An Inappropriate Life, memoir by Stan Gotlieb

Oaxaca, Mexico: An Expatriate Life

The Writing of Stan Gotlieb

I have lived in Mexico since 1994. Before I came to Oaxaca, I had never had a single thought of becoming a writer. All that changed when, after sending three letters to a personal friend who happened to be the publisher of a monthly newspaper in Minneapolis, I received a check for $75, with a note asking that I keep submitting pieces. Dumbstruck, I stood rooted to the spot outside the Oaxaca post office until I could answer the question "does this mean I'm a writer?". Since then (I answered "yes"), I have published over 100 "Letters From Mexico", an equal number of my subscription-only "Oaxaca / Mexico Newsletter", and several magazine articles and book contributions. Featured here are chapters from a work in progress, tentatively titled "An Inappropriate Life". Intended as memoire, these slices from my life are meant to amusing, historical, and, for some, disturbing. Enjoy!

An Introduction, in which I talk about myself and hint at what is to come.
Life With Father deals with early influences on my young self.
Little Boy Lost tells about the first time I ran away from home.
How Bill Haley Changed My Life. Rock and Roll forever, man...
The University of Minnesota was a surprisingly liberal place in the mid 50s.
Live / Die / Drink is about poet John Berryman.
Race Relations is about dealing with racism in off-campus life in 1957.
For Example, Bentley is an elegy for a dead friend and a past life.
Me and Bobby D dishes some dirt about a rich, famous person.
Scoring Dope In Oaxaca, wherein our hero goes to the end of the trail to track down a pot of green.
A Prince of North Beach introduces the reader to our new landlord.
Our Pad in North Beach was a home away from home for many people.
Where Did Everybody Go? San Francisco in the "summer of love".
Who Was That Masked Man? Memories of Lenny Bruce.
Get Thee to a Commune reveals the roots of what would become one of the seminal formations of the "new commune" movement.
The Old Country: We flee the U.S. for Europe.
Greece in the Time of the Colonels was a tricky place to be.
Tonight, Don't Go Everywhere is about being trapped in a potential warzone.
Welcome to Sunny Greece reveals how cold weather and a cold hearted headmistress put an end to our career teaching English in Thessaloniki.
Scoring In the Old City is about buying hashish in Jerusalem.
Sailing, Sailing: Getting from here to there with a piece of hash in your pocket can be a bit of a nail biter...
Is She or Isn't She?: Tripping around Istanbul in 1968.
Where is Omar When You Need Him? in which we go tenting across Europe.
Group Sex details some experiences in alternative living arrangements.
Which One of You Mutherf***s Stole My Blue Jeans? covers a trip to Oregon from Minnesota, by way of Berkeley. Sex, drugs, political protest and "bad" language...
CRO Goes to the Movies details my brief career in the cinema.
I Am What I Eat: Meat is about vegetarianism and drugs down on the Farm.
Sex on the Edge deals with taboo behavior.
Power to the People examines the revival of the co-op movement in the 70s.
What Did You Say Your Name Was? Ramblin' Jack Elliot and a miraculous night in an anarchist vegie restaurant.
The Co-0p Wars i s about how the "movement" eats its' young.
Promise them Anything.Some of the Oregon communards end up in Wisconsin.
Thar She Blows takes place on the St. Lawrence Seaway during whale migration.
What I Did on my Summer Vacation is about when I went to prison.
Hush Puppies are Where It's At: Fashion and the pecking order among the incarcerated.

Other Oaxaca Writers and Artists

All materials copyrighted, 1994-2004 by Stan Gotlieb, , and Realoaxaca.com