Artist Actor Scribe
Artista Actor Escribano
Big Jack is a short story taken from the second in a series of three novels addressing the racism, religious bigotry, and hate that runs ramped throughout the planet and the United States.
It was chosen to be released during the Christmas season of 2017 because being autobiographical it did, in fact, take place during the Christmas season of 1949. It is an introduction to the second series of THE HUNDRED YEAR WAR, "The Dream of the Apples" written and illustrated by Leon Mondragon.
The first in the series of THE HUNDRED YEAR WAR is published and available on Amazon.
Not all neighborhoods that have Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, Caucasians, Jewish, and Native Americans living side by side are slums primarily when the Catholic Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Belo Mansion border them.
Staff Sargent Jack Flores returns to the community where he grew up in October of 1949 just in time for Christmas. He makes good on a promise to pay back a debt to the Judge who gave him a choice in changing his life. It catapulted him into a war with the criminal element in Dallas, Texas. He meets the assignment in pursuit of a thunderbolt. Big Jack will not settle for just eliminating the threat he wants more considerably more.
“Is he around here? Can you go ask him if he can get a team together, we’d like to play a game of touch tackle with them?”
The little kids took off running going to put out the word. Several adults were looking on. More concerned with the Pearl Street Eagles talking to the children smiled once hearing what was being said.
They didn’t wait long. While throwing the football back and forth a Black kid about fifteen years old but like the White guys that were at Crozier Technical High School, he was more mature. Looking adult and muscular in frame, his manner was that of an adult. Being Black he knew what he was facing when he came walking up to them.
“What are you doing here?” he asked concerned about what might happen but not showing any fear of them. The Eagles were grateful he was the one that had been chosen to confront them. The circumstance of his being there worked, they started explaining that they were looking to play a game with some of their neighborhood kids. Some of the Eagles insisted that the players that came to play be good at football.
“Well, you guys are dressed for it. Yeah,” the young man said while signaling the little boy who had told them he knew some football players, “James, go find Ernie, have him go get Trent and Ty; get everyone that might be interested and tell ‘em to get their equipment if they want to play.”
They came streaming in from all corners of the park some had
their cleats on others wore tennis shoes but had shoulder pads and other gear.
They met in the middle of the green grass that was covering the entire field
but for the mud that was only covering one side of it.
They agreed that the whole field would be used but only one side would be in bounds. The area that the muddy area was in would be considered out of bounds. There were eight Pearl Street Eagles, so they asked that there be quarters so the Eagles who had no relief players get five minutes of rest. They finally settled on the fact that seeing that there were more of the Hornets (that’s what they called their team) would be allowed to change players because they had more who wanted to play.
Some Eagles thought that it wouldn’t be fair but then one of the guys said if we’re trying to find the best players why not let them put new guys in? If we are going to find the player, we need to do it. This may be the only way we got to find him. They decided that it would be touch tackle and not ruff tackle staying away from the possibility of unnecessary roughness leading to a possible fight.
The Hornets were not skinny, and their quarterback was one
of Booker T.’s best. The Hornets were teenagers, but they were muscular just
like some of the High School football players at Crosier Technical.
It was the nineteen forties Cruise was eleven Big Jack was a
memory and Cruise began to pay more attention to the players on the opposite
team. They were just like them there was little to no difference but to some
hateful society that had a stranglehold on time.
At half time the Eagles huddled together they were all in
agreement one of the best Hornet players had used the position of Left End to outrun
all their defensive players catching a pass thrown by the quarterback. That
wasn’t so amazing but for the fact that at the start of the second half, he
returned the punt running right through all of them. He was good running up to
you cutting right in front of you leaving you hugging thin air. But most of all
he did not look intimidating. He was a head taller than Cruise. But Lenard was
not that heavy either. They were never to catch up to the Hornets although they
came back with a score of their own the Hornets scored another touchdown
reaching the score needed to end the game.
Cruise was just a witness he had no say but only an opinion. The guys had to try and get the Quarterback but no he would not agree to meet with them or go and play at Leopard Field. They then approached Lenard the one Black player that was their age and their height, weight, and who had made such an impression on them. They understood they were not asking for anything small. They were in the south. And in Texas, there was still the godforsaken hateful White dregs of a lost civil war fueling the indefensible.
“We’re asking for just one game,” the Eagles insisted.
“You know why Charles or none of them aren’t going don’t you,” he told them.
“Hey, we’re gonna be there we can protect you man. We’ll all be together,” all of us joined in trying to encourage a positive end to our foray into the Black community.
“Naw, man we’re just kids there aren’t going to be adults to speak for us,” Lenard told us.
“Yes, there will. The older guys from the Pearl Street Eagles will be
there. Yeah, they use to play too. They’re all grown up now. They’re always
there for our games we can get them to be there. If we guarantee that they will
be there and make sure nothing interferes with us having this game will you
come to play on our side? With a little more reassuring Lenard said yes if we
as a team came all together over to Leopard Field. We agreed to shake hands on
it deciding that they would leave and get to Leopard Field an hour ahead of
time so they could have Lenard practice with the team before meeting with El
Poso for the game.
The Eagles were elated walking back to their North Pearl
Street Neighborhood Cruise being among them. Having gotten one of the best
Black football players to play for their team, they would be sure to tell Fredrico.
Fredrico, in turn, told the adults in El Poso. Several of them had taken
interest in the games and were against the hatefulness that was spreading.
The games were played on Saturdays or Sundays. The kids from El Poso and North Pearl Street being free of school and having been well-rested. They walked over to the park where they had played the Hornets never doubting Lenard would be there to meet them. We were all in uniform more so than we had been when we had first shown up on that Saturday. We were not surprised Lenard was there waiting for us.
We started our walk to Leopard Field assuring Lenard that
the former Pearl Street Eagles would be there. When we finally got to Maple
Ave. and started our descent down toward Turtle Creek, we saw some adults
sitting at the edge of Leopard Field. The closer we got the larger the crowd
became.
We were an hour early and there were already adults from both El Poso and North Pearl looking on as we started our warmup and practice. We played that game that Saturday ignoring the segregation and the ignorance of an oppressive hateful society that Latinos live under and deplored.
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