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AN ECHO PARK BESO: LOVE DEFERRED ECHOING ALWAYS c/s

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  By Isaac Lomelí When I was young, I knew Echo Park only through chase scenes on "CHiPs" and from stories my family shared with me. Parks are, in general, good places for making mischief, Chicanos being no different than others when it comes to mischievous behavior in them. This was true at Echo Park during the '70s and up until recently. My tio once told me that his first stabbing happened at Echo Park. Whether he was the one doing the stabbing or involved otherwise, I didn't want to know. And there were other Echo Park stories based on precarious situations members of my family had found themselves in. Some of the tall tales placed me in the middle of them as a toddler they'd taken along, although I have no clear memories from that far back. Kind of makes me wonder if my parents were a tiny bit negligent. What does Echo Park mean to the Chicano? From my accounts, it was just a place you could go to be yourself. To speak Spanish, Spanglish, or whatever. To