Tag Archives: Montebello

Teacher Appreciation Week 2023

At my drafting table in 1995. Photo: Angela Pacheco

I wouldn’t be here without public school teachers in the Montebello Unified School District who had my back.

Shout out to Mr. Perez at Montebello High School who taught me the word “meticulous” and trained us little foolios to be #architects.

Shout out to Ms. Georgino at Montebello Intermediate who encouraged my writing on bizarro #futurism in 1989.

Shout out to Ms. Peterson at Washington Elementary who taught me how to #write my very long name which used to have a confusing hyphen.

This is #TeacherAppreciationWeek

Thank a teacher 🍎 ✏️ 🌏 ♥️ 🙏🏽

We Saw Ourselves in Cypress Hill

Representing Cypress Hill in my 1992 yearbook photo at Montebello High School

I wrote about the impact of Cypress Hill’s trailblazing self-titled debut album that dropped 31 years ago today, and explained why I represented them to the fullest in my 1992 yearbook photo at Montebello High School.

The #HipHopHistory microessay is on my Instagram (private but I add): https://www.instagram.com/c1typlann3r/

Excerpt:

“We saw ourselves in Cypress. They talked like us. We looked like them. Or tried, if you could grow a goatee.

This foolio went all in. I wore out that cassette tape. I grew a whiskery #brocha. I joined the Cypress Hill fan club, scoring stickers, newsletters, and the OG Cypress Hill t-shirt with the skull, weed, & globe in compass album cover on the front, and on the back it read: “The Phuncky Cypress Hill Shit.” The iconic gear got me suspended from Montebello High and gaffeled up by Magic Mountain security —“harassed by a pig real fast,” to quote B-Real.

When it came time for my 1992 yearbook photo, I had to represent. Vatos don’t smile ey. But I was moody too. The night before I’d phucked up my mustache trim. I cut it all off rather than leave it #chueco in the yearbook. I told myself that I was still down for mine. That’s not Johnny, it’s SKUZ ONE.”