LINCOLN, Neb. — Local grandfather Peter Cruz received a lesson in do-it-yourself ethics last night from his grandson, who explained basic DIY principles while inside a home the elderly man had built with his own two hands nearly 50 years ago, sources confirm.
“It might be hard for someone old like him to understand, but DIY is a movement, really — all about standing on your own feet, instead of relying on corporations for everything,” 21-year-old Chase Cruz said of the man who poured the concrete foundation beneath the $245 Doc Martens the younger Cruz got for Christmas. “Like, instead of buying a new jacket, I got this torn one at Goodwill, and just covered up the holes with patches. Safety-pinned them on myself.”
The elder Cruz, who, according to public records, immigrated from the Dominican Republic in 1962 to pick corn for $1 per day, built the home after saving up enough money to buy a modest plot of land in Lincoln — land which includes the detached garage his grandson often used for band practice in high school, before going to Loyola University at his grandfather’s expense.
“It’s really kind of a values thing. I mean, I don’t even drink soda anymore,” Cruz told his grandfather, who once allowed himself one glass bottle of Coca-Cola every Sunday after church to reward himself for a week of back-breaking work for very little pay. “It’s definitely tough, but integrity is everything.”
Chase’s struggle is common among Chicago punks, according to Theresa Kelley, who works one shift per week at a Pilsen food cooperative at which Cruz is also a member.
“I have to do the same shit with my grandma,” said Kelley after finishing a two-hour shift. “I tried to explain the co-op to her, and she went off about how she stocked shelves in her parents’ corner store when she was my age. So, then I had to explain the truth about wage theft. It’s like they live in their own world or something.”
At press time, the younger Cruz retreated to the garage to listen to his 2018 Ramones “Rocket to Russia” vinyl reissue, while his grandfather sifted through his collection of original Robert Johnson recordings in the living room.