Do You Remember the 70s?

Okay. So I get this question a lot, and I answer it the same way every time. I really don’t remember the 70s. It’s not because I wasn’t there, or I blanked out for a decade. I was there - I was born in 1971. But my life at that time, as many have come to call it, was about me living in a cocoon.

My family is originally from Mexico, particularly my father and all his family, with who I primarily grew up with. So growing up in a Mexican household is different than growing up in an all-American household. Sure, we had our 4th of July barbeques and Thanksgiving celebrations, but it wasn’t without some drama, tortillas, or some type of hot peppers on the side. It was good, though, and I didn’t know any different.

So when people ask me if I remember watching the “Bionic Man,” “Charlie’s Angels” or dancing to disco music, um, well, I really don’t. My parents were working parents, I was the oldest, my brothers and I were in elementary school with a 7 p.m. bedtime, and any family TV consisted of well, the “novelas.” Novelas are the Spanish version of soap operas, except you can always tell the difference between a Spanish novela and a soap opera like “All My Children.”

A Spanish novela has a lot of crying, yelling, drama, hand flying, cheating, and someone is always someone else’s child. There are always huge secrets no one can talk about, villains, who are the most evil people to ever exist, and there is always the sweet, innocent girl, who is pure and naïve, so everything happens to her and everyone wants to save her. It was fun trying to remember all the characters, but the novelas always came on at prime time, so there was very little time for any other TV when all our homework was done and the chores were completed.

Our music was also very limited. I can name many Latin or Spanish artists and musicians, but didn’t have a clue about who was on the top Billboard 100 during any year of the 70s. My mom doesn’t remember them either when I ask her who she listened to, she says she was busy raising us and didn’t have time to pay attention to what entertainment was popular. But any typical household around us at that time in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, was most likely knee deep involved with any Spanish novela on the airwaves.

But we didn’t know any better. I love Latin music to this day; I can recall and I love the music of Camilo Sesto, Jose Jose, Vicente Fernandez, and Emmanuel. I can still sing to those songs that were full of sad lyrics and emotional angst.

What I do remember is being banned from soda pop and drinking lots of Kool-Aid, running outside with my cousins on the street where we lived, and having to learn English vocabulary from the dictionary because my mom wanted us to read, write, and speak English well. I learned both English and Spanish at an early age and had a great time at any of the many family functions. I don’t have the same connection to the 70s that so many others have, I don’t know the music, the movies, or the TV shows, but I do have memories of a simple childhood that still brings me a sweet sense of nostalgia.

~A