3300 Miles From Hometown Puerta Vallarta
I sat next to Mr. Laude on a plane ride back to Hawai’i. He gladly agreed to allow me to share his fascinating story for this publication.
I lived in Mexico for eight years as a child, the rest of my life I lived in Hawai’i, 54 years. I lived in the countryside of Mexico, it was pretty good. I lived close to Puerta Vallarta. We used to ride horses, just country life. Milk Cows. Always good fun. It was a small town, but we had two ranches and a lot of cattle, about 400 cows. I would go with family to the mountains to round up cattle. I also have two siblings in Mexico, two living on the mainland, and one in Honolulu. I moved to Hawai’i in 1964, to Honolulu. I was a construction worker in Hawai’i, and I’m retired now. I lived all over: Kaneohe, Maui (Kihei), Moloka’i. I built 64 houses for a Moloka’i ranch when I worked there for about six months. I also worked in Kauai, I worked in Kona building apartments in dry wall construction.
I used to play football and soccer in school every day. A lot of people play American football in Mexico and plenty of other sports. I liked to go to Brazil to watch soccer there, Ronaldo was really good. Brazil plays a lot of soccer and they are very good at it. Before Ronaldo they had Pele and Ronaldinho. I used to watch the World Cup on TV when they came to Mexico City. Those guys can play! I have never been to Mexico City before, though. I also saw Mexico lose 1–0 to Jamaica a few weeks ago.
Even in boxing, they have an arena that holds 130,000 people! They have boxing and bullfighting. It’s popular in Mexico, bullfighting. Every Saturday night, I would watch the boxing fights in Mexico. I also used to go to the Blaisdell every two weeks to watch the fights; they have Filipinos, Mexicans, and this one guy from Japan. First round he got knocked out!
That’s my favorite sport, boxing.
When I grew up in Hawai’i, I had no chance to go out and fight, no chance to train. I know a lot of good fighters, old timers. Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino guy. Juan Manuel Marquez, Mexican, knocked out Pacquiao. He signed his gloves for the president when he knocked out Pacquiao. Good, good fighter. Julio Cesar Chavez was the best fighter in Mexico, he had 89 knockouts and only 4 losses. Nobody in history, nobody in the world had that many knockouts. Not even the guys from the United States can compare. I also used to watch Bruce Lee. He was tough, he really could knock out people. All his movies I watched, every single one! I really liked them.
Even though I’m from Mexico, my girlfriend is from Hawai’i, she is Japanese. I never been to Japan but she goes all the time. I don’t speak Japanese so I told her “No thanks!” Everything is too expensive there, I heard. But I love Chinese food, Liliha is so ono! I don’t eat Mexican food here, I cook better than all of the Mexican restaurants; I make my own salsa and tortillas. I still go to Mexico to vacation for two months, I visit every year.
