Lopez's Of Cholos and Surfers

“The most important thing I learned was that I could do just about anything I wished, within reason. I could be a surfer, if I chose and even cholos would respect my decision” (Lopez 688). As I read just a few pages of the memoir Of Cholos and Surfers by Jack Lopez one could see how the stereotypes of the early sixties shaped Lopez’s identity living in East Los Angeles and his racial identity of a Mexican American.

            As a youth, Jack Lopez desired to be a surfer. The image of a surfer was one that the twelve-year-old Jack Lopez craved to emulate.  He created an image of a surfer by wearing baggy shorts, over sized t-shirts—specifically Penny’s Towncraft T-shirts, wearing long hair that he would have to “crank” his head in order to get his hair out of his face, and going barefoot wherever he went. He frequented the local grocery store, Food Giant; to buy the magazine the Surfer Quarterly and what he considered the first step in becoming what he most desired—a surfer. Next would be to actually acquire a surfboard.

            Growing up one of Lopez’s neighbors, Lenny Muelich, owned a surfboard, specifically a “Velzy-Jacobs, ten feet six inches long, twenty-four inches wide, [with] the coolest red oval decal” (Lopez 684). Lopez was able to buy the surfboard from his neighbor for forty-five dollars. As Lopez states in Of Cholos and Surfers, Lenny grew up to become a typical Mexican gangster of the times. The image of the Mexican gangster or a cholo was “a hood, wearing huge Sir Guy wool shirt, baggy khaki pants with the cuffs rolled, and French-toed black shoes” (Lopez 684). With the “cholo” image you were respected and feared by all.

            In Lopez’s neighborhood the image of the cholo was accepted more than his desired goal to become a surfer. Lopez had gone with his father to the store to buy the next addition of Surfer Quarterly, this issue focused on the Banzi Pipeline. Engulfed in this issue Lopez was not focused on his surroundings. A cholo was walking toward him wearing “ a wool cap pulled down onto his eyebrows, a long Sir Guy wool shirt with the top button buttoned and al the rest unbuttoned, khaki pants so long they were frayed at the bottoms and so baggy [he] couldn’t see his shoes” (Lopez 687). The Mexican American wanted to fight Lopez because the image Lopez projected, one of a surfer, was not like his. Lopez states the question, “How could someone be Mexican and dress like a surfer?” The image of a cholo having a rattail comb, a knife, or even a rifle was more accepted than that of a surfer to the Mexican-American society at the time. 

            Through Lopez’s childhood he played at Will Rogers Park (city championships), went to Henry Clay Junior High, and was even approached by teachers and the principal to skip a grade. As previous described being Mexican American does not portray the image of a child being so intelligent and dedicated to his or hers work that they are able to skip a grade and excel in sports. This is the point that Jack Lopez drives home no matter what stereotypes are brought upon a person, they can over come that and succeed. Just like he did coming from the “melting pot of Los Angeles… [And] the post-World War II American dream of assimilation” (Lopez 688) that his parents and so many others believed and tried to abide by.  Lopez took this stereotype/way of life and threw it out the window to become a professor of English at California State University, Northridge, and publishing his memoir Cholos & Surfers.