Qué Onda Güero

If my time in the Peace Corps had a theme song, it would be Qué Onda Güero by Beck. It enlivened our apartment reliably for two years. And since the translation is (very loosely) “where are you going, white boy”, it seems a fitting theme for me now. That’s because I’ll constantly be going somewhere, and my whiteness will become my most striking identifying quality. When traveling in Ethiopia and Madagascar children would announce our arrival by screaming out “white people” (in their native language) at the top of their lungs.

And since travel is such a nice analogy to life, Qué Onda Güero is a tune deserving a blog.

Something else I’ll explore on this blog is “belonging”. I think that white American white men are strangely identity-less. That is, there isn’t a group of people we can proudly identify with, particularly if your blood line is too fuzzy to proclaim allegiance to any particular European old country. In any case, groups of gathered white men are perceived to be religious fanatics or racists - and sometimes they are. Yes, I realize that white men have had a disproportionate amount of wealth and influence, to put it mildly. I am not bemoaning an injustice, or denying injustices others rightfully claim. I’m just musing about my belonging. What are my roots? Who are my people?

Michael Gary Boudreaux
American-Catholic-Irish-Italian-French-English-German-Man

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Qué onda guero?
Qué onda Jose?

See the vegetable man
In the vegetable van
With a horn that’s honking
Like a mariachi band
In the middle of the street
People gather around
Put the dollar-dollar-dollar in the can
Ay wey!, que onda?
TJ cowboys hang around
Sleeping in the sidewalk
With a Burger King crown
Never wake ‘em up
Mas cerveza
Til the rooster crows
Vatos de gallos
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda guero?
Qué onda guero?

Mano Blancos roll with crowbars
singing rancheras on cheap guitars
Abuelitas with plastic bags
Walking to the church with the Spanish candles
Dirty borracho says ‘que putas!’
Andale, Joto, your popsicle’s melting
Run better run, da doo run run
Mara Salvatrucha in the midnight sun
Guero, where are you going?
Qué onda guero?
Guero, where are you going?
Qué onda güero?

Rampart boys with loaded rifles
Guatemalan soccer ball instant replays
Mango ladies, vendedoras
And a busstop singing
Banda macho chorus

Qué onda guero?
A donde vayas
Qué onda guero?
A donde vayas

¿Y donde encontrastes ese? en un hoyo
Alla en la Pico
Hey vamos a jugar futbol ahí en el Griffith park
La Pico and Vermont
La locura
Yeah now I’m going to LACC
I’m taking a ceramics class
See the vegetable man

James Joyce
Michael Bolton

Qué onda guero, where are you going?
Qué onda guero, where are you going?

Hey what’s up guero?
“You doing pushups?”
No te veo guero!
El guero!
Que Pasa
Otra vero guero
I dunno I saw a puppet at Tang’s
with a mullet and a popsicle.

Hey Guero
Que locura!
Chico

Hey Guero
Yeah Bro?
Hehehe, footlong?

Let’s go to Cap’n Cork. They have the new yanni cassette