Willie: Para Para!!

Willie Hernandez

                                                                
By kiki


One day in the early 1970s, my brother-in-law Willie Hernandez and I were riding our motorcycles east on Valley Blvd. at a pretty good rate of speed. We made a left turn on California Ave; one block up on Nelson Ave was a stop sign, and as we stopped, I saw a red light on my handlebar mirror; I turned to Willie and said.

"Para (stop) Willie, there's a cop behind you."

We crossed Nelson and Willie pulled over to the curb, and I kept going, got home, grabbed me a beer, and I waited for Willie to arrive from his meeting with the cop.

Soon Willie arrived hotter than a firecracker.

"Para! Para! Willie yelled at me as I met him at the curb with a Coors.

"What's wrong, Willie?" I asked him.

"The cop said he wanted you for loud pipes, but since I stopped, he said he would give me the ticket." 

He cooled down after a couple of brews.

Willie died in 1982, but up until his last days, every time he would see me, he would yell at me, "Para! Para! Cabron!"

Rest in Peace, bro. You know I loved you like a brother.