Last weekend, I had the pleasure of competing in the CHOGA’s (Chicanos of Oregon Golf Association), 33rd Annual Jalapeno Tour at Sunset Grove, near Forest Grove. The nine-hole course was a lot of fun and I met a lot of great people from all over Oregon and Washington State, all there for a great cause. The 2-day tour is an annual fundraiser for Latina/o scholarships, and organized by veteran Chicano activists that were involved with the Colegio Cesar Chavez back in the 70s.

While I had known the group existed, Dan Lucero, brought it back up to our attention recently and got us connected with co-organizer Jose Romero. Our 4-man team Saturday comprised of Gerardo Ochoa, Oscar Montemayor and Ruben Garcia and myself. There were over 70 golfers for the tour.

On Sunday, we were placed into teams based on scores from the previous day. I was pleased to golf with Carlos Perez, Armando Gonzalez, Jose Romero, Daniel Dominguez, Jose Torres and Mateo Courtney. After the score tally, the grill master sealed it Sunday with fresh carne asada garnished with salsa, beans, rice and warm tortillas provided by Portland-OR based La Costita. Special thanks to Dan Lucero, and Ruben Garcia who provided some golf tips. Congrats on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners! Moreover, congrats to everyone who came and made the annual fundraiser possible. As a fellow CHOGA put it, “this is incredible to get together and enjoy great company, and do some golfing while raising some feria for Latino scholarships.”

Salud! See you at next years!

–David

Originally posted on Posterous