HiJenx

Day 110: Phoenix, Arizona – Chicano Art and a Free Haircut

We checked out the recommendation of the lovely woman we met the night before.  We saw a display of chicano art. Chicano is a fairly political word that was new to Chris, but familiar to me as someone who did a degree in Spanish and Portuguese studies. The most basic translation would be ‘Mexican American’, but it has connotations of pride in and political identity surrounding being Mexican American as well. Chicano art seemed to have several common themes including vibrant colors, Catholic imagery, skulls and surrealism.

2015-09-25 11.05.10 2015-09-25 11.05.37 2015-09-25 11.20.25 2015-09-25 11.21.15

2015-09-25 11.17.132015-09-25 11.17.37-12015-09-25 11.22.29-1

After checking out the exhibit, we spoke to someone who had moved there from New Jersey to be closer to family in California. For the most part, she enjoyed Arizona, but she did miss living by the sea.

Here’s the video:

After that, Chris tried his first Denny’s. Denny’s is a chain version of a diner. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful, as were some of the other locals. It was in what is meant to be the ‘bad’ side of town, but this part of Mesa has proved to be the best bad side of town we’ve been in. People seem very open and do not seem especially afraid, which is always good.

Chris decided to get a build your own burger, which was immense and he very much enjoyed it.

2015-09-25 12.36.29Next we went to get him a haircut, as he hadn’t had one since Wisconsin. We just went to the first place we came across, Carl’s Barber Shop:
2015-09-25 13.23.00

Carl turned out to be a very nice guy. He was a Doctor Who fan, and so enjoyed chatting to Chris that he gave him the haircut for free!2015-09-25 13.10.372015-09-25 13.23.16

Carl also shared some valuable info about how to be a very white man in the desert. He is of English origin and said he runs his errands in the evening so as to stay out of the midday sun since he burns quite easily. That said, he seemed to quite like living in Arizona and recommended it.

Next we switched hotels. Our new hotel was in Scottsdale, another suburb, and one that was highly recommended by several people.

We didn’t do much else in Scottsdale other than swimming and shopping, but shopping was a fruitful experience. We discovered that we quite like their other chain of grocery stores as well. They have Safeway, which has our favorite curry sauce, but Fry’s, which is a variant of Kroger I think, was also quite good in that it had some British chocolates and other imported foods. It also had a really scrummy bakery section and stocked açaí juice with guaraná, which was a nice caffeine option for me, as someone who likes to regularly drink tea and coffee, but isn’t too keen on them cold (guaraná seeds contain caffeine). I also just quite missed açaí. I took a liking to it in Brazil, it got really popular as a fad in the US, and then everyone got bored of it and moved onto the next thing, which is fair enough, but I am pleased at its local availability at any rate. I’m sure you could get it in England, but it wasn’t easily available.

All this supermarket talk may seem odd to some British readers, but that is a difference between the US and the UK. US supermarkets vary from state to state and across regions, while the UK has national chains like M&S and Sainsburys that are probably about the same from Aberdeen down to Brighton.

Anyway, we have been very much enjoying our time in Arizona and will be staying a few more days.

2 thoughts on “Day 110: Phoenix, Arizona – Chicano Art and a Free Haircut

  1. Pingback: Regional Roundup 4: The Southwest | HiJenx

  2. Pingback: Back at Carl’s Barber Shop in Mesa – HiJenx

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *