They called themselves The Chasers. Twelve young men, eleven Mexican-American, one Jewish. Tucson High School, Class of 1959. "More club than gang," they were inseparable -- also cool, smart, and slightly dangerous. At a high school reunion 50 years later, the remaining Chasers spoke about what their adult lives owed to that youthful solidarity. And one of them, Renato Rosaldo, has created a poetic collage of those conversations, a new book titled The Chasers.
Renato Rosaldo, who is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Stanford and NYU, writes in the book that The Chasers "gifted me with certainty." What would his fellow Chasers say they were gifted with? "There was a lot that was difficult. There were forms of bias that people were dealing with, that we were barely aware of. And I think one of the things that the other Chasers were gifted was the sense that somebody was there to support them, a sense of safety."
Dr. Rosaldo talks in greater detail about his high school experiences in this longer version of the interview. He also discusses the literary style that he uses in The Chasers, prose poetry. "I think there's a sense that these are real people talking. It's like friends talking to each other."
