Cheech Marin Quotes

To me, you have to declare yourself a Chicano in order to be a Chicano. That makes a Chicano a Mexican-American with a defiant political attitude that centers on his or her right to self-definition. I'm a Chicano because I say I am.

Mexicans are quasi-legal.

Every kid that goes to Catholic school believes he's going to be a priest one day.

I've never seen a NASCAR race; I've seen an Indianapolis 500 race.

Just about every Latin American country has sent players to the big leagues, from the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica.

Yeah, I'm the go-to guy for Mexican priests.

I was part of the draft resistance movement in L.A. where we did demonstrations at the draft centre and burned our cards and made a lot of trouble on campus. I had a student classification and they said that anybody who'd taken part in these demonstrations would be reclassified and drafted. And that's when I went to Canada.

My marriage was breaking up, and my marriage with Chong was breaking up. I had to come back and kind of start on my own again.

Of all the plays in baseball, stealing home is by far the most exciting.

Don't ever insult a Chicano about being a Chicano because then all the other Chicanos will be on you with a vengeance. They will even fight each to be first in line to support you.

As a kid, I used to go to the library and take out all the art books.

If there is one phrase or action that every person on the planet would like to erase from his or her memory or have the chance to undo, it would be, 'Let's do it again.'

Loyalty and communication are always rewarded in sports.

I lived in an all-black neighborhood, followed by an all-white one, and other kids in the always called me Mexican in both neighborhoods.

As much as I loved Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Junior Gilliam, and Don Newcombe, I loved watching Willie Mays play more than all of them combined, even if he played for the 'bad guys!'

Hey, I was raised in the church.

Whether it's from the biggest, most powerful city, or from the dinkiest little podunk town, there is a certain attachment and connection, and yes, pride about where you came from.

So what's really behind the 'English Only' Movement? Fear. Fear of being taken over and one day they will have to learn something different. Heaven forbid they would have to learn something new.

I guess what really made me a Dodgers fan from the beginning was that the team had Jackie Robinson, the first 'Negro' in the major leagues.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, my wife speaks five languages: Russian, English, French, Italian and, out of self-defense, Spanish. I watched her learn Spanish in three months.

The reason we're so dangerous is because we're totally harmless.

The very first time I got to drive by myself, I took a bunch of my friends to school and was caught by a motorcycle cop going 90 miles an hour on a back street.

To do a comedy team, it requires so much extracurricular stuff, so much compromise, so much intuitiveness to know what the other guy is doing. That's why it's so hard to do it.

There are some Chicanos who don't want to be Chicanos - they want to be Mexican-American, Hispanic, or even Spanish.

My interest in art must have started with my Catholic upbringing. Art was everywhere: churches with its paintings, sculptures, stained glass, textiles, and fine metalwork.

I'm the go-to guy for Mexican priests. I'm the new Barry Fitzgerald, except with a Mexican accent.

I've always wanted to be able to say that I come from Los Angeles, California and feel quintessentially American - even if I said that in Spanish.

For the most part, people are proud of the place from which they come.

Chicanos and running water are endlessly fascinating. I can watch them all day.

My first car was a '56 Ford station wagon - cost 100 bucks.

I was an altar boy and a choir member.

In the end, the great leveler in any sport is performance on the field or on the court. Kids don't care what language players speak or if they eat tacos, rice, or sauerkraut. They don't care if they're white, black, or brown.

Hey, I was raised in the church. I was an altar boy and a choir member. I almost became a priest - until common sense grabbed hold of me.

I grew up half in South Central and half in the San Fernando valley.

Our first gig was a battle of the bands. We did 45 minutes of comedy and never played a note - and we won!

The word 'Chicano' was originally a derisive term from Mexicans to other Mexicans living in the United States.

I was part of the draft resistance movement in LA where we did demonstrations at the draft centre and burned our cards and made a lot of trouble on campus.

Growing up in Southern California, it's all car culture. When I was a kid, I knew every single model of every single car dealer; I knew every style of every year.

We are a multicultural country - always have been, and to our credit, always will be. It is something that we should be very proud of and embrace.

I guess one of the ways that karma works is that it finds out what you are most afraid of and then makes that happen eventually.

At the end of the day, it not only doesn't make logical sense to deny licenses to undocumented immigrants, it doesn't make financial sense.

What I look for when I see a piece of art for the first time is some kind of emotional, intellectual experience, that's a combination of both of those things and is informed by my knowledge and something new that I see the artist doing.

I liked Jackie Robinson because he was cool to watch, not because he was black. Every time you turned around, he was hitting a triple or making a great play in the field or, best of all, stealing home.

Well, sometimes you need the fields to lie fallow in order to gain nutrients.

When I lived in Paris in the early '80s, I had the occasion to hang out with Prince Albert of Monaco quite a few times.

We did six records, then six movies. Now we need to do six of something else, so we get 666 - and then our master Satan can return!

You have to want to be Chicano to be Chicano.

Being a third-generation Mexican-American and speaking English exclusively, I heard Spanish spoken by my relatives all my life, especially when they didn't want me to understand what they were talking about.

It is surprising how many professional athletes, along with their families and friends, are gaga over movie and music stars, and the reverse is true with entertainers and sports stars.

Being a Chicano in Hollywood, my experience is that you're not given credit for any sophistication... You're just kind of some guy that just crossed the border, you know, on the back of a truck and that's it.