Born in New York City
San Francisco resident for 40 years
My name is E.C. The “E” stands for Easy and the “C” stands for Cool. I am a great poet, and I also write songs. I live in a DISH hotel, and I’ve been here some 20 years now. It’s been good, and I love life. I sell my songs on the corner and yeah, I get good money for it. I got the gift of gab, see the way I am continuously talking so much, keeping your attention?! I grew up poor in the Bronx. We were from Puerto Rico. When I was a kid, I was hungry. We were so poor that my mother couldn’t even buy me a pair of shoes. I had to wear rain boots to go to school. My mother was sick all the time, and she couldn’t take care of us. So I was put in a Catholic home in upstate New York for 5 years, and yeah, I learned a lot. I wanted to be an altar boy. The father told me to come every Friday and I went. He had ten blackboards of Latin prayers! In six months, I learned it. He made me the top altar boy. He took great pride in me. I came out here because my uncle lived in San Francisco and he was a merchant seaman. I became a seaman and I’ve been all over the world. You ever heard of that movie, “The Girl In Every Port”? I was young and loving girls in every port! Wow, that was fun. When I was 55, I lost my job in the Union, and my wife threw me out like a bum. Now I’m broke! And now I gotta go to the corner and sell my songs.