weapons. One of the men fled into the woods and the other 3 men tried to run as well but were stopped by one of the Police Officers.

The men claimed they were hunters from Guadalajara spending a day in the country. They had no permits. They claimed the man who fled was a peasant farmer they had encountered on their journey and who had volunteered to guide them and show them where the good spots for hunting were, the man being an avid hunter and excellent marksman himself.

The other Judiciales went in pursuit of the man and were met with gunfire. El Maco, hiding in small ravine and protected by shruberry, picked off the Agents one by one with his powerful rifle and his incredible aim.

Five agents were killed on the spot. The Comandante of the Judiciales, Sgt. Jose Magana was badly wounded but managed to flag down a passing motorist whom he ordered to take him to the hospital in Guadalajara. He died later that night while undergoing surgery. The sole survivor was Agent Limon whom had stayed behind with the three men in custody.

El Maco turned himself in to the Judicial Police Headquarters in Guadalajara, and his fate after that was unknown.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

My Dad and Candelario Ramos

One very first time my mother met my fathers family back during Christmastime 1983, she was embarrased beyond belief one particular night.

You see, my dad's brother, my tio Angel, had a black Trans Am. He also liked to drink a lot. So he was a typical 80's dude, drinking and driving his Trans Am really fast up and down Calle Constitucion which was Ameca's main street.

Pretty soon an Ameca municipal police truck tried to pull him over. Tio Angel decided he really didnt want to go to jail so he stepped on it. So he drove up and down Constitucion and by the house all the time the Police truck was behind him.

He finally pulled over and the cops arrested his drunk ass.

My father was also drunk. Upon hearing his brother was arrested he thought he was gonna go kick the asses of every single municipal cop at La Presidencia (Town Hall). Angry and running on beer and machismo he goes up to La Presidencia and to the jail where he is met by Ameca's police chief, Comandante Candelario Ramos.

"Hijo de tu chingada madre, quitate o te quito cabron! Deja salir a mi hermano" my dad, in a drunken angry slur yells at Comandante Ramos.

Ramos tells my dad to calm down but that his brother needs to sleep it off in the drunk tank. My dad is advised to calm down as well or he will be thrown in jail as well. My dad continues to be beligerent so he is arrested.

My dad was lucky. Unknown to him Comandante Candelario Ramos is a bad ass. He was an ex pistolero and hitman. He had a reputation for beating the shit out of people when he worked as a bodyguard for Jalisco state governor and Ameca native Flavio Romero de Velasco. Soon he became an agent for Mexico's Directorate of Federal Security, a shady organization with ties to organized crime. He was then made Comandante of Ameca.

On this night, Comandante Ramos is polite and understanding. He tells my dad to take off his jewelry but my dad snaps back "take it off me, you asshole".

"Fine keep your jewelry" says Ramos.

My mother when she finds out hes in jail, is now crying and embarrased. My dad is by this time asleep on a bench in the cell.

Comandante Ramos politely explains to her that he will be released in the morning. My mom asks if she can deliver him orange juice she bought him at the market, Ramos says yes.

By morning my dad my tio Angel are let free. They dont get their asses beat by Ramos and his men for being drunk assholes who talk too much shit, by some miracle.

2 years later Comandante Ramos is accused of participating the the kidnapping and murder of Agent Enrique Camarena of the DEA in Guadalajara.

Famous Sinaloa drug kingpin Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, a mastermind of Camarena's murder is found to be hiding in Ramos' luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta on April 9, 1985. Comandante Ramos is imprisoned with his friend, marijuana kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero but Ramos is free on lack of evidence in the crime.

On July 13, 1989, Comandante Ramos is driving his truck to Guadalajara when he is rear ended by a truck. He pulls over to inspect the damage and a young man descends the truck.

The young man pulls out a .9 millimeter handgun and shoots Ramos twice in the face and drives off. He was Jose de Jesus Uribe, the son of a man Ramos had killed 20 years previous when he was a hitman for the well known Zuno Arce family of Jalisco.

His shady past had finally caught up with him. Comandante Candelario Ramos, famous pistolero and Comandante of the Federal Judicial Police, friend of drug kingpins and Army Generals, died shot twice in the face on the side of a lonely road in Tequila, Jalisco.

His AR 15 was in the backseat. He never had time to use it.

Famous and Ruthless Comandante Candelario Ramos lies dead on the Guadalajara-Ameca Hwy on July 13, 1989.

Nightmare on Good Friday

Friday April 4th, 1980.
Agua Azul Train Station- Guadalajara

Crowds of people are waiting to board a train. They wait impatiently to board the "Vacacionista" train that would take them to the Port of Manzanillo, Colima and to its pristine white sand beaches.

Among those people is my mother, her 2 cousins and my two brothers, 14 and 13 years old at the time.

The topic of conversation among some of the people waiting to board the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico train Number 3870 is that Roman Catholic fanatics in the rural heartland of Jalisco state have protested the running of trains through their villages on Semana Santa, Holy Week.

They believe Holy Week is for people to attend church and remember the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ before he was crucified. Its no time to spend at the beach, frolicking, and getting drunk. Thats tantamount to blasphemy.

Articles of the protestors threats have appeared in Guadalajara newspapers, but they are in the back pages, Tapatio society pays no attention to the die-hard old school Catholics who live in the country.

The passengers board the train finally. Its past 5pm on April 4th, 1980. Good Friday. By morning they will have arrived at Manzanillo for some fun in the sun.

My mom and brothers and her cousins take their seats, the kids sitting by the windows. They joke and drink from some bottles they have brought on the trip. The cars are full of people and some kids sit on the floor. The train seems overcrowded.

The train chugs out of Agua Azul station and heads south. Past Chapala and its environs, Villa Corona , Zacoalco, Sayula, Zapotiltic and Tuxpan, 35 stations await them before reaching Manzanillo.

Nearing the town of Atenquique in southeastern Jalisco, the train enters a long tunnel, exits and enters a even longer one.

What the engineer sees when exiting the last tunnel horrifies him.

The bridge ahead is burning. Half of the wooden trestle has already collapsed and the rest will not support the weight of the two locomotives and the rest of the passenger cars full of men women and children.

In a split second and with no regard to his own safety he manages to uncouple the passenger cars behind me and applies the emergency brakes hard.

The engineer along with his two locomotives and his crewmen, along with 12 stowaways fly off the burning trestle and into a 300 foot ravine, the engines tumbling on the rocky ledges and exploding into a fireball in the shrubery below. No one survives the plunge. 15 bodies lay in the twisted wreckage.

As the engines plunge, the sudden application of the brakes cause the passenger trains to screech and jerk to a stop. The sudden stop makes 5 of the passenger cars to jump the rails inside the tunnel and overturn, tossing horrified passengers about like rag dolls inside the metallic coffins on wheels.
ns
My mom is thrown to the floor of the car, which ends up tilting on one of its side, leaning on the wall of the tunnel. She cant find my brothers in the darkness, the lights have gone out but she can see orange glows outside the broken windows: Flames.

Spilled diesel and brake fuel has ignited, starting fires and filling the tunnel with smoke. Frantic and screaming passengers jump out the windows and run out of the tunnel to where they still see a bit of light. My mom manages to find my brothers, one of whom, Miguel, has grabbed a random suitcase in the chaos and has foolishly carried with him the whole way out. She meets up with her cousin who is carrying her other cousin, who has fainted. She has a heart condition and the crash caused her to pass out. She is uninjured.

My mom, who lost her shoes in the crash, now realizes her feet are burned and they are all covered in soot. As they exit the tunnel they see villagers from Atenquique have driven or climbed up the hill. The crash was heard all the way to the town.

In a few minutes, the Mexican Army arrives to survey the scene and help in the rescue effort. Ambulances from Ciudad Guzman and Atenquique arrive to transport the injured to local clinics. Those severely injured will have to be flown back to hospitals in Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta or Manzanillo. The Army cordons off the area to prevent looting.

My brother Miguel finally looks thru the suitcase he picked out in the darkness. It happens to be their own, and the one with their money.

My mother burned feet and all, along with her cousins and sons, decide that no train derailment and deadly sabotaging of the rails will stop them from going on vacation. They reach Atenquique and hop on a bus to Ciudad Guzman then hop on another that finally takes them to Manzanillo.

The brave engineer was credited with saving many lives that night by uncoupling the train. Had he not, the entire passenger train would of plunged into the ravine and the death toll would probably be in the hundreds.

The persons responsible for the sabotaging of the rails were never caught and the accident was soon forgotten.

The Great G Money (The Great Gatsby for Gangstas)

1922, West Egg, Long Island, New York

Aite check it, dis cat named Nick went to his neighbor's house. Aint nobody know who he was jus that they called him G Money. Supposedly he was a big time hustla drug dealer or somethin but tonite he was havin a fat party wit hella bops and drank.

Hella heads came thru but nobody knew G Money. It was cool cuz G Money knew them. He was jus chillin drinkin sum Henny and lookin across da bay. He knew his ex baby mama named Daisy lived across da bay. Nick happened to be Daisy's cuz. She aint cum thru tho cuz he new man was a busta ass mayne nigga named Tom who would slap her and be a dick. G Money was sippin his drank but he was sad inside.

So one time Nick and Tom was chillin n shit . They all kicked it in the city and shit and had fun till Tom had sum of that Four Loko and got hyphy and slapped Myrtle his girl on da side. She was married to sum dude who sold nice ass Rims by da road. He broke her nose. Tom was a busta ass nigga who nobody liked.

One time, Daisy and G Money was talkin and he told her he loved her and shit. They had a moment and he reminded her "whats good". All this time Nick was wondering, dam these sum mayne ass people. This one bitch named Jordan who played golf was a bop and was on Nicks nuts but he wasnt havin it, he was coo off bops. She did have a booty tho so he decided to hit it anyways.

So Tom's grimey ass finds out G Money loves Daisy and argues with him. He tells everyone there G Money aint nothing but a thug wit no money and he could never have Daisy again. Daisy and G Money drive off and she done hits a woman. It was Myrtle, Tom's lover, the rim dude's wife. Rim Dude seen the car and he lost it. He got his gat and went after da car.

He found out it was G Moneys pimp ass Bentley. So he went to G Moneys phat ass house and saw G Money chillin in da pool, wit his stunna shades, asleep on a floaty thing and soaking up da sun. Dude shot G Money and killed his ass dead and killed himself.

Daisy and Tom stayed together. Even tho G Money knew hella ppl and hella heads came thru to his party n shit, aint nobody came to his funeral. He had no family or friends.

Only Nick, his down ass nigga was there.

Days later he runs into Daisy and Tom. Nick finds out that it was Tom's triflin' ass who dropped the dime on G Money to the Rim Dude, so he could find him and kill him.

Shaking his damn head, Nick says "Fuck this shit" and he goes back home to the midwest where people aint shady. Fuck Long Island.

THE END.

A West Side Pittsburg Christmas Tale

It was cold and windy in da west. Out by da Baileys, a baby was soon to be born. A baby that would lead da gangstas and baby mamas out of the West and into the big city: Pittsburg.

This one couple right, didnt pay they rent one day so they got kicked out they apartment so they wandered the West for a while.

A down ass nortena was pregnant and riding wit Jose her BD in his Buick Scraper. They looked up and down da Willow lookin for a hotel to have da baby in (cuz aint no hospital in da west only Sutter Delta in da Yoc and thats hella far).

It was Dec 24th but they had no luck. Aint nobody let them in they house so that Mari da nortena and Big Joe could have their baby, the savior of the mayne ass niggas from WSP.

Finally in the parking lot of Mi Pueblo they had the baby. All da dogs and cats in the hood came thru to check out da lil baby.

Three wise men looked up in da sky and saw da police copter with its bright ass light. They hopped in they Caddys and Buicks and followed the light.

They drove and drove up Pacifica and Willow Pass, Evora and Hwy 4, got off on Harbor then somehow ended up back on Railroad.

Niggas got lost so they didnt arrive until January 8th, not the 6th like some say.To top it off they got arrested by da Boys da Co Co Sheriffs cuz the wise men were driving too damn fast. The wise men was buzzed and faded so they spent 2 weeks driving looking for da baby.

They found Mari and Big Joe her baby daddy and their baby who they named Chuy, short for Jesus, named after the BD's dad.

"We are the three wise men who come from da west"

"Thats chedd" said Big Joe.
"Fa sho, cum thru" said Mari, exhausted and hungry for some Ben's.

"we bring gifts of 40's, Eighths of Purp and Baby Jordans for the messiah" said the three wise men named Snoopy, Loc, and Tone.

All of P World, from da 'Lo to Big Bully to the niggas from da West, rejoiced at this miracle. Even some fools from North Concord came thru.

They all smoked blunts and drank Mickeys in celebration of the birth of their ghetto savior, their shiny grills lighting up the darkness and their dreads shaking with delight.

The one who one day would lead them out the ghetto and into paradise: West Oakland.