On this forty-fourth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, I suppose I could write about that event tonight. But honestly, I'm a little Stonewall'd out, having just brushed up a few days ago on a couple of the definitive books on the subject. So tonight, I'd like to talk about something different in commemoration of LGBT Pride Month.
Erie, Pennsylvania. A city of around 100,000 people that sits on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania's "chimney" region, it may not seem to have a whole lot going for it right now. But I lived there for four years when I went to college, and I've really come to love Erie, its people, and its sights and sounds. And Erie does have a few treasures. There's the beautiful Presque Isle and its beaches (even though the lake is rather polluted). There's the gorgeous Warner Theatre downtown. And then there's this couple:
Yes, even this Rust Belt city on Lake Erie has its gay icons. Follow me below the fold...
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Their names are Jesse (left in the above picture) and Ricardo, and they go by the name "Art in Tandem," because they consider themselves to be living, breathing art sculptures. But most of us simply call them Jesse and Ricardo. And no, they don't go by their last names. In fact, much about these men remains a mystery, and intentionally so. I met Jesse and Ricardo when we took an Arabic class together, and I was blessed enough to call them friends of mine. And I still know very little about them.
But what we do know: Jesse and Ricardo are a couple and have been together for almost twenty years. Jesse is an Erie native, and the two met on a tennis court while Ricardo was in town visiting his sister. They have been joined at the hip (almost literally) ever since. See, they are famous for riding all over the city on their tandem bike.
The first thing you might notice about Jesse and Ricardo is the fact that they are dressed exactly alike. And I mean exactly alike. Every day, they walk and ride their bike around Erie in identical outfits, making people turn their heads. The outfits are often rather outlandish, too. I've seen them in everything from military fatigues to tweaked Muslim garb. Nothing is off-limits. It's all part of the "art in tandem." They consider their clothing--which they often pull out of dumpsters or buy at second-hand stores to refurbish--to be "anti-fashion" art on the canvasses that are their bodies. Also, according to the couple, their habit of dressing exactly alike came about as an attempt to both "bedevil the senses" and show that they don't necessarily need to be different from each other. So they took on one identity. And, indeed, you won't see them apart. Ever. In fact, when I think of them, I think of them as one entity: Jesse and Ricardo. And that's exactly the intended effect.
They are lifelong students, but nobody really knows what degrees they have (only that they have degrees--Jesse and Ricardo don't want to seem pretentious by listing their degrees). They take exactly the same classes, and they are constantly searching for something new to learn. That's why you'll often see them either studying in the downtown Starbucks (where I would often run into them) or perusing the shelves of the local Barnes and Noble. When they don't have their noses in books, they are world travelers, having been to South America, Europe, and Vietnam, among other places. They met Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez and were even blessed by Pope John Paul II in Mexico.
Perhaps they can afford their travels because they live so modestly. As they told The Erie Times-News back in 2009:
Jesse and Ricardo are so absorbed in study and travel that neither have jobs nor career aspirations with their several college degrees. They have that luxury because they don’t live luxuriously. They turned an abandoned two-car garage on Chestnut Street into their home. When they travel, it’s the cheapest ticket and two bucks a night for a hotel. They don’t have an elaborate home or make car payments, so the investments and savings built from writing, owning apartments and buying and selling antiques pay for everything. As well as a few vacation-brokering benefactors at Gannon [University]. “We’re not really into material objects,” Jesse said. “Some people work just to get a car and a house. We’re not into that. We’re into books and scholarly pursuits.”But they admitted they’d like to teach as a pair for one salary. Who knows, maybe you’ll see them behind the counter of Starbucks someday? While they are definitely on the lighter side of life, they do have something to say. Maybe it’s just to have fun being who you are. They definitely do. Their amusement in life is observing the world, and getting others to be intrigued by them too. “We’re just being us and you have permission to be you,” Ricardo said.
The garage in which they live (which is actually a couple of houses down from where I lived during college) is covered in beautiful graffiti, and a 1957 Rolls Royce (which neither can drive, since they haven't had licenses in years) sits inside. In fact, this all might sound familiar to you if you watch the History Channel's
American Pickers, on which Jesse and Ricardo were featured.
The pickers tried their damndest to get their hands on that Rolls Royce, but Jesse and Ricardo weren't about to let it go for what they were offering. As you can imagine, they did get some pretty cool stuff anyway.
The best thing about Jesse and Ricardo is the warmth and friendliness they brought with them everywhere they went. Seeing them on the street or in Starbucks or in class was literally the highlight of my day. They are seriously two of the best people I've ever known, and I definitely miss seeing them.
Anyway, I've talked enough about Jesse and Ricardo. I'll let them talk about themselves:
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June 27, 2013
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