ABSTRACT
Recently, I attended a family gathering and became reacquainted with cousins whom I have not seen since the late 1970s. Thirty years have passed and like me, these “innocent boys” have grown into men with their own families, careers, and immigrant stories of the United States. During the luncheon, where I gorged myself on lumpia, adobo, and pancit, one male cousin recalled how he and I fought with other boys. I laughed uncomfortably, struggling to recall the scenes from my childhood without clear referents. My cousin assumed that I knew exactly to what he was referring. However, I did not recall engaging in too many fights, let alone with my cousin in tow. But it was a reunion and I went along with his “fond” remembrance; I wanted to connect. As he continued his story, he filled it in with details, in particu lar an altercation with Mexican boys in a Southern California park. It was at this moment that I remembered with precision the scene from my childhood, and the flood of memories came from the fight that should have been insignificant. He considered it a bonding moment, something he and I shared as young boys, a masculine story no doubt. Of the several memories he could have relived with me, he considered this one worth remembering three decades later. I was amazed that he recalled a memory that I had also thought about for over thirty years, one of my clearest introductions to race relations in a U.S. context. It was obviously meaningful to both of us, but perhaps for different reasons. My cousin did not know that I had been trying to make sense of that moment for some time now and it was not the appropriate occasion to seize the opportunity and analyze its racial significance. But this is precisely what I had been doing these many years, sometimes with my students, spouse, or friends, although this is the first time I have written about it. After this brief return to my earliest memories of the USA, my relatives and I continued with the reunion and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon under overcast skies in the Bay Area.
