Scooter Makes Good

For those of you who don't live in L.A., you may not be aware that we just elected our first Latino mayor since 1872. That's a pretty big deal to those of us who are of Mexican American descent.



It's even more special for me because I went to high school with the new First Lady of Los Angeles, Corina, pictured here with her husband, our new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa.


Oddly enough, a few months back, I ran into Corina at Trader Joe's. We chatted for a bit about what we were doing because we hadn't seen each other in about thirty years. She told me she was a teacher and reading specialist. A couple of days later, I got an election mailer that had a picture of the mayoral hopeful and his wife and I thought, "that looks like Corina." Duh. Her name in high school had been Corina Raigosa (see below) and the couple had agreed to share both surnames upon marriage, hence Antonio Villar became Antonio Villaraigosa. I think that's really great, except Alicia Velasquezarmendariz would not fit on my driver's license.

Corina was one of the first people to befriend me when I transferred from Garfield High into the all-girl Catholic high school, Sacred Heart of Mary. We were known as the Scooters and our mascot was an elephant. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.
Anyway, I was known as "Ziggy" in those days, a reflection of my love for David Bowie and my all around weirdness. I've posted Corina's senior picture alongside mine, for your amusement. The writing on my picture is my own. I didn't have very many friends, so I wrote to myself, "To Alice, You're the best friend I ever had and I hope it will always be that way. I love ya, Ziggy."

GO SCOOTERS!!!