Jose

so, a little more on Jose.
Jose is from a small town in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.
He moved to the US when he was young and lived in the mexican neighborhoods of Chicago for a while. He fought in Viet Nam. He got a degree from Santa Ana (College/University?) in Engineering of the sort that he says gives him the knowledge to program industrial machines such as lathes. He did this for a while before deciding to get into trucking 2000. He trained at first with Schneider (like I did) and then moved on to Werner for reasons he did not say. He soon thereafter bought his first truck (the 2000 freightliner century that we drove) and functioned as an owner operator. He amassed more trucks, up to 7 at one point, and had people driving them for him. At this point he was also married and had some kids who were mostly to fully grown. He was living in Mission Viejo in orange County and then moved up into the somehwat posher, more secluded Trabuco Canyon. Around this time he met up with his frst girlfriend from back in mexico and they had an affair. He felt pangs of guilt about this confessed to his wife and, although things were rocky for a bit she took him back. Eventually he cheated on her again with this same woman and they realized they couldn't do anything but get together. He divorced his wife but in the process she took half of everything which cut him down to 4 trucks (having sold the others for their cash value.) he married his first girlfriend (it is almost a charming story) and they live in San Jose, California. She helps to run his small trucking business "Cerro de la Silla" which means saddleback range, a formation in the mountains of Orange County.
He loves his wife and confessed this to me many times throughout our travels. He speaks of how in shape and "tight" she is for someone of her age (62) especially compared to how "fat and ugly" he is (his words not mine.) He says they are like kids and I would have to agree. He bickered with his wife on the phone (in spanish thankfully) almost every night, I tried to imagine what it would be like if he was home more than once every two weeks. He would use the word 'chinga' a lot. Then he would hang up and not more than 5 minutes later call again and speak to her in sheepish lovey spanish.
He is a big kid. On the phone I thought he was much younger than he was and even in person although he is 60 he doesn't look a day over 57. He likes to talk about women. Where most people might use the phrase "by the skin of my teeth" Jose says "by a pussy's hair." He is vulgar like that.
He likes to act "American" He is an American citizen and has been a while now. He is very patriotic as many vets are but he defitely thinks george bush is "a fucking idiot."
He wears athletic shorts and a t-shirt every day. He has a lot of each. He is bald with a fringe of grey curls ringing around the back of his head. He is light skinned and sightly hook nosed, very spanish looking. like a plump Picasso. In the back he has jeans and finely tooled cowboy boots for colder weather. He says that this is what he wears when he goes back home (Nuevo Leon borders Texas.) He says it is big cattle country. When I asked what the local specialties were he said the main one would be Cabrito, what i think is spit roasted suckling goat.
Jose is planning his retirement with his wife in Mexico. From what I gather they have a house in the chaparral country side of Nuevo Leon and another on the outskirts of Monterrey. They take frequent trips there to bring supplies and whatnot to the house(s). this is what he was going to do as soon as he dropped me off.
They are trying to sell the house in San Jose and buy one in San Antonio so that they can be closer to Mexico (Monterrey is only about a 6 hour drive from San Antonio). His wife is a little reluctant because she enjoys her social circles in the south bay.
Jose has a large and confusing family (especially since there are his kids from his first marriage and his wife's kids from her first) his wife's first husband was an alcoholic white guy who got into a bad car wreck (presumably while under the influence) had his legs amputated and then, while recovering, developed a clot that caused a stroke rendering him vegetative. They decided to pull the plug.
Her kids from this first marriage were very young at the time and until recently both lived near her in SJ. The son and his wife moved to Denver ad wants his mom and jose to move there but jose refuses, its too cold and he thinks it is time for her to "sever the umbilical cord." The daughter has some depression issues.
Of Jose's kids they seem to be pretty well off. I get it all mixed up but at least one of them lives in Santa Rosa or petaluma.
Of his brothers at least two are truckers and one is a real estate mogul of some sort in Laredo, Texas. He has relatives in the Mexican Mafia. He used to work in a bordello.
On the weekends his wife and him enjoy doing "intellectual" things like going to wine country or to see plays in san francisco. He likes to rise above and differentiate himself from the "cholos" although he does own a '57 chevy that he wants to restore and soup up so he can race it around. When he moves to mexico he looks forward to driving it around in his little town. He also wants to get a house "so I can ride around like a king." At a truckstop near Eugene, Oregon he bought a cane with an elaborately detailed pewter handle (I think it was a dragon) you could unscrew this and it became a sword.
I like to imagine him in retirement, big pimpin in some little town in mexico.
What else is there? so much. I know this is all jumbled but this is how it came to me.