Photos by Pablo Manriquez at the Puerto Rican Day Parade in East Chicago, IN on 26 July 2008.
East Chicago, 2008
One morning last summer, while on the campaign trail for then-Senator Obama, I was entering data into my laptop when my iTunes shuffled forth the song “Dead Wrong” by the Notorious B.I.G. feat. Eminem. As this is one of the most repulsively violent songs I enjoy, I immediately changed it out of consideration for the moral health of what I suspected were kinder ear drums in the office.
Enter Organizing Fellow Britney, the most beautiful black Venus I’ve ever seen, with a smile that didn’t lie, a body that couldn’t lie, and a velveteen melodic voice that was as easy on the ears as the rest of her was on the eyes.
“Ohh why’d you change it?” she asked.
“Wait, you actually want me to play that song?” I replied.
“Hellll yeah,” she sang back with that smile a man can only obey, and so I did.
Every morning after that, then-Senator Obama’s Organizing Fellows arrived at the humble field office on Indianapolis Blvd. (next to the Planned Parenthood), made a strong pot of filthy coffee, and bumped “Dead Wrong” at full volume, for spirit. It became our office anthem, and thus Obama’s anthem, in East Chicago/Hammond, Indiana during the hot mid-summer months of Campaign ‘08.
Before I cropped this photograph, the adults in the background showed smiles that appear hopeful, even enthusiastic, about then-Senator Obama’s candidacy. It wasn’t until revisiting my archive today that I noted the apprehension beneath.
