Chola with out a cause

Chola with out a cause is dedicated to all the beautiful and misguided cholitas sin barrios. I went to school with a lot of these girls and had countless crushes on them. They used to listen to Art Laboe on Sunday nights and always had "Smile Now-Cry Later" art work decorating the outside of their three ring binders. The only chance you had at a chick like this is if you where a bald headed knucklehead and god did I hate those muthafuckers.

I went to school with this chick, we'll call her Panchita. Panchita was a good looking girl, there was nothing wrong wither that some Thrifty make up couldn't fix. Her 3 Brothers where cholos, all of them had at least 2 bullet holes to speak of, and constantly stole shit from their own neighbors. Panchita was the only girl in the family, her pops was an alcoholic who hardly worked and her moms was constantly working. So Panchitas biggest influences, naturally, where her 3 hell bent brothers.

In High school, Panchita was sort of the leader of her pretty girl crew that she used to kick it with. That girl had full lips and those eyes that where stretched just a little it made her look like one of those china dolls.How can you not have a crush on her? Every mutha in high school wanted to get at that but panchitas man was some thug ass foo' who was like 20 years old and used to wait for her after school in his Montecarlo. That dude had a goatee and all these jailhouse tattoos, I think he was from East Side Paramount or some shit. That punk ass bumped into me on purpose one time at Tams burgers and tried to pick a fight. I should have at least tried to sock his ass, I knew I had no chance but still, I shouldn't have just taken it, I shouldn't have let him get away with it. People have more respect for a man who has fought and lost than a man who has never fought at all.

After my junior year I only saw panchita a handful of times, she ended up going to a continuation school and having a kid before she was 17. After that I kind of forgot about her until a few weeks ago.

I sometimes do my laundry at this "open 24 hour" Laundromat near Manchester and prairie in Inglewood. Its right down the street from The Forum. I usually go around midnight because their is hardly anyone there. I didn't have change for a twenty so I went to ask the attendant for some change. sitting behind the counter was Panchita. I didn't expect her to recognize me after all it took me a bit to recognize her and pretty girls didn't pay attention to me back in high school. She is 24 but looks 42 and about 20lbs heavier, she had badly died hair and a tattoo tear under her right eye. She tattooed her lip liner in and her mans name in licorice letters across her neck. I got my change, washed my dirty laundry, and played some videogames. I was folding my clothes and watching the rebroadcast of the 11 o'clock news when she said, "you still look like you did in High school." I wish I could say the same for her. Her story was she had 3 kids from 2 different dudes, her last man was locked up, and she was planning on going to nursing school as soon as he got out. Fuck. But then again, what more can you expect?